‘Lapbah’ brings together voices from eight NE states
New anthology edited by Kynpham Sing Nongkynrih and Rimi Nath has 57 tales by 52 writers
Shillong, May 19: Lapbah: Stories from the North-east, a new anthology in two volumes released in February, brings together 57 compelling tales by 52 of the region’s finest writers.
Lapbah has been compiled and edited by accomplished writers Kynpham Sing Nongkynrih and Rimi Nath. The book’s title has been inspired by Lapbah Sohra, Sohra’s monsoon deluge.
The two volumes of Lapbah present, for the first time, voices from all eight states of the region, seamlessly blending original works in English with masterful translations of those written in the regional languages.
The collection offers a rich tapestry of themes and styles through stories by the likes of Indira Goswami, Temsüla Ao, Easterine Kire, Janice Pariat, Mamang Dai, Anjum Hasan, Bhabendra Nath Saikia, Homen Borgohain, Saurabh Kumar Chaliha and Lummer Dai.
The stories, emanating from the many different linguistic, literary and ethnic cultures, range from the traditionally heart-rending tales of Arup Kumar Dutta and Rashmi Narzary to the darkly humorous social and political satires of SJ Duncan and Wan Kharkrang and the fantastical worlds of Jahnavi Barua and Harekrishna Deka, “where reality mixes freely with the surreality of dream and fantasy”.
A woman’s struggle against a male-dominated society, stories of survival and struggle in a violent world of riots, the insider-outsider conflicts, militants, terrorising security personnel and corrupt government officials, tales of wonderment and mystery, domestic dramas, mad women, drug addicts and sexual predators, Partition stories, the literary life, complete with love rivalries and plagiarism, sci-fi narratives, dystopian worlds and the human-non-human encounters, all jostle for space in this unique anthology as if under ‘the vast expanse of the horizon, accommodating the motley crowd within it’.
