[Assam] About 'A Bowstring Winter'

[utpal borpujari]

Dear Mr Barua. Thanks for your mail. well, i write in Deccan Herald because i work with that paper (in its Delhi news bureau). This is not the first book by an Assamese to be published by an international publisher, not even if we consider only novels. In recent times, we had had one novel by Mitra Phukan published by Penguin-Zubaan and one short story collection of Anuradha Rajkumari by Rupa. Even writers from Arunachal Pradesh (eg Mamang Dai), Nagaland (Temsula Ao), etc, are getting published by Penguin. YOu can say publishers are looking more and more at original English writing from North-East. The only thing I feel is not happening is good translation of our rich vernacular literature into English. Before I end, I must tell you that it is true that these writers are not getting adequate coverage in our local media. - Utpal

Barua25 <barua25 at hotmail.com> wrote:           Dear Borpujari;
  Thank you for sharing the information. I am glad to see that you have written an article and published it in the Deccan Herald. Congratulations to you. We need to expose our creative writers the way you are doing.
  Regarding Dhruba Hazarika's novel, please let me know if there had been any serious literary review in a any paper or magazine in Assam. If there had been, I am surprised to see that nothing filtered in to the net yet.  Was there any other Assamese writer whose original English novel been published by any National/International publishers like Penguin etc. Probably not. With that respect, the people of Assam need to understand and recognize Hazarika's literary achievement. But I have not seen any. If this type of news does not make it to the Assamese News media, I would say that something is seriously wrong with the people of Assam. But I may be wrong.  Kindly enlighten.
  Thanks
  Rajen Barua, Houston 
    ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: utpal borpujari 
  To: assam at assamnet.org 
  Sent: Wednesday, August 30, 2006 3:29 AM
  Subject: [Assam] About 'A Bowstring Winter'
  

  Hi. Read the mails about Dhruba Hazarika's "A Bowstring Winter". An article on the book and the author by me appeared in last Sunday's Deccan Herald newspaper. Here's the article:
   
  http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/aug272006/artic1416552006826.asp
   
  Deccan Herald » Articulations » Detailed Story 
   
          A new dawn in the East?         Utpal Borpujari 
    Dhruba Hazarika is one of the few writers to emerge from the Northeast, a region largely silent in the realm of English literature, says Utpal Borpujari 
          
  Eight rejection slips. That was all Dhruba Hazarika had to show to the world till he touched based with Penguin, which published his first English novel A Bowstring Winter written in time snatched from his 18-hour job schedule that entails supervising the preparations for the long-delayed National Games to be held in his home state— Assam. 

Any other writer would have been distressed with eight rejection slips but Hazarika, with his sports background, used his fighter spirit to rewrite the manuscript each time he received such a slip, making more compact his novel set in the romantic environments of Shillong. The theme of the novel has a lot to do with the passions associated with ‘teer’, or the game of hitting a target with arrows, which is a craze among the people in Meghalaya. 

English fiction with North-East India as the backdrop is rare, more so coming from writers with roots in that region, though the local languages here have a rich literary history. But Hazarika is the latest among a tribe of original writers in English who are slowly emerging out this region inaccessible to the rest of the country and the world not only geographically but also by mindsets. 
   
  A Bowstring Winter is no great literary breakthrough, but it evokes a world that is genteel in its lookout, though the story it narrates is one of passion and revenge. The story that Hazarika tells is interesting, and gripping too, but more than that, it is his way of capturing the sights, sounds and smells of Shillong, the beautiful hill station that the British made the capital of an undivided Assam, that comes as a whiff of fresh air. 

Set in the three months of “U Naiwieng” (November), “U Nohprah” (December) and “U Kyllalyngkot” (January), the coldest and the most romantic period for anyone who knows Shillong or the rest of Meghalaya, A Bowstring Winter has been described as a tale of revenge and violence with the underlying universal theme of friendship, loyalty and the inherent loneliness of man. 

The plot had been with Hazarika since over three decades now, from around the time he was in college and was in the grip of, as he calls it, ‘teer fever’. 

Hazarika had originally written a short story on the subject, but latter it grew into a novel, drawing some inspiration from a few real-life street fighters and in one particular instance from that of a leader of a gang of hoodlums who held sway over Shillong’s gang world for quite a few years. “The characters I mentioned are touchstones that helped me in sorting out my imagination,” the author, who won the Katha award in 1996 for a short story called ‘Chicken Fever’, says. 

In fact, that award gave him the confidence to move ahead with writing in English on a regular basis. As he says, “It is important for writers from the North-East, which has a strong base of English education, to come up with more and more original English writing. I only wish to maintain that they should not have any inhibitions nor should they have any fear that they may do badly. One should simply write as honestly as one can. It is only a matter of time before we have more writers in English coming out of the North- East.” 

Publishing problems 

Being located in Guwahati, Hazarika had tremendous problems in getting a publisher for his novel. “I do not have a reputation either as prolific writer nor did I have exposure in any well known national or international magazines,” he says. And as someone who ‘hates’ rejection slips, he never thought of sending his writings to famous publications. 

“I published my short stories in the regional papers and although a few people thought well of them it was not as if they were masterpieces. So you see I was not really a good ambassador for my own stories.” It was only after getting the Katha award that he began to gather more confidence. 

After every rejection slip to his novel, “I remember revising, editing— although the plot remained the same— the novel not less than 11 times: changing sentences, changing words, trying for a compact realism that seemed a never ending battle. In one way, therefore, the rejections did help me,” he says. 

Hazarika, who is now planning to find a publisher for about 40 short stories that he has written over the years, is working on another novel right now. “I am in the state sports department now for the last three years and because of the forthcoming National Games am tied almost 18 hours a day. I will be happy the day I am relieved of this post so that I can devote at least the next two years to my next novel,” he says. 

  
  
  
  A Bowstring Winter 

Dhruba Hazarika. 

Penguin. Pages 343. Rs 295
   
  - Utpal / New Delhi
    
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