vani_in_wonderland_'s reviews
222 reviews

~ Roses among Ruins ~

It is said that in 5 billion years, our sun will swell into a red giant, potentially consuming our planet in its fiery embrace. If not, we're sure to be toasted as temperatures rise. The end of civilization!

But we probably won't need to wait for that long. Demise of humanity might not need such cosmic timelines.
We don't need sun to scorch streets
We don't need earthquakes to tear apart homes
We don't need tsunamis to bring up the bodies

Hunger. Death. Destruction.
On days, they call it collateral damage.
Damage to?
Greed? Oppression? Power?
Can this reason for a child who mistook clouds for b0mb smoke?
Who would tell the old man that the home he still dreams of, is lost to collateral damage?
What to tell the child requesting her cat to eat strangers and not her as death takes her?

Mosab in his poem says, 'We Deserve a better Death'
Amidst the ceaseless turmoil, being consumed by the sun seems almost merciful.

THINGS YOU MAY FIND HIDDEN IN MY EAR shook me from within, it left me devoid of any more tears to shed. When a child grows up in a camp, unaware of even the concept of life and death, they are not meant to normalize b0mbs but they do. Mosab's poems make you face that ugly reality. He compares living in G, aza to living in a Kafka novel, where you don't know what you're guilty of but suffer the trauma, generation after generation. He reckons us to see the houses that are shelled, bodies that are mut, ilated while rest of the world is concerned to tend their garden, or a TV show to watch.
These poems are like roses grown in a tank shell. His words are gentle yet they act as thorns in the wreckage of our collective conscience.
PLEASE DO NOT LOOK PAST THEM
They are uncomfortable, Yes!
But they are obligatory, for the tiny shreds of humanity left in us.

~ The Burden of Honour ~

Let me begin by saying, Chronicle of an Hour and a Half is a phenomenal work of fiction, no stranger than reality. And I'll tell you why

Vaiga, a small village in the foothills of Western Ghats is seeing a storm it hadn't seen since 1991. In the foreboding backdrop, a rumour begins to spread of a salacious affair between Reyhana, a mother to two college bound daughters and Burhan, 15 years her junior. It incites Saud, Reyhana's brother in law and his sons in search of Burhan. From there ensues a domino effect of half-truths, hot gossips, viral videos over Whatsapp which has the whole town collecting as a crowd soon converging into a mob.

A character in the novels remarks, 'A woman is honourable only so long as she isn't smuggling in a man when her husband isn't home. And once she chooses her own flesh over her husband's, that woman is a b*tch forever. Because a family's honour rests with its woman and they know it too well to be forgiven.'

In the times where moral policing has intruded the bedroom of two consenting adults, the self-appointed custodians of morality assume the mantle of justice to teach the transgressors a lesson. If they violate the same woman's honour in the process, who is to teach them a lesson? That's a question the author invokes in us readers as the two women whose dignity the village and its people intend to protect bear
the brunt of its misguided efforts.

People gather in times of death, people gather in celebration of life, people also gather to kill.
It is said that a mob can kill but cannot be hanged. Who do you say was a spectator? Who was an accomplice? A mob has no identity and runs like a fatherless plot on an adrenaline high, the blood cancelling all thinking.

It is no spoiler that a character in the novel gets lynched, entire novel through multiple POVs works in anticipation of the event. Plot
runs like electricity through a live wire wherein the author exposes the hypocrisy and bigotry of his characters, their contribution to chaos and also washing their hands off with any participation in wake of the consequences. All with an uncomfortable yet unflinching gaze.

What is also worth appreciating in the novel is the representation of women. They have little authority over what transpires but they defy the archetype of damsels in distress. Burhan's mother, Nabeesu stoically shoulders her ineffectual husband and five equally useless sons, Reyhana owns her repulsion for her husband and children and asserts her autonomy despite familial obligations, or Panchami smack her husband over his gossip mongering habits, each woman embodies resilience amidst societal constraints.

This debut work of fiction by Saharu Nusaiba Kannanari is a must read as it serves as a poignant reflection of how deeply our society is infested with patriarchy, rudimentary beliefs of a woman's honour. It shows how vigilantism has become a reality of today's intolerant times and Vaiga could easily have been any village or town you know.

I'd leave with a the words of Najeeb Maash in the novel as he says to his son -
'There is something tremendously wrong about a crowd. Which is why I want neither you or I to be a part of it. Nor step aside and address it. Like politicians do. My Arabi teacher used to say that grammar is the most basic philosophy. And there is no grammar to a crowd my son. A crown is as unmoving as an exclamation mark.'

Heaven and Hell is a matter of afterlife. What about the hell people are made to go through on Earth itself, delving into the earthly inferno of human's inhumanity? What Judgement day or Qayamat ki Raat or Chitragupta's register of deeds do they have to wait for? Which courtroom door do they knock to receive their due justice? Does it even exist?

This work of personal history has given voice to not just his experiences but of several others that might have remained voiceless. It invokes the empathy that was long due from us for every imaginable or unimaginable struggle and loss that Kashmiri Pandits were made to go through, before and after the exodus. In my opinion, this should not be left on the shelves like they were left in camps. It demands to be read and shared..

Detailed review at https://scroll.in/article/1065576/a-long-season-of-ashes-a-memoir-of-flight-fight-and-survival-for-kashmiri-pandits-in-exile

It almost felt criminal to read it

This didn't Rom-Com the way it should have Rom-Com-ed!

It wasn't a great butterfly inducing read and nor was it that bad for me to DNF. Banter between the two main characters didn't engage me enough and the plot was okay.

The resolution for the third act break-up didn't sit that well with me

The initial few stories were honestly not that engaging but ones that worked knocked it out the park for me. 
'The Chicane', 'Greed', 'Four Calls in the Last Half Hour', 'The Correct Grip' are clear standouts from this collection.
Hempel knows how to pack a punch in even half a page story but it is the longest one, 'Cloudland', in which woman reckons with the choice she made as a teenager to give up her newborn infant, that left me a in hangover. Hempel introduces her characters in peculiar settings, yet they seem very relatable.