The Unknown Soldier
The Indian Quarterly|April - June 2020
One man wondered and worried about his disappeared brother all his life.His granddaughter continued the search. Preksha Sharma resurrects a man and his story
Preksha Sharma
The Unknown Soldier

Cassino War Cemetery at Cassino, Italy, where thousands of Commonwealth servicemen of World War II are buried

This is a story of a quest. It started with my grandfather. He was a quiet and serious man. Life was a solemn matter of fact. Discipline was paramount. And he maintained a British formality with his children and grandchildren. There was a superhuman quality to his self-control that made him the formidable grandparent.

Ours is not a family that shares stories, but we had heard much about the misfortunes of my grandfather from others. He lost his parents when barely a teenager, and his elder brother a few years later. His childhood and youth were spent battling deaths and deprivation. This was trauma that took military training and a lifetime to repress.

My grandfather spent his last years with us in Mumbai. I learnt that nothing is invincible. That all flesh withers, that mental strength is tied to the body. I saw a man whose mind was a rock, crumbling slowly to Alzheimer’s. I also learnt that while the body wilts, unresolved trauma stays. It is the last bone in our body, one that neither burns nor decomposes. It was what my grandfather tenaciously held on to in his twilight years: Where was his brother?

When my grandfather was a teenager, his elder brother left to fight in World War II and never returned. He was last traced to Italy.

Over his life time, my grandfather wrote more than a hundred letters, inquiring about his brother’s whereabouts. Neither brother nor answers arrived. He finally gave up in exhaustion. Life had been gentle and kind just before the end, but often Alzheimer’s and dementia would dislodge him from the present and launch him back to his years of frantic searching. The effort of trying to make sense of memories, chronology and reality left him exhausted. It was cruel. We were helpless.

Diese Geschichte stammt aus der April - June 2020-Ausgabe von The Indian Quarterly.

Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.

Diese Geschichte stammt aus der April - June 2020-Ausgabe von The Indian Quarterly.

Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.

WEITERE ARTIKEL AUS THE INDIAN QUARTERLYAlle anzeigen
The Image-Maker
The Indian Quarterly

The Image-Maker

Sukumar Ray’s most vivid images were saved for his classics of nonsense verse, but his singular eye, writes Nabarupa Bhattacharjee, found its earliest expression in photography

time-read
8 Minuten  |
April - June 2020
The Nawab's Last Sigh
The Indian Quarterly

The Nawab's Last Sigh

Rudely awakened by the fact of independent India, an aristocrat in Meerut clung to his past. Now, he tells Sunaina Kumar, all he has left are his memories of a glorious age.

time-read
10 Minuten  |
April - June 2020
The Guest
The Indian Quarterly

The Guest

Vaiyavan is the nom de plume of MSP Murugesan. Born in 1936, he did sundry jobs before obtaining postgraduate degrees by correspondence and then served as an English and Tamil teacher till his retirement in 1996. His writing career began in 1956. Multifaceted and prolific, he has to his credit a long list of short story collections, novels, plays, literary essays, poems and children’s stories. He has won several awards including Tamil Nadu government awards for best book on culture (1982) and best science book (1992) and the Malcolm Adiseshiah award for active participation in neo-literacy activities (1996). In his short stories and novels, Vaiyavan revels in a zest for life. Humaneness is the hallmark of his work, as the pain and pleasure, trials and tribulations of people in different rungs of society are described in minute detail. —CGR

time-read
10+ Minuten  |
April - June 2020
The Birth of an Anthem
The Indian Quarterly

The Birth of an Anthem

From right-wing slogan to moving patriotic song and now back to Hindu nationalistic war cry. Rimli Sengupta on the evolution of Vande Mataram

time-read
10+ Minuten  |
April - June 2020
The Birth of a Parent
The Indian Quarterly

The Birth of a Parent

The beginning of a new life can create other strange new lives, reflects Manidipa Mandal

time-read
10+ Minuten  |
April - June 2020
The Unknown Soldier
The Indian Quarterly

The Unknown Soldier

One man wondered and worried about his disappeared brother all his life.His granddaughter continued the search. Preksha Sharma resurrects a man and his story

time-read
10+ Minuten  |
April - June 2020
The Art Scene
The Indian Quarterly

The Art Scene

For the new kid on the block, it certainly has pedigree. The Centre for Con-temporary Art, housed within Delhi’s Bikaner House complex, finally opened its portals to welcome art aficionados during this year’s edition of the India Art Fair. Nature Morte was invited to stage the centre’s much-awaited inaugural show, an opportunity the gallery found too irresistible to pass up. The ambitious exhibition it mounted, The Idea of the Acrobat, occupied both floors of the recently renovated building and brought together the works of a dozen well known artists in a multitude of media. The line-up included Bharti Kher, Atul Dodiya, Dayanita Singh, Shilpa Gupta, Ayesha Singh, Khyentse Norbu and LN Tallur to name but a few.

time-read
3 Minuten  |
April - June 2020
Long, Long Ago
The Indian Quarterly

Long, Long Ago

Arundhuti Dasgupta and Utkarsh Patel recount obscure creation myths from around the world, many echoing each other

time-read
10+ Minuten  |
April - June 2020
Family Business
The Indian Quarterly

Family Business

AT THE DINDUKKAL BUS DEPOT, the abortionist pushed her way through the crowd thronging the bus and finally managed to board it. She placed her travel bag beside her on the seat, calling out to her niece to hurry up. The young woman renewed her efforts to break free of the tangle of limbs and claim the seat reserved for her.

time-read
10+ Minuten  |
April - June 2020
A Goan Childhood
The Indian Quarterly

A Goan Childhood

Fragments of memory of a time long gone, from a life lived far away. By Selma Carvalho

time-read
9 Minuten  |
April - June 2020