passages from Toba Tek Singh

They tried to set his thinking straight. "Look, Toba Singh has gone to Hindustan" one of the guards tried to humour him. "If it is not there we will see to it that it is dispatched there at once." But Bishan Singh was adamant. When they tried to drag him to the other side he stood firmly on his swollen legs in the middle of the road as if not power on eath could dislodge him from there. But he was a harmless man. They left him alone for the time being and proceeded with the rest of the exchange.

Just before dawn, Bishan Singh, who had been standing inert let out a horrible scream. Officers bfrom both sides ran forward and saw that the man who had always stood erect on his legs for the last fifteen years was now lying on his face. On one side behind him stood together the lunatics of Hindustan and on the other side across the road, lunatics of Pakistan. Between them on the no-man's land Toba Tek Singh lay stretched.