The event, held at the Writers’ Club, Abhinav Theatre, saw Rajya Sabha MP and J&K BJP president Sat Sharma CA release the collection published by Delhi-based Hawakal Publishers. Sharma described the work as “highly acclaimed” and praised the author’s exceptional talent, while noting that the Kashmiri Pandit community, despite the trauma of displacement, had never lost its cultural vitality or courage.

 

In a perceptive scholarly assessment, Prof Vandana Sharma, Dean of the School of Languages at Central University of Jammu, termed the work a “masterpiece” gifted with uncommon maturity for a debut. Noted historian and IIM Jammu academic Prof Shyam Narayan Lal observed that each of the ten stories explores a different shade of loss, memory, suffering, and guilt.Click Here To Follow Our WhatsApp ChannelAddressing journalists present, he remarked: “Behind every headline, every incident, every case, there is a human story. The real story often lies beyond the official version.”

 

Distinguished journalist and Daily Excelsior Bureau Chief Sanjeev Pargal was the Guest of Honour. Dr Javed Rahi, Secretary of Kala Kendra Jammu, invoked the great tradition of Kalhan Pandit and Abhinavagupta, saying Pandita through his writing was “keeping that luminous legacy alive.” The proceedings were moderated by cultural critic Ravinder Kaul.

 

The ten narratives—set across villages, hospitals, refugee camps, and speculative realms—navigate moral doubt, exile, grief, and existential emptiness, the publishers said.

 

Grammar of the Void is now available on the Hawakal website and Amazon worldwide, they added. (KNS).