Poetry Book Review by Shrey Rodricks: Book - My Invented Land by Robin S Ngangom

 

 

 

My Invented Land | Robin S Ngangom

Speaking Tiger Books, 2023

ISBN 978-93-5447-401-9

eISBN 978-93-5447-405-7

Pages: 183, Price: INR 399

 

Homeland – Love, Intimacy & Loss of Identity

 

Hailing from the Northeast state of Manipur, the poems of Robin S. Ngangom are deeply influenced by the Meitei culture and traditions.

 

In the poem ‘Khambha of Moirang’, he revisits the legend of Khamba and Thoibi with deep emotions. He later shifted to Shillong and wrote about the mountains, hills and the rich oral literature of the Khasis, an ethnic group of Meghalaya. He then drifts from the beauty of nature, love and sensuality to the more obvious scenario of the region. He writes about violence, turmoil in homes and the shifting social environment.

 

In ‘Weekend’ the poet says,

 

“The man returns home drunk,

Late Saturday night…”

 

The woman faces the inconsolable sorrow of dealing with this situation, with her children as mute witnesses. 

Ethnic violence between groups, arms and drugs spread like cancer and political ambitions of some who exploit the simple hill people. This is seen in the following lines:

 

“Land of my childhood

I can no more pretend to love.

Where I heard the bicycles

leaving in the morning and

a kitchen warm with smells.

I can be found hidden in a corner,

the soft boy with a fondness of epics

as some rowdy friends

plan the conquest

of a neighbouring territory;

one galloped a stolen horse

through a crowded bazar

cutting the throng to pieces and 

walked on to become

the marksman

of a subversive outfit.”

 

His poems drift from the nature–man beautiful coexistence as seen in the 

‘Goan Sketch’ where the imagery is fresh, to the realities of life in ‘Mynamar’s Story’ where his troubled voice says,

“But there are darker days, my love,

When freedom has become a rare metal...”

 

The recurring subject of this poem is a collection between reality and the traditional past, when life was joyful and peaceful. This is also reflected in the excerpts from ‘The Book of Grievances’:

 

“Today we will bury tradition’s foetus.”

and,

“We will desert honour and a vain hope

for peace will burn our hills.”

 

In ‘Father on Earth’, the poet portrays his mother in the deep-rooted traditional role of a wife and calls it love. He spells out genuine concern for his ageing father, who in his childlike old age becomes the son he never had.

 

Wandering from the past to the present day, Ngangom’s poems have more questions than answers to the changing social patterns of the hill culture, degradation of natural topography and influence of politics and governments. His poems swing between anger, despair, loss and hope. The influence of Khasi culture and his attachment to the state of Meghalaya, where he resides now, is manifest beautifully in ‘Mawlai’:

 

“This is when I want to meet 

an old love beautiful as a summer’s day

to ask her how she has been.”

 

This book of poems has been penned with the intention to amuse, comfort and heal the reader, while fiercely protecting the poet’s freedom of expression, as seen in his words in the Foreword: “Freedom is the life blood of a poet’s art.”

Bio note:

Shrey Verma Rodricks, originally from Bihar, lives in Hyderabad. She has Masters degrees in Environmental Biology, Forestry, Special Education. Her keen interest in English and Hindi literature evoked her passion for writing prose and poetry. She has also taken to painting.