Written by …beyond the mountains and down the river, that those left behind learned to live without them. Sometimes they were remembered in songs and stories, like the dead.
The Legends of Pensam is my first Mamang Dai and I absolutely love it. This book is a collection shorts stories spanned within three generations. Mamang Dai weaves the stories around lives of the Adi tribe of the Siang Valley of Arunachal Pradesh. As the author explains , Pensam means “middle ground or in-between”, Pensam, the village acts as a middle ground between the spirit world and the reality.
Life moved on quite normally, except that, they hid their pain, while the seasons turned.
Dai narrates with such ease and perfection that each stories comes alive like magic. The short stories are connected in a way which makes these short stories more like a novel. True to the sense of being a tribal, Mamang Dai exudes essences of tribal life and the tribal world through her writing. The forest spirits; the stories of old; the migluns (britishers) invading tribal areas; a romance that blossomed between a tribal girl and a British officer; the boy who is believed to fall from the sky; of strange creatures that roamed the ancestral land; of life that’s savage and traditional at the same time. Mamang Dai writes it all.
We descend from solitude and miracles.
It’s no surprise that when you read a book by tribals you get the feels, you get a sense of belongingness. Dai’s style of writing is charming and subtle. Hers words and narration are a perfect blend of creativity and curiosity. The Legends of Pensam is intriguing and ingenious. Mamang Dai asserts the tribal way in such vivid mode that one is transported to the village of the spirit world while reading this book.
No one dies of love. I loved him, and now I am enough on my own.
Pages: 192
Publisher: Penguin Books
Genre: Fiction (short stories)