SHILLONG: People Called Shillong, a book which looks at breaking different stereotypes about the city, will be launched here on Saturday.
Addressing a press conference here on Friday, Nisha Nair-Gupta, the founder and principal curator at The People Place Project said, “People Called Shillong is a pilot project which intends to survey the life and landscape in the mesmerising land called Shillong. It will widen people’s horizon beyond the periphery of it being just the Scotland of the East.”
The book intends to capture the textures transcending beyond the clichés with 50 stories capturing the heartbeat, the life and times of the city in Khasi hills. It hopes to forge a relationship for the reader as much as it has for the writers.
An exhaustive collection of stories with many beyond the conventional word limit, the book is a product of the enthusiasm of 15 writers: Alethea O’Neal Kynta, Arjun Chaki, Auswyn Winter Japang, Eudora Khonglah, Jagriti Jhunjhunwala, Mayborn Lyngdoh, Prem Sarit Acharya , Nishiggandha Kerure, Priyanka Shimpi, Rajeev Laloo, Shriti Das, Shweta Raj Kanwar, Sriram Natarajan, Suchita Mundhra and Vancouver Shullai.
The range of perspectives offered by these varying degrees of engagement with Shillong makes the book unique and a rich read. Their writings have diverse styles, are introspective and inquisitive.
Where did the writers find their stories? Often in the everyday life of the city. They are the people at the cafes, corridors of institutions, on the streets running the old markets, busy within the office buildings and even the homes and neighbourhoods, both quaint and new. It captures an array of stories – of the folklores and a folklorist, of businesses and entrepreneurship, spectacular women who make the city tick, a writer for whom the city is a muse, a professor who indulges in the history of not only the city, but that of the Northeast. It also has some intriguing insights into the sport and gambling called teer, a restaurant owner who takes us on his personal journey of food, cuisine and discovery of culture, another food trail in the bustling markets of Police Bazar for local home-made snacks and more.
There are also stories of music, of how deeply it is entrenched in the landscape of this city-from the Shillong Chamber Choir to the band Summersalt to a music entrepreneur Jason Manners-each of them have stories that interpret music in their own ways. Each of these stories not only captures their personal journeys, but also the city’s.
