Samay Ke Baad

Ms Khema Kaul's Samay Ke Baad written in Hind and published by Anil Prakashan, New Delhi, is a landmark in contemporary Indian literature and deserves serious attention from all literary circles. It is a significant work which very powerfully and dramatically depicts the pain, anguish, suffering and all the traumatic experiences that lakhs of Kashmiri Pandit migrants have suffered in the recent times. Although subtitled Meri Diary it is also some kind of an autobiography, a rich social and political document of our times that has all the essential features that one usually associates with the novel. Samay Ke Baad is a unique blend of fact and fiction that one can find in the works of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Salman Rushdie, Gunter Grass, Leon Uris and many others. Even as we take the book as a record of factual events of the suffering of Kashmiri Pandit migrants particularly the author herself, the power and intensity of the book is unique. As an autobiography Samay Ke Band mirrors the personal sorrows, miseries and defeats of the writer and her courage to face all odds in an extremely hostile world peopled by philistines, hollowmen and numerous sharks in the garb of men.

The intelligentsia steams a romantic drama of tension and exploits truth to suit its interests. How restless is the soul! They don't even care. It is the plain, simple, ummasked common man without any intellectual pretensions who is worried about all that is happening this time... he is the real hero this moment.

There is a festival in the in biggest auditorium of the city. A festival of loot and extinction. Newspapers are full of the news. It is a festival of laughter. This is the last of our wishes. The speakers are these self-styled intellectuals; the audience is a large dumb crowd. The dumb are asked to close their eyes; and the alms are looted from their begging bowls.

When these leaders start listing their achievements they, with the scissors and razor-blades in their hands, collect the newspaper clippings and emphatically state, 'we persuaded the people to go home... didn't we?' What a delusion! People with their luggage packed are ready to go... but somebody should show the way.

As a social and political document the book is important as it throws ample light on the present milieu and the corrupt
political set up which are responsible for the diaspora of Kashmiri Pandits from their homes and the subsequent misery faced by them.

Read a good write-up in a newspaper today We too were mentioned in a few lines. At certain places we had been called 'migrants' and at other 'refugees' . But the government prefers to call us 'tourists' and 'vagrants'. Can't understand where we have come and what we are.

The blunders of the government ruined us. And then we strongly upheld them. They are answerable to us but there is none to ask them to explain and render them speechless. Some days back a leader of a party said:'you people have become too demanding. First you wanted adjustment in service. When we did so you made further demands. You should realise that you are unlucky. But for you this catastrophe would not have happened'. Maybe, his age was speaking.

As a novel Samay Ke Baad is a serious literary work in which we find hundreds of well-drawn characters, well-written episodes, dramatic and imaginative flights, intense drama and very powerful and readable narrative.

Samay Ke Baad is a very rich and complex work with a large number of themes in it. The range and observation of the author is very broad and comprehensive, almost Shakespearean in its completeness. Besides the subject of Kashmiri Pandit migration the themes of exile, loneliness, alienation, angst, personal and general sorrow of our times and many other contemporary issues and problems figure prominently in it. Much has been written on the migration of Kashmiri Pandits in recent times. But no author (Kashmiri or non-Kashmiri) has been able to project it with such pain and power as the author has done. Khema Kaul writes:

We all have arisen from a deep slumber. This sleep of the elders was fearful. We grew old in sleep. Did not wake up till
our throats were cut. The force of pendamonium awoke us.

Delhi is the largest refugee camp in this country. Or in this world. And I imagine that there is not a single home here... people are spread all over like refugees.

Darkness! Darkness! We are trying to know each other in this darkness. With smell... through touch. We ask for the road that leads to our home. Each one is petrified tongue sticking to the roof. Darkness has spread over our being. It has enveloped us like a termite.

Restlessness has taken root in my being. Can't give it a name. Can't even share it with anyone. I run up to the roof. Tomorrow will be the Full Moon. How happy is the moon! It is full and spread out like a Shah Tush shawl. Having climbed down the hill it must be dancing in the lakes now... Do you hear, O moon, we will go home? Yes, we will go home. We will meet you there. We will certainly meet there.

Mother lay in bed and said, 'In Kashmir if you remained away from home you would long to return.'

Four years have passed ... that longing is no more. Longing knows that it shouldn't visit us. Longing has become a cloud
that drips inside. Longing has become a rock and sits heavy upon our souls. Longing is no more a flower. Longing has become infinite darkness.

