Ordeal
The Man of Steel and his family are suffering a real ordeal in Rawalpindi’s Adiala jail, there are no two ways about it. They are convicted prisoners so don’t have the luxuries normally given to upper class on-trial inmates. Technically, there are supposed to be no air conditioners in the cell and convicts have to wear jail clothes like all other prisoners. But since The Man’s doctors have advised against such draconian measures, given the state of his health, he has an air conditioner and is allowed to wear his own clothes. But his daughter and son-in-law have no such luxuries. They live in ordinary cells with only fans for comfort in this hot, damp season. Convicted prisoners are also not allowed food from home but an exception has been made for The Man of Steel, on his doctor’s recommendation. So, with his private cook having been brought over from Lahore, and installed at a comrade’s home, he gets his bare preferences every day. The caretaker government is kept informed of everything, even The Man’s daily menu – paalak gosht and daal mash one day, lokee gosht and white rice the next. Getting privately food cooked into the prison is quite a palaver – the food is tasted for poison, certified and then sent to the prisoner’s cell. Good thing it’s in “hot pots” so that it doesn’t get cold. The Man is constantly worried about his daughter and son-in-law and sends the food to them once he has taken his share.
Meetings between relatives are not allowed, except for a weekly hour or so, and when he first got there, The Man was very concerned about where his daughter had been lodged. At the first opportunity, he went to see her cell, and examined it closely.
The Man of Steel feels that the burden of his choices has been cast upon his daughter and son-in-law, and suffers from an acute sense of responsibility. That is why he hurried back from hospital to jail the moment he felt well enough.