believed such metamorphosis was possible. A man was still a
man and a leopard leopard while the old jailhouse was a
forsaken place not fit for human habitation. A white man was
the District Officer who went by in an impressive white jacket
and a black man was the Native Police constable who saluted
as the white man passed. This was how the world was and
there was no reason to think it could be otherwise. But the war
came and the bombs started falling, shattering things out of
their imprisonment in boxes and jumbling them without logic
into a protean mishmash. Without warning, everything became
possible.*Months preceding the arrival of the military bands,
news had been filtering in that the foreign powers were clawing
at each other’s throats. In the papers, there were 2 cartoons
showing how bad things would be if Hitler won. Posters
appeared all over town encouraging the young men to enlist
and then the recruitment officers showed up accompanied by
drum majors who conducted smartly-uniformed bands through
the streets. Unmoved by the marching songs and colorful
banners flying above the parades, not a single volunteer
stepped out. Shrugging, people just said, the gecko and the
lizard may decide to get married; fine for them, but it would be
silly for the butterfly to dance its garments to shreds at their
wedding celebration. The next day, traditional drums
accompanied the bands to rouse enthusiasm but thisalso failed
to inspire and speculations became rife that conscription will be
used as in some other places. But that was not to be because
reports came that Hitler himself was waiting with his ruthless
army at the border and that with him things were going to be
much worse than the imagination could conceive. Those he
didn’t pressgang into slavery would be roasted alive for
consumption by his beloved dogs, this was the word on the
street, and panic began spreading with virulent haste. There
was only one thing to do. Hitler had to be taken on before he
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