I will come again. I promise there will come a time when I will return permanently. ... I will return permanently. I don't write it. That I say to him in my head.

Our Moon has Blood Clots by Rahul Pandita

                                   Book Summary

"Kashmiriyon ki ragon mein Mujahideen aur ghaziyon ka khoon hai ..." These were the lines by the former Pakistani leader Benazir Bhutto whose rabidness to transform Kashmir into a Pakistan-occupied state resulted in an unbridled chain of violent incidents of ethnic cleansing by Kashmiri Muslims trained and armed by Islamist militants. Well-orchestrated cries of Muslims from mosques threatening Kashmiri Pandits to leave the valley became a common sight. 

Killings of the Kashmiri Hindu minority became a regular affair. The thirst for Hindu blood was not limited to armed terrorists alone; the common man equally participated in the murderous cult that turned into an orgy later. 

Call it a brief narrative of the "Kashmir Exodus" that had started in 1985 and reached its peak in 1990, this book is a chilling account of the Kashmiri people forced to flee their homes and towns to escape the brutality and outrage of the state's Muslim population crying 'Azadi' from India. Those who chose to remain or failed to escape in time were tortured and killed while the women raped publicly and packed off in buses towards Islamabad. 

Rahul Pandita, author of this book, explains how he and his family was forced to leave their home in Srinagar when he was barely 14 years old. 30 years on, his family members along with lakhs of other Kashmiri Pandits have still not been able to return to their homes and still continue to be refugees in their own country. Their houses burned and mutilated beyond recognition and repair now harbour people who occupied them unlawfully in the wake of forced Kashmir emigration.  

Words like

 “Yehaan kya chalega Nizam-e-Mustafa”

(Translated to “There will be Islamic law in Kashmir”) and 

“Assi gacchi panu’nuy Pakistan — batav rostuy, batenein saan”

(Translated to “We want Pakistan — without the Pandit men, but with their women”)

are something that still ring in the ears of Kashmiri Pandits.

                                                                 Book Review 

Succinctly expressed, this is a story of personal loss faced by lakhs of Kashmiri Pandits, first forced to flee their homes and subsequently their state owing to pro-independence demands of the Muslim majority living in the state.

Haunted by the memories of loved ones falling prey to gun shots and savagery of Pakistan-trained militants crossing into India coupled with the hardships faced due to the indifferent attitude of the then Indian state, Pandita explains what it means to live in exile in one's own country. 

A tale that starts with a poignant incident of an aged man dying in a refugee camp gives away slowly to what were Kashmiris' daily lives like, their contribution to literature, the highs and lows in Kashmir under various rulers, their silent resistance against forced conversions by radical Muslim neighbours, their run for lives, their resilience against various odds and their willingness to share their stories with whoever interested in their cause. The author manages to capture the emotions felt and expressed not with superfluous words but with lucid examples of incidents of losses that had happened in Kashmir. 

                                                                Book Recommendation 

Read this book for a better view of Kashmir's fate post India's independence. Humiliation and apathy that the Kashmiris faced under various rulers till the Instrument of Accession was signed and brought into effect by Maharaja Hari Singh in October 1947 is still not over. Worse than the shame of losing their homeland was the pain that the society injected in them by donning a cloak of silence. A community that became invisible and mixed up in the sea of burgeoning Indian population still craves to regain its lost identity. 

"Kashmir Exodus" is a story of failure of the then Indian government and its administration that chose to turn a blind eye to the plight of ill-fated Kashmiris. It is a story of betrayal that Kashmiri Pandits had felt during those times and continue to experience as they yearn to go back to their homes and fields they had left behind. 

A story is like a moving train: no matter where you hop onboard, you are bound to reach your destination sooner or later

                    And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini

                                   

                                     Book Summary

  

This book is unlike most books written about the bloodshed and warfare in Afghanistan. In fact, this book starts with the unparalleled bond of love and belonging between a brother and his younger sister. But then the author decides to include other characters too, their lives in Afghanistan, their emotions, passions, unspoken feelings of love, betrayal, remorse, tolerance, understanding and much more. It is a book that contains many stories within a story; stories of some people seemingly independent of other characters in the book while there are others whose lives are so intricately bound and wound to known and unknown figures in the past. For some characters in the book, their future is nothing but a haunting reflection of the past, while others find it easier to move to the future without clinging on to what had happened before in their lives.

The book is, in fact, stories revolving around a medley of characters, though not all serve the purpose for which they were introduced by the author. The author has a gift for words, which is evident in the story telling mode with which he starts the story and then moves on to explain how the our real lives can be a startling imitation of the folklore bedtime stories.

