Mending the loss of innocence with hard-won wisdom

Arjun Raj Gaind’s The Anatomy of Loss is the story of an eight-year-old boy and perhaps several like him for whom terror and riots are not just news but life-altering events the burden of which they must bear — for life.

It is the Amrit Mahotsav that we celebrate — marking the completion of 75 years of India’s Independence. It is also the landmark anniversary of Partition, and the violence that followed. Poets and writers of the time, who wrote passionately aspiring for a free country, ended up writing heart wrenching tales of horrors.

Arjun Raj Gaind is a storyteller, and in his book he tells the story of Punjab — a land that has witnessed the Jallianwala Bagh massacre and has been cut into two parts during Partition. Many amongst them were forced to migrate, and several didn’t make it. Just as Punjab began to put the bloody history behind it, this land of five rivers (reduced to “two-and-a-half rivers”, with Haryana taking its share, too, after Pakistan) witnessed the denouement of 1984. Hatred grew for the Sikhs, friends turned against each other and lives were lost. It was also the time when separatists were fighting for Khalistan, and the police brooked no opposition from them. Amidst the turmoil, there emerge not one but many truths, as it is not one side that is affected.

Eight-year-old Himmat does not understand any of it when he gets caught in the whirlpool of violence during a visit to his grandparents in Amritsar. He loves staying with the old couple, playing, listening to stories and having fun. He is an ardent admirer of his grandfather, his hero in his long beard who is also a popular poet. The couple live life on their own terms, and have seen it all.

Himmat is in this idyllic world when suddenly he comes face to face with terror and death. His bubble is burst when he watches an innocent boy getting beaten up. He feels his grandfather did nothing to help the boy — his hero is after all an ordinary man — and he is shattered. It’s only later that he comes to know why, but by then so much love and time is lost.

Himmat carries with him the unpleasantness when he returns to his parents in Mumbai. From there he goes on to England to study, refusing to think of his grandfather. He does not open the numerous letters his grandfather sends him.

Curiously, a sense of shame makes it difficult for him to mingle freely with people. He ends up being an introvert having identity issues. One day he is forced to return to India when his grandfather falls ill. It is perhaps the time to mend his relationship, because it may be the only way for him to mend himself.

Arjun’s book is based on true events. And, while weaving his story, which is about relationships set in the past and present, he sneaks in his political commentary. His prose also has the quality of grabbing the reader’s attention and not letting it go.

A recent web series on OTT, Grahan, also dwells on the 1984 riots and it is interesting to see how each writer views the same event through different lenses, and yet with the same purpose — to bring to attention the fact that when epochal events happen, the impact of them is felt through generations.

The Anatomy of Loss
By Arjun Raj Gaind
Bloomsbury
pp. 251, Rs.599