This new book is a journalistic piece from the streets of Kabul in 2021 documenting the change of government

Taliban fighters in Kabul. Pic Courtesy/Wikimedia Commons

Nayanima Basu's new book The Fall of Kabul is a detailed journalistic piece that pulls the readers right into the middle of the streets of Kabul, Afghanistan. In August 2021, Afghanistan was seeing a collapse of the Ghani government and a return to power of the Islamic fundamentalist movement, the Taliban. The book documents her 10-day stay in Kabul during that time, when she reported the events unfolding in the country. After landing in the city and facing numerous security checks, she spoke to the locals such as taxi drivers, grocers, women in salons, journalists as well as diplomats. In addition to this, she interviewed the notorious Afghan warlord and former Prime Minister, a task that "no other journalist [had ever been able to] pull off", as she notes. What she witnessed was a city whose face had changed completely within the ten days.

Pic Courtesy/Bloomsbury

Basu lays a quick timeline of the past and reminds us of its recurrence and relation to the present events. She writes about the country turning into a major battlefield for the world superpowers - the US and Russia. Readers learn about the damaging effects of the US withdrawing their troops from the country and what their interference meant in the first place. She does not address these questions by arguments alone, but brings up real-life stories of what the locals believed it did to them. Gul Jaan's story stands out. A woman at a beauty parlour, Gul, much like other Afghans, had held on to the hope promised by the US government. After returning to India, Basu discovered that Gul had had to shut her salon and flee the country with her family for safety, seeing her dream shattered.

The book is a significant body of work. Not only does it give us an unobstructed view of the fall of Afghanistan, it also offers an insight into the risks that journalists undergo while reporting. Although the last few chapters could have done with a round of editing to read sharper, they stand as the starkest testimony to both. Basu also shows us what it means to be a female journalist reporting such events. She lays everything on the line and writes without digressing from the subject of on-ground tension and the subsequent violence.

Title
The Fall of Kabul
Author Nayanima Basu
Genre Non-Fiction
Publisher Bloomsbury India
Cost Rs 599