KASHMIR, RIOTS AND TERRORISM
“I interact with children of all kinds. I listen to their conversations. My stories are inspired by them, by how vulnerable they are,” says Paro Anand.
In her books, the children are struggling, but it is not the struggle of the little match girl, for food and warmth and shelter.
It is a struggle born of their bafflement with the adult world.
“You will read about the daughter of a Kashmiri Pandit who is conditioned to hate Muslims but discovers there is nothing to hate; see the Bombay riots of 1992-93 from the point of view of a dog,” says Anand. “I have not dumbed down any concept. I believe children understand them well.”
One of her most controversial tales has been one where a Muslim boy and a Hindu girl share a fleeting kiss. This, among other elements of Like Smoke, got the book kicked out of three school libraries in Delhi-NCR.
“The parents formed a WhatsApp group to demand the ban. It intrigues me that the tales of violence didn’t bother them, the kiss did,” Anand says. “I am not encouraging rampant kissing in school through the story. In fact, the girl’s character is kind of shocked and embarrassed by what she did.”
Her edgy storytelling has several fans, though, among them Bengaluru schoolgirl Ashima Kumar, 13.
“I read Like Smoke last month, and I really liked the story about the girl who decides not to hate Muslims,” she says. “It helped me understand the community a bit better; they always seem like the outsiders in movies and often aren’t talked about well. I now answer such comments by saying that they are as patriotic as any of us and love peace like we do.” Anand’s previous work, No Guns at My Son’s Funeral (2005; Roli books) is currently in its 13th reprint. It is the story of a boy named Aftab growing up in the Kashmir Valley.
“The target age group for Anand’s books is 12 to 14,” says Priya Kapoor, editorial director at Roli Books. “No Guns… gets the mood of the Valley right. It is important for this age group to read such books as that’s when they will begin to come to terms with their reality.”