Broken Milestones

Yusuf, the hero of this novel is born in a small coastal village of Bengal towards the end of the British Raj in India. His mother dies shortly after his birth and he goes to live in Calcutta with his father and step mother. He grows up there, getting drawn into the communal strife preceding the Partition India, witnessing one of the worst tragedies of human history. His Hindu girl friend is killed by his Muslim friend during the communal riots and he avenges her murder by killing his friend before leaving for Pakistan for good. He grows up as a young man in East Pakistan and joins the civil service. During his training period in West Pakistan, he falls in love with a West Pakistani girl and marries her. They have a son and continue living in East Pakistan, despite cultural problems and adverse climate faced by his wife. The political climate in Pakistan deteriorates and the country faces a civil war. Yusuf’s parents are killed in the army action during the war and Shahnaz, his wife, unable to take the strain of the war, leaves him with their only child for her native land. Yusuf’s only sister, married to a West Pakistani, is stranded in Pakistan, with her husband taken as a POW at the end of the Liberation War that ushers in the birth of a new state, Bangladesh.