# Many Sides of Many Stories

- Link: https://writersworkshopindia.com/2017/03/14/many-sides-of-many-stories/
- Published: 2017-03-14T16:31:22+00:00
- Author: shuktara

5/5 - (6 votes)

**Author:** Esther Syiem[](https://writersworkshopindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/WP_20170314_14_31_07_Pro-2-e1489485116844.jpg)
**
Pages:** 88 **Year of Publication:** 2017 **Price:** Rs 200 **ISBN: **978-93-5045-
147-2 (9789350451472)

_**About the Author**_
 Esther Syiem teaches in the Department of English at the
North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong. Her publications include two volumes of
poetry: _**[Oral Scriptings](http://www.writersworkshopindia.com/books/poetry/redbird/oral-scriptings/)**
_and_** [of follies and frailties of wit and wisdom](http://www.writersworkshopindia.com/books/poetry/redbird/of-follies-and-frailties-of-wit-and-wisdom/)**_,
both published by **Writers Workshop**, India. She also writes in Khasi and has 
published a play entitled _Ka Nam_. Her book, _The Oral Discourse in Khasi Folk 
Narrative_ is an important resource for understanding Khasi culture. _Ka Jingϊamareh
Kob ki Wah_, is her retelling of a Khasi folktale that she has also translated into
English, _The Race of the Rivers_. She is a member of the PLSI’s National Editorial
Collective, founded by Professor Ganesh Devy, a grass-roots initiative to document
the languages of India, and is the editor of the Meghalaya volume: _People’s Linguistic
Survey of India, Vol 19, Part II, The_ _Languages of Meghalaya_. She has also co-
edited the Khasi translation of the book. Syiem is founder member of the Shillong
Forum for English Studies.

_**Teaser**_

_To the Rest of India from Another Indian_

We have
 no Rama no Sita no Arjuna ours, are differently named.

No wars were fought on grounds
 in Kurukshetra and Lanka; ours were in camouflage
up the stony tracks of the antelope down impossible ravines and through impassable
jungles.

We’ve no temples,
 none to be purified with litanies and incense to leaven crimes
of the night.

No one river too sacred
 to purify impurities; none of our gods bear god-names like
yours.

But if you should
 twist your tongues around ours as we learnt to twist ours around
yours, you’ll get a taste of webbed legends.

Earth-gods and sky-deities
 nymphs and elfin-dwarves that winnow souls and scale
bamboo leaves rinsed intestines in running streams.

Icons that died for a love
 that endorsed a freedom uninhibited as our wild mountain
herbs.

Lum Shyllong and Sajar Nangli
 and how we swallowed our written script, stones that
eat and rivers that fly, talking tigers and tiger-men.

An itchy monster itching to be scratched;
 a rebellious stag pounding for freedom
and the inconsolable dirge of a mother.

Is Nam still alive?
 And the tiger and the toad? Are our sibling mountain gods still
at war with each other?

And our translucent caves let me tell you,
 that rig our underground worlds, stitch
in the ancestor who sanctified the speaking tongue.

Would you then, even care to enter, tongue-twistingly,
 into the spoils of our speaking-
wealth?

A review of the book was brought out by _[The Hindu](http://www.thehindu.com/books/to-the-rest-of-india/article18916685.ece)_.

_**Contents**_
 To the Rest of India from Another Indian / 9 _Bordar_ Narrations–
I / 11 _Bordar_ Narrations – II (Up-river Narration) / 14 _Bordar_ Narrations – 
III (Down-river Narration) / 17 Who Rules the Roost? / 19 The Portentous Crowing/
21 My Barefoot Muse / 22 _Bahduh’s_ Fire / 25 The Aura of the Oral: The Written 
Ascendant – I / 28 The Aura of the Oral: The Oral Resistant – II / 30 She Speaks
to Fire / 33 When the Bamboo Talked / 35 The Claim / 37 Bhoice of de Dispossessed/
39 Welcome to Jaiñtia Hills! / 40 Challenging Father’s Words / 43 The Catch in the
Wind: About Grandmothers / 46 May You Learn / 49 To My Children / 51 Choir Practice
Those October Evenings / 52 Autumn 1991 / 53 China 2014 / 54 From Shanghai to Old
Calcutta / 56 Hu Wei / 58 Hai Yen / 59 Letter to My _Govarmen_ / 60 The Great Indian
Reservation / 63 Help Me _Kong_: NEHU Road (2008) / 64 “Shashi-Niloy”: The No-Longer
House / 66 In the Clinic / 69 To _Ma_ Ganesh Narayan Devy (Founder, Mentor, PLSI)/
70 U Sier Lapalang: A Trilogy / 73