Unravelling Spaces across Time and Memory
Semeen Ali
BIRDS OF THE SNOWS (BARF AASHNA PARINDEY by Tarannum Riyaz Niyogi Books, 2021, 498 pp., 695
July 2023, volume 47, No 7

He was not…smiling…But it did not…look like he wasn’t…smiling either.” Sheba considered the funny sentence, relishing it for a few moments, as she did in her childhood when she wanted to break a sentence and make it up again in reverse.’

The book is a slow unravelling of a family living in Kashmir. The unravelling also happens at the level of the physical spaces. Spaces that occupy a living memory and continue to create chasms between what is and what was. The never-ending struggle with the slippages of time has been beautifully captured in this book. The language creates a vacuum between the lines for a reader to slip comfortably into; to be a part of the narrative. There is no rush; no hurrying of a story unfolding in this book. The book runs up to nearly 500 pages and fills up the spaces between the ongoings of the characters through descriptions of the natural surroundings. A childhood is recorded, and the development of character takes place without rushing the reader through time stoppages. The idea is to unfold life like a flower unfurls its petals slowly. The protagonist turns out to be Sheba, coming from a family with a rich cultural background. The novel is set in the post-Independence era and there are markers of a new world order that begins right at the beginning of the novel with the introduction of a camera and a family coming together to pose for a photograph. There are references to feudalism and the threat of one’s lands being taken away by the government under the Land Reformation Act.

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