I have just finished reading Curfewed Night by Basharat Peer. As stated by Khushwant Singh on the jacket of the book, I agree that it is beautifully written, brutally honest and deeply hurtful. It brings out the tragedy Kashmir is going through in sharp relief. The author is honest enough not to suggest any off the cuff solution to the complicated situation on the ground in Kashmir.
I have no problems with what Mr.Peer has written. Where I differ with him is in what he has left out. He has not stated why Kashmir has always refused to integrate with the rest of the country. The only reason I can see is that the valley was predominantly Muslim and was kept so by the politicians of the valley ably supported by the congress governments at the centre. Thus the valley which is physically separated by mountains from the plains of India is mentally miles apart from the Hindus of India. Their call for azadi is actually a demand for another Pakistan based on the age old Hindu Muslim divide which is being given a geographical character since the last one hundred years by the Muslims of the subcontinent. This book is accordingly totally Muslim centric.
I would consider it a great service to Kashmir, Kashmiriat(now dead and buried) and India if a perceptive author like Mr. Peer could look beyond the present, peer into the past and make a guess at the future. He should complete his story give his views on a few vital issues pertinent to Kashmir.
How will the agony of Pandits of the valley be addressed by the valley Muslims? It is not the question of only those Pandits who were pushed out of their homes by the ethnic cleansing campaign of the Muslim militants of Kashmir in the last two decades. Through the centuries Pandits were systematically pushed out of Kashmir and have settled all over India. They too have an inalienable right over Kashmir valley which has to be recognized and conceded by the valley Muslims. Otherwise one day another Palestine will be created in Kashmir valley when Pandits and their descendants assert their rights with the same violence with which valley Muslims are keeping them out today to get their azadi.
What will happen to Budhists of Ladakh? Will they ever be safe under an independent, militant dominated and Islamist Kashmir? What about Jammu and the Muslims in Jammu and areas beyond the valley? There is no way that the Hindus of Jammu will accept to be part of an independent Kashmir, so they will separate. Who will protect the Kashmiri Muslims spread all over India and leading largely peaceful lives once Kashmir is azad. God forbid that there is wide spread reaction against the other Muslim citizens of India, the resulting scenario is too horrible to contemplate.
And what about the Kashmiris, themselves? How will they save themselves from various groups of lawless gunmen supported by a rapacious Pakistan? Can they survive without Indian economic and military support? Will they be glad to become slaves under Taliban and the Pakistani Punjab?
I will also ask Mr. Peer to look at the case of Tamilnadu. Tamils had very similar aspirations to that of Kashmiris in the 1960s. But they adjusted their desires within the idea of India and with their hard work and stress on education they have left most of India behind in progress.
Kashmiri Muslims can still turn back and join the idea of India. Their love for education and the tourism potential of a peaceful Kashmir can make Kashmir one of the more prosperous states of India. If their leaders had chalked out an inclusive future different from the exclusive path they are embarked upon since the 1950s, where would have Kashmir been now? This idea deserves a serious thought.
Write about these questions too, Mr. Peer. Complete the story like a good journalist that you are.
Love in The Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Posted by Swati Labels: Fiction, Latin American Lit, Swati read...(Translated by Edith Grossman)
I previously read Marquez' novel 'Memories of My Melancholy Whores' and disliked it thoroughly. So it was with some trepidation that I started 'Love in The Time of Cholera'. My favorite aspect of the book was how well Marquez describes the Latin American setting of the novel. The book is worth reading simply for that. The story involves complex characters and is woven beautifully as well.
The stately Fermina Daza is married to Dr. Juvenal Urbino for decades when he dies; Florentino Ariza takes the opportunity to return to Fermina Daza with his confession of love after more than 50 years. Marquez then takes us back in time when Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza were teenagers, and how Ariza had wooed her then. Knowing that she ended up marrying Dr. Urbino, the question is whether she will now accept Florentino Ariza's love after all these years.
So there is the romantic love of Florentino Ariza for Fermina Daza. There is, equally strong and beautiful, the marital love between Fermina Daza and Dr. Juvenal Urbino. Finally, there is sexual / emotional love between Floerntino Ariza and his innumerable lovers. None of the forms 'love' takes seems better or worse, and each is examined in great depth. Therein for me lay the beauty of the story.
The aspect that troubled me to a great extent was the one I couldn't tolerate in 'Memories of My Meloancholy Whores' - the 'love' bordering on pedophilia, especially given the sixty or greater age difference between the protagonists! In the present novel, this is further compounded by the fact that Florentino Ariza, in his single-minded wait for Fermina Daza, selfishly and conveniently forgets that a girl / woman can love him so deeply it hurts her.
The book examines death as much as anything else, and the exploration of old age and ageism in 'love' is interesting. That love can end up being companionship for the daily rituals of life is beautifully described. That death - as in the case of Dr. Urbino - can be undignified and humorous is also exemplified really well.
I will switch back to Kundera for a bit, but I might have to read more by Marquez soon!
The last graphic novel I wrote about, Barn Owl's Wondrous Capers, I didn't have much to say about it's illustration capabilities. Kari by Amruta Patil is definitely not at a loss off that. The book is absolutely beautiful to me, each page is art. It open's with an adaptation of Frida Kahlo's The Two Frida's. Just that one page says so much about these characters you meet in the coming pages.
The drawings bring forth the intense, sort of brooding nature of Kari; a young woman finding and losing herself around the sewers that is Mumbai. Mumbai fascinates me, living here is like living two lives. Stop anyone on the road and am sure they will have a totally different story to tell about themselves than you would know. Kari's story brings that forth so well. She seems to be living two lives, one in the present; at work in an ad agency and the other in her past; romance with Ruth.
I want to say so much about her drawings, her use of ink, charcoal, colors; but I wouldn't be able to give it justice.. Just read the book and see for yourself, you won't be disappointed.
This is one book, which I don't want in my library.. but framed and on my wall.
