Basharat Peer’s Curfewed Night
Book Review by Sumaira Samad
Curfewed Night is the memoir of young Kashmiri journalist Basharat Peer, recounting his youth in the troubled valley during the '80s and '90s. A harrowing look at the political strife and armed conflict that has torn Kashmir apart over the last 30 years, Curfewed Night is nothing if not personal. The people, places and events Peer describes are ones he encountered and experienced first hand. They are his parents and neighbours and friends. Yet, despite this intimacy, essential to any good memoir, Peer's narrative is refreshingly honest, frank and unbiased. His is no polemic, and sentimentality, self-pity and melodrama take a back seat.
Beginning in the years before the struggle, Curfewed Night invites the reader into a beautiful, peaceful mountain paradise where the regular, slow rhythms of village life make up one's existence. Peer lives a happy, uneventful childhood, surrounded by a loving family and tight knit community. But this apparent serenity, as it turns out, is merely the glassy surface, hiding a quagmire beneath. The shadow of Kashmir's turbulent history and unresolved conflicts never quite goes
national identity sans freedom
A few quotes from this article in the Hindustan Times - incidentally it also includes what I rambled....
Freedom means everything. But I’m not free. All these concepts are self-imposed imprisonments.—Roshan Seth, actor
Independence has provided me with a national identity but it hasn’t meant freedom. I find myself enslaved to narrow ideas of patriotism. I’m trying to break free. And writing a book on Delhi, the capital of the ‘enemy’ nation, is my first step.
—Raza Rumi, blogger
Personal freedom is crucial to my growth as an artist. ‘Independence Day’ is a distant celebration for me. Each year, as mid-August approaches I am conscious of a sense of loss — I wonder what could have been had the subcontinent not been splintered.
— Sehba Sarwar, poet
Being a (somewhat) responsible parent, I will share with my children the notion that today we remember our national heroes. And amidst the nationalistic pop nuggets being broadcast round the clock, I hope they hear Yeh watan tumhara hai, tum ho Pasban iss kay, yeh chaman tumhara hai, tum ho naghma khwan iss kay…
— Shandana Minhas, author
Kashmir,Azadi and Arundhati Roy
UPDATE from SAJA Forum, articles, news and comments here
UPDATE: Arundhati's brutally frank piece where she asks this question:
The unimaginable sums of public money that are needed to keep the military occupation of Kashmir going is money that ought by right to be spent on schools and hospitals and food for an impoverished, malnutritioned population in India. What kind of government can possibly believe that it has the right to spend it on more weapons, more concertina wire and more prisons in Kashmir?
"India needs azadi from Kashmir as much as Kashmir needs azadi from India.”
Sir Salman Rushdie’s fatwa against freedom of expression
BY SHAJAHAN MADAMPAT
SIR Salman Rushdie, that beloved symbol of freedom of expression, has now turned Khomeini, so to speak, exposing, in an ironic twist of tale, the hypocrisy and double standards that marked the entire liberal case for unqualified and unrestrained freedom of representation.
The man, in whose defence the world's intelligentsia mounted an intellectual blitzkrieg against the alleged medievalism of the Muslim masses, has threatened to sue the publishers of a book about him by a former police officer, Ron Evans. In his forthcoming book, On Her Majesty's Service: My Incredible Life in the World's Most Dangerous Close Protection Squad, Evans dares to paint a rather unflattering portrait of the writer, whose unflattering ways stirred up controversies ever since he began to write. Rushdie alleges that the book "destroys his character" and "presents wholly made up incidents as facts."
