Whistles of Siphoong: Tales from Assam’s Bodo Heartland

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Old Ojhai has never loved anyone or anything more than his siphoong, the flute. Sometimes Ojhai’s siphoong overpowers scary spirits and sometimes it brings Heaven’s deity down to earth. It cajoles the skies to rain and it woos fire. It captivates reptiles just as its gentle lullaby soothes an unborn baby. It even helps an innocent youth see his dying mother and escape the clutches of the army. Spirits and humans, serpents and skies, fire and fireflies all surrender to the magic of Ojhai’s music. It is the miraculous melody from his siphoong that weaves through the fabric of lore, legend and culture of the Bodos of Assam in Narzary’s Whistles of the Siphoong. The eight tales in this collection move through the real and fantastical to bring alive the threads of joy, compassion and care that connect humans to nature and tradition, to stories and music and, above all, to each other.

Rashmi Narzary is a dog lover at heart, an author by passion and an independent editor by profession. Awarded the Sahitya Akademi for Children?s Literature in 2016 for her collection of short stories, His Share of Sky, creative storytelling and reimagination of folklore and legends are her forte. Literarily, socially and academically acclaimed, her debut novel, BLOODSTONE, Legend of the Last Engraving, is one such historical fiction woven around the legends of the Kamakhya Temple. Her latest novel, An Unfinished Search, is a historical fiction portraying the rootlessness and loss of identity that war and partition of nations cause. Narzary?s work is being taught in universities and researched for doctoral thesis and has been translated into other Indian and foreign languages. Her growing up years in Shillong, where she started her education in Pine Mount School, left an indelible, endearing mark on her bond with the hills and nature. Little wonder then that abundance of nature rules her otherwise simple, easy narrative style. Her driving passion for storytelling made her degree in Economics and post graduation in Human Resource Management take a backseat. She lives in Guwahati with her husband, a former IAS officer, in a home that abounds with pets and large flocks of visiting birds. Whistles of the Siphoong is Rashmi Narzary?s seventh book.

Rashmi Narzary

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