The Night Diary by Veera Hiranandani

The Night Diary is a fictional account of one family's experience during the partition of India into two countries in 1947. The story is told in the form of diary entries written by the main character, Nisha beginning on her twelfth birthday, addressed to her deceased mother. 

Nisha receives the diary as birthday gift from Kazi, the family's Muslim servant. "The diary is covered in purple and red silk, decorated with small sequins and bits of mirrored glass sewn in. The paper is rough, thick, and the color of butter..." He tells Nisha "someone needs to make a record of the things that will happen because the grown-ups will be too busy." 

Nisha decides to address each entry to her mother Faria who died giving birth to Nisha and her twin brother Amil. For his birthday, Amil receives a beautiful book, a collection of tales from the Mahabharata, an ancient Hindu epic poem. The book contains beautiful coloured pictures, which Nisha knows Amil will love as he loves to draw but struggles to read.

Nisha and Amil live with their papa who is the head doctor at Mirpur Khas City Hospital, and Dadi, their grandmother in a large compound provided by the government. The compound consists of their home which is a large bungalow, cottages where Kazi Syed and their grounds keeper Mahit live, a vegetable garden and a chicken coop. Nisha and her brother both attend segregated government schools for boys and girls.

The first hint of change happens on July 18 when three men come to the house while Papa is at work and speak to Dadi. She orders Nisha and Amil into the kitchen with Kazi. Dadi won't tell them what they wanted but Amil tells his sister that he overheard the men asking Dadi when they would be leaving. The next day, July 19 Nisha and Amil are followed by two boys as they walk to school. Although this occasionally happens, this time the boys throw rocks at them. Nisha blames Amil who often taunts them and then runs away. But Amil tells her "It's because we're Hindus...There are lots of places all over India where the Hindus and Sikhs and Muslims fight one another all the time now...That's why those men came to the house yesterday. They said the Hindus should leave and they don't want Kazi to live with us."  

As tensions escalate, there is a fight between a Muslim and a Hindu boy at school and Amil is chased again after school. Papa decides that neither Nisha nor Amil will go to school. He explains that India will gain its independence from Britain but will be partitioned into two states. Their town of Mirpur Khas won't be in India but will now be a part of a new country called Pakistan. Although Gandhi wants everyone to live in peace, Jinnah, leader of the Muslim League wants a Muslim state while Nehru, leader of the Indian National Congress wants to be prime minister of India.

Life at home leaves Nisha bored and missing school which she did well at. Then on August 2, a group of people break down the door of their home, ransacking and breaking furniture and pots while Nisha, Amil and Dadi hide in terror in the pantry. After they leave, Kazi comes to get them, his head bleeding profusely from a cut. Shortly after this Papa decides it is time for them to leave Mirpur Khas as it is no longer safe for them to stay. He decides to hold a party and invites family and friends. Their neighbours, uncles, aunties, cousins and Dr. Ahmed and his family attend the party.

After the party, Nisha realizes that she will have her memories of life in Mirpur Khas and new memories of life in the new India. "My childhood would always have a line drawn through it, the before and the after." Nisha, Amil and their father undertake a journey across India that will change them forever and in ways they cannot anticipate.

Discussion

Veera Hiranandani's The Night Diary is loosely based on the experiences of her father's family during the Partition. Hiranandani's father, grandparents, aunts and uncles had to cross the border from Mirpur Khas to Jodhpur in a journey similar to that undertaken by Nisha and her family.  Although they safely crossed the border, at least one million people died in this mass migration that saw tensions between Muslims and Hindus escalate into violence.

Hiranandani's novel presents a balanced portrayal of the relationship between Muslims and Hindus in pre-partitioned India.  As would be expected, the families of Nisha's Hindu father and Muslim mother had mixed reactions to their marriage years earlier: her father's family was against the marriage, puzzled by his lack of interest in the Hindu girls, while Nisha's mother's sister was so against the marriage that she never spoke to her again. However her mother's brother seemed supportive. Because of Nisha's mixed background she and her family are open to friendships with both Hindu and Muslim people: her father's best friend is Dr. Ahmed, a Muslim, while Nisha's best friend is Sabeen, a Muslim student. Their cook, Kazi is also Muslim and considered a member of the family.

