SHILLONG: The deterioration of the Wah Umkhrah, one of the rivers that runs through Shillong, from a pristine water body to little more than an open drain has been much mourned by the people who live on its banks and a new book of short stories centred on the river was released on Friday, this time giving a voice to the Wah Umkhrah itself.
‘Memoir in Water Speaks the Wah Umkhrah’ by NEHU professor Esther Syiem contains nine short stories told from the river’s point of view and its deep feelings for the people who live beside it as they go about their normal, yet often tragic, lives.
This book and Syiem’s third collection of poetry – ‘Many Sides of Many Stories’ – was released at the start of a two-day workshop on translation of oral resources from North East communities at NEHU.
Having lived her whole life above the Wah Umkhrah, Syiem, who teaches in the university’s Department of English explained, “I have been made to visualise what the river was like through stories told by my grandmother and mother and compared that to what I see now, which is a river full of rubbish. The condition of the Wah Umkhrah reflects society’s irreverence for things that cannot speak, such as animals, rivers and forests.”
The events in the stories are inspired by real life but with a twist: that the river is given a very real presence that most of us would never think of. The message is clear – that nature must be listened to, appreciated and not “concretised”.
Syiem’s other works include ‘The Languages of Meghalaya’, part of the People’s Linguistic Survey of India; ‘Ka Nam’, a play; ‘The Oral Discourse in Khasi Folk Narrative’, a resource book on Khasi culture; and ‘Ka Jingiamareh Kob ki Wah’ (The Race of the Rivers), a retelling of a Khasi folktale.
