I spoke at The Hindu ‘Lit for Life’ at Siri Fort in Delhi on Feb 8 as part of a panel discussion on the 1984 anti-Sikh violence. As a curtain raiser Swati Daftuar caught me just as I was catching a crowded, noisy vehicle a few days before. This interview is completely spontaneous. Please read, there are some points I raise here on which I would otherwise tread cautiously. Thank you Swati, this is how this should have been done.
“The fundamental issue I have is that, post the ’84 riots, the Sikh narrative has become a narrative of victim-hood. I don’t think Sikhs were ever conceived as victims or needed to portray this all the time. Along with that, the in-fighting within the community post the riots is another concern I have.”
Please read.
Tags: Amandeep Sandhu, riots, Swati Daftuar, The Hindu Lit for Life
It is an honour to get such a glowing review in The Book Review. Thank you Nishat.
‘As the writer grapples with emotions of anger, fear, pain, suffering, confusion, chaos, resistance and endurance, the novel moves from poignant to contrived, disturbing to formulaic, profound to crude, literary to raw, lyrical to macabre and real to phoney. In short it leaves the reader as enraged, confused and silenced as its narrator is, opening up, in turn, several interpretive possibilities. … he narrates his personal experience of a political event, without pontificating or taking sides. It is through his unsullied account of what he witnessed and endured that the writer seeks to remember his dismembered self. Writing, in this sense, is also a survival strategy for the writer …This safe haven is also the space where the ‘performative’ reality of the nation is preserved, unadulterated by ideological hues, a space which the readers like birds must turn to, to find a trace of their history and hence a space that allows the literary writer a serendipitous entry into the social, historical and political debates.’
Tags: 1984, Bluestar, Khalistan, military school, Mrs. Gandhi, Punjab, riots, Roll of Honour
Daman is a friend and a fellow writer but I did not know she was reviewing Roll of Honour in Asian Age.
‘Roll of Honour is an important work for it sets out to explore dark spaces in time and place and forbidden recesses of the mind. … Written as a fictionalised memoir, Roll of Honour is completely credible. While it may not answer all the questions that it raises, it certainly forces the reader to face them. These questions are both personal and political. Amandeep Sandhu has a remarkable command over the art of personal narrative. He writes with startling honesty and with searing intensity.’
Please read
Tags: 1984, Bluestar, Khalistan, military school, Mrs. Gandhi, Punjab, riots, Roll of Honour
Varad Sharma highlights the tone of the book by selecting certain important instances of thought in his review. Thanks Varad.
‘Roll of Honour questions the authoritative power. It is about different identities an individual takes in different phases of life on the basis of colour, religion, community, language, and nation. The author is blunt in describing the events and the experiences (and even the abuses). … One should read this novel to get an insight about what the youth went through during troubled times in Punjab.’
Please read
The same review appeared at The New Indian Express
Read here
Tags: 1984, Bluestar, Khalistan, military school, Mrs. Gandhi, Punjab, riots, Roll of Honour
I remain grateful to reviewers and interviewers who discern and glean out thoughts worthy of sharing in their pieces. After her excellent review Reshmy follows it up with this interview in which I manage to surprise myself. Read on.
Tags: 1984, Bluestar, Khalistan, military school, Mrs. Gandhi, Punjab, riots, Roll of Honour
What does a writer say when a reviewer born in Bhopal in 1983 confesses that, ‘The eyes still haunt me and I am perpetually running away from certain realities in the embezzlement of fiction that may touch base human emotions but doesn’t touch human suffering at the hands of fellow countrymen. … When Amandeep Sandhu asked me to read his second book for my views as a reader I knew if I say a yes, it would be my test too. A test if the adventurous reader has the guts too.’
Then she says this on the book. I feel humbled. Please read …
Tags: 1984, Bluestar, Khalistan, military school, Mrs. Gandhi, Punjab, riots, Roll of Honour
Friends, last December I was surprised by the cold wave in Calcutta. That is when, through Julia Dutta, I met Dipali Taneja. I was hungry, blown by the cold. The evening conversation with excellent kebabs and continental food at Dipali’s gave me strength and I came away knowing I had made a new friend.
This is the Child Sexual Abuse Awareness month and suddenly Dipali asked me for an interview. I just now got the blog entry from her and am so pleased to see how she read Roll of Honour and has structured her entry. Over the past few months many readers have brought such a variety of readings to the book, Dipali sees it as a book against child sex abuse and I feel so satisfied that she sees it like that. Towards the end of the interview I have made a request to all of us readers. Read on… Thank you Dipali.
Tags: 1984, Bluestar, Khalistan, male CSA, military school, Mrs. Gandhi, Punjab, riots, Roll of Honour
Friends, this is another proud coverage. Though the book has been very well received I wanted to know how it will be accepted in Punjab. Prof Manju Jaidka invited me to speak at the Punjab University Department of English under the aegis of the Sahitya Academy. Parul Bajaj covered the event even without me knowing about it. Now that is a nice surprise. Please read on.
Tags: 1984, Bluestar, Khalistan, military school, Mrs. Gandhi, Punjab, riots, Roll of Honour
Karthik Keramalu asked me for an interview and I said not if the questions are the usual. He promised new questions, fresh ones. I must admit I was very happy to answer them. I like young people taking up a challenge and overcoming barriers. Please Read on.
Tags: 1984, Bluestar, Khalistan, military school, Mrs. Gandhi, Punjab, riots, Roll of Honour
Anuradha and Manoj are committed to creating a user friendly and interactive website around reading. I felt honoured they chose to open their site interviews with me. Best wishes, we need more interlinked readers. Read on.
Tags: 1984, Bluestar, Khalistan, Mrs. Gandhi, Punjab, riots, Roll of Honour, school, Sepia Leaves