When Nisha and her family become targets of violence she struggles to understand. Because of their mixed heritage, Nisha and Amil don't know who attacked their home and are left confused. "...And anyway I thought the two sides were supposed to be us and the British. Why are we fighting each other?" Nisha wants to "go somewhere fresh and new where people were happy..." and where "nobody would mind that you were Muslim and Papa was Hindu and Amil and I could hold both sides of our parents in our hearts." In trying to understand why people are fighting each other, Nisha asks, "Is it the brain that makes people love and hate? Or is it the heart?"

Nisha's father tells her that everyone is to blame. "...when you separate people into groups, they start to believe that one group is better than another." But Nisha recognizes "...we all have the same blood, and organs, and bones inside us, no matter what religion we're supposed to be."

The journey to the border is filled with hardships and terrifying experiences that change how Nisha views the world and push her to ask many questions. When they run out of water, Nisha thinks about Badal, the water man who brought water to their home daily. "I never thought about how heavy it must have been and how lucky we were to have someone bring it to us every day. A wave of shame rippled through the center of my body..." As their situation grows dire and they are unable to continue, Nisha begins to think about death. "...I've thought about other people dying, but I've never thought about me not actually being here anymore."

Suffering from dehydration and unable to continue their journey, Nisha tells Dadi she loves her, making her realize that although they "never said those words to one another..." they "did things that meant love." Nisha realises that love existed in their home in the form of service to one another. "Now I could see it. Dadi washing and mending my clothes. Papa kissing us on our foreheads before bedtime, Amil making a drawing of me. Kazi making my favorite paratha stuffed with fried onions and potatoes. Every day had been filled with things like this. All love, even between Papa and Amil." Facing certain death from lack of water, when Papa returns with the much needed water, his sacrifice and comforting of them convinces Nisha that her father loves them. "I knew I would remember this forever, pack it away in my mind."

After Nisha is attacked outside Rashid Uncle's home by a Muslim man who has seen his entire family murdered, she wonders, "Why had his family been killed? Why would anyone do that? Do people who kill start out like me, or are they a different kind of human?" The attack leaves Nisha unable to comprehend the violence. "I know lots of people have died walking and on the trains in both directions. The riots and killings keep happening. I still don't understand. We were all part of the same country last month, all these different people and religions living together. Now we are supposed to separate and hate one another. Does Papa secretly hate Rashid Uncle? Does Rashid Uncle secretly hate us? Where do Amil and I fit in to all of this hate? Can you hate half of a person?" Nisha is referring to the fact that she and Amil are from Muslim and Hindu parents, leading her to wonder how people will view them.

When they finally push their way onto a train to cross the border, Nisha watches as Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs fight one another in a bloody, deadly battle. "I looked at the dying men on the ground. For what? I did not know. More revenge? I shook all over. I had never seen anyone kill before. It has changed me. I used to think people were mostly good, but now I wonder if anyone could be a murderer..."

Hiranandani has populated her novel with realistic characters and has done an excellent job recreating the historical setting for the novel, demonstrating, not surprisingly she knows her subject well.

The Night Diary doesn't really explore the root of the tensions between Muslims and Hindus in British India but it does show that the partition of the country into two separate republics was a violent event. This event viewed through the eyes of young Nisha shows how senseless the violence was, in what should have been a very proud moment in the history of the country - freedom from almost three hundred years of British rule. Today tensions continue to exist between Muslims and Hindus both within India and Pakistan and also between the two countries who are arch enemies. Neither nation has fared well since the Partition; India continues to have serious social issues including poverty, an inability to eradicate the caste system and serious women's rights issues, while Pakistan struggles with government corruption and encroaching Islamic fundamentalism.

Hiranandani includes a short Author's Note that provides some background information about her family's experiences and about the Partition. Readers may find the following websites helpful:

Stanford University's 19947 Partition of India & Pakistan: https://exhibits.stanford.edu/1947-partition/about/1947-partition-of-india-pakistan

The British National Archives also have much information as does the BBC website (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05b5fdg ).

Overall The Night Diary is an excellent, well-written novel for younger readers about an important event in the 20th century.

Book Details:

The Night Diary by Veera Hiranandani
New York: Dial Books For Young Readers    2018
264 pp.

Walking Home by Eric Walters

Thirteen-year-old Muchoki lived in the town of Eldoret with his parents and his seven year old sister, Jata. His family had a house on a small piece of land, livestock and a store in the market. He had many friends and relatives. Muchoki's father is Kikuyu, his mother is Kamba, so he is Kikukamba. Everyone knew who was Kikuyu and who was Luo or Kamba. It didn't matter because they lived and worked side by side. Then one day, Muchoki and his family learned that it did matter.