                                                

                                               Book Review 

As always, Hosseini is an amazing storyteller. But if you have already read his other books including “A thousand splendid suns” and “The Kite Runner”, then you might be in for disappointment. Though the author can be described as a treasure trove of words describing the daily struggle of the people living there and the difficult choices they make in response to life’s hardships, thus, lending a poignant feel to the story written, inclusion of too many characters tends to mar the interest halfway. Aptly named “And the Mountains That Echoed” as the incidents in the past have indeed a rippling effect on the later, while the words and images haunt the mind with their echoing effect. Most of the characters living in Afghanistan cannot claim themselves too fortunate while there are others who realize how they would have run out of luck had they continued to stay in Afghanistan and not emigrate to foreign lands. 

However, some chapters have a dragging effect. Characters and their stories dragged unnecessarily or forced connections introduced by the author in a bid to cover everything in one go. Just as the readers start loving and feeling connected with the bond that Abdullah and his sister Pari share between them, they are suddenly forced to tear away into the lives of others that seem so comfortable and unnecessary. Incomplete chapters cause you to lose interest in its pages after having covered nearly 2/3rd of the book. 

This book could have been better, if the author had preferred to stop every new character he wanted to tell the readers about. 

                                               Book Recommendation 

An enjoyable read only till you have reached two-thirds of its pages, though I am not going to refer the same to any reader looking for an overall interesting read. This book is a one-time read, though there are some paragraphs that readers may love to mark and read them again.

 

 

Nuggets of wisdom

                                                       

                                                            tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom

tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom

                            Book Summary

Life is a never-ending tale. It ends with death, yet very few to realize that with each passing day, they are moving closing towards death. Morrie Schwartz realizes that his end is near. As he walks the final bridge between life and death, he longs to lend a new meaning to the remaining days of his life.

In his final days, Morrie defines the various facets of life and emphasizes on the need to have courage to defy features of the culture that do not resonate with our conscience. He talks about the emotions like love and fear, the futility of self-pride, the need to forgive ourselves and others and get past regrets and misgivings.

This book details the essentials of life as viewed by a man who has viewed life and is now ready to embrace death. 

                                                                          
                                                                       Book Review

The subject of the book is “The Meaning of Life”. Experience being the teacher, this book teaches how life would be different if viewed differently. “What’s wrong in being Number 2?” compels one to ponder on the futility of racing against time all our lives. Though life always seems too short to achieve all what we wish to attain, there is a need to sit back and reflect on what we really need from life. The thin line between “desire” and “need” is gradually disappearing with our culture being responsible for most of the choices we make.

We all attempt to define life at some point or the other. However, it takes one’s entire life to define what life is. This is precisely what this book contains – An overview of life by a social psychology professor.

                                                                    Book Recommendation

These are not mere ramblings of a dying man, but wisdom inspired by immense knowledge and years of experience. This book has inspired me, and I hope that it will continue to inspire readers in future too.

The pages contained within the covers of the book view and contrast life we live and the way it can be lived with a bit of understanding and patience. This book is nothing short of an inspiration. Well documented and described, Mitch Albom brings alive the thoughts that his dying professor had shared with him while remaining confined to his wheelchair and death bed. 

Understanding the truth behind the doctrines and practices of Mohammedanism

                                                                    Actual life in the Turkish harem

             
                                                               
                               Book Summary    

There is a popular adage “Never judge a book by its cover”. I would like to add “Never judge a book by its title”. This was a book not recommended by any friend, but that fell into my lap accidentally. Curious and apprehensive, I had turned the pages of this book unsure of what they would contain.

As opposed to my misconception that this book would contain gory details about how people of Turkish origin mistreat their wives or how the women of Mohammedan household meet a macabre fate lest they try to escape the walls that imprison them and bound them only to appease the sexual appetite of their men, this book explains the essence of tenets of Mohammedanism and its limited relevance to today’s society. While the book outlines the manner in which the Prophet had laid down the principles while explaining the reasons behind them, it also helps understand how the ideologies of “veil & shawl” or that of “polygamy” has only led to moral debasement of the people belonging to this faith.

The author of this book explains how the influence of the Western world coupled with the unwavering determination of Turkish women to express themselves and use their intellect for purposes other than child bearing will one day compel and inspire the staunch Mohammedans to look upon their women as equals and grant them equal rights from which they and their ancestors have remained deprived for the past so many centuries.                                                                                  
                                                                           
                                                                             Book Review

If you are looking to buy a book that criticizes the tenets of a religion different from yours, then this book is definitely not for you. This book is an impartial take on what Mohammedanism is, the potential reasons behind its rigorous, old-fashioned and incomprehensible principles that its followers so vigorously support and protect. In addition, staunch ideologists and theologians have shown averseness to mending the religious precepts in accordance with changing times, thus, resulting in these being largely criticized and discarded by its followers and others.

