The Literature in Exile is a term that has a global dimension. Works of great literary merit have been produced by the authors who chose or were forced to live in places other than their own. The life in exile is like living in a cauldron. It boils everything and changes the contours of existence to a totally new shape, while retaining certain flavours and tastes of the original constituents more often as a baggage than something to be valued. Many races and communities produced marvellous literature when having to assert their lost identity and  socio cultural inheritance had first to de-construct their existence and subsequently apply the same to understand and face  their ghosts and predicaments. This deconstruction helps them come out of their insecurities and also their comfort zones.  This has happened with Jews, Asians, and Africans and nearer home to Punjabis, Sindhis and …… the Kashmiri Pandits.

The Ugly Kashmiri

Besides the marvellous  literary output through books of merit in Kashmiri, Urdu and Hindi, one masterpiece in English by Arvind Gigoo, Professor in English who was forced to live away from Kashmir came up in the year 2006. The title of the book is “Ominous”…. “The Ugly Kashmiri”. But such is the power and appeal of the book that it has run out of the editions. Interestingly it should adore every Kashmiri’s bookshelf. Those who say that its context is Kashmir and only the inhabitants of that place will relate to it are holding to wrong assumptions. The satire in all 180 aphorisms has a universal appeal  that cuts across regions, places and time in history. Maradona’s ‘Hand of God’ quote seems to aptly apply to this book also. These 180 aphorisms have been conceived in a manner which  resemble the ‘Sutras’ of ancient Rishis. They are usually one-liners and in the middle. The words of wisdom seem to exist in a void and have a deep significance. Around these ‘Sutras’ one can always load one’s thoughts and conditionings but that is not going to change the truth of the satirical aphorisms. These pearls of wisdom were not created by design. They just happened.

A Deeply Cathartic Process

Kashmir Rechords was fortunate to elicit a response from the author Arvind Gigoo sometime back. And the response was: “It actually has been a deep and cathartic process”. Like many Kashmiris he also possesses a sensitive soul, carries the concerns, joys and sorrows of a Kashmiri whether a Hindu or a Mussalman caught up in the cauldron post 1990 when tectonic shifts took place with regard to socio- political conditions in Kashmir.

The book starts in fact with an aphorism with deep spiritual meaning…… “I Still Am But I am not Still” . Though satirical  it has a tremendous healing effect. The subsequent satirical aphorisms continue to jolt us, make us rue and weep and finally enable us to build an appreciation for the same. They usually shame every one of us and that is why Arvind Gigoo’s masterpiece “The Ugly Kashmiri”  has jolted every Kashmiri  from within and has made him or her shun   their  individual comfort zones.

One of his cameo is directed towards  the dubious philosophy nurtured by  the terrorists, who indiscriminately killed several Kashmiri Pandits and Kashmiri Muslims.

The author states in the preface, “I have never had any political commitment and religious conviction. I go on changing my opinions. I dangle between an idea and its opposite. I am sure about my doubts, vacillations and uncertainties.” He has dedicated this book to an unknown “Ahmad the Blacksmith, Whom nobody Knows because he is beautiful !”