Hello everyone! Welcome to our first Women’s History Month (W.H.M.) Spotlight Event! This is a new blog event on Win’s Books that happens during March in honor of Women’s History Month. Today we have another book spotlight of the event. Now without further ado, let’s get to the Book Spotlight!
Book Title:
THE CORD
Book Blurb:
“The greatest war we fight is the one within ourselves”, true to these words by Eric Christopher Jackson, ‘The cord’ is a personification of wars waging inside each individual in the turbulent background of 1947, with the imminent partition and the strife-torn Indian nation. As European colonists raided the world and ‘civilised’ the indigenous inhabitants, the mark they left didn’t just stop with the unruly borders and westernized organizations.
As India woke up to her independence on 15th August 1947, unfortunately, her sons and daughters watched the dawn, hazed by Indo-Pak partition, communal riots, mass killings and much more. But these gores are no match to the souvenirs left in personal lives and families of the common public of the twin nations.
The ones that their subconscious holds on to, till date. ‘The Cord’ follows Jamedar Ashraf Ullah, of the British Indian Army, whose family moves to Rawalpindi, leaving behind more than just traces of his lineage and Major Azad, 11th Kumaon Infantry, who gets a chance to right a wrong he had committed almost two decades ago. What would Major Azad choose? Guilt over duty? Kinship over comradery? or Love over all else? Is everything really fair in love and war?
Book Genre:
Historical Fiction
Book Price:
INR 290
Book Buyer Link:
Snippet from book:
A letter from a daughter(army wife) to her mother(also an army wife) as the former’s spouse is out for war.
Dear Ma,
How did you deal with it?
When papa was deployed to Burma for months that eventually turned into years, how did you deal with it?
Did you ever look at my dark eyes, the crooked nose or even the mole on my back and shed a tear as it reminded you of the man, I inherited it from?
Did your days get lonelier as they inched towards dusk?
As you strolled past the dahlias in Sadar park every evening, were you filled with a gloom you couldn’t share with anyone? A gloom that slowly turned into longing, transforming into a nameless grief that swallowed you from inside?
When I used to pick fights with classmates who asked me “Is your father a World War II martyr?”, Did you wipe my tears saying, “Of course papa will be back soon beta..” when your heart knew there is a high chance that the other kids might be true?
Did you flinch every time the mailman stopped in front of our house?
Did you murmur “Jai Sri Ram” at least a hundred times before you opened any mail that had an official Army symbol on it?
Did you sometimes feel that the news you dreaded the most would not be as painful as the wait?
Did you ever suddenly wake up in the night, convinced you heard his voice beside you?
Did the breeze on your skin sometimes feel like his touch?
Did your beautiful long hair and big dove eyes attract other men’s attention?
Did you like it when other men helped you with your grocery bags or were you repelled by their proximity?
Did the thought of another man in papa’s place disgust every cell of your being or did your duties as a mother win over the pains and yearnings as a woman?
As you watched other couples enjoy each other’s company, did it fill you with hope or jealousy?
Did a small part of you hate him for not having even written to you yet understood he couldn’t?
Did you wish he wasn’t countries away from you and me?
Did you wish he wasn’t a soldier?
Did you ever wish he loved you more than this nation?
Like every woman in the Nareng Cantonment, as I sit here writing this letter from my balcony overlooking the lush tea gardens blooming with the monsoon, doting the 11th Kumaon Infantry’s return, All I wanted to ask you was ma,
How did you do deal with it?
Love,
Sunaina Aazad Ullah.
About the Author:
Thank you all for reading and remember:
Live. Love. Laugh.
