Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Under A Cloud

Name of Book : Under A Cloud.

Name of Author: Binoo K. John.

Publisher: Penguin.

Number of Pages: 161.

The book is a travelogue of sorts starting with the train journey from Delhi to Assam and Meghalaya. The book focuses on Cherrapunji , Mawsynram and Shillong. The author’s intention is to highlight different aspects and experiences of the places he travelled in from what is commonly known.

The style is racy even when he narrates of his wanderings on foot. To emphasize this he indulges in drama and hyperbole in his narrative, as in the case of his journeys in the streets of Guwahati and the drive to Shillong.

There are many inaccuracies in the narration.. To start with Shillong is not 6,500 feet above sea level. It is 4908 feet at the Kutchery point. Even Shillong Peak is just above 6000 feet. The waters of Ward’s Lake could not have possibly destroyed Shillong Town in the Earthquake of 1897, because it was simply not large enough. Tirot Singh did not belong to Sohra or Cherrapunji as he claimed, nor does the eldest daughter inherit in the matrilineal system. Dohkhlieh is not made from buffalo head nor have I heard of pig killing done among the Khasis with a red hot iron rod being pushed up the rectum of the animal. Mr. John has been very fortunate in seeing “youngsters with belly buttons decorated with fake pearls” on the main streets and near schools, a sight I have not had the privilege to witness in a lifetime of wandering those same streets.

There are many more inaccuracies relating to David Scott’s age, the altitude of Cherrapunji and Mawsynram plateaus (6000 feet?), the Assam floods being caused by the flowing waters from Cherra, being glaring ones.

One would expect that the truth should not have been so glaringly overlooked in a writing of this kind.

H. W. T. Syiem

Published on August 26

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