First a publisher, then a writer, Ashok Chopra is nowhere close to stopping…. [He] might have started writing late but now that he has picked up the pen, he continues to wield it well.
Memories of Fire is highly recommended to all those looking for rare gems… a journey that takes the reader into a charmed world, where the undergrowth drips with nostalgia, touched with strokes of humour…. It is spicy and informative, a story of our past and present, brimming with anecdotes about our history, people, eccentrics, lovers, scandals—everything that makes for fine reading.
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Memories of Fire is a skillful narrative of events in India and Pakistan in the 1970s and 80s…. There are touching and poignant moments and wonderful insights into the Punjabi ethos, a unique and composite culture of its three major religions, Hinduism, Islam and Sikhism. The writer’s love for nature also comes through and there are telling descriptions of little known aspects of north Indian culture…. An instructive read.
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Ashok Chopra’s Memories of Fire is a picturesque novel written in such an appealing style that I was transported to my younger days. An extraordinary blend of fact and fiction, it is an essential read, covering a variety of subjects.
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Memories of Fire, set over a span of 50 years in the hills of Shimla and Punjab, does more than just describing and conjure the beautiful landscape of mountains and valleys in the region. The author’s deep interest in literature, art and culture… his knowledge of Indian classical music and its famous exponents… his passion for literature are revealed throughout…. [He] is at his intellectual best when it comes to romance, sex and love.
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Ashok Chopra sees India and Pakistan as still one seamless entity. That is not to say he does not acknowledge the creation of both countries in 1947. He is too astute for such wishful extremism. He has crossed the border from India to Pakistan and back again all too often to not be reminded every time of the barbed reality of a border that snakes from Kashmir to Kutch. To him the only borders that matter are the borders of his mind, and these are limitless. Chopra belongs to a diminishing genus in India that can still distinguish between Faiz and Faraz, that can appreciate the poignancy writhing in Munir Niazi’s lament ‘Hamesh Der Kar Deta Hoon Main’, that can tell whether the Khatias are from Lahore’s Khalifa Bakery or from some other taste-alike. He belongs to a rare species that can keep abreast of Pakistani politics and Islam without weakening his own religious convictions or his Indianness. His latest book Memories of Fire is a hexagram of his mind in which his imagination flies from corner to corner, across time, across borders. He speaks through the voices of his forcefully etched characters…. [His] skill lies in his ability to weave a story that tests the tensile strength of contemporary events and attitudes pulling against traditional determination siding with history….
Chopra’s narrative is grouted deep in sensitivity…. Memories of Fire is undeniably a love story between the author and his characters. For only the deepest and truest of emotions could have created such finely etched images of kinship, camaraderie, and enduring friendship. [He] has allowed us to watch them set slowly, gradually in amber.
Chopra’s narrative is grouted deep in sensitivity…. Memories of Fire is undeniably a love story between the author and his characters. For only the deepest and truest of emotions could have created such finely etched images of kinship, camaraderie, and enduring friendship. [He] has allowed us to watch them set slowly, gradually in amber.
Ashok Chopra—author, book editor, publisher, columnist and now a novelist—is a man of many facets. A voracious reader with a remarkable memory and the ability to recall what he wants at the right moment, in his novel Memories of Fire, he quotes profusely from the works of poets and writers. He grabs your attention from the word go… and weaves details skillfully into his narration. No assessment of his novel can be complete without complimenting the writer on his evocative style. Chopra can, for instance, write highly poetic prose about the breathtaking beautiful Chambal valley, but when descriptions of the Hindu-Sikh riots demand a change of form, his style becomes hair-raising and his narration blood-curdling…. Memories of Fire is a multi-layered novel punctuated with contemporary history and it deserves to be read more than once, because one is likely to miss some nuances of narration and description on reading the book for the first time.
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The most unexpected here [in Memories of Fire] is a fine eye for historical detail and a great skill in weaving it through the story of five friends whose lives come together after five decades of absence. Through their memories, we share the turbulent, and often bloody, history of the young Indian nation. In this story we see the true character of the region of Punjab before it was divided by religion and language. A sense of community and strong family ties, marked this period despite the brief time when madness overtook the people on the verge of independence from colonial rule. Essentially, people were caring and still deeply connected with the past…. The political parts of the narrative are particularly well-developed and readers would quickly recognize that the histories of the five heroes tell us a lot about the political travails of India…. Many small nuggets from history, scattered casually around, do make for good reading and are quite informative as well.
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A historical novel with a sprawling canvas, Memories of Fire is publishing veteran Ashok Chopra’s first foray into fiction…. Vivid descriptions of lived experience make the story come alive. Sights, sounds, colour and dashes of earthy humour all spice up the mix. The author draws the reader into the heart of the story and offers generous doses of insight into art, music, and literature along the way. Memories of the gentle rhythms of life are as clearly sketched as the storming of the Golden Temple and the brutal violence unleashed on members of the Sikh community in the wake of Indira Gandhi’s assassination. Beauty and gore, art and aggression, lust, love, fealty and rebellion—all find a place in the pages of this ambitiously plotted novel…. The author’s impulse to rake up the past springs from his concern for a fractured nation. Motivated by the belief that memory is a ‘great healer… the balm that soothes many a wound’, he invites the reader to look back at and reflect upon the past. Memories of Fire is as much an ode to love, friendship, religious tolerance and peaceful existence as it is a warning against repeating the deadly and violent mistakes of the past.
Memories of Fire stands upright like a giant, straddling storytelling, politics, literature, poetry and more in what seems the puny world of fiction…. The grittiness of the larger picture becomes clearly visible. Between the world of politics and the personal world, the author makes delightful digressions into almost everything else…. Again, and again, there are forays into literature. We are offered a choice of fine ghazals showcasing the beauty of the Urdu language. To see the book purely as a novel would be to undermine its greatness.
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The elation of reuniting with friends after a long gap brings back childhood memories and that’s precisely what Memories of Fire by author and publishing stalwart Ashok Chopra, does…. Based on real-life events, the personalities of the characters in the book are unique and extremely well-built. The account feels to be a mix of nostalgia and detailed background history that is not just entertaining but also very informative and educative. All in all, it’s a beautiful combination of humour, history, literature, and most importantly, love and friendship.
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There is nostalgia for a gentler time as well as bloody descriptions of real life historical events in this genre-crossing work by author and publishing stalwart Ashok Chopra…. There is erudition and enough thought-provoking ideas to carry the narrative…. Aligning religious differences isn’t the answer to India’s woes, as Chopra shows, tolerance has existed among previous generations… yet, once nationalism raises its ugly head, everything changes…. It’s easier to agree with Chopra that memories encourage a state of reflection—with all its accompanying potential for analysis and solutions. Chopra’s purpose is for us to learn from his memories and not to allow the mistakes of the past to be repeated.
