To rebel or to reconcile?

There are several times when you pause while reading Mehr — to muse and ponder over the elegiac prose of Siddhartha Gigoo. Set in Kashmir, it’s a love story of Firdaus and Mehr un nisa. But can we have a love story without any conflict? Without the shadow of suppression, restrictions, prohibitions, especially when it’s about a Kashmiri man and a Pakistani woman?

Published by Rupa, Mehr doesn’t take sides. Nor does it sit on the bench and watch the grief and pathos take hold of everyone who is part of Firdaus and Mehr’s story. What it does is that it allows us to be a part of a journey that seeks freedom, pure love, and kindness. 

In Mehr, the real and the surreal also collide and Major K, an officer of the Military Intelligence unit, epitomises both the worlds. His character reminds us of The Umbrella Man, which won Gigoo the Commonwealth Short Story prize, from Asia.
 
When asked if Major K has his roots in The Umbrella Man, Gigoo answers, “Maybe yes, now that you draw a comparison. There’s madness in both, and the question of love and freedom that haunts them.”

The author has made some very poignant points in Mehr. And, the one that connected with us was this — They have become used to despair; every time they venture out to other cities, they rush back immediately, unable to bear the freedom there. Despair grows on them. It gives them comfort. It has made them oblivious to the vagaries of life. They don’t even know what they must hope for.
 
Gigoo had moved from Kashmir to Delhi, around the time when exodus of Pandits began from the region. Is this something that he himself had experienced when he moved from Srinagar to Delhi? He replies, “The problem with freedom is that if you think you have attained it, you don’t know what to do with it. When you live with despair for long, it grows on you, it stops giving you pain, it comforts you. Then hope and despair aren’t of any relevance in your life. You transcend them. It’s a strange, rarefied realm.”

A few years ago, a Kashmiri girl band — Pragaash — was formed. But a fatwa was issued and it was disbanded. A reference to this is found in the story of Zafran and Hina, Firdaus’s siblings, who were abused for dreaming. Says Gigoo, “I was moved by what happened to the band a few years ago. They were made to vanish. Imagine a bunch of girls dreaming and working hard to create music. Imagine the passion and obsession. Imagine the whole world falling in love with their music. Then imagine them silenced and ousted. It’s a shame Pragaash isn’t there anymore. Pragaash means the light of dawn. Zafraan and Hina are the light. Who knows how many Zafraans and Hinas are out there who are terrified of pursuing their dreams. Art depends on freedom to thrive. If that freedom is denied or snatched, can there be any art?”

“We live in a highly politicised environment. We vacillate between extremes. We take positions and sides based on what we see, hear and experience. We find ourselves in situations wherein love turns to hate instantly. We react without thinking. The questions we must ask are: Who are we? What do we want? How must we live? What must we do? More importantly, how must we give our lives a purpose that’s based on truth, goodness and beauty? Art is that purpose,” he adds.

The young Kashmiris are battling restrictions from everywhere, within the community and without. What does it mean to be a Kashmiri? “In Kashmir, there are restrictions of all kinds. The worst situation is when you can’t even do what you wish to do. No one trusts the other. You want to escape but there’s nowhere to go. Outside in the streets there’s fear and danger; inside your house there’s desperation. You’re living with a history that’s marred with blood. Then there are those of us who lost their homes and everything 28 years ago. You got to live with that history. In such a situation, what do you do? Rebel or reconcile?” He questions.

All we can reply is that it’s a lonely battle and when it comes to Kashmir, it’s difficult to separate the region from religion and politics. Gigoo agrees. “Politics and religion are inseparable in today’s world. However, we need to be careful about the politicisation of religion because it leads to insecurity, intolerance and hate. After all, some of us — Firdaus, Mehr and Major K — are fighting lonely battles. We don’t know what will happen to us. We lead incomplete lives.”

And, yet there is hope. There are young poets, authors from the region who are fearless. 
Gigoo tells us which writers and poets we should look out for. Says he, “Khalid Mir is a fine writer, who writes in English and Urdu. Sushant Dhar and Varad Sharma are full of promise. Both are working on their debut books. Vibha Saraf and Abha Hanjuria are fine musicians. They are young and fearless and they are creating some great music.”