Rabbani's novella ‘The Smile Snatchers’ a vivid depiction of Palestinians plight

ISLAMABAD: Senate’s former chairman Raza Rabbani’s recently released novella, “The Smile Snatchers” is a vivid depiction of the plight of the Palestinian people in particular the children and women.

Zaheer an artist, in the novella, is afflicted by the children of the world and of Palestine, who visit him in dreams and visions, trying to warn him of a calamity looming on the horizon.

In one of Zaheer’s visions on Jerusalem, Rabbani writes that the city while speaking says, “You can hardly find a city that has shed more blood or ink than Jerusalem. Now they are trying to tear dress, which was woven by my people throughout the ages.

But I will not replace my Arab-Christian-Islamic-Jewish gown with another, for it fashioned from the blood and tears of my forefathers. I am a city looking for peace. Despite all that I have suffered”.

At another place while describing the plight of children after an air raid he writes, “.... mummy! Where is my mother? I’m tired; I want to sleep with my mother.”

The mother has been killed in the raid and the child stands in front of the rubble of what was once her home, she sees the remains of the wooden frame of her mother’s bed, the mud in which the frame is lying seems to take the shape of a human body, and the little girl lies down on it.

The novella speaks about how schools, hospitals and homes are no longer safe for children in conflict areas at the hands of states that use

terrorism as a tool of war to further their political agenda.

The novella deals with how the international establishment uses children, genocide, rape and ethnic cleansing as mode of operation to safeguard their vested interests.

The novella which was released late last year, deals with how in conflict areas the smiles of the children are being snatched and how this is a threat to humanity.