"Some books influence your mind; some touch your soul while some become a part of you."
This piece is about one such book that effortlessly manages to do all three. The book we are speaking of is “Small acts of freedom” by Gurmehar Kaur.
Gurmehar Kaur is a writer, student and youth activist. She completed her education from Delhi University (2019) and University of Oxford (2020). Gurmehar is the ambassador of Postcards for Peace and co-founder of Citizens for Public Leadership.
Throughout the book, the reader feels a strong sense of connection with the characters by the virtue of memory of someone they might have lost too. This bond, the feeling that the reader is not alone is beautiful. Some people guise her writing as a work which consists of her political ideologies and opinions because of its activist/political undertones, owing to the fact that the author is a student activist herself. However, as I see it, it's an ode from a daughter to the loving memory of her father and ancestors, the author's journey to grasp the essence of patriotism. It’s a saga of steel-willed women who refused to be suppressed by the patriarchy. Emotionally narrated and beautifully written, it becomes hard for one to hold back tears while reading it.
The book focuses on the challenges encountered by the families of army men, their lives filled with a fear that news of a travesty can knock their doors anytime. It also brings out to us the struggles faced by women in author’s family and how women have always fought, proved and evolved as a stronger person by overcoming all the challenges and difficulties that this society as well as their own families in the name of patriarchy imposed on them. It speaks of how life was never easy for women, neither then (1947s) nor now. Gurmehar tells how things changed after her father was martyred in the Kargil War and how she as almost a two and a half year old perceives it, makes it even more extraordinary.
One of my favourite excerpts from the book is of her father’s return. It narrates that how when her father was brought home in a wooden box wrapped in the tricolour flag along with several other military men everybody in the room began crying, her mom screaming and she, the 2-year-old Gulgul of her dad standing at one corner of the room wondering why isn’t anyone letting her papa sleep in peace? The author was too young and naïve to comprehend the meaning of death at that time. It's a heart-wrenching moment that makes one wonder how army men leave their young children, newlywed spouses, old parents at home to beckon to the call of motherland. One wonders how they gather so much courage and the will to do so.
This memoir also manages to convincingly shatter the façade that has persisted for so long in our minds strengthened by the opportunist media outlets that Pakistan is our rival when in reality it's the bitterness and manipulation by political leaders resulting into wars that we need to fight and conquer.
The book is a thoughtfully written account that sparks a mental debate about the essence of nationalism, patriotism and martyring of soldiers. Gurmehar is eloquent in her writing and ties together the struggle of the women of three-generation in her family in her debut book.
A highly recommended book
Comments