Book Review: Two by Gulzar

Two by Gulzar is a terrific novella based on partition. The title is very subjective as you see the author emphasis that after partition we become Two from One.

“We were One people. One parted. Now we are Two.”

The time duration of the novella is lengthy i.e. from 1946 to up till Kargil war time. In the story we see how partition of any country affects the lives of people for many generations to come. The story commences up from a tiny village named Campbellpur located in obscurity in the British era, for sure it is a borderline village, as places located near borders get affected most during the partition time.

As you get into the story, a slew of people’s lives come unsettling before us, and evidently we see that during the partition time no borderline soul can go unplundered. Some of the prominent characters that linger around are Fauji the truck driver, two sisters Moni and Soni, Lakshneera the dhaba owner, a Rai Bahadur and his family, a young widow, a Kothewali. They all find themselves couched in the web of fate and to them partition seems inevitable.

The book was first written in Urdu and Gulzar himself has translated the book into English. For this reason, we see that the essence of the novella is not lost. Gulzar’s poetic and prose style will put you on your knees. You will be disturbed, a little embarrassed to make out what that silence is there, what sort of unheard voices are there to haunt to you. Though there have been many books on partition, well this one is though short but highly intense. The pain, agony and loss of separation and death have been captured like never before. Two is more of an experience than the story itself.

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