Book Review: Two: A Novel by Gulzar

Book Review # 6

Title- Two: A Novel

Author- Gulzar Sahab

Publisher- Harper Perennial

Genre- Novel
Pages- 200

Rating- 4.1/5 

Introduction- 

"Two" is Gulzar's debut novel that narrates the traumatic experiences of the victims of Partition and the painful condition of the refugees before and after the partition of India in 1947.Nearly fifteen million people lost their homes, around two million people lost their lives in the riots that took place during these years. Seventy years have passed but those past memories still haunt them.Though there is no physical wound to heal an emotional loss they felt over the years.

Synopsis- The story is set at Campbellpur,a fictional city in Pre-Independent India. Gulzar has beautifully shown how hatred was making its way into people's mind and heart before the partition through the characters of Karam Singh, who taught Arithmetic and Fazaldeen, a history teacher at a middle school.

Fazaldeen's house was raided by the British Police based on a false rumor and he was dismissed from his service on the pretext of his involvement with the Indian Freedom Struggle.Similarly, Rai Bahadur, a respectable person of Campbellpur was forced to remove his turban at the police station by inspector Rahim who had a deep rooted hatred for Hindus.We also find people like Painti-Chhatti who spreads fake rumors to intensify the anger and unrest among the people of different communities. There were also some groups of thugs who were taking advantage of the refugees by promising them to drop at the refugee camps.

The pathetic condition of women has been portrayed through the characters of Panna Bai, a prostitute, Kanta and Moni, a small girl once brutally raped by a man and now suffering extreme pain due to the child in her womb.

Conclusion-

This novel is not merely a documentation of bare facts but a collection of memories and perhaps jotting it down on paper is the author's way of coping with those haunting memories.It was a fascinating experience for me.I recommend this to all.



Happy Reading