This is the story of a starving Spanish teacher in a fearful city of
swirling rumors and innuendos, avarice and desire, plotters and
political perfidy, ominous prophesies and palpable emotions brings
Rukshunda Anandan to Kabul in 2012, to a continuing war that has not
still ended, where the world knows that once upon a time love blossomed
in this land of poppy flowers and a warrior-poet spoke of
Sirat-al-Mustaqeem.
But there is no straight path before Rukshunda or her brother Raul. Nor
for their mother Uma, a newly married 18-year-old, who had come to Kabul
with stars in her eyes and left the city with a bag full of confusion,
unable to distinguish the right from the wrong. This brings the daughter
back to the city, searching for the backstory of her mother's lover. And
it also brings her son to this strife-torn land, chasing a long-ago
happiness trail.
The story is about a time when Fear could be held in the cup of one's
palm, smelt and felt throbbing like a heart still beating. It is a story
of Fear as a very young woman confronts a slowly dying city. It is a
story in which all of the characters want to put the 'halter on stars'
and the storyteller reads poetry, 'O' companion! May I tell you the
secrets of my heart?'