The author is objective in his approach. He neither demeans nor applauds the doctrines of Mohammedanism; instead he explains all he learned from his first-hand experiences pursuant to interviews with Turkish women and highly respected theologians, thus, allowing the readers to form opinions of their own.

                                                                  Book Recommendation

I am going to recommend this to those who read sans any preconceived notion of the contents of any book or harbor misconceptions regarding the same. This book explains why some of the principles of Mohammedanism, referred to as the modern day Islam, now considered redundant and useless, had their base in the barbaric life which the Arabic people lived in ancient times. The need to put their lives in order and protect the dignity of the fair gender inspired a compilation of principles under a common belief called Mohammedanism as we know today.

An Intriguing Story of Love and Betrayal

                                                       
                                                          The Girl on the Train

                                      

                                         Book Summary   
                     

What happens when you jump into someone else’s business? Well, people disregard you as a rubbernecker. And the more you do it believing that you have a role to play in other people’s lives, the more you find yourself entangled in their problems unnecessarily. Being lonely, frustrated and aimless can be a messy affair for a young woman, the condition gets worsened when she tries to solve other’s problems regardless of her own. The book mainly revolves the lives of two women, Rachel and Megan. They are eerily similar in the sense that both suffer from extreme stress, are inclined to worry endlessly and feel lonely despite being surrounded by people who care for them. They however differ in the way they look at life and love.

The author has chosen the train not only as the characters’ way to commute, but also to explain the continuity of life with its regular jerks and jolts. 

                                                                Book Review

The story starts on a very placid note. The author tries to build a feeling of thrill and apprehension, which most readers long for, around the life of a lonely and alcoholic woman whose tendency to over imagine situations and things leads her to construct and deconstruct human characters in, more or less, an ethereal form. She longs for what she has lost, while mourning for what she cannot have.

The story starts with a journey of a woman on a train that gradually dissolves itself into the journey of her life. The author takes her readers through the emotional roller-coaster ride of her characters and their whims and fancies at times exacerbated due to drinking problems or unwarranted anxiousness. In between the pages, the author finds an extraordinary tale woven with episodes of misconstrued love, ubiquitous passion, unbridled lust, and lastly betrayal before the characters find themselves back on their tracks. It is difficult to pinpoint which character feels the most betrayed, as every character gets trapped in a web of lies as each one’s life is interspersed with another’s happiness. 

                                                               Book Recommendation 

This book would score high in the minds of people inclined towards thrill and adventure. As opposed to most contemporary American authors who induce alien characters or supernatural beings or state-of-the art time machines and technology to induce thrill in the minds of their readers, this book is different. This book explains how life can take a sudden turn for better or worse without a forewarning and how each person views life based on past experiences. All the characters in this book live in the moment rather than plan their actions keeping future consequences in mind. 

                                                                  




                                                                                                   

A Woman’s Silent Resistance to Calamities within and Outside

          

                        The House I Loved  

                                             
                          Book Summary

Rose is determined to go against the order of the state and protect the walls of her family home. She is alone in her struggle considering that her neighbours and friends had long given up the idea to protest against the order of the Prefect. While deciding never to part with the house, she decides to hide herself in its cellar. Her loneliness makes way for her past to reappear in her memories that she pens down in her letters to her late husband Armand. But, is it only the fear of losing her home that weighs heavy on her mind or are there any dark secrets that the walls of the house hold within? 

                                 Book Review

“Living in Paris under the reign of our Emperor and our Prefect was like living in a besieged city invaded daily by dirt, rubble, ashes and mud.” Rose Bazelet in her letters to her husband describes how the idea of modernization of Paris had forced many families to vacate their homes and flee in search of refuge in other cities. Hiding in the cellar of her own house, Rose recounts the happy days she had spent with her family within its walls and the horrors she had experienced, but not dared to share. Relieved that the letters she is writing would be read by none, Rose recounts the nightmare that had been haunting her for the past 30 years, the pain of being assaulted by a man in her neighborhood, her arduous life as Armand’s widow and the pain she continues to feel for her dead son. 

                                                             Book Recommendation     

Some people like to read fiction. Some like to stick to the non-fiction genre for its realistic approach. This book adheres to both the kinds of readers. A fictional story about a widow’s struggle to protect and secure her home based on events that had taken place while Paris was being remolded and redesigned.

The plot of the story revolves around the heart-wrenching circumstances that most Parisians had to experience when they had received the order to vacate their houses in order for them to be razed down to complete the new and modern making of Paris. Alas, for some people, houses are more than just bricks and mortar. They are like souls without which lives cannot be imagined.

The author by writing this book accomplishes her mission in dishing out a story that is both compelling and forceful in spirit.