One of the finest books on Partition
We tend to write off, rather, we tend to assume and overlook things that mean something else. When I came across this book, I just thought of that one writer who had already written a story on mental illness - Toba Tek Singh. Manto through his writings on Partition had opened up wounds that he proceeded to sear deeply into the minds of his readers - readers who might not have been or were not witnesses to the horrors that were felt across the two countries. Anirudh Kala's book takes this further. It is not a Toba Tek Singh even if thematically it may seem to be at first glance. The book present itself as a collection of short stories but that is just a façade for a cleverly arranged novel. The short stories are all merging into a single narrative with no obvious protagonists as is the case in one's life in general. The book turns into a stage with each character playing his/her role...