How does a mad family remain sane when it is surrounded by madness? What are the mad things it does to remain sane when Hindus and Muslims collide with each other in one of the worst communal riots in India’s recent history? I can't claim to have found all the answers, but I can tell you that we survived. A little scarred perhaps, but alive. That is the City of Fear in less than 100 words.
City of Fear tries to document the unique emotional landscape of those very turbulent times – How family members responded to each other while houses collapsed around them and the Godhra riots turned many streets of Ahmedabad into battlefields… How friends respond to each other, especially those with whom you had ideological differences… How strangers and acquaintances respond…
Because it all changed during those two years.
Friends whose strong Hindutva leanings you laughed off earlier, now stare at you in the face like an angry monster. You wonder how you can be friends with a monster. Acquaintances, who could not have cared less about your religion, now wonder whether Jews are closer to Muslims or Christians. And, for the first time, you are afraid to tell them that you have a lot in common with Muslims.
Primarily, City of Fear is the story of how mother and I decided to leave our home of more than 20 years because we lived in an area where Hindus and Muslims live very close to each other; where mobs clash with each other almost every day. Tired of living in a locality that is constantly on the edge, we decided to move to an apartment in a locality that has no violence.
As we began discarding many of the objects collected in our large bungalow over the years, the past suddenly jumped out at us. Through objects lying concealed in different corners of the house we had to face up to old girlfriends, dead relatives and unfulfilled desires in love letters, drawings, guitar strings, and tuning forks.
City of Fear tries to document the unique emotional landscape of those very turbulent times – How family members responded to each other while houses collapsed around them and the Godhra riots turned many streets of Ahmedabad into battlefields… How friends respond to each other, especially those with whom you had ideological differences… How strangers and acquaintances respond…
Because it all changed during those two years.
Friends whose strong Hindutva leanings you laughed off earlier, now stare at you in the face like an angry monster. You wonder how you can be friends with a monster. Acquaintances, who could not have cared less about your religion, now wonder whether Jews are closer to Muslims or Christians. And, for the first time, you are afraid to tell them that you have a lot in common with Muslims.
Primarily, City of Fear is the story of how mother and I decided to leave our home of more than 20 years because we lived in an area where Hindus and Muslims live very close to each other; where mobs clash with each other almost every day. Tired of living in a locality that is constantly on the edge, we decided to move to an apartment in a locality that has no violence.
As we began discarding many of the objects collected in our large bungalow over the years, the past suddenly jumped out at us. Through objects lying concealed in different corners of the house we had to face up to old girlfriends, dead relatives and unfulfilled desires in love letters, drawings, guitar strings, and tuning forks.
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