Monday, March 7, 2005
From The Cradle To the Grave
- Anjana BasuAnjana Basu taught English Literature, briefly, in Calcutta University. She writes poetry, stories, features in the local newspapers and in Harmony and Travel Plus. She has had a book of short stories published by Orient Longman, India. The BBC had broadcast one of her short stories and her poems have featured in an anthology brought out by Penguin India. In America she has been published in The Wolfhead Quarterly, Gowanus, The Blue Moon Review, and Recursive Angel, to name a few. Harper Collins India brought out her novel Curses In Ivory last year.
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Book and Author Name:No Guns At My Son’s Funeral by Paro Anand
Publisher: Roli Books
Price: Rs. 195
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Kashmir – where once the word conjured up the Mughul’s ‘Paradise on earth’ today, sadly it only evokes violence and bloodshed, quick murders in broad daylight and an eternal fretting over who’s line of control is it anyway? Kashmir is a place where terrorism reigns, sweeping up the whole valley in its dread grasp. Terrorists are bred young, almost out of their cradles, because, as every political organisation knows, children are most impressionable in their teens when they are dealing with issues of personality and independence. In Bengal it was seen during the freedom struggle when two 14 year olds were gunned down on a hilltop in Jalalabad, resisting the British shoulder to shoulder with others in their 20’s.
No Guns at my Son’s Funeral is the story of a 12 year old, Aftab, who has met the most fascinating stranger he has ever encountered in all his short life. An Afghan who is old enough to hero worship and who has seduced him with secrets and meetings in the dark and all the things that teenagers love. However, the Afghan is not just a friend, he has a grim objective, a jihad for the freedom of Kashmir.
Aftab is torn between guns and football. Add to that the problem that he turns sick whenever he sees blood and the reader realises that he is in a quandary indeed. Through his struggles to come to terms with terrorism and life, Anand makes the reader comprehend some of the grim truths that lie behind terrorism. The fact that most mujahedin are outsiders, for instance, that they do not belong to the places they infiltrate and, as a result have very few feelings for family ties or friends.
While the issues involved are complex, Paro Anand’s handling of the story is straight forward and almost simplistic. This of course, is due to the fact that she is writing for teenagers. The book provides her take on terrorism and the problems involved for youngsters curious about what is happening in Kashmir. What emerges clearly is the fact that youngsters have a right to enjoy their childhood before shouldering responsibilities that they can barely grasp. The subject gives the novel immediacy and it is one of the rare Indian books on the subject, which are meant for children. Yes, there are those who might say that she could have gone further and used emotion to more poignant effect. Played on the imagination slightly more – because there is a sense of holding back.
The book ends on a moment of firm decision – through watching her brother, Aftab’s sister realises that violence is not the answer. She declares: Her son, her precious, precious son will not, will not ever hold a gun in his tender hands. His feet will never walk the killer's path. Never! She breathes out loud now. There will be no guns at my son's funeral.
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