Dimapur, January 19 (MExN): The first bi-monthly talk of Naga Scholars’ Association (NSA) for the year 2017 was held at School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University. The session started with welcome address by NSA president Dr. Zuchamo Yanthan.
The invited speaker Easterine Kire, a national award winner ‘The Hindu Prize for 2015’ discussed about her latest book ‘Sound of the thundercloud’ and gave a special lecture on ‘Not writing Bollywood.’
She narrated the difficulty as creative writers from North East, who are expected to follow certain prescribed-format like Bollywood which constraints and limit the space for creative writing. As interesting as the title sounds, Kire began by clarifying that the catchy title of the talk has nothing against Bollywood but it was used merely for deriving lucrative examples and reliable analogies.
According to Kire, Bollywood thrives on a peculiar “formula” of action and romance which is farfetched in real life. The formula has a “heroizing pattern” that categorize individual as black and white, or either as hero or as villain. This feeds people with the false assumption that applying such formula in real life can bring success. The audience always fails to realize that Bollywood formula is only for entertainment purpose. Thus, the talk revolves around such credulous “formula” in the sphere of writing (creative and academia both) with Kire questioning the supremacy and validity of its existence.
Kire said during the nineties, writers were often made to believe that there is a certain way of writing, a formula and a pattern that needs to be followed. “Such is the case with North Eastern writers. They are often demarcated and expected to write and talk about conflict, violence and political scenario,” she added.
She talked about her early experience as a writer when her works were rejected a couple of times by publishers for not meeting the criteria prerequisite of a North Eastern writings and was often asked for more political background and violence check etc. Even her recent novels were hardly reviewed, promoted or publicize because of the themes employed.
She brought into picture the dominating figure that governs the literary world by dictating specific themes for the writers (North Eastern in this case) and the perplexity and chasm that follows if one doesn’t subscribe to the formula. Kire voiced against such dictation saying that the existence of such rule and formula deprive the writers of their independence to think creatively. Writing, to her, is more than pleasing people or satisfying her readers. Writing, to her, is a balance between creativity and constructive analysis. Hence, writing should come straight from the heart, rather than springing out from an expected or given themes.
It was in this regard that Kire relates the publishing industry with the film industry by making a similar comparison between the two. Kire petitioned to speak up for ourselves as she doesn’t believe in the superficial heroes who follows or leads the crowd. She only believes that we are our own true heroes.
In the concluding remark Kire said, “We will write what we want to write, not what we are expected to write,” defies the long executed formula and encourages us to think beyond the box and to write from our heart, beyond what is given and expected. Being a community/region with rich culture and heritage, we should explore means and ways to narrate our own folk tales and assert our roots and identity rather than simply confining to ideas that is subjugated to us within certain frames and contexts.
Dr. Shelmi Sankhil, who teaches at Ambedkar University, has chaired the session and Dr. Veio Pou, (Delhi University) was the discussant. Dr. Gideon, General Secretary of NSA, thanked the audience for the eventful discussion and the event ended with high note on further encouraging creative writing especially among youngsters. The rapporteur was Kanshouwa Susie.
