NELit review

POST script 3
AUGUST 19, 2012

SEVEN SISTERS

Festivals of Northeast: Mizoram

iNKPOT
SOURCE: HOOPLA CLUB, JULY 2009

Recommended READS
THE STORY OF SHANGMIYANG THE TANGKHUL GIANT
Birendra Kumar Bhattacharyya (Reteller) Suddhasattwa Basu (Illustrator) Katha, 2005 ` 80, 32 pages Paperback/Childrens Books

Fathers car
M
Y father loves his car more than he loves me. If the great car makers of the world decided to confer an award like The Most Awe Inspiringly Well-Maintained Car Of Any Make, Size And Value Since The Birth Of Time In The Whole Freaking Universe, my father would win it hands down routing all contenders. Now the obvious question is: How? How does this gentleman maintain his car? Very simple. Father has 12 Golden Unbendable Rules Of Thumb. Just abide by these and you should be there. Here they go: Rule no. 1: Take the scooter. A shrewd man, my father, whenever the weather is not too hot or too cold or too wet, he takes his scooter. Saves fuel, zero parking woes and you can glide through traffic like Batman. Rule no. 2: But if you must take your car, relax; take your wifes! Sadly, mother takes her car to work every morning which more often than not leaves my poor father with the third option. Rule no. 3: OK. If it must be your car, dont panic. Just drive slowly. Now, youll ask how slowly? To which Ill say without an iota of doubt if you were travelling from our house near Guwahati Commerce College towards Ganeshguri (roughly five kilometres away) and father was at the wheel, you may spot a nice girl, fall in love, enter a whirlwind courtship, get married, have kids and develop a pendulous pot belly, all before youve hit Ganeshguri Chariali! Rule no. 4: When its raining hippos and rhinos, stay at home and watch HBO. But if youre already at work and the skys suddenly turned an ominous grey with gargantuan cumulonimbus roaring deafeninglychuck everything, pack up and before The Great Guwahati Deluge murders your car, scoot home at breakneck speed. Thats when youll see my father tearing down the road at forty-ohmy-god-I-cant-see-a-thing-kilometres-per-hour! Rule no. 5: If the roads full of boulders and gooey muck, find another road you schmuck!

xcerpted and retold from the novel Yaruingam

THE ROOSTER AND THE SUN

Meren Imchen (Reteller & Illustrator) Sunanda Ghosh (Translator) Tulika, 2010 ` 100, 24 pages Paperback/Childrens Books

THE SKY QUEEN

Mamang Dai (Reteller) Srivi (Illustrator) Katha, 2005 ` 80, 36 pages Paperback/Childrens Books

n Ao folktale from Nagaland in English and Bengali

n Adi folktale from Arunachal Pradesh

U SIER LAPALANG
Kynpham Sing Nongkynrih (Reteller) Maya Ramaswamy (Illustrator) Katha, 2005 ` 80, 36 pages Paperback/Childrens Books

ROOM IN YOUR HEART

Kunzang Choden Pema Tshering (Illustrator) Zubaan, 2011 ` 195, 32 pages Paperback/Childrens Books

Khasi folktale from Meghalaya

n original childrens tale by one of Bhutans leading writers

AUNTY MOUSE
Kunzang Choden (Reteller) Pema Tshering (Illustrator) Zubaan, 2011 `195, 32 pages Paperback/Childrens Books

folktale from Bhutan

Situation: Its your nieces wedding reception and youve just picked up your wife and daughter from the beauty parlour where theyve paid a fortune to be made up like JLo in mekhela sador. Wife: Beta is my hair OK? Is the lily in place? Daughter: Mom, are my eyes smoky enough? Do they look like Avrils in that video? And then the rains come lashing like mad. The streets rapidly being inundated and the only road leading up to the wedding venue, being a kachha road, has transmogrified into a threatening quagmire of dark chocolaty mud. Q: What do you do? Ans: Very slowly and cautiously, drive over the muck and drop off my family right in front of the marquees flowery entrance so that their pencil heels do not get muddy. Wrong! Find a nice and dry spot, park your car carefully, say a prayer and start walking. Disclaimer: Abiding by this rule in toto may lead to long-term side effects like divorce, hefty alimony settlements, bankruptcy, heart attack due to bankruptcy et al. Hence, do so at your own peril. Rule no. 6: If theres a speed breaker ahead, STOP. My father inches his car up a speed breaker sooo slowly, he makes an average of three attempts to cross it. This is primarily because he believes every time one drives over a speed breaker the car dies a little.

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HITESHA.PHUKAN
In fact, if my father could, hed bodily lift his car and carry it over the hump, gently place it on the tarmac, coo See how much Daddy loves you baby and drive off blissfully until the next bump. Rule no. 7: Neverevereverever lend your car. Every time someone comes around asking my father for his car, he stares at them like theyd asked him for his kidneys. Actually, I suspect, hed much rather loan his endocrine glands for a day or two than the other way round. Rule no. 8: Only five adults at a time please. Sorry. This is a car, not a lorry. Please take a rickshaw, theres no hurry. Well wait for you at the venue, dont worry. And even though youre Katy Perry, Ill still have to say sorry. Rule no 9: Beauty treatment. This includes a daily bubble bath, aroma therapy with sandalwood incense, pedicure, scrubbing of rubber floor mats, and a full body facial using only premium

Amway products. Also, a weekly vacuum clean-up and quarterly spa servicing. Rule no. 10: Mandatory half yearly health check-up. Father, on these occasions, spends the whole day in the garage watching over his car like a lioness over her cub lest the foxy mechanic filches a genuine part and replaces it with a fake second. Rule no. 11: Eating will invite beating. Plain and simple. We are not allowed to eat anything inside fathers car. Not even our nails. Rules no. 12: (And this is the clincher, so read carefully) If you even so much as tweak any of the aforementioned rules, you have no right to own a car. So go buy a donkey. Epilogue: For further advice, tailor-made to suit the unique needs of your car, feel free to drop in at our place between 10am to 1pm (Sundays closed). Father will be more than happy to oblige. Just come near GCC and ask for the gentleman with the sparkling white car. Personal note for father: Hi Deota, howdydo! See Ive made you so famous! Youre almost an icon now! Does it not speak volumes of how much I love you? Heheso hehe umabout the i-Pad, hehetheyve downed the prices you knowwait wherere you goingno wait, please listenDeotaaaaaaaa T