Review of 'The Greatest Stories from the Northeast Ever Told' edited by Jobeth Ann Warjri,
Mohan Gulrajani
The Greatest Stories from the Northeast Ever Told’: A fine showcase for emerging writers
The twenty-seven stories in the anthology also carry resonances of oral literature, which are distinct and lyrical.
Women at a fruit market in Manipur. Representative image.
Short story anthologies featuring authors from India’s Northeast have seen a steady, certain growth in the Indian literary market. Many of these anthologies contain stories by authors who are familiar household names for readers of the region, giving little to no room to emerging voices. This is not the case with The Greatest Stories from the Northeast Ever Told. Edited by Jobeth Ann Warjri, the anthology is different in how it gives space to emerging authors, rooted in the region.
In her “Introduction”, Warjri admits that while selecting names for an anthology, the political economy of “networking” often tries to impinge upon an editor’s choice of works. Her admission comes from a place of fraternity, but her wisdom makes her steadfast in her selections. It is, therefore, in knowing and not knowing, that the selection is rich, with a major chunk dedicated to new writers.
Familiar names, new faces
As the anthology begins, the first authors who appear are the stalwarts. Any great anthology would be incomplete without their presence and the editor’s choice of stories by them are particular vis-à-vis the concerns dealt therein. Full of questions about humanity, belonging, conflict and identity, the first few stories set the stage for fresher – yet similar – voices to emerge. If in Bhabendra Nath Saikia’s “Rats” we find a grieving mother torn to shreds by a dehumanising hunger, Saurav Kumar Chaliha’s “Intermission” finds a town dehumanising its residents by making violence the norm. With Temsula Ao, Mamoni Raisom Goswami, and Mamang Dai, questions of gender and its myriad fates in the adjacent regions find a home. Theirs is a quest of the self that grapples with patriarchy and its catastrophes. The stories by Janice Pariat, Anjum Hasan, Avinuo Kire, Prajwal Parajuly, and Aruni Kashyap deal with the crises of identity, rootlessness and the fragmented self in the larger nexus of things. Their voices, already established, are reminders of how multifaceted these issues are, yet universal.
New voices, familiar concerns
The fascination for this collection, however, is found strongly in the emerging voices. The stories by Aisu Minam Yirang, Gankhu Sumnyan, Lede E Miki Pohshna, Mayookh Barua, Rishav Kumar Thakur, Mainu Teronpi, Ramzauva Chhakchhuak, Saweini Laloo, Shalim M Hussain and Sudhiranjan Moirangthem look at age-old issues with novel lenses. Gankhu Sumyan’s “The Pay Raise” has a middle-aged woman as its protagonist who finds it hard to accept that fates change, especially for the better. Chani Baideo is every person who spends her labour and part of her life without expecting it to alter, but when it does, the thought of happiness is almost revolting. The story is sustained through anticipation, a similar technique employed also by Mainu Teronpi in “The Aftermath”. Kabon awaits her husband’s return, expectantly bidding her time in the comfort of a promise and her children, but in a world terrorised by surveillance, her fears win. Issues of conflict are also found in Mayookh Barua’s “We All Know Something About China”, where a dinner table morphs into a stage of performing politics. Relationships, both personal and national, are fragile, and Barua’s prose drives home the reality that conflicts are projections of interiority. The brutalisation of precarious lives is found again in the almost folkloric narrative of Shalim M Hussain. Hussain’s “The Madness of Tree Ghosts” uses elements of fantasy and folklore to describe the origin of the blood-sucking leech and in its turn, gives us a tale of becoming. Again, Sudhiranjan Moirangthem’s “News of a Beloved Friend” carries the stigmas of such dehumanisation through conflict, where people live as objects of constant violence and scrutiny.
Lede E Miki Pohshna and Rishav Kumar Thakur and their stories are reflective of the entanglements of queerness caught in mid-air. Their stories, “The Lover of Stories” and “Sacred Pool”, are expeditions into how queer lives co-exist in worlds largely determined by heteronormativity. The stories are ultimately tied to questions of belonging and rootedness, something that is explored with mysticism by Saweini Laloo in “Riang Khangnoh” and Aisu Minam Yirang in “Black Moon”. Ramzauva Chhakchhuak’s “Home”, it seems, becomes the physical embodiment of every vicissitude encountered by people returning home. Taking his material from the dark chapter of the COVID-19 pandemic, Chhakchhuak weaves a tale of homecoming that mirrors what every writer, regardless of the age they are writing in, has been trying to tell.
While most of the stories collected in the anthology are written originally in English, a few are translated. Warjri talks about the nuances that the translators try to preserve while translating from their regional languages. Northeastern life, as she notes, is lived on translatability for even within the fold of an umbrella term, subcultures rarely share a common language. What they do share are stories and the art of storytelling. The 27 stories also carry within their narrative’s resonances of oral literature, which are distinct and lyrical.
The stories ultimately become embodiments of concerns that grip the region with indomitable strength. Put to the test of time, they are reminders that since the beginning of recorded history, the Northeast of India has fought battles without any recourse. Warjri’s dedication to collecting and bringing together distant voices in the anthology is indeed praiseworthy. To curate a collection with writers writing about issues that might never converge and then to assimilate them into a cohesive unit is a mammoth task. Therein lies the anthology’s true merit.
The Greatest Stories from the Northeast Ever Told, edited by Jobeth Ann Warjri, Aleph Book Company.
Professor (Dr.) M. L. Gulrajani F.S.D.C. (UK)
Former Professor and Dean (I.R&D), IIT Delhi
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