Sprit Nights - Easterine Kire
My Rating: 4/5
I got this book from a friend who was visiting us from Nagaland last month. I told him to get me a book from a local acclaimed writer, and I must say what an amazing pick-up he had made for me. Easterine Kire from Nagaland is the winner of the Governor’s Medal for excellence in Naga Literature 2011, Winner of the Hindi Prize 2015 and winner of the Tata Literature Live book of the year award 2017. This was my first from her, but an incredible read at that. So much she tells us about Nagamese culture, beliefs, system and stories from the day. Especially what they eat, imagine in one of the instances the little kid is supposed to drink a Frog soup to make his legs stronger. She so much reminded me of my own grandmother, who migrated from Nepal in the early 20th century to India, and she used to tell us the stories of spirits that they believed in back home. She insisted that swallowing live leeches helps with so many stomach-related ailments :). Almost the same stories are narrated in this one from the perspective of an ageing grandmother who takes care of her grandson after the loss of her own son and his wife, very early after the child was born. She becomes a village seer of the entire village, consisting of some 20-odd houses starts coming to her for advice and whatnot. The story is how she prepares her grandson for the big day when he will become a seer himself, as the seership runs in the family, much to his likeness, though. How he comes across the title and why he starts believing that he is the one is why you need to read the story. I totally loved it. I still remember my granny used to tell me that she used to foresee her funeral attended only by her six sons (my father and uncles totalled 7), but she couldn’t tell me which son was missing. Later, when we lost one of my uncles in a freak accident, she took me aside and told me, “Didn’t I tell you, I am going to lose one of them?” This story had so many episodes like that in the story, which gave me goosebumps, although now we may call them superstitions or whatever, but in the story, they sound so believable back in the day. With hardly 180 pages, but I must say it's a gem of a book, and I am going to remember this for a long time to come.
Also, I will be looking forward to reading a few more from her in the very near future. Do let me know if you have read anything from Easterine Kire or from any other writer from the North East that you cherished. I would love to give them a try too.
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