Of Kashmir's tradition

R C Ganjoo

The book, "Catching The Fading Ray," is a collection of twentyfive short stories written by Avanti Sopory. It illuminates the rich cultural nostalgia of her yester- years, of her birth place Kashmir, and of when she was just 10. Every piece in the book gives us an essence of Kashmiri tradition, customs and social ethos.
Sopory has tried to keep Kashmir's social and cultural values alive in her collection of the stories. The author has described these stories in a very lucid style.
The author has assiduously gathered these stories from rural- oriented senior citizens of the Valley after having interactive session with them to assimilate all aspects of relevant folklores and fables. The book provides a range of glimpses into highly interesting and stirring portraits with the folk tales of Kashmir rolled down generation after generation through word of mouth.
George Grierson was impressed by the high philosophical content and linguist richness of Lalla Waakh (Lal Ded or Lalla Yogeshwari who was a popular 14th century Kashmiri saint poetess).

Avanti Sopory Waakh travelled from one generation to another by word of mouth. No manuscript was available. In 1914, Grierson assigned Pt. Mukand Ram Shastri the task of noting down the entire Lalla Waakh. Pt. Mukand Ram located a saint, Dharam Dass Darvesh of Gucchgam, who had learnt Lalla Waakh by heart. Pt.
Mukand Ram Shastri recorded Waakh from Darvesh and handed it over to Grierson.
The book is an stimulant in connecting the reader to the richness of Kashmir. Anupam Kher, eminent Bollywood actor on the cover post of Catching The Fading Ray, writes "Kashmir does not only possess geo-space but is abundant in its enthralling geocultural matrix, from which thoughts and concepts embedded in the consciousness of people are finely described in the stories in this book."
Sopory has co-authored “Cross and Knotted” , listed in the Limca Book of Records.
Her other women- centric short story featured in “Defiant Dreams” which is listed with the Commission on status of Women, UN and Oprah book club. Her third anthology, “When They Spoke,” has stories on the personification of inanimate objects. It is already in market for book lovers.



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