Book Review: Curfewed night

Imagine a thousand shouts at the highest pitch, imagine shrieks all around you; imagine a piercing sound that forces you to put hands on your ears but they are of no help. But now imagine that its all muted, silence everywhere, all that you are left with are images that produced those shrieks. That is what it feels to be in Kashmir.

I was a tourist in Kashmir last month. Like any tourist, i was mesmerized by Kashmir's beauty. Yet, there was something kept the subconscious alert, a nagging tension in the air. The omnipresence and perennial presence of police force, distrust of the army wallahs towards localites, so few development indicators in the capital of a state and a feeling that everybody has adjusted to this kind of lifestyle.
 Before this book, I was ignorant about the violence in Kashmir - who are these terrorists? what do they want?

Basharat Peer's Curfewed night is a beautifully written memoir that carefully documents life in the valley in 90s and first decade of this century. Through his eyes, we witness how people live in terror day after day; what people do when there is a bomb blast right near your house; how one studies in school when there is an army stakeout right outside and sometimes even firing. Basharat offers us a bird's eye view of how people gave up their lives to join the freedom struggle and the toll it had on their families and loved ones. In the second half of book, we witness the aftermath of the struggle, how army units tortured people,  atrocities committed from both sides and how people are now getting on with the next chapter of their lives.

Basharat never tries to be preachy, there is rarely a discussion on ideology, although Basharat tries his best to share the causality. Lecturing about "effect" is useless unless  "cause" is understood.  What Basharat brings to the whole Kashmir affair is the humanity in it - beyond the state, the borders and governance, there are people who live there, people who react to what they see and hear.

Then there is a chapter on certain issues like getting an apartment for Kashmiris outside Kashmir.  A section on how Kasmiri Pandits live in refugee camps, the sense of longing that they have to their homeland. How people hang bedsheets as curtains to give an impression that everybody is asleep inside. How a mother saw her son being asked to take a bomb into a building, how armies interrogated people.

At the same time runs a parallel thread on Basharat's personal life, life at home where literature, poetry was given the highest importance. Home where still there was family, values and a sense of connectedness. And what happens to one who has survived a bomb blast just by chance. Basharat, later, while writing this book empties his heart out as he shares his inhibitions in meeting victims. There is a minor incident in which a stranger enters his house and his caretaker quickly comes to his room urging him to hide as the servant claims that the stranger has a gun. This later is proven to be a hoax but Basharat describes the constant terror faced by Kashmiris.

Curfewed night should be read in conjunction with - http://www.caravanmagazine.in/Story/1548/The-Departed.html. The Departed is an excellent report on people who in 90s joined the armed struggle and have now returned disillusioned, lost and without any hope. The central message that comes out from their stories is a realization that violence is not the way to get azaadi. A realization that took them a whole life time.

I finished the book in 6 hrs - 3hrs an evening on two consecutive days. It is a book that we should read just to understand the humanity of people. There is no question of taking sides here. I sympathize with Kashmiris because i see humanity in them. I hope someday somebody will share stories from the army side and we will see humanity from their side. But having said that, i will never accept torture. I believe that restraint and care will make us win more wars than action-reaction.