Recently a new book in Kashmiri language entitled 'Chetnaav' written by Shri Pushkar Nath Dhar has appeared. The book, written in Devnagri Kashmiri, is a collection of  socio-critical anecdotes and experiences
from an "exile's point of view". It is the first published prose work to have come out in Devnagri Kashmiri making it a watershed in the history of Kashmiri Literature.

It may not be out of place to mention here that Shri Pushkar Nath Dhar is the brother of Shri ML Kemmu, the eminent dramatist and Sangeet Natak awardee of Kashmir. Shri Pushkar Nath Dhar is a retired Civil Avaition officer and is based in New Delhi. His book is a compilation of all his essays previously published in Kashmiri Newsletter 'Koshur Samachar'.

'Chetnaav' was formally inaugurated in a cultural function by Shri Chaman Lal Gupta, Minister of State for Civil Aviation at the Mavlankar Hall, New Delhi on the 5th of March 2000.

The book is a critique of the pre and post migration life and times in the Kashmiri Pandit community. Essentially it is about  vissititudes, ideocyncracies and turmoils which punctuate the life of the Kashmiri
Pandit living away from home and waiting for a Godot to redeem and deliver him of a homeless, dreary and queer existence. The author also analyses the decay and death of old values and human relationships
within the Kashmiri Pandit Community. 'Chetnaav' is replete with puns, humour, wit and subtle pathos. It reminds us of Joseph Addison's and Samuel Johnson's essays. And moreso, the language is highly
epigramatical.

'Chetnaav' is a great attempt to capture the paradoxes and ironies of exile and the way it has affected the life within the Kashmiri Pandit Community. Written in Devnagri Kashmiri, the book offers a host of new
proverbs coined by the author himself.

The author has dedicated the book to the Kashmir Pandit migrants.

The book does not offer any explanation or remedy for what ails Kashmiri Culture but simply uncovers the wounds of the decaying Kashmiri Culture and invites the reader to cast a glance on them and realise the pain of being a Kashmiri Pandit in exile.

by Siddhartha Gigoo