Burnt Shadows, Kamila Shamsie

Author: Kamila Shamsie 

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

In past wars only homes burnt, but this time

Don’t be surprised if even loneliness ignites.

In Past wars only bodies burnt, but this time

Don’t be surprised if even shadows ignite.

-       Sahir Ludhianvi, Parchaiyaan

This quote summarizes the book so well that anything I say can’t compete with its depth and feeling. But still, in my humble words I will try to share with you what this book felt and holds for me...

Everyone in this world is affected by some mass scale human tragedy.. the World War, holocaust, Bombing of Hiroshima-Nagasaki, India-Pakistan partition, Cold war, Indo-China war, Indo –Pakistan war(s), 1993 Bombay Riots & Bombings, Sikh Extremism in Punjab, 9/11, and the list goes on.. any news item across the globe affects the common man more than the heroes & protagonists of that event. Somewhere in that big tragedy is one person who has his own story to tell and how his/ her life takes a twist with that event.. the change, the lose, the past, the uncertainty, the fear, running away, and stranded in an unknown and strange world.

Some rebuild life, secure it again to protect the coming future, cut the roots but save the branches - the family against what they went through.. and for some it is reminiscing the old world forever, waiting for it to come back, fighting for it, killing for it or dying for it..

This story is about a set of people whose lives are intertwined with each other as much as it is intertwined with the politics and tragic events of the world.. a Britisher turned American, a Japanese turned Pakistani, an Indian turned Pakistani, a Pakistani turned American and a Pakistani turned Pashtun... their lives touch most of the big tragedies that have struck the world in past 100 years... the stories are woven beautifully between them  with characters from across the world showing similar emotions of love, belonging, remorse, guilt, family and friendship.

On one side you see the borders melting and on the other you see demarcation lines on basis of religion and cultures getting deeper and darker..... some where we see true picture of globalisation with all nationalities merging into one and somewhere we see Taliban laying laws of the land similar to the ancient era.. How politics, religion, geography, culture, civics, law, economics, history, all are being combined and mish-mashed to make news...  how young minds are corrupted for power notions of politicians and media.. how America creates one power hub to kill the another and ends up in a vicious circle of killing and creating. How fear of a nuclear war looms large over the world.. with no country stopping to think in this crazy rat race.. to avoid the threat is to be a threat.. the mouse becomes the cat.. the chased becomes the chaser as they keep making a bigger bomb that the earlier one..

We don’t really know where we are headed to...  are we regressing, progressing or simply digressing... in all this madness the only thing that suffers is humanity.. what I think and what I believe is what matters...

“It is Pakistan who threatens India, all Pakistanis are corrupt and criminals, all wars are started by Pakistanis, any bombing or riots in India have their roots in Pakistan, all terrorists are Pakistanis, they hate us and we need to defend ourselves, they killed ours so we kill theirs and again and again, all problems will end with Pakistan.”

Only if I was on the other side of the border I would think exact the opposite..

So who am I? Just a fellow person or an Indian, a patriot or a human being,  a neighbor or an enemy, a Hindu or a believer in God,... I don’t know, is this a choice... but why do I choose..

I cant’ bear the burden of the doings of my forefathers, I can’t carry their beliefs blindly, I can’t make the past mistakes my tradition, I can’t put pictures of bloody riots in my drawing room and remind me of revenge.. In all this I am hurting myself more than I am hurting them.. but can I stop, who will stop first, will there be even a stop..am I doing this for a brighter future or just starting a chain of events which makes the future get darker and murkier..  I don’t know but I hope our future generations do.. I hope they have a life free from all this...

no wars and loneliness, no burning homes and bodies, no shadows of the past burning and darkening the future...