A humming word

Migration. Climate Change. Colonialism. War. Mass hysteria. They are peas of the same pod in the context of immigration. Suketu Mehta, author of the Pulitzer-shortlisted Maximum City, writes this book out of anger and wishes he plants a seed of hope. He borrows the title from the folk song “This Land is Our Land” written by   an Okie named Woody Gurthie. Mehta divides the book into three sections and eighteen tiny chapters that elucidate on Immigration. He touches upon: Why is immigration seen as a problem? Why are immigrants often feared? Why do people emigrate? And Why they should be welcomed? Walking into the book, the first section is The Migrants are Coming followed by Why They’re Coming and and Why They’re Feared. The book starts with the unabashed response of Mehta’s grandfather to an elderly suburban man who asks him why he is in London. Mehta’s grandfather says: “Because we are the creditors.[..] You took all our wealth, our diamonds. Now we have c...

Nadia is tempestuous and independent. She lives in a war-stricken country, in the top floor of a two-storied building, alone. She enjoys the texture of her independence. Despite being stuck in a finance job, her creative outbursts seeps into margins of a notebook during a course in Finance and Corporate. Saeed is pursuing the same course. Saeed is calm and conservative. He lives with his parents and enjoys doing so. He works in an advertising agency and to augment his career, he takes the course. And this story is about these two individuals. In a hushed corridor, Saeed asks Nadia for coffee. She refuses initially, but after Saeed’s persistence, she agrees. In a war-stricken country, there’s space for bombs, and hate, but love is dismissed to tiny corners. They meet in her room and smoke marijuana. And this is how Saeed enter Nadia’s room: The bag landed beside Saeed with a muffled thump. He opened it, found her spare downstairs key, and also one of her bla...