Intimations of mortality is what I would put it down to, this recent procession of friends who have died and whose ashes have had to be immersed in Hardwar or holy rivers elsewhere. Obviously these were Hindus.

A Muslim death, if one can trace down one’s ancestry a few generations, is a rather more territorial affair. An Indian Muslim, if he can help it, likes to be buried in his ‘native’ place. Since Justice Sachar has confirmed Indian Muslims as being a financially embarrassed lot, transporting the deceased from the location of his or her expiry is a huge inconvenience to relatives who are committed to fulfilling the wishes of the dead and of abiding by traditions. This reverie on ashes and graves has been triggered by the terrorist attack on the Samjhauta Express, which transports passengers from Delhi to Lahore and the other way round.

The terminals for this train being Delhi and Lahore creates the impression that it represents some durable system of sustaining people-to-people contact between the two countries. People-to-people, in the Indo-Pak context, would conjure up images of a burgeoning Hindu-Muslim jamboree. This is a huge misunderstanding about the Samjhauta Express, attacked by the terrorists on Sunday night killing almost 70.

Most of those killed were Muslims, both Indians and Pakistanis, returning from relatives in India or travelling to relatives in Pakistan. Some Hindus died too but these were mostly jawans of the Government Railway Protection Force. Their death sheds further light on the Samjhauta Express tragedy.

... contd.