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Scribe unravels a tribe
Combining a dash of realism and history, well-known journalist, poet and author from the North East, Mamang Dai has tried to bring the region into focus through her latest book, "The Legends of Pensam".
Pensam is a territory of the Adi tribe in the mountains of Arunachal Pradesh, Mamang's home state. Mamang herself is an Adi.
Published by Penguin, the book was released by veteran journalist and writer Mark Tully this past week at New Delhi's India Habitat Centre.
The author has always tried to make the readers feel familiar with the atmosphere and the people of the North East through her stories and this time too, it is no different. According to Dai, Pensam is a place where anything can happen and everything can be lived!
Three aspects
Educated in Shillong, a former civil servant, Dai shared that her book covers three aspects. "It uses the oral literature, a piece of real history of Arunachal Pradesh and talks about the changes taking place in the region." A cursory reading shows she has tried to reach a larger number of people through her cleverly written fiction. Appreciating Dai's work at the launch event, Tully said, "It is one of the most readable books and is welcome because it comes from the North East and is about real people."
Dai is a member of the North East Writer's Forum. She has many short stories and poems to her credit. She has written about the culture and history of Arunachal Pradesh too. Her previous books include "Arunachal Pradesh: The Hidden Land" and "River Poems". It took her nearly a year to pen this book, which centres around the Siang Valley, which connects Arunachal Pradesh to Tsangpo in Tibet. Somebody who is against using exoticism as commodity, Dai said she has tried to combine small pieces of history and tried to trace the roots of migration. The event saw an impressive reading of excerpts from the book by the author and columnist Gillian Wright.
RAJENDRA KUMAR SAXENA
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