Title – Beneath Divided Skies

Author – Natasha Sharma

Publisher – Vishwakarma Publications 

Genre – Historical Fiction 

Partition, the heart wrenching part of independence. The images of overflowing trains and people running helter skelter remain vivid in our minds.

Beneath Divided Skies, talks about rehabilitation of people who were taken to either sides of the Radcliffe Line filled with emotions and perspectives. While some happily returned to their homeland, some faced rejection and some just accepted and adapted to the new place. 

Satya, Prerna and Iqbal embark on a mission to rescue women who have been separated from their families by the riotous mobs and were treated as mere objects. The trauma narrated by the rescued women makes one’s heart feel uneasy and heavy.

Satya, our protagonist, is part of this mission with a personal agenda to locate her sibling. Her emotions upon finding her and losing her are portrayed well through an excellent play of words by Natasha. The reader in me connected with her so well, that I wept when the Radcliffe Line was a metaphor in her life too and smiled at her successful life with Ikankar aka Ika.

The way women were treated as mere objects comes alive through Natasha’s words and their vulnerability just tugs every string of the heart. 

Satya, Iqbal and Ika stay with the reader much after the story gets over.

Beneath Divided Skies