A MAN OF HONOR: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF YUBA KASAI

Yuba, a lowly butcher in a poverty stricken village, is prone to great violence. He is first introduced in the novel as he participates with his family in the so-called honor-killing of his sister when he is barely 17 years of age. The same violent streak greets his child bride who is given to him as compensation for the death of his sister; she is the sister of the dead woman’s lover. Yuba is incensed when his wife gives birth to a girl when he really looked forward to a boy. One day in a drunken frenzy Yuba sells his wife and child to a total stranger. However, he has great regrets over his surreal conduct and pledges to atone for his sin. Yuba sets off for the city hoping to locate his wife and child there. He finds no clue of their whereabouts and settles down to the ordinary business of providing for his livelihood. However, his extraordinary perseverance lifts him to dizzying heights. In time, he accumulates great wealth and acquires a status of prominence in society. His success is all the more remarkable because it results from an honest effort and in spite of the fact that he is almost illiterate, with neither resources nor sophistication in the conduct of business. Yuba, the lowly butcher, undergoes a metamorphosis and transforms himself into Ayub Qureishi, a highly respected denizen of society. His past thus stands obscured, or so he hopes. Ayub persuades a young man, whose competences he has begun to fancy, to accept his employment. Shahzaib soon becomes a vital cog in Ayub’s business concern. In due course, he also becomes a friend and confidante and Ayub showers a great deal of affection on him. He begins to trust Shahzaib as he has trusted no one in life and even discloses to him the bare essentials of his abhorrent past. He also reveals to him the fact that after years of staying single since the incident involving his wife and child, he has sought a young lady in marriage. At the onset of the guilt over the incident involving his wife and child, Ayub had sworn to recompense them for the indignity that he had so callously heaped upon them. He remains committed to seeking them out even when his circumstances are altered radically. When he does chance upon them many years later, he admits them wholeheartedly into his life. He takes in his wife Jannat and his now grown up daughter Noor into his household. He thus allows the sins of his past to intrude into his present and, perhaps, infect his future. An extraordinary chain of events unfolds in the wake of his decision and the peaceful life that he has so assiduously cobbled up for himself in the space of two decades begins to unravel suddenly. He even forsakes the young lady he has committed to marry. In a parallel development, Ayub’s business starts wilting. A bad patch caused by market conditions is an ordinary occurrence in the life of a business and Ayub had naturally faced many such situation in the past. However, this time around the personal diversions that have entered his life begin to wean him away from the onerous affairs of his business. Ayub’s attitude towards Shahzaib too changes abruptly and he dispenses with his services. Shahzaib sets himself up as a rival to his mentor’s business, though that is not strictly his intent. In the meantime, Jannat dies of constant ill-health and it could have been supposed that with it the odious past of Yuba the butcher too might have been buried. However, Ayub’s past surfaces at an inopportune moment in his life with a surprise public disclosure. It brings with it a startling revelation of Jannat’s deception; the girl that she had presented to him as his long lost daughter is the daughter of another man while his own daughter’s whereabouts are unknown. Ayub is compelled into another search for his real daughter and finds her leading a dishonorable existence in a brothel. Ayub’s exceptional personal circumstances begin to consume an inordinate slice of his psychological and emotional capital. He is no longer capable of the equanimity that is so essential to steady the worsening state of his business. His business is heading inexorably towards a debacle and the state of his mind is only hastening the process. The inevitable finally comes to pass and in time he loses everything that he has accumulated in a lifetime of hard work. In an incredible sequence of events, the young man Ayub had befriended turns out to be the unwitting instrument of the divine justice that he must inevitably face for his sins. Shahzaib nourishes a business competition with his mentor until he succumbs. He marries the woman that Ayub has forsaken once but with whom he hopes to revive his relationship after the death of Jannat. When Shahzaib’s wife dies prematurely, he proposes to Noor, whom Ayub has belatedly come to cherish and who is, perhaps, the only person who could have given him a reason to live. Ironically, it transpires that all along there was a biological bond between the two men that has remained hidden until providence reveals it at an inopportune moment. Shahzaib is Ayub’s nephew, the son of his long-lost older brother. The ensuing turmoil in his life pushes Ayub to the brink of the precipice. He is on course to destroy himself, spurning all overtures of help contemptuously. The character traits of his youth, in hiatus during his long ascent, re-emerge. His newly resurrected crudity is aimed against the very women who once loved him and cared for him and in the process, he alienates Noor irrevocably. At the same time, the revival of his sense of honor directs his attention towards his real daughter’s immoral existence and he decides to eliminate her. In the end, a life of great promise and potential built on undisguised exertion stands obliterated completely.