It took a lot of research to pen a mighty chronicle of the disturbing and searing history and aggression that plagued Assam for decades. No wonder then that author Arupa Pantangia Kalita’s Written in Tears went on to win the Sahitya Akademi Award last year. “I have been honoured with several awards including the Sahitya Akademi Award. I’m working on my next novel now,” says Arupa, who is a powerful contemporary Assamese voice and author of 19 books. She likes to write in order to fill the gaps that exist in selective reporting.
Talking passionately about her collection of heart-breaking short stories in her latest literary offering, Arupa says, “It is a short story collection. Besides six stories, there are two novellas with different backgrounds. I wrote the stories at different times. I’ve tried to portray and interpret the complex reality around me. My perception of reality is the writer’s perception of reality. The tools to interpret what I observe around me range from oral literature to cinema to painting and sculpture.
The Cursed Fields of Golden Rice is structured into book and literature. The stories in this collection focus on the trouble from time and its impact on the common people, particularly women. My stories are comments and protest on meaninglessness of violence.” Her work of fiction covers portions of contemporary Assamese history from the inside, by depicting the small but perennial struggles of middle and lower class people who have not benefited from India’s so-called economic progress. We ask the writer on how her writing journey began and she recalls, “I began writing at an early age. The earliest memory I have of writing came as a reaction of encountering a will-o’-the-wisp.
I was suffering from an unknown and mysterious pain. I pulled out a piece of paper and started describing what I had seen on that moonless pitch black night. As soon as I put it down on paper, calmness fell over me. That was my first piece of writing. Till now, I pour out my reactions to life’s many experiences — the strife I see around, the pain I experience, the mirth and joy that I feel — on paper. I write about things that strongly strike me like social injustice, class exploitation, gender discrimination etc. Writing is just like my breathing.”
As the title of the book suggests, this collection recounts the harrowing experiences of women who live in a region scarred by conflict. “Written in Tears is a cry for peace and tranquility in a world devastated by violence. In the story, the ‘half-burnt bus at midnight’ is a metaphor of ugliness of senseless violence. The bus enters the town at midnight and disturbs the calm and peaceful habitation into scorched earth, where flowers don’t bloom, butterflies don’t fly, birds don’t sing, milk does not come out from the mother’s breasts. I want peace and harmony in the beautiful world. But where is it? Where can I find it?” she asks.