I pray to the sheet of paper, " Can't I be printed upon you like a strange infinite word? Can't this happen? If yes I will last as long as you last. We will perish together."

Samay Ke Baad deals with the problems of terrorism and its tragic fallout on the working of people's mind, its dehumanising
impact on its perpetrators, sympathisers and victims

Human rights are in the US. To be precise, human beings may be anywhere but their rights exist only in the US. If you want to shout for the rights of man go to the US. Only the US will decide whether our rights have been violated or not. Even in our own country. Nobody here raises this issue. Maybe, we aren't able to speak.

The author's mind wanders back and forth in time to dramatize these phenomena and scourage of our times with a matchless artistic skill. Her portrait of this problem is sensitive as it is authentic and true. It goes to the credit of Ms Khema Koul that she has looked at her subject from the eyes of the old and infirm and from the point of view of the young and even children. This broad-based understanding adds to the beauty and artistic merit of the work

Mummy, we got this pillow with us that day from Kashmir... in the aeroplane,.. the cover hides the pillow. When I lie on it I feel as if I were asleep in Kashmir.

The reins and the direction of this world that the old held broke suddenly. There are no horses left nor the jockeys.
No directions. No reins ... Just an illusion. Death in life.

Mummy, this is the fragrance of Kashmir. Why don't you understand? ... This will escape through the door ... please close the door. Motherland flows through his veins. She lives in his heart, I stand speechless.

And nothingelse. I did not rest my head on anybody's shoulder. Nor did I weep. Vitasta had dried up my tears. She needed water. She is herself weeping these days. My eyes are dry. They contain burning sand. I can't even hold it in my hands.

The author has used her personal history in the book to highlight the general misery and suffering that migration from Kashmir
brought to lakhs of people in its wake. She looks at the whole tragedy from a purely personal angle, sometimes her wrecked
domestic life in the background of general upheaval in which the community is caught. She writes:

But all is quiet. We have been given up. And we consider our plight as our fate. O wind, one day you shall have to come and open my door not with hands but with your head.

The narrator appears to be a sad and tragic figure who has to fend for herself alone looking after the young children and old
parents without any support from her husband in the very trying circumstances. But this does not dampen her spirits and
courage. Through the back of her mind she pines for her husband. She faces the circumstances with a resolute will, determination and a strength of character that is truly heroic. In her struggle for existence, her sister Hima (maker of the terracota sculpture that adorns the jacket of the book) is always there to give her spiritual and moral comfort. She emerges in the book as the truest friend, philosopher and guide of the author and serves as a beacon light, somekind of an alter-ego to the lonely and forlorn Khema. The author acknowledges the debt to her sister at a number of places which touch the heights of
sublime.

I went on telling Hima: 'Hima, today you are with me. The examinations of children are over. I know how to wander through these lanes. You are my light or my crutch.' Tears welled up in my eyes. Hima felt sad.

Samay Ke Baad is a vey sad and bitter book. Some portions of the book are full of revolutionary message that makes the reader look at our present social and political environment with a critical eye.

What is going on? Whatever is given through the media is taken as truth. Like an unwanted tendril someone appears who questions." Is It true or false?" Don't reject whatever is spread. Cut off the hands of these self-styled leaders for spreading abominable lies. Pull out their tongues. Please ... please ... peep into their hearts. But the rich of the country are busy in making money and the hungry crave for bread.

There is no concentration in our prayers. No unison. No strength. We have no longings. We have no prayers to offer. What do we do?

BJP is hard pornography and Congress soft pornography. It is clear soft is better than the hard. We will opt for this.

Obviously Khema Koul is not happy with a large number of things around her. She is critical of the political and social leadership in the country. She has poured out her venom in full against the self- styled leaders of the Kashmiri Pandit community and ridiculed them for their selfishness, egoism, their lack of dedication and sense of purpose and understanding.
She writes:
They are distributing some leaflets. For them this movement is a festival and a celebration. A festival not a struggle. And these chaps say 'What luck! Money comes to us easily".

Some of the episodes dealing with this subject are, therefore, highly comic and full of black humour, irony, wit and satire. In her anger Khema Koul does not spare anybody not even the US or Russia.

Life's rhythm has changed since the USSR broke. The insect of Americanism is eating us up. With the dismemberment of the USSR many more pillars fell. Dunkel, privatisation, liberalisation have created more uncertainties, more doubts. Each moment is fearful. Who knows what will happen next!

