Pub by: Bloomsbury India
“But this is one war zone where the party that wins continues to lose, as it has never been able to live a normal, stable life.”
“The Fall of Kabul-Despatches from Chaos” is the author’s on-ground report of the last days of the Republic of Afghanistan before it falls prey to the approaching army of the Taliban.
Nayanima Basu bravely goes into the war zone when the Americans are receding and the Taliban is incoming, to give an account of those harrowing days leading to the capture of Kabul and her flight to safety from a land constantly caught in a quagmire of global politics, terror and neglect.
From August 8-17 2021, Nayanima Basu is desperately trying to hold on to her dear life while documenting history unfolding before her eyes. The book narrates those fearful days when the world just watched as Afghanistan fell straight into the lap of the Taliban. What was shocking was not only the speed with which events took a turn, but also the way it all happened without a fight. The world gave up and the president eloped to safety.
The author endeavours to go crisscross across the country to record the pulse of the moment. On the day she lands in Kabul, at Serena Hotel, she encounters colleagues who laugh off the suggestion, that the country would be taken over by Taliban. And in a span of a few days, all things turn around. On the day the Taliban enters Kabul, she is interviewing Gulbuddin Hekmatayar, an interview abruptly aborted with the news of the Taliban entering Kabul.
From the moment she lands in Kabul, she is engulfed with conflicting perceptions about the fate of the country. While the official word including that of the Indian embassy is that the country will be fine with a power-sharing agreement between President Ashraf Ghani and Taliban, the ground reality was something far from different. The Doha talks were constantly being flouted as the harbinger of peace to prevail in the country. While the Taliban soldiers were confidently striding towards the capital.
But as she says on page 45, ”I was covering a war that was unstructured…..soldiers in Afghanistan were not trained.”
People moved around normally, some completely in a state of denial about the fall of the government. While, some were confident about the Taliban lurking in the corner just about to take a turn in to conquer.
“An estimated 2,70,000 Afghans had been displaced inside the country between January and July 2021, primarily because of insecurity and violence they were facing.”
The global powers came in and they went. Promises of democracy and modernization all fell wayside. When it came to the crunch, all just packed their bags and left, leaving behind a population so insecure, frightened, and terrorized.
Chapters 8 and 9 describe Nayanima’s escape to life and survival, chilling to the core and scary. I am sure, the experience must have left many scars. Because it seems dangerously exciting to be reporting from conflict zones, but it must be horrifying to be standing all alone surrounded by fear and violence not knowing whether one would make out of it alive. The moment when she was walking into the embassy on August 16, 2021, wherein she was told not to look back, or else she would be shot seems her scariest moment ever.
The epilogue –an analysis of Afghanistan post the take-over by the Taliban is straight and analytical. However, it could be broken down into smaller chapters.
“To recognize or not to recognize Taliban.“
As Nayanima Basu rightly points out, it is a catch-22 situation. You recognize; one is legitimizing the wrongs. And ignore them; they have the liberty to inflict more injustice. She strongly advocates opening up the consulate in Afghanistan for us to be present there.
The book is a tribute to her bravery and courage to defy all warnings (before she left), hurdles to reach Afghanistan, and braving the chaos defined by uncertainty, inevitability, and an abject surrender to fate.
“Roughly 15 million people go to sleep hungry every night in Afghanistan, UN’s World Food Programme says.” Was this how it was supposed to end? Is this how the country’s future will be shaped?
preetachag 