The short passage about the lost daughter and her worried father intrigues me, but at the same time leaves me in confusion. I am intrigued as soon as I began to read because it started with commotion, we as readers do not know what happened, all we know is that children and family members have either gone missing or are dead, which leaves me wondering what happened. The words “ Attack…fire…escape…railroad station…night” capture my attention almost immediately because it signals that something horrid has happened and it leaves me guessing for answers. Throughout the passage, the Sirajuddin (the father) is looking for his daughter, Sakina. He then proceeds to ask armed men to help him find his daughter and within some days, they complete this task but do not share this knowledge with Sirajuddin. The daughter is injured and is taken to the hospital where her father finds her, and to his and my shock, she is alive. This leads to my confusion because when the guards found Sakina they seemed to be in her best interest, but why not tell her father? Why leave her hospitalized?
I like the specific quote you mention because it highlights Sirajuddin’s thought process– he is trying to organize his trauma chronologically to sort out his confusion. The ellipses help get across this progression. Also, to address your confusion, I believe the men who found Sakina had actually raped her and tricked both Sirajuddin and Sakina. Those men within Sakina’s own community were just as evil as the actual enemy.
I agree with Janes analysis, it is implied through the doctor that there was malicious intent behind the people that saved Sakina and that Sirajuddin had only seen half of what had unfolded since the last seeing his daughter. Due to his trauma from loosing his wife in front of him, and the potential of loosing his daughter, he doesn’t process the full scope of what had happened because he just cared that his daughter had come back alive.
I’m not entirely sure if I agree with this interpretation. Although it is true that Sirajuddin seems like shaken by the traumatic events of the night prior, I don’t think that there’s enough information to make out the folks as evil. From Sirajuddin’s description, the men “had tried. At the risk of their lives they had driven to Amritsar, recovered many women and children and brought them back to the camp, but they had not found Sakina”. The men are risking their lives each time they went out to try to recover women and children. If these people were truly malicious, they wouldn’t risk their lives to reenter hostile territory and save women and children (this might also cast doubt on whether or not they would rape or assault the people they’re trying to save).
That said, there is a true possibility that both sides of the conflict have their faults. It’s possible that with more context on the story itself that our saviors reveal themselves as bad people.
Janla, I too became puzzled and fascinated by this story as I read each page. I believe Sirajuddin is justified in being confused because he’s surrounded by chaos whereas a few days ago he was surrounded by his family. I’m not sure what awful events occurred that he struggles to remember, but I know that they relate to him losing his daughter. Also, It’s ironic that the armed young men who claim to rescue women and children and bring them to the refugee camps lied to Sirajuddin about the location and condition of his daughter.