NORTHEAST REVIEW
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Dear
All,
We
are very happy to present the first issue of Northeast Review.
In
this inaugural issue, we pay special homage to two great literary luminaries,
both iconic in their own ways: Indira (Mamoni Raisom) Goswami of Assam who
passed away one year ago and Sunil Gangopadhyay of West Bengal who left us not
even one month ago now. Amit Rahul Baishya revisits one of Indira Goswami’s
most well acclaimed short stories while Arunava Sinha assesses what it was that
made Sunil Gangopadhyay ‘entirely urban, entirely modern. And entirely Sunil.’
We
have also put together literary voices from all over the world. In poetry, we
have exclusive excerpts from Kynpham Sing Nongkynrih’s verse narrative ‘The
Midager’s Tale’. Sumana Roy and Deanna Larsen are the other poets we feature
here. Our fiction section features Sanjib Pol Deka and Janice Pariat, both
young and upcoming writers from the Northeast. An interview with novelist Biman
Nath and a review of Anuradha Roy’s book, The Folded Earth, make up the
rest of our content in this issue.
EXCLUSIVE : Selections
from A Midager’s Tale (A Verse Narrative) by Kynpham Sing Nongkynrih
We used to call the girl, ‘Khatduh’, which in
Khasi means the youngest child and therefore the preferred of everyone, the one
who could do no wrong, the one who could get away with anything. She was indeed
well liked, if not ardently desired, by all of us, an assorted company of
callow young teetotalers and veteran perpetrators of all the vices of these
hills, among which were chiefly gambling, wining and whoring. And yet, that in
spite of this surplus of suitors she had chosen that middle-aged potbelly was
something that no one could understand.
FEATURES : Slow
Violence: Time out of Joint in Indira Goswami’s ‘Jaatra’ by
Amit Baishya :
“In
Assamese literature, the works of authors like Rasna Barua, Indira Goswami,
Lummer Dai, Rong Bong Terang, Yeshe Dorjee Thongchi and Mousumi Kandali(among
others) can be studied through a vantage point that foregrounds the narrative
exploration of complex relationships between nature and the “human.” In this
essay, I will identify a provisional starting point for such explorations
through a reading of Indira Goswami’s well-known short story ‘Jaatra’ (The
Journey). ‘Jaatra’ is often classed as a story set against the backdrop of
militant violence in Assam.”
FICTION : The
Keeper of Souls by Janice Pariat
“This
evening, as with almost every other, I pause briefly at the gate. Light spills
from the upstairs study—Vera is working—and the path lamps flanking the
driveway cast a welcoming glow. Hanging from the rafters, our Indonesian wind
chime tinkles softly. The top is in the shape of an intricate dragon, and the
striker like a fiery flame; I’d picked it up on our trip to Jakarta after our
wedding. People here believe that wind chimes conjure spirits, but we prefer to
consider them a frail yet dutiful sentry against the outside world.”
FICTION : Fringe
Man by Sanjib Pol Deka
“And
then, how can he forget Mono dada’s family? His wife, his daughter
Dangormai, do they love him any lesser? And dada’s younger son,
Sorubapu, he keeps teasing him ‘turtle-eating miyah’ all the time. Of
course, elder son Dangorbapu talks a little less. Even then, he always greets
Ahmed, whenever they meet.”
POETRY
Deepor
Beel by Sumana Roy
Zookeeper by
Deanna Larsen
OBITUARY : Nillohit
has left for Dikshunyapur - Arunava
Sinha on Sunil Gangopadhyay
Gangopadhyay’s
first and eternal love was poetry. He always thought of himself as a poet and
as a custodian of verse.… Young men – among them famous poets of the 2000s –
guilelessly stole his poems and passed them off as their own to woo their
women.
INTERVIEW : Period
Pieces of Biman Nath: The Author in Conversation with Jyotirmoy
Talukdar
“Historical
fiction is not only about the past; it illuminates the present in a way that
history books don’t.”
REVIEW : On Anuradha Roy’s The Folded Earth by
Mary Susan Johnston
The Folded Earth,
although not nearly as ambitious, is nevertheless a book to savor.
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