A Good 'Olio'

Book Review

"The enemy is fear. We think it is hate; but, it is fear" - Mahatma Gandhi.

And with these lines, begins this book - In a Violent Land, a compilation of essays and stories written on violence that plagues every strata of Indian society. It begins with an excerpt from - The Train to Pakistan by Khushwant Singh. Reading it kindled strong, clear images of Mano Majra village during the summer of 1947 and memories of reading the book years back. It was good to revisit Anna Bhau Sathe's Gold from the Grave and Vijaydan Detha's Countless Hitlers, stories I read from an anthology on Indian writing - A Clutch of Indian Masterpieces.

Udayan Ghosh's Swapan is dead, long live Swapan, translated from Bengali by Arunava Sinha churns you in trepidation. Shahnaz Bashir's The Gravestone shines in terse prose with irony.

Sanjoy Hazarika 's A Troubled Peace in Mizoram unravels highly important information about people's movement, governance issues in North East since Indian Independence. I have marked his other books for a read.

The winning piece for me in this collection is Mahasweta Devi's Seed. None can describe the problems faced by landless laborers, lower castes and untouchables in a hard hitting manner like her. And, love her for always making her female characters, even if brief an appearance,  unabashedly bold and gritty.

Region, religion, gender, caste, ethnicity, language and many factors, some that make our nation so diverse and beautiful have spawn seeds of violence that mar its growth.

Mistakes do happen, but they should not be repeated. Therefore, it would only be ideal that the first instance of violence, inside home or out on streets, also turned out to be the last one.

Alas, we are in times where multiple instances of violence are committed everyday, justified

through a retrogressive mindset - Is it happening for the first time, then why this over reaction? Back then it happened; none could stop, so why and how can one stop now? This callous indifference has pulled the land down along fault lines, into an abyss far away from the ideal.

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Verdict : Love Indian writing and translated literature; then definitely, a good pick.