The Book of Gold Leaves by Mirza Waheed

 

Amir Khusrau quoted:

Agar firdaus bar roo-e zameen ast,

Hameen ast-o hameen ast-o hameen ast.

If there is paradise on earth,

It is here, it is here, it is here.

With help from other reviews, here is a quick summary about this book. When this book suggestion came up on my general search... I added it to my immediate reading list. And who would not love reading about Kashmir?!

Faiz and his family live in an ancient home in Srinagar. He is a papier mache artist and makes the most exquisite pencil boxes to be sold to tourists. When he is done with this day's work, he heads for prayers.

In another timeline, there is Roohi. She often prays for a kind and loving man to come and whisk her off her feet. She does not want an ordinary life. She wants romance and the thrill of it.

Fate somehow conspires for the paths of Faiz and Roohi to cross and they both fall in love - a love that promises a great future.

But, in war torn Srinagar, there is political strife and constant fear. There is violence and unthinkable atrocities. Faiz unfortunately has to drop his art of making beautiful things to pick up arms and cross over the LOC to be trained as a militant. Roohi had to bid goodbye and every day her prayer would be to bring Faiz back home safe and sound.

The Book of Gold Leaves by Mirza Waheed was a little too much of a documentary than really a fact-fiction book. That is what probably put me off somewhere in between and I skipped many paragraphs to finish it this evening.

I have to confess that I had to look through couple of GR reviews to console and justify what I felt about the book. This book was heart breaking in many ways. I would have loved to have read more about the love story of Faiz and Roohi in their home town of Kashmir. But, the horrible happenings of military and jihadi interference took over everyone's lives and stories.

I would have also liked to know more about Kashmiri handiwork - of papier mache art - that Faiz indulged in. The story line only spoke of how this boy was a genius in his art and had hands that could only produce sheer beauty but was forced to hold guns. A murder of innocence so to speak.

Reviewers were of the opinion that there could have been a page to mention names of characters...because there are just too many things happening that you have to sort of stop in your tracks to remember who the person was, who was being discussed. This book could have done away with half the number of pages or probably worked on the story line a little more deeply. I must agree to the reviewers that you would need some bit of knowledge of how Kashmir was and how it was ravaged.

What mostly caught my eye were these lines that Faiz quotes to Roohi:

Hame chahiye thha milna

Kissi ahd-e-mehrbaan mein

Kissi khwaab ke yaqeen mein

Kissi aur aasman par

Kissi aur sarzameen mein

Hame chahiye thha milna

We ought to have met

In another, kinder time

In pursuit of attainable dreams

Below a different sky

Upon a different earth

We ought to have met there

Some more of Khusrau's couplets that touch your heart:

1. “Khusrau darya prem ka, ulti wa ki dhaar,

Jo utra so doob gaya, jo dooba so paar.

Oh Khusrau, the river of love

Runs in strange directions.

One who jumps into it drowns,

And one who drowns, gets across.”

2. Farsi couplet:

Mun tu shudam tu mun shudi,mun tun shudam tu jaan shudi

Taakas na guyad baad azeen, mun deegaram tu deegari

I have become you, and you me,

I am the body, you soul;

So that no one can say hereafter,

That you are someone, and me someone else.”

3. Preet kare so aisi kare ja se man patoyaye

Jane jane ki preet se, toh janam akarat jaaye.

If you want to love someone, love them with all your heart, loving like everyone else will leave you without love.