The first ever attempt to showcase Raghbir Dhand’s work in the English language, melting Moments, a collection of fourteen stories, is also his best in terms of variety of themes, ideas, technique and craft.As an individual and a writer, Dhand always sought to negotiate the complex ghettoized, feudal Punjabi identity through the mish-mash of racism, politics of exclusion/identity/language and culture. These stories deal exclusively with the problems of dual cultural identity. Ripping off the complex layers of every known form of human character/situation, Dhand compels us to reflect on the condition of our own lives.Each story is situational narrative of dispersal, often reified by the memory of diasporic consciousness, constituted both positively and negatively. Searching for a foothold, some of these stories return to the reality or the myth of the memory-locked homeland; others struggle desperately to understand the rationale behind the collapsing affiliative structures; whereas still others, simply race on ahead to embrace whatever fragmented realities the host land may have had to offer.Using language with the deftness of a visual artist, Dhand paints haunting images in vivid colours, applying small, delicate strokes. By weaving a complex web of the character, situation and setting, he often brings to fore the power of his own suggestiveness. With their astounding range and vast canvas, these stories are perhaps the best tribute to Dhand’s cosmopolitanism and liberal humanism.
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