Characters ☆ E-book, or Kindle E-pub ☆ Janice Pariat

Boats on Land Free download Ù 9 Boats on Land is a collection of short stories that offer a new way of looking at the world and in particular India’s little known northeast Set in and around Shillong Cherrapunjee and pockets of Assam these tales are shaped against a larger historical canvas of the early days of the British Raj the World Wa As a child returning to Kerala during my school summer break one of the evening rituals I clearly remember is gathering around with my cousins at night candles and bamboo hand fans in tow all in anticipation of the hourly scheduled power cuts Without the screech of the television and the blessing of electricity to guide my reading I would usually be bored to tears until we began exchanging stories huddled around the candles their flickering flames casting giant shadows on the wall Inevitably the talk would turn to the supernatural witches roaming around seeking vows of vengeance benign spirits who didn t mean harm but were always upto some sort of mischief gandharvas who descend from the heavens and bewitch young girlsAll sorts of stories which I usually brushed away in incredulity once the lights were back on But that was a magical hour and it was probably the first time I fell in love with stories and story tellingReading Janice Pariat s Boats on Land was a bit like revisiting that magical hour Her stories took me to the hills of Shillong you could easily see the bits of coal thrown into the fireplace to warm the body and the soul and sense the heady scent of pine Whilst there is a whiff of wistfulness some sort of solemn sobriety through the stories they are thought provoking and very poignant The concepts of what is home who is an outsider and the burdens of the past are some recurring themes Pariat writes about the 1987 scuffles between the Khasis and dkhars or outsiders curfewed nights and political unrest as effortlessly as she describes water spirits that lure the lovestruck to jump off mist laden cliffs and forlorn places where the birds go to die Like any anthology there are some stories that are better than the rest My favourites from the collection would be the eponymous Boats on Land followed by Pilgrimage Boats on Land traces the story of a young girl visiting her parents friends in the plains of Assam a uaint little place by the banks of the mighty Brahmaputra and how an unlikely friendship impacts her for life Pilgrimage begins with a Shehecheyanu blessing of gratitudeYou who has kept us alive sustained us and enabled us to reach this seasonThe story is essentially a pilgrimage to the past and how these journeys are really to think about the places and people one leaves behind And perhaps sometimes the past is better left alone This book restores my belief in the power and magic of stories May we tell of them

Boats on Land Free download Ù 9 Rs conversions to Christianity and the missionariesSpanning a sweep of centuries from the mid 1800s to the present day the stories work as a historical sociological documentation of a place and its people interweaving the uotidian and the mythic the mundane and the extraordinaryThis is a world in which the eve As a reader whenever I express my interest in reading to others the next uestion is a no brainer What s the book you ve liked the most so far or What s your current favourite This uestion always throws me off because I am a sucker for uotes Most books that I ve read have them Perfectly articulated and timed Oh all the wonderful That is exactly why I became best friends with my best friend Well one reason definitely We used to completely understand this feeling pass on the book to the other person to make her read the treasured line that made our lives beautiful at that exact moment And the book that became my favourite gave me this contentment over and over Janice Pariat through her collection of short stories in her book Boats on Land weaves the melancholic tale albeit beautifully written almost poetic of the transformation of her native place Shillong and the areas nearbyThe stories bring out ancient folklores myths rituals and traditions of those regions The most fascinating aspect of the book is how vividly Janice paints her characters which takes us through the changes they experience due to modernization abandonment of local beliefs for western culture and other events in history For instance to describe a heartache she writes It was a corpse cold evening in mid December when Josephine broke his heart The sky was the colour of razor blades lying flat and suare outside the windowThe air both numbed and sharpened his sensesIn his ears was the echo of her silence when he asked about Ashley the Anglo boy from the neighbourhood Reliving a biker s escape out of the mundane town she writes Cocooned in plastic and metal in parched pages within the arms of suffocating love And everything goes by scenery and life unfurling at a safe and careful distance a flat democratic hazeOn a motorbike the world rushes up at you from all sides so do the wind and the colours of the trees and the sky You are exposed I ve had my fair share of road mishaps but believe me when I say these words evoke all the thrill and need for speed that the said biker talks aboutTo put it out there Boats on land makes me want to go to uaint places and simpler times when young love meant stolen glances and hushed exchanges at the bus stop when staying out beyond the dark meant a reprimand from the elders when flowers and cards still carried the weight of the relationships Her stories with mythical horses and shapeshifting tigers will always continue to remain close to my heart

Characters ☆ E-book, or Kindle E-pub ☆ Janice Pariat

Boats on Land Free download Ù 9 Ryday is infused with folklore and a deep belief in the supernatural Here a girl dreams of being a firebird An artist watches souls turn into trees A man shape shifts into a tiger Another is bewitched by water fairies Political struggles and social unrest interweave with fireside tales and age old superstition Highly recommended Read my full review at s a short summary of what I thinkThere are 15 stories all of which cover the period from British colonial rule to the hartal ridden angst filled factionalism threatened today that s about two hundred years As we read from the first story to the last the events unfold in chronological order with different sets of protagonistsMs Pariat s narrators many of whom are tweens or teens stand at the margins of history observing the turbulence whether in politics society within their clan or even inside the minds of their loved ones but they are never really in the thick of the action Still the reader leaves each story with reluctance the shared pain and empathy remain long after you have turned the pagesBoats on Land is uintessential Shillong sketched by an insider And that makes all the difference