By Our Special Correspondent
SHILLONG: Raphael Warjri, a visual artist of repute and sensitive film maker, who started the North East Television & Film Producers’ Association and also the annual art exhibition under the auspices of Thoh Shun, has now ventured into story writing.
His first book in Khasi, U Tiew Lapubon was released by veteran writer from Jowai QS Sumer.
Raphael’s book revolves around his grand uncle who was apparently possessed by a good spirit (fairy) and who became partially paralysed on account of that.
However, he also earned the art of healing from the fairy.
Earlier Prof SS Majaw, President Khasi Author’s Society lauded Raphael’s writing style and his ability to put together a narrative from what the accounts given to him by his grandmother.
The protagonist in the story Kyntoshai was his grandmother’s brother (grand maternal uncle) and the story narrates the travails he underwent on account of his physical disability.
Dwelling on the difficulty of converting oral tradition into literature, Prof Majaw stated that Raphael has done a commendable work of collating what his grandmother shared with him a long time ago to add to the repository of Khasi literature.
Recently Raphael produced a documentary on medicinal herbs for INTACH an organisation that conserves heritage sites and indigenous knowledge.
Raphael is also a well-known speleologist who has photographed and documented cave life in Meghalaya.