In the summer of 1947 when millions on both sides crossed the newly drawn border, Dina Lal stayed put. He was a Lahori and was intent on staying one. “He wasn’t going to be pulled towards make-believe lines on a tonga. He wasn’t climbing on board a train heading for the other side. He wasn’t joining villagers taking step after tired step towards a make-believe border.”

Despite the pleas of his wife, despite his sons choosing to leave Pakistan for India, he doesn’t move. The only concession he makes to change is to shift to a safer neighbourhood where he buys a bungalow built by an Englishman and invites Amir Shah, a Muslim lawyer, to share it with him. The house, built by an Englishman, shared by a Hindu and a Muslim after Partition, tells the story of a dream cleaved into two, of migration and of belonging. The devastation that accompanied Partition may not be the protagonist of this novel, but it certainly is its background score.

After staying back in Lahore, Dina Lal takes another decision: to convert to Islam. So, Dina Lal becomes D.L. Ahmed. But the futility of his precautions is exposed the day his wife is abducted from their home. After that, his relationship with Shah sours, the house is divided rather than shared, and the fault lines in the house mirror the ones that divide the two nations. But in this hostile ground, some customs and relationships continue unthreatened. So, to his dying day, Dina Lal receives food from Shah’s kitchen and despite his deteriorating relationship with Shah, he retains affection for his son Javid.

... contd.