Category: Fiction
Rights: All rights available
Kabir Raina, a Kashmiri Pandit and a successful music producer, returns to Kashmir 30 years after fleeing the valley’s turmoil in the 90s to Mumbai. Spiraling into depression after losing his wife and the long awaited child during childbirth, Kabir is urged by his sister Kanval to perform the final rites for Umika, in accordance with the practices deeply rooted in Kashmiri tradition, believing it will help him find spiritual healing and inner peace.
In Pahalgam, amidst performing the last rites, Kabir saves Armaan, a blind child, from drowning in the river. Armaan’s soulful voice captivates Kabir, bringing him a sense of deep connection and longing within him. Kabir begins to see Armaan as his godchild, a bond his mother, Iravati, struggles to accept, haunted by her own painful memories of Kashmir.
Just as Kabir begins to heal, his life is thrown into turmoil once more when he is accused of aiding a missing militant financially, a revelation that he was ignorant of until now. To his shock, he learns that the missing militant is none other than Armaan’s father, the very man also responsible for his own father’s death during their exodus from Kashmir. A discovery that dawns on everyone at once.
Ironically, the child who brought peace into his life is linked to the man who inflicted his family’s deepest pain years ago, forcing him to confront a tangled web of old wounds and new relationships while dealing with the legal fallout of his involvement.
The author: Umair Ahmed Khan