Book Review: Our Moon Has Blood Clots
We are losing our tradition, our links to the place where we came from. This is evident during weddings, or when someone dies. Tradition is like an embarrassing grandparent who needs to be fed and put back to bed in a back room.
Rahul Pandita was fourteen years old when he was forced to leave his home in Srinagar along with his family, who were Kashmiri Pandits: the Hindu minority within a Muslim-majority Kashmir that was becoming increasingly agitated with the cries of Azadi from India. The heartbreaking story of Kashmir has so far been told through the prism of the brutality of the state and the pro-independence demands of separatists. But there is another part of the story that has remained unrecorded and buried. Our Moon has Blood Clots is the unspoken chapter in the story of Kashmir, in which it was purged of the Kashmiri Pandit community in a violent ethnic cleansing. Hundred of people were tortured and killed, and about 3,50,000 Kashmiri Pandits were forced to leave their homes and spend the rest of their lives in exile in their own country.
Our Moon has Blood Clots is a first person narrative of a young boy who along with his family was forced to flee from his home in Kashmir and had to grow up as a refugee in his own country. The author takes us to a life in an innocent Kashmir which he was accustomed to, before being forced to leave his home behind as separatist movement gained momentum in the Paradise on Earth. With remarkable purity, the author outlines the struggle and trauma of the displaced Pandit families to rebuild life in an increasingly hostile neighborhood and often seeking solace from visions of lost belongings: Our home in Kashmir had twenty-two rooms. I was particularly moved by the author's account of revisiting his own home in Kashmir, years later.
He is weeping helplessly, at the thought of a man knocking his own door, finding someone else opening it, and then seeking permission to enter his own house.Our Moon has Blood Clots is a tremendous memoir of personal loss culminating into a single threaded story of many damaged lives.
I took a bath and sat silently in my father's thokur kuth, and I recited the Durgasaptashati. Dear Uncle, may you find eternal peace! May you never be rendered homeless again!Few months back, when I was reviewing Curfewed Night, Rukun had told me that another book on Kashmir from the perspective of a Kashmiri Pandit is coming up from Random House. When the book finally arrived, I was more than eager to read and share my thoughts for the readers of The Book Outline. Already having a sense of what the pages might contain, I had started reading the book. Still, when I had finished reading, I was shattered. Our Moon, indeed has Blood Clots.
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It hurts me if I say this is an excellent book. All I can say is: you should read this. I had received the review copy from Random House India. Thank you Rukun for giving me this opportunity. You can buy this book at amazon or at flipkart in case you live in India.
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Thanks. I was planning to buy the book when a paperback edition is available. I think the review should have given a little more info - some details about the content.
@Tomichan Matheikal It hurts me to say this, but this is indeed an excellent book. In fact, I was tempted to divulge more of the content, but I was afraid that it might turn into a spoiler, which under all circumstances I try to avoid in all my reviews.
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