SEASONS OF TROUBLE

Spoiler Alert: Nothing monumental, but please stay away if you are the kind that reads the preface AFTER the book!For the 70s and 80s children, Suicide bombing, cyanide capsule, Vanni, Kilinochchi, IPKF, Elephant Pass are are familiar jargon. We read with great interest the beginnings of the fight for Tamil ‘Eelam’ in Srilanka: how Velupillai Prabhakaran led the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) as the dominant organisation waging armed battle with the Sri Lankan government/army after eliminating other ‘freedom’ movements. Much later we read about the fall of this outfit and the ignominious end that befell its Supremo. Even as two prime ministers of the subcontinent were assassinated and our own Indian troops were on the Lankan soil, we had ambivalent feelings towards the Eelam movement. Most of us had Tamilian friends sympathetic towards it, and who would recount some daring acts of the LTTE cadre.But what we did not hear then, were the human stories. Once the crackdown of LTTE by the government forces turned into a veritable genocide following the defeat of a purpose, there were displacement & military excesses, betrayal by the cause, loss of property, lives and dignity that the Sri Lankan Tamil PEOPLE endured during the years after the strife. Rohini Mohan brings these out in her brilliant debut book, ‘The Seasons of Trouble’.Journalistic tenacity & empathetic engagement with real people appear to be trick ingredients of the author. Her choice of the point in the timeline of the conflict where the book begins is brilliant: the armed struggle against the Sinhalese establishment is past its zenith; the government has intensified its offensive against militancy & is striking at the core of Tamil identity & separatism; the LTTE leadership is crumbling; in its desperation to hold on to the Tamil dominated ‘Vanni’ (homeland), the Tigers are conscripting unwilling kids into battle, hiding behind civilian hostages hoping to avoid being fired at & are eliminating deserters; the Lankan army is teethed with cluster bombs & precision targeting and using them even against hospitals; women and children are being raped; war crimes are unchecked and the Tamil spirit is despondent. From this vantage Rohini Mohan traces the hopelessness of the three possible fates the Tamil militants, their supporters and uninvolved Tamilians faced in these times through intertwined storylines.The book has three protagonists: Mugil, a voluntary LTTE inductee as a little girl, a fierce combatant who is brought back into the battlefield after an injury-related stint in support services; Sarva, who ‘disappears’ in the opening pages suspected of his ties with the ‘Tigers’; and Indra, Sarva’s mother whose remarkable courage and undying efforts are in full display as she attempts to track Sarva and get him out of illegal detention. As Mugil’s character is introduced, we see her disillusioned resolve to desert LTTE and to rejoin her family. Between these three beautifully etched characters, Rohini Mohan explores the psyche and the severe hardships that volunteer cadres, individuals who got sucked into the conflict arena inadvertently and their hapless families went through in the period of rise & fall and eventually the decimation of LTTE. As we follow the three protagonists, Mohan peppers the book with incidents and observations about numerous other Sri Lankan tamils and their families giving us a 360-degree view of the Tamil life during the Eelam struggle and the genocide. She exposes us to the wretched lives the tamils lived, with loss of possessions & dignity, death, illness and injury, desolation and utter hopelessness during the offensive by the Sri Lankan forces as well as by the eventual ‘betrayal’ by the LTTE.The book records some history to afford perspective to those totally ignorant of the Tamil movement: the independence of Ceylon, dominance of English educated tamils, Sinhalese disenchantment, birth of variuos organisations, Rajapaksa’s Sinhala nationalism and subsequent turn of Srilankan geopolitical events. But the purpose of this book is not to document the conflict itself, but to show how conflict devastates the ordinary life and - as the author says, ‘the wreckage of civil war and the mundane omnipresence of conflict.’ There are clever insights into life during the strife expanded from observations on daily struggles: Sample this from a commentary on the value of assets in a war-torn region:‘Mother pawned her gold bracelet, two rings and her thick silver anklets. This sustained them for another two months...How easily trinkets, coins and chains could be bundled into a handkerchief and tucked into sari petticoats or underclothes. One by one, they would be pawned or sold—for utensils, an operation, some poultry or goats.’Two things about the writing technique: First is the question whether the book is fiction or non-fiction. Clearly, the characters in the book are real except that there is no <name-changed> alert, giving almost a fiction-like feel for the book. In the preface, Rohini Mohan describes her prolonged journalistic engagement with people after who the protagonists were modelled after, clarifying that it’s indeed non-fiction. What really happens to a kottiya (terrorist) in the field, in desertion, during illegal detention and flight are said in non-dramatic and realistic tone that these must have been real incidents. Yet, the style of writing is more novelistic than reportage. This gives the writer a license to approach the rigidity of facts with the freedom of fiction, something that purists would frown upon but makes reading enjoyable.Two, the author has handled the issue of the omniscient narrator with aplomb. With this technique the reader is everywhere, witnessing everything first hand and the author, unseen, unfolds everything so well without the burden of placing a POV at one angle or another. Despite that, the usual problem of inadequate reader connect with the characters in the omniscient third party narrative style has been well conquered.Two other aspects of writing impress. First, there is no over-dramatisation. In fact, if anything, Rohini Mohan has tried to be as placid as possible, in spite of the tragedy and desolation that is all around. This is no tear-jerker, except that the enormity of the happenings do tug at one’s sensibilities. Second, there isn’t much political analysis or finger-pointing. Some timelines are mentioned in between and you can figure out what went wrong for yourself.‘The Seasons of Trouble’ is a superb book, a fantastic debut, and at display are the author’s journalistic capabilities as well as a great maturity as a writer.As far as the Sri Lankan Tamil struggle is concerned it has been pushed beyond oblivion. The lessons from this crushed movement are summarised in the preface by the author: “As the world grapples with new democracies and old hate, these three lives are a grim caution. Mugil says her experience is a warning for the next marginalised group that refuses to assimilate. Sarva sees the war as a permanent obstacle to love and happiness. Indra, his mother, calls it destiny.”Rating: 4.5/5

