Page 63 - 15FEB2019E

INTERVIEW

experience there. Their paths cross ied faces of young boys, I couldn’t tell of narratives. How challenging is it
in the most bizarre of circumstances. mourning from euphoria. My father for a writer to rise above them and
What follows changes the course of taught me Islamic history. get to the objective truth?
their lives. Kashmir continues to inspire The story of Ali, Hassan and Hus- This is a question I ask myself all the
me. It has become a Macondo-like place sain, and the battle of Karbala fascinate time. One thing is clear. There’s no ‘ris-
where I can go only in dreams. me to this day. How Ali, Hassan and ing above’ the harsh reality (history and
Hussain lived and died, and what they the situation on the ground) however
Why did the woman have to be stood for is an ultimate lesson in mo- conflicted and troubled it is. I carry the
a Shia? Does it have a meaning rality, courage, valour, dignity, loyalty, burden of being a Kashmiri who’s un-
beyond her identity? faith, love and the noblest of all human able to go back to Kashmir and reclaim
I grew up inSafa Kadal (Downtown Sri- virtues, sacrifice. all that’s lost. I carry the burden of being
nagar) which is full of Shias. The Shia To belong to a community whose witness to terrible things.
way of life has left an indelible impres- history is marred with betrayals This is the age of Twitter, Whatsapp
sion on me.When I was ten years old, and persecutions is a terrible thing. and Facebook. People have access to
my grandfather took me to see a Mu- Shias are still living with a sense of everything and anything. It’s not easy
harram procession in Naala-e-Maer. persecution. anymore to differentiate truth from
At first, I was horrified seeing kids In the novel, Mehr undergoes untruth. The very idea of truth is be-
my age drenched in blood and lashing transformation. And at the heart of ing questioned on a daily basis. We
themselves with knives and swords. her transformation is her identity as
When my grandfather explained eve- a Shia which assumes a deeper and a
rything to me, I felt lucky that I wasn’t more complex meaning only when she
a Shia. Year after year, I stood by the returns to her homeland, Pakistan.
roadside and looked at Shias flagellat-
ing themselves.Looking at the blood- Kashmir has become a battleground MEHR: A LOVE
STORY
BY SIDDARATHA GIGOO
Rupa Publications India
213 PP; 295

vacillate between extremes. We take
positions and sides based on what
we see and hear on Social Media. We
find ourselves in situations wherein
love turns to hate instantly. We re-
act without thinking and knowing.
What is lacking is the experience of hu-
manity as it unfolds near you and else-
where. This is where good novels come
in. Good novelists see everything com-
passionately. They don’t rush to conclu-
sions and judgements.
They create distance between the
story, the characters and themselves.
They empathize with the unempathiz-
able. It’s like walking the razor’s edge.
The job of a novel is to fill the gaps in
history books. To reveal what’s outside
the frame and what’s hard to find. The
end goal is the constant pursuit of truth
— the truth of human condition. And it
is non-negotiable.
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