'Loal Kashmir' Review: Love And Longing Through Curfews And Conflict

LOAL KASHMIR

Love and Longing in a torn Land

Author: Mehak Jamal

Harper Collins

Price: 599

Loal or Maey, what is the correct synonym for love in Kashmi𒈔ri? For a long time, people have been appropriating the proper phrase for `I love you,' as the conservative language has no perfect equivalent.

After reading Mehak Jamal's Loal Kashmir, Loal seems more appropriate 🍃here. Loal expresses not just love but longing as well, which is what the book is about.

This is a masterfully woven, poignant narrative of love, loss, and resilience set against the backdrop♔ of a conflict zone. ‘Love and longing’ are the common threads in all sixteen true-life narratives in the book. 

The book explores the human cost of conflict, in this𒆙 case for the lovers. It also spells hope—lovers continue t��o live and love despite adversity. 

The author says it's also an "answer🍌 to the question: what happ🐈ens when you cannot communicate your longing for the beloved?" 

What also makes the quest difficult is that in a traditional society like Kashmi🅘r, love is st💛ill taboo, and seeking the welfare of the beloved would find no social or familial support. 

The author explores the theme of love with such emotional depths that the journey of all the lovers becomes relatable. The book talks about love—romantic, familial, and platonic love. The stories also discuss religious identities, sexual orientations, and gender identities in Kashmir; topics society is still not comfortable accepti🐟ng or even talking about.

Jamal has divided the book intඣo three parts. "Otaru: Day Before Yesterday" talks about yesteryears—the years when militancy had just started sprouting, paradise was changing its character when uncertainty became a second name for life, Kashmir suddenly came to a halt, and guns were beginning to show up next to the roses. 

In times like these, a love letter from a beloved saved the day for a teenager. Javeed, a Kashmiri teenager, had four soldiers laughing and giggling with him like love-struck friends as they forced him to recite a love letter he had stuffed into his pocket before getting caught in a crackdown𓆉. For the villagers who didn't see the army in a `kinder light,' love became a bond with the soldiers despite the conflict of ideology during this unusual crackdown.

The same goes for the forbidden love between a Kashmiri P꧟andit boy, Sagar, and a Muslim girl, Aalameen, at the time when the Pandit community was leaving Kashmir due to the rise of militancy.

Love-lorn teenagers wou💟ld devise plans for unrest, surprise checks, and cordons. 

The book's second part is "Rath: yesterday, "which chronicles stories from the second phase of unrest in Kashmir, the one post-2008. The time Kashmir witnessed "sustained nonviolent civilian uprisings".The summers of 2008, 2009, and 201❀0 were marred by unrest and subsequent curfews and shutdowns. A series of similar protests and curfews followed the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani. In a bid to thaw protests, phone and internet services were stopped more than often.

Jamal narrates the story of newlyweds Zara and Rehan during these protests. Zara, a young professional raised in America, awaiting her visa renewal immedꦚiately after her marriage to Rehan. In this saga of yearning, Zara not only discovers the uncertainty of life in Kashmir but also ‘educates’ her non-Kashmiri husband on the🎃 same.

However, the book's most crucial part is "Az: Today." For Jamal, “today”' is Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370. ‘Today’ has 10 stories about love and yearning when the degraded state was under an unprecedented communication blockade. The authorities disconnected phone💃 and internet services for months, and concertina wires blocking roads made even a simple commute impossible.

Jamal says the idea for the♈ book was bo��rn around the same time after she heard ``stories of how Kashmiris reached out to each other in dire times." 

Jamal says what piqued her🐼 interest was how lovers were seeking out each other. 

The stories are contributions by ‘real people’. Each story highlights a couple's unique str♈uggles and resilience, like Nadiya, “who keeps looking for Shahid from her window, coughing as the caustic fumes of tear gas seep in.'” 

Or Daniyal, a KAS off꧒icer, leaving notes on his beloved Maryam's car's windshield parked outside the hospital where she works. 

Or Saniya hiking uphill to a police station for a two-minute call to inform her non-Kashmiri fiancé to movꦚe on. Her fears hemmed in the realisation that "after abrogation, his family might not wa🍃nt to go ahead with the marriage''.

The book is a light read, but it is thought-provoking and haunt⛎ing enough to resonate with readers long after reading. The stories transport the readers into the midst of a conflict zo꧃ne. 

The struggles will sometimes seem similar, but each story has tender moments, intense emotions, an﷽d drama. 

In all sixteen stories, Jamal has crafted a powerful narrative, exploring the human spirit and reminding us that love spells hope and always finds a way, even in ಌthe darkest ti𝄹mes.