The fascination that The Ramayana has been the site of, is explored through an interestingly fresh take in Dibyajyoti Borah’s story “S + R/ R /L,” offering the possibilities of revisiting a familiar narrative for a contemporary audience. (Feature)

The fascination that The Ramayana has been the site of, is explored through an interestingly fresh take in Dibyajyoti Borah’s story “S + R/ R /L,” offering the possibilities of revisiting a familiar narrative for a contemporary audience. (Feature)

Life-writing is one of the most exciting fields in Assamese writing where new modes of engagement are taken up as for example by  Pradipta Borgohain in his succinctly brilliant discussion of two contemporary texts –  Harekrishna Deka’s Sotalor Ankbak (2017) and Anima Guha’s Jibanar Jowar-Bhatar Majedi (2009.  (Feature)

Amitav Ghosh’s novel The Hungry Tide is taken up by Sakoon N Singh to analyse how “The transcendent nature of sciences has allowed the Eurocentric historiography of science to gloss over political, social and economic factors that provide a context to any scientific endeavour.” (Literary Section)

In his article “Hunting and Heroism in the Odyssey, the Ramayana, and the Mahabharata” Vinanti Vasishth flies back to the epic times where the heroes despite their brave and great hunting prowess weren’t devoid of basic human qualities of sympathy, empathy, moral compunction... and of course, the natural law of retribution too had its exemplary role. (Literary Section)

Bhaskar Thakuria’s story – Butterfly Effect – is an allegory of the scientific theory with international socioeconomic contexts.  It evaluates the modern life and aspirations through a series of interlinked events set in Africa, China and India. The writer has sensitively portrayed how people across the world can get affected and how such a delicate strand is a common base for the destruction that follows. (Fiction)

Ritupana Sen’s story – An Ordinary Possession – shows how a woman’s integrity stands on a fine line drawn by society where it is easier to push one’s reputation down a dark hole instead of looking at things the way they really stand. The characters in this story weave a story themselves around a character and the journey towards that creation is what makes this story such a good read. (Fiction)

Amish Tripathi, the leading mythic fiction writer’s  Raavan: Enemy of Aryavarta... and Sukanya Rahman’s Dancing in the Family – a memoir of the first family of Indian classical dancers (Ragini Devi, Indrani, Sukanya) are among the most interesting books reviewed, apart from 2 of literary criticism, 2 of fiction, 2 of poetry, 2 of religious art/ architecture. (Book Reviews)

The 10 books reviewed in this issue cover two that stand out. One on art: The Great Mysore Bhagavata: Complete Study of a Manuscript from the Binney Collection in The San Diego Museum of Art (B N Goswamy) with 217 photos... And the other on the Indian church architecture – The Churches of India (Joanne Taylor) with over 300 photos. (Book Reviews)