Essay on At the Time of Partition by Moniza Alvi

The separation between India and Pakistan had resulted in a lot of pain especially to the people involved. Alvi gets to give readers a deeper view of this event by using different poems to highlight the plight of families that were broken up as a result of this. Using twenty poems, the event that took place in 1947, through the poem readers experience how religion and political failure can change a lot of lives. She tells the story of fictional family and how they got to experience the partition. She also gives us a view from the third person perspective. The plight of other families and what they were going through. Most of the people abandoned everything to go where majority of their fellow believers were. Throughout the poems the argument brought forward is indifference to adverse situations.

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The line is the opening poem. The poem invokes the feeling of power within the reader. Alvi describes the line as so thin, a sparrow might lift it up in its beak, yet the same line would bring death to many. As fragile as it was, as thin as it was, it was stronger than all the families there and even their Gods. The line seemed to have its own God. It did not abide by any rules, it just had one rule, and that is a divide. The poem enables the reader to understand how little care was put into drawing this line. The line became a religion of its own. It did not matter which religion you followed at the time the line was drawn; you had to abide by its rules. A grandmother separated from her children on the wrong side of the line. Suddenly all the family history had been cut. The ones that had ended up on different sides of the line were no longer family.

However, even with all this power, even the line shows indifference. It does not care how many people I hurt or separates. It has been drawn to do one job, and that is a partition and it's doing that to the best of its ability. The ability of the line to show indifference is almost admirable. It is for the wrong purpose, yes, but indifference might also be the only way to counter it. Indifference is the only way these people shall be able to go through this process. The Line introduces the reader impacts of the line, the reader is wondering how the victims of the line will survive. It is by showing indifference. The same weapon used by the line.

The second part goes to showcase the consequences of the line. The line had far-reaching consequences than just a simple family division. It resulted in a lot of death. The pain of separation brought a lot of people into committing suicide. To protect their honor, ninety people jumped into a well. There wasnt enough water to drown them. These people didnt want to go. They would have rather died than having to leave their lives behind and move somewhere else because some line said so. The horrors of the line don not just end there. A train packed with dead bodies and no young women among them. The train was no option at this point, and they opted for the bus instead. They arrive at a camp with tent waiting for them. This is a tale of survival. It had ceased to be just about separation. Everything now is just about surviving the effects of the line.

In this part we see people showing indifference by willing to die what they believe in. To them, it is better to die honorably than live dishonorably. Some might disagree with the method they chose to show their indifference in these horrible situations. The women chose to die for what they believe in.

A mother is searching for her son. The pain of losing a loved one. That is the focus of the next poem. The son's name is among the names of those missing. In these circumstances, she is only looking for evidence of him being still alive leave alone being found. She now has to get used to his absence. In all this, some things seems the same. Almost unaffected. Only the sun rose everyday with no sense of loss. The line might have disrupted lives and even countries, but it certainly didnt change everything. The sun still rises every morning, unbothered by whats happening below. Perhaps this is a sign of hope, hope that one-day things might get better, but until then, this is their new reality. They have to settle in. According to the poem, Athar is Alvis uncle who happened to have been hit by a lorry as a child, damaging his mind. This is loose that remains permanent through the entire poem.

Here we see the indifference of a mothers love. To her, not all other pain matters. The loss of her son has caused her more pain than every other thing. The author also shows indifference through the sun. Everything below it is changing, but it still gets to shine the following morning. Unperturbed by all happening below it. Maybe that is what it believes in, shining. That is its duty. To shine over the earth, and while everything else is crumbling it sticks to its purpose of shining, because that is what it believes in.

Better by Far, shows some of Alvis fantasy. According to her, she would wish the bus would be a magic carpet. One that could accommodate the whole family. Including her grandmothers utensils. All her siblings are sitting beside her. Safe from any danger and floating through the sky. Of cos, this is just a little girls fantasy. It is her only escape. The only way she could escape from what was going on around her. The truth of the matter is that she was on a bus. A bus that wasnt floating but on the ground moving through the country. Not all her family was with her as some were separated, and of cos, she was not safe. But all these is too much for a little girl to take in. So she crosses her legs and day-dreams.

The girl believes in hope. Her fantasies are just manifestations of a better tomorrow. Hope that one day her sisters will be with her in a safer environment. Hope that one day her grandmother will have all her pots in one place. She is using these fantasies to remain indifferent to the current situation. She has hope in the future, the present does not matter, and she believes in the future, she believes in family. She is going to be indifferent to the current situations so as to get live her fantasies.

In, Ever After, Leaving for Pakistan carried heavy consequences. But the author tries to think of who she hasnt told her goodbyes to, and the list is endless. The burden of leaving was heavy, but so was the burden of remaining. The situation seemed like a lose situation, either way; you look at it. Everything around her seemed to be telling her goodbye including the city. In all this, the only thing that remained calm was the clock. The clock ticked on. A reminder that she had no time to waste. Tomorrow they will be gone.

Indifference from the clock. It is not slowing down nor speeding up. To Alvi, it almost seems like the clock is moving faster. It almost seems like the clock is broken. However, nothing is wrong with the clock. It is just doing its job as it is supposed to. It's indifferent. The two options of leaving or staying are both bad for the family. They just have also to be indifferent. Do what they are supposed to, to go through this situation. Just the clock does.

The Poem DOORS Alvi gives the readers the image of her mother through her fathers side. A hard working woman who would never give up. She keeps on pushing even at the hardest of situations. A situation which other people would have rather given up. The man clearly adored his wife. She had knocked at several doors. Those that opened getting in was difficult. She still kept moving on to the next door. She had the ability to focus on one goal. On that day she had worked attentively for the good of her family. The woman of the family is doing her best to remain strong. She is indifferent. The around her is changing, but she is indifferent to all this by showing hard work. She keeps on pushing herself to help her family. Through her indifference, she gets to help her family overcome this partition. The

The Poem How the Stone Found Its Voice enables readers to know just how impactful the line was. The stone had stayed there for a long time. Without making a sound. All through the war, the stones silence had been constant. The rumblings and the ground shaking did not make an impact on the stone. The rest of them were only waiting for any pronouncement worth noting, but it never came. This whole changed the day the war came to a halt. Here the message of the stone is that we all should remain the same no matter how indifferent the environment becomes. The stone remained indifferent to the war; it never broke its silence. Humans should emulate the same. The only time the stone spoke was when it said, let us be indifferent to indifference. This highlights the stones act all along. While the war was raging on, the stone remained indifferent. While people were being killed remained indifferent. It goes to show the best way to counter indifference is through indifference.

The poems in the book, At the Time of the Partition,highlight how a particular family underwent great suffering as a result of poor leadership. They were separated from their loved ones and had to restart new life in a new place. A foreign land is strange to them. However through the indifference of the mother, in her efforts, the indifference of the daughter in the hopes of a better tomorrow they managed to survive the transition. They have to set up and rebuild.