Reader views

Still getting responses...in the mail and posted elsewhere 

Dear Ferzana,

I wanted to read your wonderful book once and "study" it a second time before writing to you. First reading fascinated me. The way you have, after starting off as a travelogue, weaved history of a period that I have been conscious of is superb. You did manage to meet, talk to and interview a whole range of personalities from almost every walk of life I enjoyed reading the book. Thank you.

A word about Lahore. I have never visited it but have seen many friends who migrated from Lahore to Delhi. They are very proud of their being "Lahorians". It was the best cantonement of undivided India. It also boasted some of the best colleges. I suppose you know that the film actor Dev Anand and his wife Kalpana Kartik (Mona Singha) are from Lahore. Her sister Sona was the wife of one of my bosses in service. And her brothers were in the armed forces. One of them, an Air Force officer got married to the daughter of the police commissioner of Lahore. I met the chaming couple when they spent (a part of) their honey moon in a tent in Doraha in Punjab. I used to enjoy the chilgozas she would pass around sitting on the canal bank. I do not know if the Air Force got him to take premature release because I never heard of them afterwards. What I started out to say to you was that Lahorians being a little snobbish is forgivable. In the second reading I was "reading" more the author than the contents.

First, I admire the courage (once or twice bordering on foolhardiness which just happened to pay off without getting you into trouble) you showed in making your trips and organising meetings.

Your intellect I shall not comment on for fear of getting branded as a flatterer. However, I was surprised to find that occasionally acted so naive! Sensitive you have to be to be what you are. Sensitivity and intelligence go together. What i had not noticed earlier is the insecurity you inwardly feel.

Of course many of my muslim friends in Bombay feel slightly insecure because they were touched though remotely in the riots sponsored by our Hindu extremists ("terrorists" ?) I do not know your or your familiy's direct experience in that context. But the feeling of your insecurity hurts me.as a human being, not as a Hindu because I am virtually an athiest - or "rationalist" as I would prefer to be called. If there is insecurity, there must be a solution somewhere!

- (Rt. army officer, now living overseas)

 - - -

Dear Farzana,

I just finished reading your "Journey". What can I say? I am speechless. It is so exhaustive.....history,politics,sociology,economics, people ranging from the poorest to the grandest, poets to dancers, gays to lusty hetero's,military to the artistes.

Tears sprang in my eyes when I read of your hurt at the Wagah border callisthenics.

The 3 books that seriously affected me have been ...Dosto's' Crime and Punsihment', Camu's 'The Fall', Kafka's 'The Trial' and Capote's 'In Cold Blood'. But then there are so many of them out there that I have read and deeply enjoyed. But the books I have mentioned are embedded in my heart. And now your book. This one too has not only clasped and embraced me tightly it has already begun engraving herself ( I cannot use 'itself' ) in my very soul.

I must thank you for so lucidly informing and educating me on Pakistan. I could talk to you for hours and hours on the Partition and the new State and the never ending tragedy unfolding repeatedly year after year and day after day. These are flames that can consume so many for absolutely no reasons whatsoever.

'Rajhish hi sahi...'is saved in my iTunes library and never fails to stir me. Once again one of my favorites and you interview the Great Faraz himself in your book. I admire you for your sensitivity, astuteness and courage.

Yes I have questions, maybe a couple of disagreements also.These are triflings...... but ultimately my heart beats for what you write in this book.

(India)

 ---

Although the book is based on author's 4 travels to Pakistan between August 2001 and May 2007, it is not a travelogue, says the author and rightly so. Unlike travelogues, people (known, unknown, blurred) are the subjects of the book, not places; latter merely provide the backdrops.

The book does not have a single photograph from any of the four travels, which underscores the fact the it is not about places or even faces, but views. The reader does get a feeling of the journeys being narrated. The narration is so engaging that the author swiftly embeds anecdotes to factual details without disrupting its pace.

