Author Brigadier (retd) Baqir Shameem’s book “The Chenab Connection” will be release on 27th April
New Delhi: Author Brigadier (retd) Baqir Shameem’s book The Chenab Connection will be release in 27th April at India International Centre in New Delhi. During the book release ceremony Author Brigadier (retd) Baqir Shameem will be in conversation with Tina Sharma Tiwari and RJ Raunac. “Can Chenab connect the hearts and minds of the people like it connects the land” will be the topic for discussion.
Brigadier (retd) Baqir Shameem, who served in the Indian Army for three decades and witnessed the growing Indo-Pak conflict from close quarters. In this love story, with several twists and turns, he explores the possibilities of an Indian boy and a Pakistani girl falling in love and managing to settle down, having a family, under the looming shadow of hatred that has grown stronger over the last seven decades.
The story penned by Brigadier (retd) Shameem is a work of fiction; it looks at the crisis and its nuances through the eyes of people who are in love, for the beloved, for parents, for siblings, and for the country of one’s birth, because sometimes all it takes is love to conquer all.The Chenab Connection is as much a love story as it is a look at the divisive politics that has plagued the subcontinent for decades, where terror and subversion have become second nature for hawks, who find more comfort in conflict than in peace and harmony.
The Chenab Connection – Book Synopsis
Ravi is a man in love and he is willing to do anything to be with his beloved, Shaheen. In his case, the roadblock is not just they are from two different communities; Shaheen stays in Pakistan, whereas Ravi is from Delhi. They had met as children when their families lived in Bahrain as neighbours. He fell in love with Shaheen, his sister Simran’s best friend, when he was in his teens, and his love was reciprocated. But life is often a difficult road and they get separated, as circumstances force Shaheen to return to her homeland, and Ravi settles down in Delhi.
This is the story of The Chenab Connection, the latest work of Brigadier (retd) Baqir Shameem, who served in the Indian Army for three decades and witnessed the growing Indo-Pak conflict from close quarters, In this love story, with several twists and turns, he explores the possibilities of an Indian boy and a Pakistani girl falling in love and managing to settle down, having a family, under the looming shadow of hatred that has grown stronger over the last seven decades.
The story penned by Brigadier Shameem is a work of fiction; it looks at the crisis and its nuances through the eyes of people who are in love, for the beloved, for parents, for siblings, and for the country of one’s birth, because sometimes all it takes is love to conquer all. In the case of Ravi, love makes him cross one of the most hostile borders in the world to be one with Shaheen. Then there is Simran, and Omar, who fall in love under different circumstances and survive difficult situations to find happiness.
The Chenab Connection is as much a love story as much as it is a look at the divisive politics that has plagued the subcontinent for decades, where terror and subversion have become second nature for hawks, who find more comfort in conflict than in peace and harmony.
About the author
Brigadier (retd) Baqir Shameem was born in rural Azamgarh of eastern Uttar Pradesh, India’s largest province, and spent a better part of his childhood in the company of his grandfather, with his father away on missions with the Indian Air Force during World War II and thereafter across independent India.
As the country partitioned so did its Armed Forces, with Muslim officers and men given the option to join the Pakistan Defense Forces. His father opted to stay with the Indian Air Force. Following in his father’s footsteps, Brigadier Shameem joined the National Defense Academy to pursue a career in the armed forces.
Commissioned to the Bombay Sappers, Corps of Engineers, the two-time recipient of the Chief of Army Staff’s Medal for meritorious and exceptional service, took early retirement after 32 years of service with the Indian Army. Post-retirement, he acted as the consultant of a top architectural firm in Bahrain and stayed there for the next ten years. During this time, he travelled extensively across the Middle East and gained first hand knowledge of the region and its culture. He has also travelled widely across Europe, China and South East Asia.
Although his initial years of education was in Urdu, he later shifted to a reputed public school, where he was encouraged by his teachers to write more after his essays and stories revealed a penchant for creativity and originality. Even though he had initially taken up writing as a hobby, his passion for the written word is now his tradecraft. Brigadier Shameem currently splits his time between India and the US, where his children live. He wrote his first novel The Final Option while in Bahrain.