CHENNAI: The towns are burning. People are dead. Fighter planes circle the air. And a teenage boy watches from afar as his hometown succumbs to rubble and ash. Hannah Lalhlanpuii’s When Blackbirds Fly is a reminder of the dark side of India’s history. Set in the foreground of the independence movement in Mizoram, the story is an insider’s account, one of a schoolboy who knows not of the tragedy that is creeping up at the borders. The unnamed narrator is living his blissful life, peppered with his grandfather’s tales of yesteryear, his crush Rini’s exhaustive chatter, his father’s solitude, his best friend Zuala’s company and the niggling dread of school — all until the Assam Rifles’ (Indian Army) decided to bomb the area, as they did in 1966, subsequently resulting in two decades of insurgency.
Through the eyes of the narrator, Hannah masterfully — and at times, poetically — transforms pages of history into sentimental reality. Facts become experiences, dates transform into a ticking clock and a slice of historic news comes to life. Despite creating a fictional narrative, it is not as though the author has no stake in these events. “My mother’s family suffered a tragic loss during the insurgency and I wanted to tell the story of the people, like my mother’s, whose losses were silenced and unheard of. The bombing (of Mizoram) was what started the insurgency, so I wanted it to be the setting of my story. Many of the people I interviewed (for the book) had first-hand experiences of the bombing,” she informs. In her attempt to recreate the setting, Hannah also finds daily situations that come as a reality check to the reader. From innocently collecting gun cartridges as a hobby to enjoying time with friends in a school-turned-kitchen for the Mizo National Front, she captures the ambience of a far-from-ideal childhood.
Hard-hitting narratives
And despite these sparing moments of amusement, happiness and everything in between, Hannah does not back down from the cold, hard reality of the matter. It comes as a surprise — to call it refreshing may be reductive — that amid hopeful children’s tales, one like this would also find its place. But such is life, isn’t it? “I think it’s important to develop a sense of historical and cultural awareness among children, and I think historical fiction is the perfect medium to do that. In my opinion, children should be made aware of historical events that have an impact on contemporary society. I hope that children’s historical fiction will become a booming genre, and I hope to have more contribution in this,” she admits.
Even at the end of the story, she does not provide superfluous relief. To return from this reading experience without at least a lump in your throat would be bemusing. But a cushy ending was never on her mind. “I was very sure about how I wanted the book to end, I didn’t consider ending it any other way. Many readers have commented on how the book didn’t end on a happy note, but I wanted to keep it that way, to reflect the ending of the 20-year-long insurgency in Mizoram which had very tragic outcomes,” she shares.
The book is one of three in Penguin Random House’s (Duckbill) Not Our War (NOW) series which explores the experiences of children in times of conflict and violence. The series serendipitously fell into Hannah’s lap, who had been working on the story since 2012. “I wasn’t aware of the series when I started writing my book. The editor decided that it would fit into the NOW series after reading my manuscript and I am really happy to be a part of the series. It was a long and tedious (writing) process as I had to conduct many interviews in order to maintain historical accuracy and get the facts right. I had to stop my writing as I was caught up with my academic studies. After leaving it under the dust for four years, I finally completed the book in 2018,” she shares. The other two books in the series are — When Morning Comes by Arushi Raina and Wanting Mor by Rukhsana Khan.