17 Tomatoes: Tales from Kashmir

Matt Hartman is a freelance editor and cataloguer, running Hartman Cataloguing, Editing and Indexing Services.

In the 14 tales that make up Montreal writer Jaspreet Singh’s first
book, the sense of place (of Kashmir) is front and centre. In one story,
Captain Faiz, a captured Pakistani army officer, remarks while looking
at a map of the area, “the whole of Kashmir had shifted into India. He
felt like sliding the little mountains and green lakes and pine forests
back to Pakistan. The last eleven months had taught him an alternate
geography. Kashmir was neither Pakistan, nor India. Kashmir was war.”
Though living in Montreal since the age of 20, Singh, now 45, has never
really left his troubled homeland. Deaths in the region’s latest
tragedy, a devastating earthquake, now number 75,000 and counting.
Kashmir’s decades of war, its religious tensions, are very much a part
of Singh’s stories. Two young Indian boys, Ali and Arjun, who live
with their parents in an Indian army camp, appear in most of the tales.

Structurally, they interact with other characters who appear themselves
in related stories. Singh is careful not to extrapolate too much when he
presents local customs. His stories about cricket will be familiar to
those who follow the sport, but somewhat baffling to others. Details of
diet and of army protocol are likewise offered without explanations.

This is a strong first effort and augers well for this interesting
writer.