TALE ABOUT TALES

DAPAAN EXPLORES KASHMIR'S STORYTELLING TRADITIONS AND THE STORIES KASHMIRIS HAVE BEEN TELLING EACH OTHER IN A TIME OF CONFLICT

- Aditya Mani Jha

At Around the 50-page mark in Dapaan, Ipsita Chakravarty's nonfiction book about Kashmir, there's a brilliant passage where the author reproduces part of a bhand paether (a Kashmiri folk theatre form) skit. An armed soldier, looking for a man named Gani, is shocked when the man's brother at the door calls out for "Gun Kak" (or 'gun uncle'). The soldier, sputtering with rage, asks "gun cocked?", before beating up Gani. This bit of Kafkaesque tragicomedy has been a part of bhand artists' repertoire since the 1990s, as Chakravarty tells us.