As an Air Force cadet posted near the border, my father had a roommate nicknamed Chuha Pathak who loved rum. A lot. Every evening he would make himself a peg too big for Patiala and wait for the sun to set. As soon it disappeared from the horizon, so did the rum from his glass and he got himself and my dad another. Then they would sit.

Two young Indian men, training to fight wars, listening to ghazals, on Radio Pakistan. Begum Akhtar, Malika Pukhraj, Farida Khanum but most beloved, Iqbal Bano singing Tu lakh chale ri gori, and her renditions of Faiz Ahmad Faiz's poetry, from Dasht-e-tanhai to Hum dekhenge.