‘The Graveyard’— Kashmiri teenager turns novelist

Srinagar, June 20, 2013 (PPI-OT): In occupied Kashmir, Kashmir’s lingering dispute has inspired a 17-year-old boy to become the Valley’s youngest novelist.

‘The Graveyard’ is the first full-length novel written by any Kashmiri teenager. Towfeeq Wani, a resident of north Kashmir’s Baramulla town, has come up with a 264-page paperback novel. The novel, to be released shortly in Srinagar, comes in the genre of fiction.“Right from the inception of my memory, I’ve been in the Valley which is quite different from other parts of the world in almost every manner, be it culture, topography, serenity or politics.

So I thought before writing about anything else, I have to do justice with the place where I have lived since my birth. So I wrote a novel in which I have tried my best to showcase everything that Kashmir has to offer, be it culture, beauty or conflict,” said Wani.

Wani studied at the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Shahkote, near the Line of Control in Uri up to matriculation and is now studying literature at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU). He has chosen a teenaged character ‘Sahil’, who drags the narrative all along.

Sahil, as described by the author, craves to find the true purpose and meaning of his life which he eventually finds by the end of the novel. Written in about 70,000 words, the novel also tries to describe the life of Kashmiri teenagers living through the years of 2008, 2009 and 2010 (when the Valley was hit by three consecutive years of street protests).

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