THE WANDERING FALCON - Jamil Ahmad

This review was originally published at Miranda 2012 (the 2012 edition of the annual magazine of Miranda House).

"This way of life had endured for centuries, but it would not last forever. It constituted defiance to certain concepts, which the world was beginning to associate with civilization itself. Concepts such as statehood, citizenship, undivided loyalty to one state; settled life as opposed to nomadic life, and the writ of the state as opposed to tribal discipline."

The Wandering Falcon, debut novel of 80-year old Jamil Ahmad, is a short novel which gives us an insight into the lives of the nomadic people of the borders of Afghanistan and Pakistan, a region otherwise only associated with bombs and guns.

It gives an inside picture of the harsh beauty of the place and its honour-bound tribes through the story of Tor Baz, or the Wandering Falcon, a boy who is orphaned at the age of 5 when his parents are killed in front of his eyes. Using just nine chapters, the book narrates his childhood, his adolescence, and adulthood; as he transforms from fugitive, to prisoner, to servant, to adopted son, to informer, to wife-buyer.

It comes out more as a collection of short stories loosely related to each other, with Tor Baz being the central character in some, and appearing only briefly in others. It tells the readers about how the lives of the various nomadic tribes change, and how they deal with it, when the concept of international boundaries and policy come into a world ‘where little remains secret but much is misunderstood’.

The best part about the book is that it is concisely written, yet effective. Combining his simple style of writing with his expert knowledge of the area, Ahmad takes his readers on a journey through lands they might otherwise never see, revealing a longstanding way of life that has been disappearing for some time. The book is also filled with scenes that create vivid images in the reader's imagination.

All the way through, the characters, the tales, and the landscape are rendered with clarity, sympathy, and insight. The author makes the reader travel with him. We feel as though we ourselves are with the miserable soldiers posted in Pakistan's western desert, we are with the nomads who annually drive their herds of animals across the international border, only to be baffled and enraged when they learn the border is now to be enforced, we are witnessing the plans being made for a kidnapping in North Waziristan, a region better known to news consumers as a hideout for Afghan militants.

Even so, there are a few points which don’t work in favour of the book. One is the ending. Though the entire novel is very malleable; every chapter presents the main character in a different shape or form; but the reader presumably would want closure. After all, it began properly, and one expects it to end properly. Also, the latter chapters wobble sometimes. In places, there is almost no sight of the boy as Ahmad introduces new characters and their stories.

However, the positive points outweigh the negative points. It is a very accessible book and it offers a rich picture of a place, a time, and groups of people before all became synonymous with terror and war.

All in all, an absorbing, eye opening read.