Rui Lapeti Aag

Who needs nuclear weapons? The countries and their maps? The people who live there, or the heads of state who exploit their fears to fuel their ambitions? Or is it simply the demands of a global balance of power that cannot be ignored? These are the questions at the core of Rui Lapeti Aag, which the novel gradually establishes as essential questions through its distinctive narrative style. Music is at one end of the story, and Pokhran is at the other. The same Pokhran where India conducted its successful nuclear tests in 1974 and again in 1998, securing a respectable place among the worlds nuclear powers. On the other side is the Pakhawaj, which, according to a legend, was created by Brahma to synchronize Shivas Tandava (dance) to prevent the destruction of the universe. While the Pakhawaj cannot prevent that destruction, it certainly expresses its dissent by staring at the wounds it creates with open eyes. Remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki as a warning, Pakhawaj player Arundhati chooses the village of Khetolai, just four kilometers from Pokhran, for her performance. As a result of the nuclear explosion in Pokhran, there isnt a single home in this Rajasthan village where one or two people arent suffering from serious illnesses. The novel beautifully highlights Indias simple lifestyle, in which the coexistence of different communities is part of societys innate understanding, and which has survived despite occasional bouts of communal politics. But the central question is the moral legitimacy of nuclear power, the justification of a fire wrapped in cotton wool that could flare up at any time and cause the destruction of all humanity.