Red Maize By Danesh Rana

In the village of Morha Madana, overlooking the Chenab, the joys of harvesting ripe maize get sullied when, one summer,gun-toting militants of the tanzeem start swarming the hills. As the militants fight in the name of azadi, the villagers'lives are shaken and torn apart. Charmed by the call of jihad,Shakeel, the second of the three sons of widow Kausar Jaan,becomes the first to turn a mujahid. Soon, the dreaded area commander, Major Rathore of the Indian Army, decides that Shakeel's decimation is his only way of regaining the respect of his fellow officers and his ticket back to a peace station. Thus begins the tale of woe of his mother and brothers. Eventually Kausar Jaan becomes the symbol of Kashmir caught in the crossfire between separatists and the army.Red Maize is the poignant tale of a mother's dilemma as she mutely witnesses the maize crops in her backyard get stained with the blood of her sons. It is also the chronicle of a paradise lost but never regained.