The author has been able to include Manto's memories with the same ease as her meeting with Ahmad Faraz. Apart from Faraz, the readers get rare opportunity to know up close some other well known names like Ardeshir Cowasjee, Pervez Hoodbhoy. However it's the unknown names (till you read the book) like Saqlain, Bilal, Shujaat, etc., who tell about that country, often without telling, what makes this book different. Conspicuous by its absence is any mention of Dr Abdus Salam. Besides, how could Pervez Hoodbhoy say "... There is no major Muslim scientist or ...". So, for him too, like many Pakistanis, Dr Salam was not a Muslim.

Author, no point in guessing, is the protagonist, besides being the narrator. How she is seen in Pakistan and her reactions to how India (and Indian Muslims in particular) is perceived by Pakistanis naturally makes her the protagonist. Her style of describing women is graciously sensuous and reminds me of Ismat Chughtai.

The book is an essential read, if one wants to read about Pakistsn as a person, not as a strategist or even a peace activist. I never imagined myself visiting Pakistan, but after reading the book, I may plan to travel to Pakistan as a curious traveler the day it starts issuing tourist visas to Indians, as I have neither relatives there nor I'm an Aman-ki-Asha activist.

Ayaz Alam

 ---

These are the fateful queries that partition raised and whose answer still haunts us! A lot has been written about identities whether Ethnic or Religious, but in this present book Farzana Versey raises some distinct and distinguished insights into this complex problem of identity. Though this book is neither a research work undertaken by the author under the auspices of a grand university and seasoned researcher nor is it a conventional travelogue, though one may find certain traits of travel writing in it.

Mushtaq, India

Readers' expressions

As I said elsewhere, even before the formal launch, readers’ letters had started trickling in. Readers I did not know, have never met. A couple have visited my blog; the rest had to ‘search’ me. This makes it all the more touching.

The book has got fairly interesting reviews. But this – from people buying a copy, going through it, specifying page numbers and even a typo…I only know that if you touch people and reach out to them, then you have lodged yourself in their memories, their emotions, their conflicts. It could be ordinary things or deeper ones.

Here are a few excerpts from the notes, and one from a blog (Locations of the writers are Jaipur, Hyderabad, UP, UAE, Canada, USA in no particular order):

* * *

Dear Ms Versey,

I have recently gone through 'A Journey Interrupted', here in Jaipur. I do hope you will not mind my making a couple of critical observations regarding the work.

Reading it was all about trying to decipher your reflections, in parts at least. They came across as opaque to the average reader. Your style reminds one of the style of Naipaul--the actions and utterances of unconnected individuals are employed to generalise or illustrate the ambience. I think that is not an adequate basis to analyse a people or a country's mood in its generality. You do not introduce us to the Baluchi angst. I wonder whether a Baluch at all considers himself as having a 'Pakistani' identity!

* * *

I loved the book, Its nice. Starts of soft... vanilla types, engrossing.... but gets serious and captivating towards the latter part. The transformation is invisible, the sublime move from soft to serious is artistically superior. simply put... well placed, well edited.

Every word is worth being read. This book is basically meant for anybody wanting to know of Pak, Its culture, heritage, lifestyle, politics et al.

To be frank; My expectations from the book were much more, I expected hard realities, more space devoted to politics and terrorism with an intense FV touch.

I got the FV touch in a few places like, tears streaming down your cheeks... liftman etc (xii). Then again, We embraced like long-lost sisters (128), I uncovered my head and threw my arms... (277)…

My expectations from this book were, that you propel yourself from an anti-establishment columnist to an Indo-Pak expert, joining the likes of Linda Heard, Patrick Seale who are Middle-Eastern experts.

This is your first book, I am sure when we talk about it after another book of yours by then you will be an Indo-Pak expert and that will be the time when the entire world will be looking at India.

* * *

Sound like Indian psychops propaganda. Pakistan an amputation? Sounds like Mohandas Gandhi. United India was an imperial project. There were close to 500 principalities and states, all brutally annexed under the gun by Patel and his gang. His heritage continues in Gujarat where Muslims are burnt alive So glad about that 'amputation.'.India was never one country. Now India is a political entity ruled from Delhi. It is as if Germany were to declare itself Europe. Let us stay with Bharat.

Please don't give us concocted Congressite Islam. Pleasee...