Muchoki and his family, along with relatives, neighbours and people they didn't know found themselves being attacked. They sought refuge in a church from the mob armed with machetes, clubs and torches hoping that they would be safe on sacred ground. Instead, the church was set afire. Only Muchoki, his sister and his mother survived the mob. They now live in a tent in a refugee camp that holds over twelve thousand people, surrounded by barb wire and guarded by soldiers.

Muchoki's mother is suffering from malaria and very weak. This leaves Muchoki to care for his sister who attends the refugee camp school while he goes outside the camp to gather firewood. One day he meets Jomo, who with his sisters has come to collect firewood. Jomo tells Muchoki that he is Meru and that his family is waiting for their father to come from Isiolo to take them home.

One night Muchoki's mother tells them a story about the origin of her people, the Kamba, which means 'people of the string.' She tells them that the Kamba began when a boy and a girl ran away to be together after their families forbade them from marrying. To be able to find their way back to their homes some day, the girl tied a string to the door of her home and let it out as they fled into the night. They married and had a child and wishing to return home to show the child to their parents they followed the string home, only to find that it had broken. They could not longer find their way home.

When Jomo decides he is going to go outside the gates to kill a gazelle for his family, Muchoki accompanies him. However the two boys do not kill a gazelle but instead encounter a Masai warrior who has brought down a gazelle. Because Muchoki scared the gazelle into the path of the Masai he gives Muchoki a share of the kill. On their way back into the camp, Jomo raises the ire of one of the camp guards but Muchoki smooths the situation over by inviting the guard to share their meal of the gazelle with his family. It is an act that will have significant repercussions for Muchoki and his family in the not to distant future.

The guard comes to dinner that day and Muchoki and his mother learn that he is from the Kalenjin tribe which massacred Muchoki's father and the other Kikuyu people. However the guard tells them that what happened was terrible and that he is a Kenyan first and a Kalenjin second.

When Muchoki's mother dies of malaria, the man in charge of the camp tells him that he and his sister will be taken to different orphanages to live. Muchoki is deeply upset by this and determined not to be separated from his sister, he makes plans to leave. The Kamba soldier who had dinner with them helps Muchoki by telling him to leave that night, before the matron arrives in the morning to collect his sister. With the soldier's help and the money he gives Muchoki, they leave the camp that night and head to the road leading to Nairobi. Like his ancestors who tried to follow the string back to their homeland, Muchoki is determined to find his mother's family in Kikima.

Discussion

In 2011, Eric Walters along with his friend Henry Kyatha, four children from the Rolling Hills  Orphanage and four young Canadians, made the same journey Muchoki and Jata undertook in Walking Home. They walked "from an internal displacement camp on the Mara, up the Rift Valley, down to Nairobi, through Kibera, along the Mombassa highway, to the mountains of Kikima." Along the way they interviewed, videotaped and wrote about their experiences and this adventure became the basis for the novel. It is this personal journey that gives a tone of authenticity to both Muchoki and Jata's characters as well as the to the large cast of supporting characters in the novel.

One of the strongest themes in the novel is that of the personal journey. Each of us experiences our life as a journey, both a physical and an inner spiritual one. Not only does Muchoki undertake a strenuous physical journey of almost two hundred kilometers, but he also experiences an inner personal journey that forces him to change the way he thinks about those who have grievously harmed him and his family.

Muchoki's family who are Kikuyu, were attacked by the Luo and Kalenjin people. Muchoki is now fearful and does not trust them. When he forms a polite friendship with one of the guards at the gate and invites him to dinner he learns that the man in a Kalenjin. Muchoki's response is one of anger. "I tasted bitterness in my mouth. If I had known he was Kalenjin, I would never have invited him to our tent, never offered the invitation to dine at our side."  However, the guard does not respond in the way that Muchoki expects. Instead he tells him that he defends all Kenyans and that the violence "... is nothing more than an excuse for people of violent natures to act violently." He blames the Kenyan politicians who have divided the people as tribes instead of uniting them. The soldier tells them that "An eye for an eye will leave everybody blind." He also tells Muchoki's mother that if "...I can repay her kindness, I am at your service."

