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Train to Pakistan by Khushwant Singh


Author - Khushwant Singh
Length - 181 pages
Published - August 1956

This was all started when the partition of India and Pakistan in the year 1947 was going on. Train to Pakistan was written by Khushwant Singh in the year 1950. He has attributed the struggle of people during partition. The truth of the partition is also spoken of by the author. He was 32 years old at the time of partition and witnessed firsthand the atrocities committed by Hindu, Sikh and Muslims and recorded them without taking a side or showing favour.

SUMMARY :
In the year 1947, one crore Hindu, Sikh and Muslims left their homes, to cross the borders. The borders were made recently between India and Pakistan. Northern India was in huge chaos. But between all this time there was a village Mano Majra which was a semblance of peace. There lived a moneylender named Lala Ram Lal who was murdered.
Mano Majra was one of these villages, know mostly for boasted a train station. Not many trains stopped there. In fact, it was the only two slow passenger trains, one from Delhi to Lahore and the other from Lahore to Delhi and that too for few minutes.
There lived a Juggut Singh who was a dacoit. Everyone was terrified of him. The whole village used to call him Jugga. He liked a Muslim girl named Nooran. 
Hukum Chand was the magistrate of Mano Majra as he came one day before the murder and asked the subinspector as there was any chaos between the Hindu and Muslims in this village. Hukum Chand does not know that this village has no idea of the partition. There was peace between Hindu and Muslim.
But one morning, the train from Pakistan stopped at Mano Majra. The odour of kerosene and burned flesh was all around. Only a person emerge alive out of the fifteen hundred on board was a guard from the tail end of the carriage.
After which Sikh turns violent against the Muslim and vice versa. Later a train is suppose to come where Muslims will go to Pakistan as it's not that simple.
Something is going to happen. Now it is up to Juggut Singh to stop it. But does he succeed or not. 

MY THOUGHT :
I purchased this book "Train to Pakistan" from a railways station. What a coincidence right! Yes, I started reading it on board but somehow didn't finished it. Then recently I picked it again and completed it. Talking about the book, it is not that sort of book you'd leave sitting on your coffee table but it was a heartfelt, literally excellent experience. "Train to Pakistan" was brutal and at the times realistic novel. The characters are really well built. This book is worth reading.

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