The stories in this collection are set against the picturesque yet frequently violent backdrop of Assam, in India s northeast.
In one, a young man tries to escape the straitjacket of middle-class aspirations only to realize the futility of rebellion. A mother shares her daughter s pain when social inhibitions finally catch up with her. Another is perturbed by the undoing of ethnic harmony caused by the ennui of those who care. A small girl loses her tongue to the horrors of conflict, an old woman talks her way through everything. In another, a bloody carnage is played out.
Love and loss and their relation to or disengagement from ethnic considerations and political violence are the stuff of most of these tales. And just like the madman of the last tale who sits and draws patterns on a pavement unperturbed by rain or shine, they all only want to make some sense of the utter absurdity of violent conflicts that have plagued the beautiful land of Assam.
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