BETWEEN THE BARBED WIRES

 

                                                                                                         PRAGATHI PRASHANTH

                                                                                                                                20SJCCC377

                                           

                                                BETWEEN THE BARBED WIRES

                                           RIDING DOWN THE MEMORY LANE   

Instagram page URL- https://instagram.com/toba_tek?igshid=9nbwywiuk6mg

                                                                 REPORT

            For this assignment, I've selected an Instagram page as my artistic mode of speech. Instagram is one of the most successful social media sites, with almost everyone of all ages using it. I chose the Instagram page because it helps us to express ourselves in a number of ways. I personally dislike learning about history by reading it from a document, so I reasoned that by creating a page and posting photos, the audience would be able to learn more and contact them more easily. Images/posts have more visual stimuli and catch people's imagination than text. As a result, my main aim of using Instagram as a creative outlet is to reach a wider audience, distribute content, and show off my ideas and creativity.

            It makes no difference what one's context, knowledge, or experience is when it comes to creativity. It pervades everyone, but it necessitates a courageous decision to investigate and improve it .We will have more empathy for the world as we explore our artistic voice.  Different strategies can be used by each of us to help us learn more effectively. For example, any form of art can help us improve our memory. Simply writing by hand can improve our ability to process knowledge, as can developing a mind map to summarize a complex topic to help us better organize, understand, and retain information. Our emotions and nonverbal experiences can be expressed through art in the form of words, photographs, music, or other ways. People do not have the ability to view or experience historical tales, so when we present them the story in a pictorial style, it reaches the reader more effectively. As a result, in historical reimagination, an innovative mode of expression is needed because it can attract more people.

         The tale is set during the 1947 partition of India and Pakistan. Many people were forced to migrate and uproot their lives as a result of the political split. There was a great deal of uncertainty about what was Indian Territory and what was newly created Pakistan. The situation worsened for patients, especially those in mental institutions. Following talks between the two countries on the condition of psychiatric patients, it was agreed that Muslim patients would remain in Pakistan or relocate to India, while Hindu and Sikh patients would relocate to India. Despite the fact that India's decision was still undecided, authorities in Lahore began the process of deporting Hindu and Sikh patients to India via the Wagah-Attari land border. The patients were a riotous group who were even more perplexed about partition because the asylum had no coherent details or news. Some people pretended to have made their own little home in the asylum and refused to leave. Bishen Singh, a Sikh, was among the party. He used to own a vast estate in Toba Tek Singh (place in Pakistan). He'd been in the asylum for almost two decades and had never said anything to anyone but a few jumbled mumblings. While he was locked inside, he was often visited by his family and his daughter, who grew up to be a young woman. They had not arrived since the post-Partition violence. Bishen Singh kept asking everyone at the asylum who had gained Toba Tek Singh, but no one could give him a definitive response. His old Muslim friend from Toba Tek Singh paid him a visit one day. He told him that Bishan's family was safe in India and that they were eagerly awaiting his arrival. He also assuaged his fears by assuring him that Toba Tek Singh was still alive and well in Pakistan. The exchange day arrived, and the patients were transported to the border. There was a great deal of commotion and noise. Bishan Singh, also known as Toba Tek Singh, did not cross the buffer zone between the two boundaries when it was his turn. No guard could pressure him, so they let him go for a while and went on to other patients, seeing his desperation. The man's legs, however, soon gave way and he dropped to the ground. The narrator realised at that point that Toba Tek Singh (both the place and the person) stood in the exact middle of India and Pakistan. As we can see, the lunatics were the ones who were most affected by the partition.

         So, in terms of potential future consequences, I believe that the exchange of lunatics should not have occurred in the first place, and that it was the worst decision ever made. And lunatics are people with emotions, and this decision affected them and had a greater impact on their mental health, resulting in them likely never living a happy life. Many citizens were harmed as a result, and everyone was unsure if they belonged in India or Pakistan. So what I wish is that those lunatics had the option of choosing where they wanted to live rather than being discriminated against based on their caste or appearance and then being forced to decide where they belonged. I wish the story's conclusion had been more satisfying. Bishan Singh would probably live for a few more years if people really told him where Toba Tek Singh was, and his soul would be at ease. Instead, he died in the middle of the barbed wire, never receiving an answer to his question "where is Toba Tek Singh?"