And so it was. Mountbatten flew out to Karachi on the 14th to keep up his glorious charade of largesse, as he presided over the peaceful transfer of power to Jinnah, the first governor general of Pakistan.

The viceroy then took the flight back to New Delhi.

As midnight neared, members of India’s Constituent Assembly listened in silence to the chimes of the hour. A member blew a conch shell in Parliament right after, as if to summon the gods to witness a great event.

But the events that followed were far, far more ungodly than anyone had predicted.

The Referee

17 August 1947
Rawalpindi, Pakistan

In the little gully outside her home, Toshi tied her dupatta securely around her waist, so it wouldn’t trip her up when she ran. Then she bent down and carefully arranged stones in a pile, counting them as she went.

‘Four, five, six and . . . ? Where did the seventh stone go?’ she asked, looking around.

Her six-year-old brother, Tarlok, sheepishly extracted an oval, olive green quartz pebble from his pocket and held it out in his closed fist.

‘Can I have this back after we finish playing?’ he asked. ‘It looks like a bulbul’s egg, see!’ He unfurled his fist with the flourish of a magician performing the grand finale of a magic trick.

Toshi sighed. ‘Yes, yes—you can have the silly stone back. Why don’t you collect better things instead, Loki?’

Without waiting for his answer, she turned away and placed the seventh stone on the wobbling tower, balancing it with some difficulty given the quartz’s irregular shape.

‘There. That’s our stone tower. Do you remember how to play pithoo, Loki?’

Tarlok nodded vigorously, ‘We have to break the stone tower with the ball.’

‘Yes, but you only win if you can then rebuild it without getting hit by the ball.’

‘But don’t we need more people to play, Toshi di?’

‘Tsk, in my version we can play with just the two of us. Do you want to play or not? Once Biji comes back, that’s the end of our pithoo.’

Toshi quickly glanced over her shoulder to check if her mother was on her way back from the market. Both she and Tarlok knew that as soon as she was home, they would have to go indoors and have their customary bath before dinner.

‘Let’s start quickly then, Toshi di,’ said Tarlok, hopping from foot to foot to warm up.

Toshi shut her left eye and aimed the ball at the pile of stones. She hit her target dead on, causing the stone tower to topple over. She whooped with joy. Tarlok ran after the ball. He scooped it up and threw it at his sister. The ball hit Toshi squarely in the back just as she was picking up the stones to rebuild the tower.

‘I got you!’ said Tarlok, grinning.

‘Ha! You’re cheating. It’s just that you can pick up the ball faster because you have three thumbs. If you had two, like the rest of us, then we’d see who wins.’ Toshi crossed her arms, tucking her hands under her armpits, as she usually did when things didn’t go her way.