The Night Diary 🖋 Veera Hiranandani

'I have seen things I never thought I'd see. There were men fighting. There was blood. I don't know if the train will stop and more fighting will happen and more people will be killed, including us. If anyone finds this, please send it to Kazi Syed in Mirpur Khas. Please remember us. Please remember the way it used to be when India was whole.'

 🇮🇳 The year is 1947. Distrust and conflict is brewing in the air as the India-Pakistan split becomes imminent. Young Nisha lives in Pakistan with her Hindu father, twin brother and grandmother. As disputes and anger rises among the people of the newly formed nations, they are faced with no choice but to leave for India before the situation aggravates. Along the long dangerous journey away from her dear home town, Nisha writes letters to her late mother, a Muslim, narrating her struggles and relaying her desperation as she questions humanity and what  independence truly means.

📝 A few intriguing details:

• The Night Diary is written in the form of a compilation of letters to her mother in which Nisha pours out her deepest thoughts and experiences onto the pages as one would a diary. I think reading this book knowing that despite never having even met her mother before, (her mother had passed soon after Nisha and her brother Amil was born) Nisha carried her memory on and valued her spiritual presence by writing to her and sharing the troubles they'd have had to go through had she been there is in a way quite special.
•  This book provides a great deal of insight to the reader on the civil war that took place in the year of 1947 and is a brilliant read for age 11 and above.