Despite what has happened to him in Eldoret, Muchoki finds himself forced to trust the Kalenjin soldier. This soldier not only helps him and his sister leave the camp, he also gives him directions and money to take the matatu (bus) part of the way to Nairobi. After the soldier hears Muchoki's story of the massacre in the church at Eldoret he tells  Muchoki, "It is important that Kalenjin show friendship to Kikuyu and that Kikuyu do the same to Kalenjin...You must try to do this."

This makes Muchoki consider if he could show kindness to the people who have caused great harm to his family, wondering if this is being disrespectful towards his murdered father's memory. But the soldier warns him that "You cannot fight evil by becoming evil...The only cure for darkness is light."  The soldier warns Muchoki to not let the evil deeds erase the good that remains in him. However, at this point Muchoki states that while he will remember the Kalenjin's act of kindness, it in no way makes up for the murder of his father and his family.

While they are walking towards the road that will take them to Nairobi, Muchoki and Jata come across a church. The minister asks his congregation if they are not justified in killing out of revenge for the murders of Kikuyu by the Kalenjin and Luo. When the congregation gives its approval of such, he tells them that the commandment given by God to Moses, "Thou Shalt Not Kill" was written in stones so that people might know it was eternal and firm. The minister tells them they may defend themselves, but they will not attack and they should spread peace. This causes Muchoki to reconsider his determination to seek revenge for the killing of his father. "It is easy to say those words, sitting here inside this church where there was so much, where it seemed as if nobody had lost anything. Would he still be saying the same things if his father had been murdered? Would I kill the men who killed my father if I had the chance? Yes. It would be my duty. Would I kill those who were innocent, even if they were Kalenjin or Luo? I knew  what I would have answered in the weeks that had passed before we were helped by the two Wilsons, before I'd heard his words."

Further along in their journey, Muchoki and Jata are helped by Omolo, a farmer who sells oranges in Nairobi. Muchoki agrees to help Omolo push his cart up the hills of the city in exchange for a few oranges. When Omolo is threatened by thugs who want to steal his donkey and cart of oranges, Muchoki scares off the attackers. After Omolo hears that Muchoki's father was Kikuyu, he apologizes as he is Luo and the Luo have killed many Kikuyu in the riots. Omolo offers Muchoki and Jata a place to spend the night but Muchoki is frightened when he learns that he will be staying inside a compound with Luo. Instead Muchoki is given a safe place to stay and Omolo walks with them through Nairobi so they can safely begin the next part of their journey.

Finally when Muchoki and Jata are in Nairobi, and Jata begins to question him on why God allowed their family to be murdered, Muchoki reveals how his encounters with the soldier, the minister and Omolo have changed him. "I had once felt that it was my duty to avenge my father. But now, when I thought of the sergeant and the minister and Omolo -- when I thought of all the people who had helped us along the way -- I knew that I had already chosen a different path."

Muchoki and Jata also meet Masai warriors twice in the novel. According to Muchoki, the Masai have a reputation of being short of temper and fearless. While he is afraid of them, in both his encounters with the Masai they treat him kindly and return his respect. Through all these encounters, Muchoki learns the important lesson of treating others with respect and of forgiving others, even when a great wrong has been done.

Walking Home is a gentle treatment of tribal violence in East Africa. Written for children, Walters portrays the brutal violence in a way that is not graphic yet conveys both the magnitude and the far-reaching effects of the terror that children like Muchoki and Jata experience. A country is seriously affected when entire families are destroyed. The displacement of families from homes and livelihood affects the health and education of children and severs their connection to the communities they have lived in. All of this is effectively portrayed in Walking Home. Muchoki was a good student, third out of forty-seven students and hoping to attend at least a provincial school, if not a national school. His father owned a prosperous business and the family was doing well enough that Muchoki had never known hunger. All this changes with the murder of his father and the loss of their home.

A map of Muchoki and Jata's journey would have been a wonderful addition to the novel. Walters has provided readers with an array of multimedia resources at www.ericwalterswalkinghome.com as they read the novel.  For example in the first chapter, readers can listen to Eric read the opening two paragraphs, they can view pictures of the tents in a displaced person's camp one hundred kilometers from Nairobi, the capital of Kenya. Readers are very much encouraged to check out the multitude of photographs, videos and log entries for each of the books chapters.

Walking Home is a well written, engaging novel that will help North American young people understand life in Kenya and may encourage them to reach out and become involved in helping their brothers and sisters in Kenya, a country rich in resources and blessed with its greatest wealth of all, its diverse and unique people.

Book Details:
Walking Home by Eric Walters
Canada: Doubleday
290 pp.