Our Moon Has Blood Clots
A Memoir of Lost Home in Kashmir
Writer: Rahul Pandita
Publisher: Penguin Random House
Jammu, 1990
They found the old man dead in his torn tent, with a pack of chilled milk pressed against his right cheek. It was first June in exile, and the hear felt like a blow on the back of the head. His neighbor, who discovered his lifeless body in the refugee camp, recalled later that he had found his Stewart Warned radio on, playing an old Hindi film song….
Our Moon has Blood Clots is a deeply personal, powerful, and unforgettable story of history, home, and loss. The writer himself is a Kashmiri Pandit. He along with his family members and millions of other Kashmiri pandits were forced to leave there home in Kashmir and were condemned to spend the rest of their life in exile. In the book, Pandita has described the changing atmosphere of Kashmir, how people gradually started becoming intolerant towards Pandits. The writer talks about the night of January 1990 when the world around them changed forever. That night they felt as if something sinister was going to happen. Battle cries could be heard from all directions. The exodus of Kashmiri Pandits begins. In the next few months, hundreds and thousands of Kashmiri Pandits were tortured killed, raped, and were forced to leave there home and seek refugee in their own country.
This book reflects true emotions and shows us the real picture of Kashmir before and after the night of January 1990. From a reader’s point of view, the writing style is simple, anyone and everyone can read the book. The only thing that is missing in the book is the continuity. The writer is narrating his story and suddenly someone else’s story runs through his mind and he leaves his story and starts writing the other one. This happens quite a few times in the book. The total number of pages is 256, which won’t take more than four to five days to finish the entire book.
The book will leave a very strong impact on the minds of the readers. Anyone who is interested in knowing about the lives of Kashmiri Pandits should definitely give this book a try. The book is available both online and offline.