Recent Comments
- ?ि?्??-???्?: ?ै?्??ा?्? ?ें ?ि?्?ी ?ा?े on Emperor Jahangir receiving his two sons, c1605-06
- Pres on I am a child of love
- Emperor Jahangir receiving his two sons, c1605-06 « Jahane Rumi on Khusrau: The shadow of power
- Ranbir Kaleka on Bulleh Shah and Nukta – In a dot the whole mystery is solved
- uconnect_user on Karachi Literary Festival
- ?ि?्??-???्?: ?ं?ी?ा ??ू? ?े? ?ूँ, ?ा?ो?े ?्?ा? on I am a child of love
- Lahore’s Mubarak Haveli and its remarkable history « Lahore Nama on Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Peter Gabriel- Signal to noise
- Lahore’s Mubarak Haveli and its remarkable history « Lahore Nama on Old Nusrat recordings dressed up in dub reggae beats
- dastagir on Imam Hussain: The Beloved of the Beloved
- Bloggers Pakistan - Pakistani Blog Aggregator on A red card for the Secular Indian Muslim
Recent Posts
- Emperor Jahangir receiving his two sons, c1605-06
- I am a child of love
- A red card for the Secular Indian Muslim
- Abr mi barad-o man shovm-e az yar-e judaa (The cloud weeps…)
- Karachi Literary Festival
- the two insomnias
- Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan – Man Kunto Maula
- Rumi – Guest House
- Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Peter Gabriel- Signal to noise
- Pak Nobel laureate’s Ahmedi status hurdle for documentary
- Old Nusrat recordings dressed up in dub reggae beats
- Allah Hoo by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
- Lovers have nothing to do with existence
- Support the documentary on Dr Abdus Salam
- In memoriam – Asim Butt (1978-2010)
Categories at Jahane Rumi
- 'Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan' (1)
- Afghanistan (10)
- All My Posts (923)
- Arts & Culture (342)
- Bangladesh (12)
- Blog Babble (70)
- books (72)
- Buddhist (7)
- business and economy (4)
- Central Asia (5)
- China (3)
- Cinema (19)
- Culture (4)
- development (2)
- diaspora (7)
- education (7)
- Egypt (3)
- Environment (4)
- Extremism (1)
- Faiz (2)
- fiction (3)
- folklore (3)
- fundamentalism (24)
- Ghalib (2)
- Globalization (26)
- governance (8)
- Guest Writer (32)
- Health (2)
- heritage (84)
- History (111)
- human rights (17)
- humour (1)
- India (131)
- India-Pakistan History (151)
- Indo Pak peace (53)
- Indus (3)
- Iran (10)
- Iraq (3)
- Islam (98)
- Islamophobia (46)
- Journalism (47)
- Karachi (7)
- Knowledge (3)
- Kosovo (1)
- Lahore (47)
- Law (1)
- Left (1)
- Loss (21)
- Love (52)
- Malaysia (3)
- media (40)
- Middle East (13)
- Motivated (1)
- Mughal (23)
- Music (46)
- My paintings (9)
- My poems (1)
- Nature (4)
- new writers (2)
- NWFP (3)
- On Pakistan (275)
- Pakistan (31)
- Pakistani Art (53)
- Pakistani Literature (20)
- Partition (10)
- Peace (30)
- Personal (214)
- Photo stories (67)
- Poetry (269)
- Politics (141)
- Poverty (5)
- published in DAWN (3)
- Published in Himal Magazine (4)
- Published in HT (3)
- Published in The Friday Times (79)
- Published in the NEWS (31)
- Punjab (48)
- Punjabi (2)
- qawwali (2)
- Random musings (139)
- Religion (91)
- Research (6)
- Rumi (148)
- SAARC (3)
- science (4)
- Sindh (21)
- Soul (36)
- South Asian Art (94)
- South Asian Literature (180)
- SouthAsia (9)
- Sport (5)
- stuckism (1)
- Sufi poetry (244)
- Sufism (186)
- Technology (4)
- terrorism (12)
- theatre (2)
- Tragic (26)
- Translations (21)
- Travel (51)
- Turkey (5)
- Uncategorized (83)
- Urdu (103)
- Urdu Literature (78)
- video (24)
- War (37)
- women (2)
- World Artists (53)
- World Literature (127)
- World Writers (131)
- Sufism and Sufi poetry (25)
Posts Archive
Raza Rumi @ flickr
- Asim Butt's mural for T2F, Karachi
- T2F remembers Asim Butt
- Haris Gazdar at the memorial
- Asim's friends will always miss him
- George recites his poem
- Sabeen speaking about Asim Butt
- In attendance -
- The tribute to Asim Butt
- Asim's picture published by GT
- Another mural for The Second Floor-Asim Butt
Pak Tea House
- Precautionary Blood Measures
- Be Part of the Change
- Samina Khawar Hayat: 200 kilos of Reason Why The Pakistani Reservation System Is Flawed
- Let Pakistan Make Its Own Progress
- Roving Report – Ayub Khan Era
- Total National Backlash Against Shahbaz Sharif
- Understanding Islamic Revival In Its Proper Context
- DANYAL MUEENUDDIN WINS
- Karachi Literary Festival
