Kire’s narratives neither seek to ‘politicize’ nor ‘culturalize.’ There is no hidden agenda, just pure storytelling, a timeless art that is increasingly being sidelined in today’s fast-paced world. “Perhaps we were never meant to love on earth. The finest love stories always end in death or parting. Perhaps we overreach ourselves when we love.” When you…
The 2024 Sahitya Akademi Awardee author Easterine Kire’s poetry book ‘Freerain’ allows glimpses into the mind of a writer who is keenly observant and receptive to the world around them.
They called it ‘Operation Bluebird’. On the fateful day of 9th July, 1987, the Underground Naga army attacked and raided the Assam Rifles outpost at Oinam Hill Village, a Poumai Naga Village in Senapati District, Manipur. Nine Assam Rifles soldiers were killed and the Naga Underground escaped with their looted arms and ammunitions. In an…
Love, Lust and Loyalty by Yuimi Vashum tells the truth about something not often said or something often hushed. Divided in two parts, Vashum speaks about sexual abuse in the first part. Love, relationship and heartbreak dominates the second part. . . . Love, Lust and Loyalty is far from what a superficial society would…
The storehouse of storytelling resources lies in the past. The cultures and the traditions that the forefathers hold dear somehow find their way back into the lives of their progeny. Avinuo Kire’s third book, The Last Light of Glory Days unfurls lucid stories of the past of Naga, the cultural practises of the Naga forefathers…
The first book that I read of Ankush Saikia was The Girl From Nongrim Hills, a noir thriller which is set in Shillong. Saikia has come a long way since then. The Forest Beneath the Mountains is not exactly the noir that you find in Saikia’s works. It’s more than that. It is an…
Khararthotliva ngashan eina shiyan-chikan hina mi ākhawui ācham-āram kala achei-are katongali chizamida mirinwui tamme oja thada leikasana.” Traditions and cultures frame the intrinsic characteristics of one’s identity. Written in the vernacular Tangkhul language, Yangkhei Yan- Haori Haorangwui Riyanna, talks about the importance of Tangkhul clothing traditions and cultures in identifying oneself as a Tangkhul….
Our ancestors believe those who love home make their final rest in a foreign land. Dying anywhere but home is the loneliest of thoughts. Jim Wungramyao Kasom’s second work ‘Cradling Memories of My Land‘ comes in the form of poetry after his work ‘Homecoming and Other Stories’. Kasom renders the essence of the written art through…
Appreciating art, in any form, is like peering into a mirror and seeing one’s own self in it. In Lum Shaiza’s debut poetry book Things that Grow on Us, a lot of ‘the self’ is seen as you read. A coming of age poems and verses, Things that Grow on Us is an array of…
…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 darkness aids dark things to grow. The only way to defeat it is to hold on to the wisdom of choosing what to fear and to stop fearing”. True to the title of the book Easterine Kire’s Spirit Nights is indeed a book about spirits which is blended into a Chang Naga tribe folklore fable. It…
The human head is the ultimate trophy for the people. It is the warrior’s prestige, wealth and status among the villagers and his fellow warriors. Villagers were wrapped around the notion that a person’s head was rich, containing the person’s wisdom, wealth, and all that nature had to offer. Thus bringing the head means bringing…