Calling Sehmat by Harinder S. Sikka
Konark Publishers.2008.
Pages: 231
Price: Rs.400.

What does nation and patriotism mean to an average citizen? For many it begins and ends with watching Independence and Republic day celebrations on television, reading a few books to know how your country fared in such and such war, flipping through daily news articles on politics, feeling a sudden gush of blood and pride in your veins when listening to the National anthem, nourishing a strong desire to rage a howling war against the enemy countries.

There are very few books written today which make you thing beyond the word, books which are powerful enough to ignite sense of responsibility, love and loyalty towards one's motherland, books which make you think and rethink the meaning of sacrifice. Harinder S. Sikka's novel Calling Sehmat is one of the kind.

A spy thriller, set against the background of emerging 1971 Indo-Pak war, Calling Sehmat is a novel based on real life character, Sehmat Khan, daughter of a Kashmiri businessman Hidayat Khan who does espionage work for Indian intelligence agencies. Sehmat is handed over the baton following her father's illness and here starts Sikka's narrative and Sehmat's sacrifice. Sehmat, a student in delhi, talented, beautiful and in love comes home to her parents and to her destiny, to which she willfully surrenders herself for the love of her father and her nation. She is made to marry a Pakistani Army officer, son of an ISI General to spy on them and pass the information to the Indian Intelligence.The undeterred courage with which she carries her task is both awe-inspiring and commendable.

Sikka's narrative is lucid, informative and gripping. With the economy of thought and expression the prose at times becomes so intense that you would wish for an interlude. But the absence of skillful blending of smooth flowing romantic scenes, thrilling and fast pacing action and matter-of-fact details is something that may disappoint a reader. It hinders the reading experience and might make people skip pages to get to the story. Since the story is largely about Sehmat, she hovers like a god like figure in the novel leaving very little space for other characters to evolve individually and fill the gaps of Sehmat's absence in the novel. Inspite of the flaws the novel transcends from being a spy thriller to an informative document on the role Indian Navy in the 1971 Indo-Pak war; to a philosophical text, much borrowed from Dr. Brian's Many Lives Many Masters.

Calling Sehmat is a must read. It opens up our understanding of the new horizons of human sacrifice- the bitter truth that war is never a solution, the fact that nation comes before religion, sacrifice before demands.

© Copyright by tina rathore