The Rams is a story taken from a collection of stories (Half a Rupee: Stories) by Gulzar, and offered here as an independent read, from part three. This part consists of three stories and they are about this border between the two sides, a border that may or may not be the one fixed at partition, since the first war in 1948 tore away more than half of Kashmir. The whole part might as well be named LoC, as the first story is.
LoC refers to line of control, the border between India and Pakistan that is not the one legally awarded but one post many incursions and wars when India was not able to push back the invading Pakistan, due mainly to international pressure for India to let go.
This part three about LoC is about how relationships on the two sides are more complex, with not only families that were split apart at partition but old friends that ended up on different sides, and have only love for one another while they are fighting skirmishes and battles regularly or otherwise, especially when there is a politician visiting the border or someone from across the border fires at Indian posts.
Rams is parable and fact in how the people on the two sides of the border enjoy watching fights of rams and sometimes behave just the same way. But the story is little to do with actual such behaviour by the army, and is about far more humane behaviour.
During the '1971 war about Bangladesh becoming independent when India had to help the beleaguered part of India before 1947 that was yoked to the dominant part Pakistan during partition, this story is about the border on the west, where action then was minor. One group of Pakistan army finds a village on Indian side empty but for a small boy, very frightened and unwilling to speak. They take him along back with them but would rather hand him back over safely to his own people rather than the formal rule of treating him as prisoner of war, and towards this try contacting someone from the village the next day, who happens to be from a village across. But when after having hidden the boy from the visiting commander they do finally take him over, there is a group of Indian army men waiting, and this is the least of the surprises. The real one is, the boy is from Pakistan after all, and what is more he is from the village of the old man who had to leave at partition, but the boy was visiting across the border to "see the fight of rams".
It is not clear if he is referring to actual rams or the armies.
Sunday, March 30, 2014.
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