The Threshold

 Name - Prabal Jain 

Reg no.- 20SJCCC339

In the world of uncertainties, there are the clans who can protest with the spectre of words.

It’s a matter of time, where we disintegrate into pure thinness.

It’s a matter of time, where we all speak for the world.

It’s all within our air to breathe the word of freedom.

It’s all within our sentiments to not make a war-cry once again.

We believe we are free. But are we?

We believe we are rich. But are we?

We are pure beings with impure granules.

Be you! Be us! Be the bird who is free in every sense!

Partition literature always makes us think about our past as well as our future. It’s a vehicle of sheer pressure and undissolved teardrops. What the people can’t say or express is what partition diaries and excerpts are made of. Plunge into the world of Agha Shahid Ali and this very true tone of distress and agony can be experienced. In a way, ‘partition’ is a theme that can be moulded into creative articles as well as autobiography. A creative mode of expression is something like an undrawn canvas. The possibilities are numerous. The strokes are the ones that interpret the experience.

This is where my poem comes in. Just think the above lines are the words of Bishan Singh’s nephew. He has seen the uncertainties of life. Like Singh, at a very young age, the kid has also seen the ‘Threshold’ of partition. It has made him severe. Severe in making bifurcations. Now, he is afraid of another partition that may happen in the future. According to him, this can unearth the haunted past which is now resting beneath his land. The poem which he has written made him think of a flickering flag on a flag post. The flag has been bolstered on the border and now it is unsure where to flow with the wind. On the threshold of the border, the flag can’t fly in a single direction. It changes its flicker with the change of the wind. That’s why ‘it’s all a matter of time’.

Creative expression and its mode is a powerful tool when it comes to expressing our sentiments. It enhances our point of view and redefines it into something transparent and true.

ye daagh daagh ujala ye shab-gazida sahar

vo intizar tha jis ka ye vo sahar to nahin

This stained pitted first-light

this day-break, battered by night

this dawn that we all ached for

this is not that one

This poem by Faiz Ahmed Faiz is a perfect example that explains the turmoils of partition. When we look into this excerpt, it clearly sheds the tears of Faiz through the vehicle of poetry and creative passion towards partition. “Two nations were rendered apart by bitterness and yet remained conjoined by memory and tradition. A cartographer’s whimsical division shaped millions of lives and identities, leaving traumatic legacies in its wake” (Onaiza Drabu et.al).

 Every time, it’s always amiable to present creative work to establish a historical theory or a context or even a reimagination. It elevates the scene of history to a higher level and it ensures the power which it should get while expressing the same. For many, the power of ‘pen name’ ensured safety while expressing their views towards history. In this way, they expressed the untold truths. In Toba Tek Singh, it’s Bishan who muttered his frustration. Here, in my creative reimagination of the same, after so many years, I wanted someone who is related to his blood to speak about frustration. From his words, it’s clear that the frustration is still lingering inside everyone and every region without any shimmering. It’s only through such modes, the present generation can express their views without getting tracked down by governmentality and biopower.

 In conclusion, every settlement is temporary and it can be excavated to something else within no time. The pureness in our hearts will fade away with time. But we shouldn’t. Ours should be bolstered to our mind. Only it can protect us.

References

Onaiza Drabu and Prachi Jha, D. (2019, August 17). 'What is Separation's geography?': Ten poems on the partition. Retrieved April 01, 2021, from https://scroll.in/article/934057/what-is-separations-geography-ten-poems-on-the-partition