The persona of the diary also comes before us as the new woman who is endlessly dissatisfied with men and their methods and manners. At times like the feminist writers of today she expresses her deep hatred against all men. If there is enough hatred in the book there is also ample love in it. This love is reflected in the author's love for her homeland - Kashmir.

And now Vitasta! I see her all around. Without breaking her course. Healthy like a pure Kashmiri woman. Robust. Oblvious of the whole world. She has got abundant love from the Himalayas. Vitasta, I salute you. I salute you from every side.

"Mummy, do silver coins make home?" Riju asks.

"No, what foolish thoughts do you think? Listen, neither silver nor gold can make home. Prayers alone make home. Nations and the whole world are made through prayers. Home is the place of birth".

In many pages of the book the author evokes the picturesque beauty of the Vitasta, the Chinar and so many other things that are part of the consciousness of every Kashmri. The book is actually an act of love and freedom for the main source of the author's inspiration comes from her deep and abounding love for Kashrniri Pandit community, its long and ancient history and culture. The author expresses sufficient love for the helpless migrants who have had to live a miserable existence all these years in tents and shanties and all others who have had their emotional and even physical lives wrecked and broken under the impact of migration. The book also sympathises with the suffering that the rise of terrorism and fundamentalism has indicted upon all Kashmiris - Hindu and Muslims.

Your salvation lies in being with us. Your salvation from this abberation. Salvation from this perverted desire. Our salvation lies in ending our separation from our motherland. Salvation lies in reunion. And then we won't be mere friends. We will become one soul.

This deeper understanding of the issues as presented in the book makes it one of the most important sociological documents of our times. There is much that is very personal or particular in Samay Ke Baad. But this particularity has a strong universal dirnension also which is always the test of great literature. One is reminded of great masterpieces of world literature (like Dostoevsky's Notes from the Underground, Saul Bellow's Dangling Man which incidently has also been written in the diary form) while reading the book. The main issues of the book are not only social and political but also existential.

A big centipede appeared. At first I shuddered. Then I prepared myself to catch it. Soon it was beyond my reach. Then I remembered that I should have said : 'Asalam allaikum, O centipede. Please be kind to me. I have measured out my life with innumerable salaams'.

I am enjoying a new feeling and experience. It is the feeling of being a vermin. I mean I am a vermin and not a human being. That too, not a male vermin but a female vermin.

The book has rightly been dedicated to the migrants and refugees of the whole world. It is our belief that the universal bones on which Samay Ke Baad rests will evoke adequate response from readers all over the world if only it were translated into other languages.

Khema is a poet and therefore, her use of language in the book deserves special mention. The prose used by the author is highly poetic, simple, chaste and sensuous. There is a remarkable economy about the book. Khema Kaul has said so much in the book in so few words. Each and every episode, sentence and even word has its relevance and place in the structure of the work. The architecture of Samay Ke Baad is novel and very striking and unuque. The very first entry in the diary grips the
readers' attention. The interest is sustained by many comic, tragic and tragicomic and pathetic incidents and situations. The author is highly inventive and makes remarkable use of old fables, dream sequences, age-old rituals and symbols, films, film songs and other material in her narrative. The scholarship of the writer is immense and it is reflected at a number of places in the narrative. This scholarship gives the book immense strength, range, value and vitality. The author also transcends all parochial considerations to present exile or migration as a universal metaphor of man's condition in the modern world. This
book is also rich in symbols and other allegorical motifs. This links her to most contemporary writers both in the country and abroad. Samay Ke Baad is an important book of mainstream writing in India today, whether in English or other languages. The theme of the work has close affinity with the Dalit literature which voices and dramatizes the pathetic condition of the suppressed classes in the country. Samay Ke Baad however depicts an interesting aspect of present-day India where once upper caste Kashmiri Brahmins have now been reduced to the level of Dalits or Shudras of the present-day society following their migration and dispossession. As a piece of feminist literature Samay Ke Baad also has great merit. Men may sometimes tend not to agree with all that the author has to say about women-question in the book but the suffering of women in the modern social and political setup in the country finds some genuine expression in the book. Samay Ke Baad is a very rich and
original work, a veritable classic of our times which every discerning and intelligent person should read. It should particularly be read by all Kashmiri Pandits whenever they are for it will certainly help them understand their pain and agony of the recent
times better and at the same time help them rediscover themselves.

By Prof. R.K Aima and Prof. Arvind Gigoo

Enquiries for the purchase of the book may be forwarded to Siddhartha Gigoo.