Katha Satisar

The Kashmir Valley, a land of shared heritage from Shaivism, Buddhism, and Islam, has faced many difficult times before. Sometimes during the time of Aurangzeb, sometimes during the Afghan period. But those times have come and gone. Sometimes Guru Tegh Bahadur emerged as a messiah to protect the religion, sometimes someone else. Thats why, on the land of Lalladhyad and Nunda Rishi, despite their different religions, people lived a culture steeped in mutual harmony and coordination. Today, the same difficult Alexander era of terror, murder, and expulsion has returned. Only eleven Pandit families remained in the valley after Alexanders reign. Though in a new form and with new reasons, the tale remains the samean eternal tale of human suffering and anguish! In this glorious age of democracy, who is responsible for turning heaven into hell? What ambitions, mistakes, carelessness, and lax policies of politicians, rulers, and middlemen, both big and small, have led to todays blood-soaked Kashmir? Pakistan is undoubtedly responsible for terrorism, but why didnt our leaders wake up in time? Why did the average Kashmiri, who, in anger, would at best hurl a kangri at one another, now find themselves staining their own compatriots blood with Kalishnikovs and AK-47s? Following Ailan Gali Zinda Hai and Yahan Vitasta Bahti Hai, the acclaimed author Chandrakantas major novel, Katha Satisar, is set in Kashmir. In this latest novel, the author raises questions related to human rights and identity through her characters. The story of Kashmirs transformation between 1931 and the early 2000s is imbued with such sensitivity that all the characters come alive. This book is not only an emotional examination of the impact of incidents occurring in the socio-political scenario on the mutual relationships of peoples lives, it has also become a historical document by recording the responsible facts of the present in literature.