What started as an academic project has eventually become a collective of shared memories for all those who have witnessed one of the darkest chapters in the history of the Indian subcontinent.

Poignant. Thoughtful. Lucid. Emotional. Balanced. Historical. Personal. This nonfiction book has succeeded in evoking all these emotions from a reader and how. 

Indeed, the book tries to go much beyond that. Its purpose is to present the witnesses’ accounts accompanying their material possessions from their lost homelands and record the oral history of such a momentous period. That history has engulfed a subcontinent’s geopolitical and personal narratives for over 70 years. The author’s successful weaving of these threads in individual accounts, keen observations, and objective narrations is undoubtedly worth experiencing firsthand.

And these material possessions include everyday objects like kitchen utensils, family heirlooms like the sacred Guru Granth Sahib, specially crafted/ gifted jewelry, rare edition books, ornate handwoven clothes, military medals from the two great wars and even a marble name plaque adorning a home entrance. But we soon understand that each of these objects act like a portal, transporting its owner to that time and place when life seemed to be predestined, mundane and had its own pace.

Then suddenly their reality was jolted by an event so extraordinary, unexpected, unplanned and violent that their entire life was uprooted from their familiar surroundings almost overnight. What meagre possessions they could take with them to their new homeland were these familial objects; sometimes because these were everyday objects that they were accustomed to and sometimes these were precious mementos of a life slipping by in a tumultuous incident.

The sincere, pragmatic and objective voice of the author helps us to unspool these memories delicately one knot a time with an eloquence and nuanced perspective. Thereby she succeeds in bringing forth those unforgettable, horrific and tragic conditions pushed aside as a difficult memory by those who survived it.

I won’t say it is an easy read by any means considering what lies at the core of this book and the good, bad and ugly memories surrounding that difficult period in the Indian subcontinental history. But I would definitely recommend this book as a must read.