Book Review: A Long Season of Ashes by Siddhartha Gigoo
2 min read
Namrata reviews Siddhartha Gigoo’s memoir A Long Season of Ashes (Published by Penguin India, 2024) based on the Kashmiri Pandit exodus and observes how, at the core, this is also a story of self-discovery.
In A Long Season of Ashes, Siddhartha Gigoo takes us on a poignant journey back to the tumultuous days of March 1990 in Safa Kadal, Srinagar, Kashmir, where he was forced to flee his home as a sixteen-year-old boy. This narrative is not merely a recounting of events; it is a deeply reflective meditation on memory, displacement, and the search for identity amidst chaos and exile.
The memoir begins with the Gigoos’ harrowing experiences in Srinagar. The atmosphere is thick with fear and horror as friends and neighbors are brutally killed outside their homes. The Gigoos live under the constant threat of violence, and yet, they are reluctant to leave the only home they have ever known. This sense of attachment to place and the desperate hope that things might somehow return to normalcy are powerfully conveyed through Gigoo’s evocative prose.
Siddhartha Gigoo’s memoir is a profoundly moving account of the Kashmiri Pandit exodus—a story many have heard of, but few truly understand. Gigoo transports us to the refugee camps in Jammu and Udhampur, where exiled Kashmiri Pandits spent decades grappling with shattered dreams. His vivid descriptions of the squalid conditions, the pervasive filth, the loss of dignity, and the systemic neglect by authorities force readers to confront the harsh realities faced by these displaced individuals. This real-life narrative compels us to question the very essence of our humanity.
