HUMANITY HOLDS STILL

RAGHBIR SINGH GILL, 96 Transporter, Chandigarh

It was a gory time. News about India’s division began making waves soon after I returned from Tanzania to my native Gill village. I bought a first class train ticket from Meerut to Ludhiana, but it was so crowded that I had to clamber on the rooftop. The canals were full of corpses. When crimi- nals killed a tongawalla in our village, my father asked me to escort a neighbouring Muslim family to Malerkotla. But the bloodshed did not shake my faith in humanity. Many Muslims saved us and we saved many Muslims. It was only some ‘badmash (mischevious)’ elements who vitiated the atmosphere.