* * *

At the beginning, I was not liking it much, though I found it extremely readable. I then felt you were deliberately trying to paint a dark picture of a country to which you went with a prior text. But as I crossed the half way barrier - until then I was rather uncomfortable - I began feeling dragged into it forcefully. And it was sheer delight all the way to the end and the end was so very apt and thoughtful.

The picture of the author that emerged from the pages is indeed fascinating, or must I say intriguing. And the identity pangs that you revealed are quite familiar turf for me. These are stray thoughts I am penning down soon after finishing the book. It is a fine narrative, very readable, and it touches upon some of the interesting aspects of a society on the brink of fragmentation.

I remain intrigued by the persona of the author now more than before, because she defies to be pigeon-holed into categories.

* * *

Hi Farzana,

I am sure you have a lot of people giving you warranted and unwarranted critiques of your work. And so here goes another unsolicited one. I started out reading three books at the same time. I finished yours first, because the more I read it, the more I felt absorbed and intrigued by your reasoning and mind flow.

When I read your book, I get the impression that the two solitudes (Hindu and Muslim) cannot and should not meet in an idealized and cooked up manner or fashion. It would be forced. That any "peacenik" notions are a fantasy and a deeper understanding of the cultural ethos of the two "nations" (I am not yet talking about Pakistan, just the two nations within India) is necessary before the external trappings of peace and harmony are implemented or attempted.

When I left India, I left with the understanding that Muslims and Hindus and other religions must develop class bonds and it is class affiliation that would determine the peaceful understanding between the two communities. When I went abroad, I started meeting Pakistanis for the first time. Every Pakistani I met suggested that they were like "us". Hinduism gives you a feeling of idolatry and Muslims seemed so much more dignified. I met and got friendly with different hues of Pakistanis. Exiled left wingers and working class.

The Manto segment was brilliant. He is like Lenny Bruce. I love him. Toba Tek Singh is awesome. I have never met a Saqlain…but I know of them. I have been going over your book a few times. I am distressed somewhere, which makes me pick it up again. I don't believe in text book peace. I still feel the raison détre for Pakistan has become

India-hating and insular and having been manipulated by both the Wahabi Saudis and the Old US imperial shenanigans, Pakistan has very little unifying force, other than enmity towards India. Pakistan is torn apart by tribal sensibilities, foreign Islamic influences, backward feudal macho cultural traits and a generally non-industrial

folklore. Not helpful.

I found your style refreshingly different, very streaming and great to read—and disturbingly switching in and out…but I realized that it was written with a hundred emotions flowing all together and so I understand it. It is sometimes like a net-discourse. Besides I am very big on creating a new language for ourselves" if we can.

* * *

Her journeys are reflective of the changing geopolitical landscape with the 9/11, NATO in Afghanistan, Kashmir, Gujarat, Karachi, Lal Masjid and many other incidents impacting the period of her reportage. Against this fast-changing backdrop, she grapples with the conflicts between societies, politics, nationalities, religions and genders; these conflicts play out in her interactions across a wide section of society on a “foreign” land. She meets their cultural icons and ventures out into other unexplored nooks and corners of that “land of the pure”– gays, junkies and other minorities and even artists, as they jostle for space on the periphery of the society.

…The author is brutally honest and disarmingly frank in dealing with her often conflicting anxieties tugging her in different directions. It is disconcerting, many a times surprising, and at times even shocking as she bares her inner emotions and relates them to her experiences. All this while, there is an implicit attempt to clean the cobwebs of confusion in her minds. Despite chartering such a wide territory during a tumultuous period, most of the questions she raises and others ask of her remain unanswered at the end of the book. Probably, it is unwise to seek destinations when only the journey and the exploration en route matters.

In any case, the author is a rebel, a non-conformist, a maverick, essentially a recusant, an intellectual beatnik, an iconoclast– all rolled into one. She is equally scathing on the right-wing Hindu fundamentalists, as she is on the Mullahs, or on the US imperialism and even tougher on the Wagah candle-lighting peaceniks. Her clash of identities- of religion, culture, gender and nationality- makes for a potent concoction when blended with her independent take on all issues.