The Hindu : Literary Review / Interview : Negotiating change with memory
The Hindu : Literary Review / Interview : Negotiating change with memory: "True, there are differences... but we also have the land... the whole geographical continuity is there you know, the forests, the mountains, it's all the Eastern Himalayas belt. Ok, Assam doesn't have the big snow mountains but it's the foothills. The big rivers link us; all our rivers drain into Assam and with the landscape comes a common shared culture and a relationship to the land...
Elsewhere you refer to Pensam as the in-between land...Is it an attempt to record a disappearing tradition in the face of modernity?
In a way, yes. Ours is an oral tradition you know, I was trying to meet people and collect and record these oral narratives. You know, the small histories which were getting lost and when you talk to people even small things can trigger these memories off. I had no idea how the book would turn out because it was very difficult to project these stories in English. To negotiate that (difficulty of cultural translation) I conceived of Pensam as a kind of secret garden where there are no rules and where one can do whatever one wants...
I was a little nervous about how the novel would be received back home. But I must say the people were very responsive. When they heard the book had been released in Delhi, in my hometown, which is Pasighat, they were shouting, “we want the book, we are the people of Pensam”. They were happy that the Adi word had received wider recognition....
What exactly is your own relationship to these"
Elsewhere you refer to Pensam as the in-between land...Is it an attempt to record a disappearing tradition in the face of modernity?
In a way, yes. Ours is an oral tradition you know, I was trying to meet people and collect and record these oral narratives. You know, the small histories which were getting lost and when you talk to people even small things can trigger these memories off. I had no idea how the book would turn out because it was very difficult to project these stories in English. To negotiate that (difficulty of cultural translation) I conceived of Pensam as a kind of secret garden where there are no rules and where one can do whatever one wants...
I was a little nervous about how the novel would be received back home. But I must say the people were very responsive. When they heard the book had been released in Delhi, in my hometown, which is Pasighat, they were shouting, “we want the book, we are the people of Pensam”. They were happy that the Adi word had received wider recognition....
What exactly is your own relationship to these"
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