- Pakistan, the Lost Generation
Development Industry
- Pakistan: 92 per cent of USAID projects go to US NGOs
- Learn from the UK. Open up data sources in South Asia
- Kiran Bir Sethi teaches kids to take charge
- State of research in Pakistan…
- Reforming Pakistan Civil Service
- Pakistan – Restructuring of PSEs
- Newinpk
- PAKISTAN: Reinventing microfinance
- Dissent as Democracy
- Pakistan 4th on regional list of adult illiterates
World music on NPR
- Solas: America's Wild Irish Rose
- The Thistle And Shamrock: Fiddle Styles
- Umm Kulthum: 'The Lady' Of Cairo
- Los Amigos Invisibles: A 'Commercial' Breakthrough
- The Thistle And Shamrock: Welsh Roots
- SXSW 2010 Preview
- Elis Regina: The Feeling Between The Notes
Tags
- West Bengal in turmoil – end of an era? - 2 emails
- Imam Hussain: The Beloved of the Beloved - 1 email
- Shah Ast Hussain - 1 email
- Holi has a Muslim History too - 1 email
- On Bhagat Singh, his vision and Jinnah’s support for his struggle - 1 email
- Voices of the oppressed – Dalit literature - 1 email
Pages
- “Man-Bitten” Ghalib: introducing himself
- “Seeds of peace on cricket field”
- ‘Author’s Plea’- Foreword of Aag ka Dariya by Qurutul-ain-Haider
- ‘O City of Lights’ by Khalid Hasan – A book review
- About Thumri
- Adieu Naguib Mahfouz
- adsense sample
- Amrita Pritam is no more 2/6
- Amrita Sher Gil’s Lahore
- An Essay on Nizamuddin by Marta Franceschini
- Basant Moods – Lahore and Beyond
- Beautiful Bird
- Bulleh Shah and Rumi 2/5
- Contact
- Dhaka by degrees
- Dhaka by Degrees – TFT
- Documents Archive
- “Iraq’s four-year looting frenzy, the allies have become the vandals”
- “step into the tavern of ruins..”
- A little more recogniton..
- A Little poem
- A recent Book on Faiz Ahmed Faiz
- Against Forgetting and No Poem is Mine
- Another accidental painting
- Fresh translations of Faiz
- Glimpses of nineteenth century Iran
- Go not without me
- Hope – A poem by Ayesha Salman
- How Art made the World
- How the British Raj took roots in India
- I finally moved here – “You lack a foot to travel?”
- Little Flute, Why So Proud?
- Master strokes
- Mother Goddess – Indus Valley
- Murree Ghosts – my recent painting
- Music Master
- My Journey (Mera Safar): Ali Sardar Jafri
- New paintings inspired by the golden Bengal
- New translations of Parveen Shakir
- No Tolerance for Richistans – Obscene Wealth is not victimless!
- Ominous shadows
- Pakistani media – an alternative view
- Qurratulain Hyder
- Sonargaon – A poem by HUR
- Story of a Painting – Mehrgarh, Indus and Ghalib
- Sufi Zikr – inspiration for a painting
- The rescued letter of Mahatama Gandhi
- Waves of anger and fear…
- Welcome Hatshepsut
- What is arrogance?
- Faiz translated by Vikram Seth
- Faiz translations (by Rehan)
- Femme Feryal
- Halaku, when you will come to Baghdad this time…
- I found Roses in Konya… 2/3
- I found Roses in Konya… 3/3
- I will meet you yet again – Amrita Pritam
- Ideology of intolerance
- Images from Data Saheb’s Shrine
- Images from Mahboob Ali
- Jal gaya tha ik roshniyon ka shaher
- Kafka Country – published in the Friday Times
- Kafka Country published in the Friday Times
- Links
- More of Bulleh Shah – keep swooning
- Mughal Princess Zebunnissa
- Muhammad’s Sword
- Muslim Bloggers from India
- On ‘The Great War for Civilisation’
- On Qurratulain Hyder –
- On Vidya Rao
- Open the Door
- Peace to Beirut with all my heart… 2/3
- Petal to Petal …..More of Parveen Shakir
- Qasmi – Urdu literature mourns a giant 2/4
- Qasmi, Literary Fueds and National Neglect
- Rare objects discovery points to ruins treasure
- Raza Rumi
- Revisiting Kabir – the Weaver, the Myth, the Master
- Sadequain 20 years later
- Shared visions: Khushwant Singh and Fahmida Riaz 2/2
- Standing Alone in Mecca (book review)
- Surveys show that Pakistanis (and Muslims) reject “terrorism”
- Teray Ishq Nachaya – Bulleh Shah – full text
- The Lost Jewel – Rediscovering Hazrat Ali’s Letter
- The roar of Rumi – 800 years on
- The Sultan of Hearts – Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya
- This world without Dr. Schimmel… 2/3
- Tum bilkul hum jaisey nikley
- Ustad Bismillah Khan is no more
- Web resources on Qurrutalain Hyder
- Why I love Pakistan? Top 5 reasons
- Darwin and the grand unity of life
- Khusrau: The shadow of power
