Memoirs of turmoil

"People say I am lucky I am always present where trouble is. It's not luck, it's hard work, preparation and common sense... " writes Anita Pratap, the hot shot journalist, in her latest `assignment', "Island of Blood".

The book is an intimate account of her experiences in war- ravaged zones Sri Lanka and Afghanistan and human tragedy across South Asia.

For the fiery reporter, it all started in Madras way back in 1983. After braving odds in war zones while working for well- known magazines and television channels (including Time and CNN), Anita has now settled down for a quieter life of a freelancer and documentary film maker.

Married to a Norwegian diplomat, she spent two years travelling between Oslo and Kerala to put down her memories on paper.

In Chennai this past week to launch her book (published by Penguin, Rs. 295), the articulate Anita relived some of her experiences, though she preferred not to read out excerpts from the book.

As she puts it, "Reading is a one-to-one communication between the author and a reader, the joy is destroyed when a book is read out to a group".

"It was an emotional, sentimental journey, a sort of catharsis for me," she began. "The book takes the reader into the heart of conflict to meet real people who have suffered and have risen with strength and stoicism."

It was 1983 and riots broke out in Sri Lanka. That was the moment that changed Anita's life. If she was in Jaffna one day, she was in the middle of a gun battle in Kabul the next.

From the cyclone-hit Ujantia in Bangladesh to drought affected Mudalapalli in Karnataka, it has been one long and traumatic journey for her.

She says in her book, "I learned to value ordinary pleasures because every assignment helped me realise how treacherous life can be... "

Perhaps the first journalist and most definitely the first woman, to first set foot in strife-torn Sri Lanka, Anita's reports on the mindless violence and her meetings with the LTTE supremo Pirabhakaran brought her international recognition.

But it was a distressing time for her, she says as she recalls some gruesome sights. ("There were seven young men lying in the middle of the road tied together... They had been `necklaced'. Around each man's neck were burning car tyres... Their throats had been slit"). Anita believes "reality is much more dramatic than fiction".

She may have met "an amazing set of characters" in the political arena (Abdul Rashid Dostum and Bal Thackeray among others. But no, she's not met Osama bin Laden), but what she cherishes is her encounters with ordinary people caught in the crossfire of rival politics.

"Terrorism is a virulent form of grievance", she says. When people do not get any help from the government and become helpless, they turn to violence, she adds.Meanwhile, "Island of Blood" has been criticised for not being "a history text". Her response to the allegation is, "I am only a reporter who is sharing her experiences, trying to humanise conflicts. It was not meant to be an academic book".

Though the book concentrates on Sri Lanka and Afghanistan, the chapters on the Babri Masjid demolition, the plight of children in Kashmir, and the suicide of Shobha, the Tamil actress (the plight of her parents is really sad) are candid and significant.

Says Anita, "Though my image is that of a hardcore war reporter, I am much more interested in issues relating to women and children. In fact quite a few of my stories have tackled women's issues."

Answering a question on what she wants to achieve by writing the book, she says, "It's an effort to make us all realise and appreciate the normalcy that prevails in our lives. I hope to create empathy by taking the reader into the lives of innocent people, for whom everything changed in a flash of a moment."

Anita is busy writing her second book, once again, heart-rending stories of human tragedy and triumph.

SAVITHA GAUTAM

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