Munnu: Bocah dari Kashmir
Author & Comic Artist: Malik Sajad
Translator: Farid Zikri
Publisher: Rotasi Books
Print Length: 348 pages
Genre: Graphic Novel & Comic Book, Autobiography or Memoir
Language: Indonesian
Area: Kashmir
Topic: Kashmiri, Conflict, Children & Childhood, Colonialism & Post-Colonialism
English Title: Munnu: A Boy from Kashmir
A beautifully drawn graphic novel that illuminates the conflicted land of Kashmir, through a young boy’s childhood.
Seven-year-old Munnu is growing up in Indian-administered Kashmir. Life revolves around his family: Mama, Papa, sister Shahnaz, brothers Adil and Akhtar and, his favourite, older brother Bilal. It also revolves around Munnu’s two favourite things – sugar and drawing.
But Munnu’s is a childhood experienced against the backdrop of conflict. Bilal’s classmates are crossing over into the Pakistan-administered portion of Kashmir to be trained to resist the ‘occupation’; Papa and Bilal are regularly taken by the military to identification parades where informers will point out ‘terrorists’; Munnu’s school is closed; close neighbours are killed and the homes of Kashmiri Hindu families lie abandoned, as once close, mixed communities have ruptured under the pressure of Kashmir’s divisions.
Munnu is an amazingly personal insight into everyday life in Kashmir. Closely based on Malik Sajad’s own childhood and experiences, it is a beautiful, evocatively drawn graphic novel that questions every aspect of the Kashmir situation – the faults and responsibilities of every side, the history of the region, the role of Britain and the West, the possibilities for the future. It opens up the story of this contested and conflicted land, while also giving a brilliantly close, funny and warm-hearted portrait of a boy’s childhood and coming-of-age.
Munnu kecil tumbuh di Kashmir bagian India. Saat itu, hidupnya hanyalah tentang keluarganya: Mamma, Papa, kakak perempuannya Shahnaz, kakak laki-lakinya Adil, Akhtar, dan kakak kesayangannya, Bilal. Atau juga tentang pada dua hal yang paling ia sukai – gula-gula dan menggambar.
Tapi inilah kenyataan Kashmir di tahun 1990-an, dan komik ini adalah tentang sebuah pengalaman masa kecil berlatar konflik. Teman sekelas Bilal yang dilatih melawan pendudukan, sekolah yang ditutup paksa, tetangga yang terbunuh, dan rumah-rumah keluarga Hindu Kashmir yang terbengkalai karena ikatan antar komunitas etnis yang dulu terjalin erat dalam keberagaman telah hancur di bawah tekanan perpecahan negara.
Berdasarkan kisah masa kecil yang dialami sendiri oleh Malik Sajad, Munnu adalah pandangan personal yang luar biasa tentang kehidupan sehari-hari di Kashmir. Komik ini membawa cerita tentang tanah yang diperebutkan dan penuh konflik, sambil juga memberikan potret yang sangat akrab, lucu, dan hangat dari masa kecil seorang bocah yang beranjak dewasa.
Table of Contents
1. Foto Keluarga (Family Photo)
2. Coklat, Permen, Almond, dan Mete (Chocolate, Candy, Almond, and Cashew)
3. Delima dan Teh Garam (Pomegranate and Salt Tea)
4. Kakek dan Nenek (Grandfather and Grandmother)
5. Koyas Koyas (Koyas Koyas)
6. Tinta dan Jeruk (Ink and Orange)
7. Sekolah (School)
8. Sepatu dan Kain Lap Nilon (Shoes and Nylon Duster)
9. Luar Dalam (Inside Out)
10. Buku Kliping (Scrapbook)
11. Pesawat Terbang (Airplane)
12. Jurnalisme dan Tiket ke Hollywood (Jurnalism and the Ticket to Hollywood)
13. Paisley (Paisley)
14. Kenangan (Memories)
15. Seni Instalasi (Installation Art)
16. Species Terancam (Endangered Species)
17. Pemanasan Global (Global Warming)
18. Senter Tenaga Surya (Solar Powered Flashlight)
Malik Sajad is a visual artist, writer, and filmmaker. He completed his master’s from Goldsmiths University of London in image and communications as an Inlaks Fellow in 2011. Sajad employs both textual and visual devices to contemplate the human condition amid ongoing world disputes. In the process, he points toward the possibility of resolution, or at least finding some semblance of common ground. He has contributed his graphic reports to The New York Times, Vice Media, Caravan magazine, among others. His short films include “Father and Son” (2011) and “Cat in Downtown” (2024). “Munnu: A Boy from Kashmir” (2015) is his first graphic novel, translated into several languages. He is a recipient of various awards such as Verve Storyteller in 2016, Amazon Rising Star in 2015, Frances Green Burger Fellowship in New York in 2013, among others. He lives and works in Srinagar, Kashmir.
Source: https://maliksajad.com/bio/
More from Malik Sajad in this library, click here.