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Journalism of Courage
December 1971. In Bombay8217;s military hospital war casualties kept mounting as melody queen Lata Mangeshkar decided to visit to the soldiers. On nearing a soldier whose head was fully bandaged, doctors whispered something into Lata8217;s ears. The soldier8217;s brain was pockmarked with pieces of a shell which had rained on him while he was trying to rescue an injured colleague on the battlefield. The pain was overwhelming. Padma Sachdev, who was yet to emerge as a Dogri writer then, was with Lata at the hospital to tell the story: 8216;8216;Didi held the soldier8217;s hand as she sang a melancholy number on his farmaish.8217;8217; It lulled him to sleep. As 8216;Didi8217; left the hospital her face was bathed with tears. Next day, the doctor called up Lataji to inform her about his death.
The soldier is re-born at Chennani, the Dogra village nestled in a hillock overlooking a rather tame Chenab river in Sachdeva8217;s new book Where Has My Gulla Gone? The book 8212; a collection of nine short stories ably translated by eminent writers like Uma Vasudev Shantiveer Koul 8212; brings alive the tragedy that befalls human beings when nations go to war and when societies are lashed by violent conflicts. The bandaged soldier of 1971 is a viable representative of the soldiers and citizens who continue to die in the conflict in Kashmir even today. The roses in Gulla8217;s hand, in the theme story, turn into guns 8212; a metaphor that captures Jammu and Kashmir8217;s tragedy, and reality.
8216;8216;In fact Gulla is a real-life character,8217;8217; says Padma. He was her medical attendant at a hospital when the poetess was struck with a near deadly disease in her youth. Gulla is Kashmiri, gentle, God-fearing and kind-hearted, like most of his fellow countrymen were till AK-47s wrecked the tranquil vale.
Women8217;s lives are impacted in myriad ways by wars and conflicts, yet they also have greater reserves of resilience to face the challenges 8212; these sentiments are woven intricately into the stories as the writer takes us through the times of Dogra maharajas when Rajput women once married off were forbidden to ever step out of their matrimonial homes.
Metaphor is deployed liberally as Padma narrates the story of two friends 8212; a Hindu and a Muslim 8212; who had lost their families during Partition. One fine day they find each other living either side of the Indo-Pak border. Now onwards, they will draw water from the well situated in no-man8217;s land; their kids grow up together under the shade of a common tree. Their island of harmony could change once their sons go to war for their respective countries, binding both women in a shared pool of worry and anxiety.
From this imaginary well, Padma moves on to tell the spine-chilling story of 8216;Goray behanji8217; which is woven in pure realism. 8216;8216;Goray behanji existed 8212; she shared the dark truth about her life with hundreds of Hindu and Muslim women whose lives were partitioned once the dust of the Indo-Pak Partition had settled down.8217;8217; Goray Behanji had lost her family; as she was settling down to motherly bliss with a loving husband and his family who had saved her from marauders, activists from India dragged the Hindu woman back to India.
Besides chronicling human tragedy, Padma8217;s book gives the readers a peep into the world of the Dogras 8212; the proud and sombre people of the hills who are the least-hyped people of Kashmir. Padma, who now lives with her husband Surinder Singh of Singh Bandu fame in Delhi, rose to prominence three decades ago when Lata Mangeshkar recorded her Dogri songs. This book is another tribute to the Dogras and Dogri.
