Growing up as a child & now as an adult, I've been made to understand that, once one's time is up, we either bask in the glory of heaven or are condemned to hell.
That these two places existed at polar ends. One up in the vast beautiful sky & one below earth.
But what is it that lays between this. What if there was a place which was both heaven & hell, & worst of it, you have to live through it.
Mr. Rather s book shows us just that, in a most enigmatic way. He forays into what it is like to be part of this unholy union.
He sheds light on what it is to have your happiest & your most painful moments, all in one place, wherein you can't experience one part without baring the brunt of the other.
The extremes in which the people are living in this area becomes palpable with each passing chapter.
Mr. Rather's words effortlessly transfer one into the lands of the so called "jannat". But the most captivating part is the fact that the books pulls you into its pages & you start walking in those intricately described lanes rather than being just a mute spectator who is flipping pages.
It takes a talented mind to convey multiple parallel stories without making the reader feel suffocated but the book effectively sews characters in, each giving a different outlook on what it means to live your life in Kashmir.
Mr. Rather has wisely chosen to steer clear of the obvious & blatant facts known to one & all about Kashmir to transcend to a point which no author has touched till now, which is, to have Kashmir as your home. To carry on all of our life's activities & duties but in such precarious conditions.
The writing seamlessly merges scenes of horror with those of ecstacy, moments of pain punctuated with spots of happiness, and also a melange of relationships.
Mr. Rather is also not in a hurry to give an ending to his multiple protagonists. The pregnant pauses work in the favour of bringing out the layers in the characters.
The book makes good use of euphemisms, the highlight of it being the Chinar leaves which are beautiful but lay on the ground, without any root or direction, fading away, much like this beautiful place.
The novel is multi faceted as it covers fiction (with its parallel stories), history (encompassing Kashmir's past), art & architecture (graphic description of the picturesque parts of Kashmir).
Despite being a debutante novel, Mr. Rather's book displays maturity & perfection, & in my humble opinion, is a must read for everyone.