Language | English |
---|---|
ISBN-10 | 81-86706-83-6 |
ISBN-13 | 978-8186706831 |
No of pages | 349 |
Font Size | Medium |
Book Publisher | Penguin India |
Published Date | 01 Mar 2005 |
Mitra Phukan is an Indian author who writes in English. She is also a translator and columnist.[1]Her published literary works include four children's books, a biography, two novels, "The Collector's Wife" and
"A Monsoon of Music" (Penguin-Zubin) several volumes of translations of other novels and a collection of fifty of her columns, "Guwahati Gaze" Her most recent works are a collection of her own short stories
"A Full Night's Thievery" (Speaking Tiger 2016) and a collection of short stories in translation, "Aghion Bai and Other Stories" (2019) She writes extensively on Indian Music as a reviewer and essayist.
Her works have been translated into many languages, and several of them are taught in colleges and Universities.
As a translator herself, she has translated into English the works of some of the best known Assamese writers of fiction, including
"Blossoms in the Graveyard", a translation of Janeth Awardee Birendra Kumar Bhattacharjee's "Kobo Aru Pool" Her column "All Things Considered" in the Assam Tribune is widely read. She has been extensively anthologized, also.
Among the awards she has received so far have been the UNICEF-CBT Award for children's fiction, the Katha Award for Translation, the Telegraph-Vineet Gupta Memorial Award for short fiction, etc.
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This is the story of Rukmini who is married to the District Collector of a small town in Assam, and teaches English Literature in the local college. On the surface her life is settled and safe, living in the big, beautiful bungalow on the hill above the cremation ground, seemingly untouched by the toil and sufferings of the common folk below. Yet each time there is an ‘incident’ in the district, the fear and uncertainty that grips the town is reflected in her own life.
The violent insurgency that grips Assam runs like a dark river through the novel and forms its backdrop. The Assam students’ agitation of the 1970s and 1980s that began as a movement for self-determination has grown into a full blown insurgency. Kidnappings, extortion and political instability are the order of the day.
The issue of illegal migration from across the border has spread mistrust and bitterness among the people of the region and Rukmini’s world is pervaded by this ever-present threat of violence. The meaninglessness of it all, the complexities that divide ‘them’ and ‘us’ and the point at which the two merge are all explored in this powerful novel. The final dénouement is horrifying and yet true—for there can be no other ‘end’ to such a tale, where the personal is so densely interwoven with the political.