‘Shillong Times‘, the latest novel by Nilanjan P. Choudhury, will be launched on November 16, 2018 during a book release function in Shillong.
The programme will be held at 6: pm at Dylan’s Cafe, Risa Colony Road in Shillong.
The book launch will be followed by book readings and conversations with author and former Meghalaya Home Minister Robert G Lyngdoh and author & journalist Samrat Choudhury.
Also read: BOOK REVIEW: ‘Shillong Times’, indeed a tale of fear and friendship in 80s
According to Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar, ‘Shillong Times’ is about “residents”, “outsiders” and whose right it is to live in a particular place, this is also the moving story of friendship that transcends all barriers. “With humour and profound insight, Choudhury marches his characters straight into the reader’s heart,” writes Shekhar.
Nilanjan P Choudhury’s latest novel ‘Shillong Times – A story of Friendship and Fear’ is indeed a tale of friendship and fear in Shillong, the capital city of pristine Meghalaya.
Shillong, oft referred to as the Scotland of the East had witnessed ugly sporadic incidents of ethnic violence in the 80s involving local Khasi populace and the ‘non-locals’ or rather non-tribal people staying in Shillong since ages, much before the state of Meghalya was carved out of Assam in 1972.
These ‘non-locals’ colloquially called as ‘Dkhars’ used to have a close and binding relationship with their Khasi friends and acquaintances till the advent of the decade of 80s.
Things changed and Shillong transformed, metamorphosing into a place of suspicion and distrust.
People no longer felt free to move around the places, confining themselves to the pockets that they used to dwell.
The author beautifully brings out the nostalgia growing up in Shillong during that decade that witnessed a futile war over who to reside and who not to in that slice of heaven that many poets, lyricists, artistes and lovers of nature eulogized and immortalized in their creative works.
The novel is also a moving story of friendship that transcends the barriers of communities.