BETWEEN THE MOSQUE AND THE TEMPLE – BOMAN DESAI

BETWEEN THE MOSQUE AND THE TEMPLE – BOMAN DESAI

INTRODUCTION

     Boman Desai, an Indian is the author of the short story “Between the Mosque and the  Temple”. The story is an excerpt from his first novel “The Memory of Elephants”. The story “Between the Mosque and the Temple” is about a problem between Hindus and Muslims about placing a rubbish bin.

About The Chairman

     Banu was the Chairman of the Sanitation Committee. She dressed herself in plain clothes. She never wore bangles and rings. She was simple but smart in her approach. Being the Chairman, Banu was supposed to settle a dispute between the Hindus and Muslims about placing a rubbish bin. Hindus said that the rubbish bin was too close to their temple, and wanted to move it farther away, but Muslims said that it was already too close to their mosque and wanted to move it closer to the temple. To solve the problem Banu wanted to examine the site so the Collector sent a car, but Banu had chosen to walk because the site was not far. Moreover she wanted to show people that she was just like them.

Banu’s march to the site

     When she was going to the site a group of Hindus and Muslims children joined with her. It made Banu to remember Gandhi’s Salt March in which Hindus and Muslims of both genders united to show solidarity against the English. Soon the collector who came by Rolls Royce car joined with Banu and took his place by her side. They crossed dusty wadis, dirty path and cobbler streets etc. While crossing a white cow Banu genuflected it and others did the same. When she reached the site, the representatives of Hindus and Muslims with their followers were surprised to see the crowd and a woman chairman.

Banu’s solution to the problem

     To find solution to the problem Banu requested the crowd to walk with her from the mosque to the temple and to count her footsteps. Everyone accepted it. They walked with Banu, counting loudly in a singsong voice as if they were learning numbers in school. They counted exactly two hundred and thirty two steps to the temple. Then she decided to keep the bin at one hundred and sixteen steps from the mosque and the temple. She walked back to the mosque and stopped at a  hundred and sixteen and the rubbish bin shifted away from the mosque and near to the temple. No one objected against it.

CONCLUSION

     Banu was able to solve the problem easily because she was neither a Hindu nor a Muslim. She was a Parsi