Ravinder Kaul
Name of Book: Raabta (in Hindi}
Author: Manoj Sheeri
Publisher: Subhadra Publishers and Distributers, New Delhi
Pages: 128
Price: Rs.295/-
“Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought” wrote Percy Bysshe Shelley in his poem ‘To a Skylark’. It highlights the idea that while joy is a powerful emotion, it is often the experiences of sadness, loss, and reflection that lead to the most profound and enduring expressions of creativity. ‘Raabta’, the collection of Short Stories by Manoj Sheeri is the latest example of the truth embedded in this single line from the immortal poem.
All the 19 stories in this Collection carry a tinge of sadness, pathos and tragedy in them. These stories are about Kashmir and Kashmiris, a subject very close to the author’s heart and soul. Kashmiris of all hues, Kashmiri Pandits, who were forced to migrate from their beloved home in the wake of the tragic events of 1990s, Kashmiri Pandits who stayed back in Kashmir due to their circumstances, Kashmiri Muslims and even a Kashmiri Sikh form the subjects of these stories.
Manoj Sheeri began his career as a journalist and later joined the Police force as a KPS officer. While his journalistic experience is responsible for his attention to detail, his work in the police department in Kashmir provides him an insight into many incidents narrated in these stories that would probably not be known to a common man.
Eleven stories in this collection are about Kashmiri Pandit families and cover the themes of loss of cultural moorings, sudden lack of warmth in relationships and financial woes in exile. ‘Adhuri Ichha’, ‘Chakrvaat’, ‘Machhli Chaawal’ ‘Tadap’ are some of the stories that highlight the agony of Kashmiri Pandit families facing hardships in their day to day life in exile. There’s a story where a KP husband and wife go to visit their son and daughter-in-law in New York and find themselves spending more time with the pet dog rather than their children and eventually decide to return.
In a poignant story in which the ‘Ghar Devta’, who has been left alone in the house after all its inhabitants have been forced to migrate from Kashmir, requests a pick pocket, who has accidently entered the premises, to please open the door and release him from his miserable existence. A thought provoking sentence in this story that touches one’s heart is “Kissi bhi aurat ka rona kissi bhi sabhyata ke liye burey samay ki nishaani hai.” (The tears of any woman are a sure sign of bad times for any civilization.)
In any catastrophe, there certainly are some graceful moments too. This collection has some heartwarming stories that denote that all is not lost in this world, ‘Andhi Maa’ in which a young Muslim boy takes the blame for arms in a house in which a blind KP woman lives alone. Another in which an elderly Muslim is worried about a Sadhu living in the temple across river Jhelum, who lights lamps in the temple every evening.
Some of the stories in this collection are a direct result of the author’s profession as a Police officer. ‘Form Mazroobi’, ‘Baanjh Ka Ghar’ and ‘Kya Badal Gaya’ are some of these stories.
The woes of Kashmiri Muslims during the three and a half decades of turmoil in Kashmir also form the subject matter of some of the stories in this collection. ‘Toofan’ where a village girl woefully realizes that all Zoons are not destined to become queens. A compounder in a hospital who dreams of making his son a doctor and spends everything he has to realize his dream, loses contact with him once he moves to take up a job in Saudi Arabia. The son forgets all about the sacrifices made by his parents. A carpenter who makes a dream house fails to convince the insurance officials that he could own such a big house when one day his house is gutted in fire.
There are many nuggets in the beautifully and sensitively narrated stories in this collection. ‘Doctor Saheb’ is a beautifully told story about a sole Kashmiri Pandit family living in Sogam. It is the story of Kashmiris caught between terrorists and the army personnel. The son Avtar is a compounder who treats all the town people and is caught in between this vicious web. This is the story of Pandits who chose to stay back in Kashmir when others of their ilk migrated.
There are many evils that have crept into the Kashmiri society after 1990 that have been highlighted in the book. Rampant drug abuse, wide spread cow slaughter, depression, and family discords all find a place in these stories. Nothing escapes the microscopic vision of the author.
‘Raabta’ ultimately reminds us that storytelling is a form of witness. Manoj Sheeri gathers the broken shards of Kashmir’s collective memory-exile, terrorism, dislocation, small acts of grace-and arranges them into narratives that throb with lived texture. Drawing on the reporter’s eye for detail and the police officer’s access to hidden truths, he exposes wounds that still ache while gently revealing the quiet resilience that keeps hope breathing.
In these nineteen tales of Pandits, Muslims and Sikhs, grief never stands alone; it is counter-balanced by unexpected kindness and the stubborn will to survive. That balance is what makes the collection cathartic rather than bleak and why Shelley’s skylark, singing its “sweetest songs” of sorrow, feels like an apt epigraph. Raabta is therefore more than a book of stories-it is a bridge between split-apart communities and a plea to recognise the humanity that binds them.
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