Ramsha Rais just finished her schooling from Saifee Hall Golden Jubilee School in Kolkata. But she has had a very eventful teenage so far. Her "gift of the gab" was evident right from class 4, when she was 9 years old. She had her own way with words and her description of everyday things was always unconventional and unique. From random jottings her imagination started taking shape in a more coherent manner with her first narratives, being in the form of prose, began to take shape in fantasies fuelled by the world she was exposed to. Her first novel was completed when she was only 13! FIRED – her first novel was inspired by the sci-fi genre with a touch of what is now called the dystopian narrative. She never let her mind, or her pen, rest. Her fantasy novel in two books, THE HOWLING ALPHA, and her maiden collection of short stories, THE DOOR TO THE STARS, all came out while she was only 15. The long at-home periods induced by Covid lockdowns proved to be a blessing in disguise for her creativity. Then the flare-up in Gaza began and as what began as a retaliation went much beyond that threatening to become an annihilation, she decided to write because, like creative people witnessing history all across the world, she could only use her pen to express her anguish, her solidarity.
Thus came TEARS OF THE INNOCENT, her fifth publication as a teenager, which also brought her acknowledgement and recognition as the first teenager to have 5 works of fiction in English published before the age of 18.
Set entirely in Palestine mainly in Gaza and then in Rafah, this short novel is broken into very small chapters of two-three pages, by a very young writer clearly intended for readers of her own age group who usually have limited attention span. The narrative is so fast-paced that you would, and should be able to read the entire narrative at one go if you are a decent reader. What stuns me as a reader every time is how young Ms Rais is! To have been able to weave such a poignant story of pathos is something that moves me. The reader follows 8-year old Ahmad as his life is turned upside down by the bombardment of Gaza and during the course of the novel his entire family is taken away from him one by one and as he is internally displaced, decapitated, the novel ends with the young now-orphaned Ahmad vowing never to leave his motherland. He absorbs the idea of being a martyr for one's homeland. A homeland that, despite the destruction, is a beautiful place. As the reader sees the widespread destruction unfold through the eyes of young Ahmad, one also gets to see the strength of Ms Rais's characterisation. Ahmad's parents Mahmoud and Maryam, elder siblings Saleem and Fateema, younger sister baby Halima, his orphaned friend Ali, the samaritan couple Ibrahim and Aqsa – they are all drawn out well and the cameos of the man who has dug his grave next to his wife's and the toyshop owner leave an everlasting impression on the reader. At the height of pathos during dramatic action, the writer's sense of black/wry humour and bathos does not desert her as she shows the entire Qardawi family crying when Fateema dies in the operation room but adds that baby Halima is probably crying because she is hungry!
Ms Rais might be too young to know what a Bildungsroman is, but she has just shown us how to write one in a 112 pages.
DoubleSpeak 