One Soul and Two Bodies
Chapter 20 of “Hold On”: Lawrence Garden Lahore 2008
(N.B. I’m writing a novel, a chapter a week, here on Medium. Find out why I write here, start from Chapter 1 here, and always feel free to give me feedback in the comments. I write here for the community.)
“This tree has two bodies and one soul”, Sana said to Sanwal.
They were sitting under a 150-year-old Banyan Tree in Lawrence Garden, Lahore. “This Banyan tree has another half as a Karnikar tree (Ptersospermum). I don’t know how this happened and how one tree has two types of shoots on one stem. But it really fascinates me, and I often visit it. So, I thought I introduce this amazing tree to you. This tree talks to me and tells me what it has been seeing in this city over the last 150 years”, Sana said to Sanwal.
Sanwal was amazed at the knowledge Sana had and her affiliation with Lawrence Garden, though she had come from Peshawar.
Two weeks after the meeting at Anarkali, one-morning Sanwal had sent a text to Sana. “Hi, I was wondering if you have read the novel and if I could borrow the book?”
Sana replied in the afternoon, “Hey, you can come over tomorrow evening and pick up the novel from my hostel.”
The next day Sanwal came to the hostel. Sana came out to the gate to hand over the book to him. She asked him to read the book and then they could meet someplace outside to discuss each other’s opinions about the Unbearable Lightness of Being.
A few days later, Sana contacted him and asked to meet at Lawrence Garden on Friday afternoon.
They were sitting under the Banyan tree and there were many people walking and jogging around them. Some of them glanced over in their direction while passing by.
Sana really liked how Sanwal explained his understanding of the novel. He said, “The novel is very philosophical and hard to understand without paying attention to the complex ideas and situations. There is so much in the novel from the chaos and conflict to the real understanding of love. How love burdens us with some sort of heaviness but still we choose it because it makes us more grounded. Just like Tereza aspired to live such a life. But Tomas preferred to live a life of lightness that allows oneself to remain indifferent to what goes with or around us. But still, you have to choose weight or lightness on various occasions in your life regardless of the consequences.’’
Sana enjoyed listening to him talk about the book and then asked him to tell her about his work. Sanwal said that he was employed as an economic analyst in a government department. He shared how he was getting frustrated with this work over time. He does economic analysis but government officers do not pay any attention to such analysis. They asked him to do very routine and mundane tasks that anyone could do without being an economist. Most of the senior government officers did not know anything about economic policy or economics but they made decisions which impacted the lives of people. He said he wanted to go for PhD one day and would like to join academia to do more independent work.
Sana shared that she had always dreamt of joining Jinnah College as a Lecturer. They both liked each other’s academic passion, and it was another reason that they developed feelings of mutual liking.
After this meeting, they often visited Anarkali Bazar together on weekends to explore and buy old books. Sometimes they walked to Chaman Ice Cream. They loved walking on the mall road but always discussed how walkways are encroached by car parking and about the vehicular emissions they have to inhale while walking. Sana’s mind always went back to the time when there were no cars, and many people walked or cycled on the mall road. She wished she could go back to that time and could walk on the serene mall road. Then Sanwal interrupted her thoughts and said that she would have to smell horse dung and inhale toxins even then. Sana got back to him and said, “You will always remain an economist.”
