'WRITTEN IN TEARS' BY ARUPA PATANGIA KALITA
'Written in Tears' by Arupa Patangia Kalita. 🍂
One morning they woke up and saw the land around them which doesn't belong to anyone, one morning they woke up and heard the screams of their kith and kin, one morning they travelled to the distant land which was not welcoming, they lost their identity, lost their relatives, beared the painful gawking of the strangers, few of them moved to the cities, few survived, many suffocated.
We gawked, criticized, slept peacefully and named them 'Refugees'.
Assam Separatists' movement commenced in 1970s, more than thirty thousand people died in the conflict between the rebels and Government. Innocent migrant workers were attacked, the indigenous people moved to the other cities.
In the throes of abandonment, Arupa Patangia Kalita captured the painful lives of the people in the Assam(1970 - 90).
'Written in Tears' is a collection of eight short stories, the stories revolve around the shattered lives of the common people during the insurgency.
One of the short stories, 'The Cursed Fields of Golden Rice' pierced my heart with torturous incidents. Women's sufferings in the insurgency period and war period is the most painful. Paroxysm of globalisation, migration, insurgency were inscribed realistically in the stories. 'Written in Tears' is originally written in Assamese and translated in English by Ranjita Biswas. This collection of short stories is the winner of Sahitya Akademi Award for 2014.
The stories were penned in an exquisite composition of folk tales and songs, the cultural background is vivid and elaborate. Deteriorated mental state of the indigenous people and the sexual assaults in the stories are certainly disturbing.
These short stories are echoing the screams of the aggression and hate that has plagued Assam for decades. 'Written in Tears' is one of the boldest books about insurgency period in Assamese literature.
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