All the way from Karnah, from the area of Kashmir that borders with Pakistan, Majid Magray brings this true-to-life fictional tale of the hunt for a “wild goat” in the dead of Kashmir’s winter.
In this short story, Majid Magray presents the small world of a boy from the Pakistani side of the Line of Control that divides India and Pakistan. The ficitionalized account acquaints the reader with life at the makeshift border between the two nuclear nations, shedding light on the struggles faced by those who live at the margins of far more densely populated areas. The young twelve year old boy, symbolically named Aazad, dreams of crossing the river from the Pakistani administered side to play a match of cricket with the boys of his age living on the Indian administered side. As the narration progresses, the world of those who live in close proximity of heightened cross-border violence comes to fore. In the process, the story reveals the simple aspirations for peace of a people who do not allow conflicting nation states to dictate their relationship with their place of birth nor with that world that they routinely feel trapped within.