short story Between the mosque and the temple

 Between the mosque and the temple

Between the mosque and the temple is the short story written by a Parsi writer Boman Desai. The present story is an excerpt from his first novel ‘The memory of elephants’ in which he opens the novel with the arrival of the Parsis in India in the seventh century. He focuses on their generation of the Parsis in India during the 20^th century.

The present story focuses its attention on the importance of religious places and intolerance connected with touchy issues. The episode here describes the violence between two communities on a trivial matter of placing a dustbin. Here the chairman of the communities is Banu, a woman who settles the matter wisely and tactfully.

      Banu was supposed to settle a dispute between the Hindu and the musalman concerning the placement of a dustbin. Hindus complained that rubbish bin was too ear to the  temple and musalmans found it too close to the mosque and it must be moved close to the temple.

Banu decides to tackle the matter in her own way. She went there and people went on joining her. With a big retinue she reached the place. Both the Hindus as well as musalmans were amazed to see a woman chairman. Banu gave a very simple solution to it.  She declared that she will place the rubbish bin exactly between the mosque and the temple. To find the exact place, she walked and counted footsteps. Both the leaders also walked with her.

It was exactly two hundred and thirty two steps. So they had to move the bin to one hundred and sixteen footsteps. They placed the bin to the middle point. Now the bin was closer to the temple and little away from the mosque.

All had to accept the decision. The leaders of both the communities approved the decision. Banu believed that she succeeded because she was a Parsi and neither a Hindu nor a musalman. Thus it shows tactful handling by woman.