THE DARK-COLOURED WATERS : A Journey Along River Chenab

The Dark-Coloured Waters is as much the story of a river as it is of a man shaped by its course. Danesh Rana has had a profound connection with the Chenab. As a child it flanked family road trips to Kashmir. In the 1990s it ran through the newspaper headlines of bloodshed and militancy. And in 2002 it flowed past his police station in Ramban during a tense posting flat the heart of conflict. In 2018 on election duty in Himachal Pradesh Rana arrived at the rivers source a symbolic homecoming that compelled him to write this book. Spanning decades and landscapes The Dark-Coloured Waters traces the Chenab from its mythic origins to the violence-scarred landscape of Jammu and Kashmir. Along the way Rana blends memoir travelogue and keen observation to chart the river in all its complexity. Every bend reveals something new culture and conflict memory and myth power and resistance. The Chenab is also a river of diplomacy enshrined in the Indus Waters Treaty and entangled in the acrimony of IndiaPakistan relations. From Bollywood to bloodshed spiritual quests to statecraft the Chenab reflects the many Indias that surge along its banks. This is no linear chronicle but a riverine journey restless reflective and deeply human.