Their Language of Love

by Bapsi Sidhwa

  The two stories about Ruth were written only a few years ago. These included memories of my friendships with various American women who had lived in Lahore from the 1950s to the early 1990s. In these stories, particularly in ‘Ruth and the Hijackers’, the role I assigned Raj is interchangeable with the character of my brother, Minoo Bhandara, and the role he played in providing me with the dramatic incidents that propel the story.

  ‘A Gentlemanly War’ is based on the 1965 war between India and Pakistan, and my family’s experiences of it. The acquisition of the Murree Brewery by my father, P. D. Bhandara, in 1947 accurately reflects the progression of Prohibition in Pakistan. The occasion when my mother, brother and I trooped across the road to the President’s House at the beginning of the war, is a fictionalized depiction of our meeting with Mr Zulfikar Ali Bhutto who was then the Foreign Minister of Pakistan. By this time the Brewery House, our residence in Rawalpindi, had morphed into the President’s House during the first martial law imposed by Field Martial Ayub Khan.

  The remaining stories do not require any explanation so I will leave them alone.

  Acknowledgements

  First, as always, I thank Khushwant Singh for reading the manuscript of this collection and recommending it for publication. My affection and admiration for him have grown over the years and I regret not being able to personally express my sentiments to him. When I called him during my last visit to Lahore, he said, ‘When are you coming to see me? I am 94!’ I did not have the heart to tell him I was not well enough to travel and due to have spine surgery. I miss him sorely and if it is in the stars I will do my best to travel to Delhi solely to see my beloved friend.

  I thank R. Sivapriya for publishing this collection, and Ambar Sahil Chatterjee, not only for his superb editorial wizardry but also for inspiring the stunning jacket cover for Their Language of Love and the designs to match it for all my other novels.

  I learnt that Ravi Singh and Diya Kar Hazra are no longer with Penguin. I wish them well wherever they are.

  And I thank Penguin for steadfastly publishing me over the years.

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  VIKING

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  First published in Viking by Penguin Books India 2013

  www.penguin.co.in

  Copyright © Bapsi Sidhwa 2013

  Cover illustration by Alice Stevenson

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and any resemblance to any actual person, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved

  ISBN: 978-06-7008-656-6

  This digital edition published in 2013.

  e-ISBN: 978-81-8475-927-3