People often ask me why I wrote this book. Unlike for other books, this is a layered question. What they are really asking sometimes is that why someone who was raised in a Hindu family, decided to write about a Muslim festival.
So here it goes. And hang tight, because this is quite a story!
The seed was sown when I was a little girl and would ask my mom to tell me the story of her lost beloved home, over and over.
My mom was born before India was partitioned, in what is now Bangladesh. Land and natural beauty were in plenty back then! They had a beautiful house with a pond, dozens of fruit trees, and whatnot.
Image credit: Re-thinking the future.
Then came the dreadful phase of the country splitting up. Communal riots erupted with extreme violence. Hindus fled Bangladesh and Muslims fled the West Bengal state of India.
My grandpa had already moved to West Bengal for a job to support his family. So here was my grandma, all alone, with her kids when they had to make the heartbreaking decision to leave their home overnight.
They packed up whatever little they could and made the dangerous journey over to Kolkata. And just like that, they lost everything. For my mom, who was 9 at the time, it wasn’t the loss of money or possessions but the loss of that charming little house and the idyllic garden that left her heartbroken.
Years later, they learned that a Muslim person who used to come by to drop milk at the house took over the property. This isn’t a one-sided story. Identical things happened in India too.
Till the very end, my mom held onto the memories of her beloved lost home. She could describe each tree, each fruit, each spot in that garden. Although it could have been so easy to harbor these feelings, I never sensed any hatred or dislike targeted towards anyone. All I sensed was a sadness about the futility of communal disagreements that sometimes turn violent and cause destruction.
These stories shaped my childhood in more ways than I had realized. The next story is one of an unusual mix of hope and despair. Stay tuned…