The violence and bloodshed during the Partition is particularly grisly, to the point that Hukum Chand compares the scenes he’s witnessed to a bloody Holi. People empty their rifle magazines into densely packed trains, motor convoys, columns of marching refugees, as if they were squirting red water at the Holi festival it is a bloody Holi (Singh 214). This further solidifies the significance of the gecko metaphor. Later on in the novel, when he releases Jugga and Iqbal from prison to do his job and save the Muslims en route to Pakistan, his inaction again makes him feel dirty and guilty. Furthermore, when Chand watches the geckos and does nothing, it makes him feel dirty. And so it goes, back and forth with no end in sight, as with the fighting geckos. One group loots two towns, the other counters by looting four. One side kills a train of people, the other kills two. Neither group can overpower or defeat the other, so they are deadlocked in a back and forth volley of violence. The geckos are a metaphor for the warring Sikhs and Muslims during the Partition of India. Watching the geckos makes Chand feel dirty, with a kind of dirt you cannot wipe or wash away. The geckos circle each other before colliding and hitting the other with equal force. Just above his head two geckos were getting ready for a fight (Singh 41).Īs Hukum Chand prepares to greet his evening entertainment (Haseena), he spies two geckos squaring up for a fight above his bed.

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