Easterine Kire’s ‘When The River Sleeps’

Easterine Kire’s ‘When the River Sleeps’ is one of the most unusual books I have ever read. At the outset it reads like a tale of magic and myth. But as you read, you realise that it talks about journeys. I use the plural because it speaks about the actual journey the protagonist undertakes physically, the spiritual journey he realises he has undertaken unbeknowest to him, the mystical expedition he embarks upon to fulfil his dream and the adventurous trip the reader takes along with him albeit vicariously. It is a tale that balances the realities of the tangible world with the fantastical of the supernatural. After many, many years I chanced upon a book that had strange encounters with spirits, ghosts, weretigers, wraiths, witches and magical objects and spells which concocted a perfect grandma’s tale.

A typical folklore with a contemporary narrative, it transports the reader to the deep and lush forests of Nagaland and Mizoram. The best thing about the book is that it reads like a hunter’s handbook to survival in the jungles. The fact that man can be a manifestation of nature, is a thought that this book provokes in the minds of the readers. This book also like many of its counterparts highlights the overlaps between reality and imagination. The veneration of Ukepenuopfü – the birth-spirit and the gratefulness towards the spirits ‘Terhuomia peziemu’ strengthens the Naga identity. Interestingly the theme of the book is quite antiquated- at the heart of the quest for the heart stone lies the battle between good and evil. This has been projected through an eco-critical and mythopoeic representation of the proverbial tussle between nature and culture, between man and its surrounding, between tradition and modernity, between an eroding age old tradition of beliefs and rituals and rapid and commercial urbanization. The issues dealt with in the book are macroscopic but the form is microscopic. The language is simple and unpretentious. A certain innocence envelops the atmosphere of the novel- whether it is Villie’s characterisation or the warmth and beauty of the villages and its inhabitants (the forest dwellers). The richness of the flora and fauna also adds to the esoteric appeal of Nagaland.

The exoticism has been rendered redundant through his parable that exhibits the strong symbiotic relationship between man and nature and the balance between superstition and rationality. As I said earlier that the book talks of journeys; it also talks about the seekers. All of us are seekers seeking our own answers to various real, literal, metaphorical and spiritual questions that haunt us in our everyday lives. Villie is a manifestation of our inner seeker. Through him we traverse various universes to come to the point of finality. There are resonances of the traditional story telling technique and that is what sets this novella apart.Though there are certain literary lapses and the reader is left to guess and tie too many threads by themselves, it certainly is a good read and most importantly brings to the fore how man and nature can coexist harmoniously even in a capitalist and consumerist driven 21st century.