Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Curfewed Night


The doctor who treated a sixteen year old boy
Recently released from an interrogation centre asked,
'Why didn't the fortune tellers predict
The lines in his palms would be cut by a knife?'

Basharat Peer quotes Agha Shahid Ali in his book
Curfewed Night

The book has been haunting me since I finished - it is searingly honest and reading it also underlined how one sided a view we get of Kashmir. It reminded me of my time in the valley - all too short and almost five and a half years ago now (where has time flown?).  I visited in December, when the chinaar trees were naked, the skies dull and the beauty heart aching. Tourists hadn't yet started going back then and almost everywhere we went it was like discovering a land that had been lost, forgotten, abandoned. 

Kashmir, known to so many of my generation from old Hindi movie songs. Actually being there was like opening an old photo album - those familiar images tumbled out, except they were no longer bright and new, rather, dusty and faded. Perhaps that made the place more poignant, perhaps I am romanticizing. There were also army personnel, bunkers, guns - sights all too stark and ones I would like to remove from my memory of the place, but can't. 

The stories of torture and destruction Peer chronicles are ghastly. It's an India - brute force, blind vengeance, absolute power - which, those of us who haven't, are lucky not to have seen. But one that raises its head all too often and which I have, shockingly, heard people defend glibly - after all, aren't we as a nation too laid back,  too soft, utterly indecisive? People like S.A.R GeelaniBinayak Sen and countless others are just collateral damage in the struggle to maintain power.

I feel strange writing such a cynical(?), unhappy post when every one is gushing over the election results. I am very happy not to be living in a BJP ruled India, what with their venomous campaigns and agendas. Indeed the Congress is the only party I was actively supporting, but the last five years of Congress rule haven't been much to write about, and I really, really hope that with the mandate they have, the next five are better.

12 comments:

elizabeth said...

Sz dear, if you have not already mailed the other book, could you pick up a copy of this and add it to the parcel? I've been meaning to read the whole thing for quite some time, but it's not available in the States yet.

(BP is an acquaintance via some friends here, and I've been deeply impressed by the other work of his that I've read. The organization that used to employ me has just given him a fellowship to produce more of it; so here's looking forward to the next smart, searing book.)

km said...

Some timing, I just posted about the Swat region.

//I should have picked up that book in India last year. (Instead, I picked up a graphic novel about Kashmir which turned out to be terribly ho-hum.)

Szerelem said...

e: yep, will add it to the parcel and send it across. I've loved a lot of Peer's other works - read across Rediff, Tehelka and Le Monde Diplo and am looking forward to his books in the future. Also why do your friends know all the people I would like to hang out with??! Not fair. >:(

km: Ok, going to see your post now. What was the graphic novel?

km said...

The graphic novel is called "Kashmir Pending".

Space Bar said...

yes, this book was fantastic.

(and i really don't get what everyone is so happy about. to say they're better than the bjp is to damn with faint praise.)

Qalandar said...

A very moving post indeed, thanks...

Qalandar said...

I haven't read the book, but now want to check it out...

Rahul Siddharthan said...

Yes, one of the books I've been intending to pick up. I've read several of Basharat Peer's articles: he seems a very motivated and genuine journalist.

Space Bar said...

forgot to say, gorgeous photograph, but i feel it doesn't even need to be said anymore (except when you're down and need encouragement).

Szerelem said...

space bar: Yes, the level of gah gahing is ridiculous - though it's also the Indian media going overboard as usual, being sane or objective just doesn't seem to work for them, I guess.
Also, thanks! re: the picture. It was taken in Srinagar, right before a snowstorm - with my first digital camera, a measly 2 mp one.

thanks, Qalandar. Needless to say, you really should read the book. As Elizabeth mentioned, it isn't available in the States yet, but is being published there by Scribner, New York this year.

Rahul: those qualities you mention are on display in the book - it's very personal but also relies on good journalism. Peer April Mode Diplo article is here, btw.

Scherezade said...

I have chosen you as one of my 7 Kreative Blogger award winners.
:)

Roxana said...

i think posts like these need to be written, and cynism is necessary to survive in the world, however unhappy this makes us...

i can't say how much i love this picture...