Heart of Kashmir | Review of The World With Its Mouth Open by Zahid Rafiq-OxBig News Network

In every conflict, human lives become synonymous with violence. People gradually forfeit their sense of identity and are ultimately reduced to disquieting labels such as dead bodies, victims and so on. In every such story, conflict forms an inescapable background.

A new haunting book by Kashmiri journalist-turned-fiction writer Zahid Rafiq is a timely endeavour to recount the stories of Kashmiri people with a lens on the everyday. The World with Its Mouth Open is an intriguing collection of 11 tales about love, despair and deception. Rafiq uncovers the human suffering away from the usual theme of conflict by probing the inner lives of war-torn people.

These are commonplace stories transformed into extraordinary chronicles through a masterfully woven tapestry of discursive narratives. When people’s lives are portrayed through the prism of conflict, their existence is reduced to a mere struggle for survival, stripping away the fundamental human qualities of love, longing, and hope. Rafiq transcends the concrete and artificial boundaries imposed by the conflict.

Brutal honesty

There’s the struggling owner of a clothing shop who receives a mannequin etched with an expression of unspeakable sorrow. On his way to return it, a troubling encounter with two boys unfolds. In the end, the mannequin lies partially dismembered and the shopkeeper, staring at its broken form, feels his desolation deepen. Nusrat stands in the middle of the road, navigating presence and absence.

We meet another shopkeeper living a life of quiet desperation. The man falls apart after a local newspaper is tricked into running his obituary, prematurely. A wealthy couple, having a fancy new house built, must discreetly dispose of a skeleton unearthed by a worker without alarming the crew, their children or themselves. And Salim, a young man whose brother was killed in a protest and who supports his grieving parents financially, has lost his job and must now roam around Srinagar to find employment.

Rafiq skilfully portrays the full range of human emotions. One can’t help relating to the characters when we see them deprived of power or the strength to act against forces much larger than themselves. The prose oscillates between a quiescent and restful tension. The spaces as navigated by the characters, such as cramped alleyways, corrugated roofs, the damp Press Enclave and bustling fish markets, evoke an instinctive verisimilitude. From the heart of Kashmir, Rafiq’s brutally honest tale is a piercing exploration of grief, loss and betrayal. A stunning debut that heralds the arrival of a major new talent.

The reviewer is a freelance writer and researcher based in Kashmir.

The World With Its Mouth Open: Stories

Zahid Rafiq

Penguin Hamish Hamilton

₹499