Mereng

Tale of an indomitable spirit

Name of the book: Mereng

Name of the writer: Anuradha Sarma Pujari

Publisher: M/s Banalata, Panbazar

Number of pages: 470

Price: Rs 220

Anuradha Sarma Pujari’s Mereng is based on the life of Indira Miri, who dedicated her life to spread education in the erstwhile North East Frontier Agency (Arunachal Pradesh).

Many readers may not be familiar with Indira Miri, wife of Mahi Chandra Miri, the man behind Kaziranga National Park, but Pujari’s Mereng introduces her, who crisscrossed the hostile terrain and jungles of NEFA six decades ago, setting up schools, persuading the indigenous communities to send their children to the newly set up schools and educated youths to work there as teachers.

This is the second Assamese novel, after Agragamini of Nirupama Borgohain, to highlight the life of Miri, who, after retiring from a busy service life, died at her residence in Guwahati a few years ago.

Unlike her earlier novels, where imagination and emotions were the basic undercurrent, Pujari displayed her zeal as a hardworking novelist to pen down Mereng, where, through her literary prowess, Pujari explores Miri bit by bit, enabling the readers to discover the educationalist in her, for whom there was no greater joy in life than spreading education — no matter how high the obstacles were.

The novel has been divided into three parts — orunodoi (morning), modhyahna (noon) and godhuli (evening), of which the first two parts are based on Miri’s life.

The first part covers her carefree childhood, spent among family members, to the days when she lived the life of an ordinary educated woman, who, after receiving a degree, got married and lived happily with her husband and children. The part ends with the death of her husband, an incident responsible for her metamorphism from a wife to a responsible, brave, hardworking, dedicated education officer.

The second phase covers the important phase Miri’s life — a decade of struggle, when she devoted herself to the spread of education in every nook and corner of NEFA, treading over the undulating hills and jungles and staying away from her children for months together.

But when the Centre suddenly decided to replace Assamese with Hindi as the medium of instruction and then appointed a new senior officer, she was so disheartened that she resigned.

Mereng can be called a successful depiction of the life, work and personality of Indira Miri that successfully portrayed her indomitable spirit and inner conflicts.

RAJIV KONWAR

Published on July 1, 2011