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 Kashmiri? 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 b♌ut l♐onging 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 lon🧜ging’ are the common threads in all sixteen true-life narratives in the book.
The book explores the human cost of conflict, in this case for the lovers. It also spells hꦉope—lovers continue to live and love despite adversity.
The a𒊎uthor says it's also an "answer to the question: what happens when you cannꦅot communicate your longing for the beloved?"
What also makes the quest difficult is t💟hat in a traditional society like Kashmir, love is still 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; toℱpics society is still not comfortable accepting or even talking about.
Jamal has divided the book into three parts. "Otaru: Day Before Yesterday" talks about yesteryears—the years when militancy had just started sprouting, paradise was changing its 𝓡character when uncertainty became a second name for life, Kashmir suddenly came to a halt, and guns were beginning to show up next to the rose♎s.
In times like these, a lo🙈ve 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 crackdown. 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 t✱he forbidden love between a Kashmiri Pandit boy, Sagar, and a Muslim girl, Aalameen, at the time when the Pandit community was leaving Kashmir due to the risဣe of militancy.
Love-lorn teenagers wo♍uld 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 2010 were marred by unrest and subsequent curfews and shutdowns. A series of similar protests and curfews foll✅owed 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 immediately 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 husb𒀰and on the same.
However, the book's most crucial part is "Az: Today." For Jamal, “today”' is Kashmir after the abrogation of Artiꦯcle 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 born around the same time after she heard ``stories of how Kashmiris re🐼ached out to each other in dire times."
J🌜amal says what piqued her interest was💛 how lovers were seeking out each other.
The stories are contributions by ‘real people’. Each ꦅstory highlights a couple's unique struggles 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 officer, leaving notes on his beloved Maryam's car's windshield parked outside the൩ hospital where she works.
Or Saniya hiking uphill to a police station for a two-minute call to inform her non-Kashmiri fiancé to move on. Her fears hemmed in the realisation that "after abrogation,✨ his family might not want to go ahead with the marriage''.
The book is a light read, but it is thought-provoking and haunting enough to resonate with readers long after rea💖ding. The stories transport the readers into the midst of a conflict zone.
The struggles🦄 will sometimes seem 𒀰similar, but each story has tender moments, intense emotions, and drama.
In a🌜ll sixteen stories, Jamal has crafted a powerful narrative, exploring th♍e human spirit and reminding us that love spells hope and always finds a way, even in the darkest times.