I read these lines somewhere about the book - "Rohini Mohan’s book digs so deep that it touches your heart—and unsettles it." These are the exact words I was searching for. I saw the tag that the book is non-fiction and I had to see it again to remind myself that it was. If I sound naive, please ignore, because when you read what all the 3 characters go through, you feel despair, hope, anxiety and what not. It took me some time to read the book as I had to step back and divert myself from the brutalities I read. I admire the will power it takes to write the book, but it must be nothing compared to the will power of the 3 and more characters whom Rohini introduces. This book is worthwhile all the way. As she put it across somewhere, the book gives a feminine touch to the SriLankan-LTTE war and its consequences. Overall, very poignant and very brave.

Very nice book on SRI LANKA civil war. Writer has done outstanding work. Very insightful explanation of LTTE and vani

Just received. Excellent quality pages and good font size. The outer covering is a wee bit worn out. Still extremely happy with the purchase.

I couldn't stop reading once I started. I had a different picture about this war before i read this book. But after reading this book my picture is changed completely.

A must-read book. Most events in the world are reported on as they take place. But equally important (if not more important) is what happens before and after. Ms Rohini Mohan's book answers these questions in relation to Sri Lanka, before and after the operation that ended the LTTE. And she does it by taking us through the stories of three people's lives over a sequence of years. Written like a novel, but respecting the highest traditions of journalism, this is a book that should not be missed.As the famous war reporter Ryszard Kapuscinski said of his coverage of a coup in Algeria, "I had been searching for spectacular imagery, laboring under the illusion that it was compelling, observing tableaux that somehow justified my presence, absolving me of responsibility to understand the events at hand. It was the fallacy that one can interpret the world only by means of what it chooses to show us in the hours of its convulsions...". Ms Mohan it seems has internalised this insight (has she read Kapuscinski?) and applies the approach skilfully.

The Seasons of Trouble may belong to the non-fiction genre, but it really is what many call "Faction". I am a big believer in the power of stories. Mohan's control over her craft is apparent as she successfully marries non-fiction with fiction. The author's honesty and hard work reflect in the storytelling and it truly is a book with a soul. Every writer worth his salt wants just that, and I congratulate Rohini Mohan on achieving this in her debut novel itself.I wouldn't change a thing in the book. Nowhere did the narrative dip, and it was an absolute delight to read such a well-written book. Look forward to read more from Rohini Mohan.

Got an old copy of the book...

Excelente libro con dos historias de la vida real narradas de gran manera. Aprendí sobre la situación de la guerra civil de Sri Lanka, pero sobre todo, de las dificultades que la gente enfrentó y que probablemente sigue enfrentando.

In one sentence: Well-written, balanced approach, putting a Human face to what happened in Sri Lanka. MUST read!If I didn't convince you, this got selected by NPR best books.While reading this book and looking at reviews, I didn't know how to put it. Well, Jon Lee Anderson, of "New Yorker" couldn't have said it better: "Mohan has revealed a modern tragedy of truly epic proportions. Haunting and unforgettable."Recently I watched the Independent British Channel 4 video documentary online- it holds all parties responsible:channel4.com/programmes/sri-lankas-killing-fields/on-demandAnd when I read the book my the Human Rights Activist, Dr.N.Malathy from New Zealand: My Fleeting moment the last days...I began to understand the True picture.A Fleeting Moment in My Country: The Last Years of the LTTE De-Facto StateAnd then to read this book by this award-winning Journalist. This is a definite read for anyone seriously interested to know the Truth.Have twitter? Follow author: @rohini_mohanhope this helps?

If you've ever been curious about the recent civil war in Sri Lanka this is a good book to start reading about it. It talks about the conflict through the lives of three characters, making the narrative relatable and very human. The author doesn't give her characters grand pretensions, and keeps them rooted in reality - Sarva's girlfriend troubles don't fade into the background when he's fleeing the country, Mugil's tension with her sister continues right till the end, and Indra's money troubles take no notice of her age or circumstance. It's a very real book and troubling that the facts narrated in it are so recent and still unresolved - Sri Lankan tamils are still negotiating their way of life and freedom as one reads this and one is left wondering about the characters long after finishing the book.

Hallo, Buch erhalten, 4 Wochen gedauert, aber dafür ein wichties Buch für mich und für alle anderen Tamilen und Sinhalesen. Danke

Riveting prose. Brilliant Novel.