The Inside City by Anita Mir

Author:Anita Mir [Mir, Anita]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Unbound
Published: 2019-03-08T00:00:00+00:00

23

OCTOBER 1939, LAHORE

‘A new start,’ Khurshid said as Awais ate his breakfast. He bolted down the rest before making his escape. His uniform, made from heavy khaki wool, started to itch, but he was on his bike by then and couldn’t stop. Without relief, the itch grew.

He turned back to look. Other cyclists, pedalling as hard. Like a flock of birds, they formed a near-perfect ‘V’.

He swerved into Civil Lines where he banged the bike into a stand and quickly locked it, looking down so no one who might be watching would think he were suggesting this place abounded in thieves. Then he couldn’t help it; he began to scratch: first one leg, then the other, scaling his skin red. A man, older but similarly kitted out, pushed open a door and stood watching Awais.

‘It’s as if they put lice in the stitching,’ the man said. ‘You’ll get used to it.’ He opened his mouth, as if about to spit, then closed it, remembering there was no paan left to chew. ‘Or,’ he said, ‘you won’t.’ And with these words of wisdom, he returned inside. Awais pulled up his socks, though his skin still stung. He approached the door the man had gone through and pushed it open.

By midday it was decided. They didn’t like him. They whispered, some of them, but he heard. Some said he was an abysmal newt of a man. There were confident men, braggers, opinionated men, men in love with their looks, and they’d all been tolerated – with time. But they knew, to a man, that they wouldn’t and couldn’t tolerate Awais. His intensity was so sharp it made their actions – and by actions they meant work and by work they meant the bare minimum they could do – seem like a muddling along. Among all the Indian staff it was only Ain Khan, a broad-backed, simple man, who befriended Awais. The others noted this and put it down in a register they kept for such things.

‘What do you expect of a Pathan?’ one man said.

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