Shainanigans

Critical Appreciation: The Voice of the Mountains by Mamang Dai Source "The Voice of the Mountains" is a poem by Mamang Dai. She is a journalist, writer, and poet belonging to the Adi community of Arunachal Pradesh.  Arunachal Pradesh itself translates as 'the land of the dawn-lit mountains.' So it is no surprise that Dai, who often writes what classifies as "nature poetry," titled the poem, 'The Voice of the Mountains' giving a voice to her native land.  The primary themes in the poem are immortality and change. Though the mountain remains the same - omnipresent and witnessing many lives, the world keeps changing. It highlights the eternal beauty of nature in contrast to the constant destruction caused by man, especially in the North East region.  The mountains serve as a symbol in the poem for the rituals of indigenous people as well as the protector of history. It has nine stanzas with no rhyming scheme. The line count in the poem, too, is irreg

Critical Appreciation Source 'Small Towns and the River' written by Mamang Dai was published in 2004 in Dai's poetry collection, 'River Poems.' Dai belongs to the Adi community of Arunachal Pradesh and voices the issues of her hometown Pasighat in many of her poems, including 'Small Towns and the River.'  Although the poem is essentially about celebrating the immortality of nature (primarily the river in this poem) and those associated with it (tribal people), it also laments its destruction due to ever-growing small towns and political unrest. Thereby making the title of the poem apt for it.  The most prominent theme that can be spotted in the poem is life and death. "Just the other day someone died" throws light on the tensions between natives and migrants in the North East region, which sometimes cause clashes leading to bloodshed.  When the speaker says "dreadful silence," it actually denotes the curfews that are imposed. Additiona

Brief Details: Title Art & Narrative Source Bhimayana is a graphic novel based on the life of B.R Ambedkar, published in 2011.  The novel subverts or presents an alternative to the epic of heroism. Its very title signifies political importance in parallel with Ramayana . As for the storyline, the first wife of king Dashrath in Ramayana, Kaushala Rani, is replaced by Ambedkar's mother. The replacement of Ram's image (a central figure of Hinduism who is revered as perfect) by that of Ambedkar in the popular culture is a powerful subaltern. It essentially flips the Hindu social order on its head as now an untouchable man (as per the Hindu varna system) becomes the ideal.  Moreover, it breaks the Aristotelian ideas of a hero. Ambedkar does not come from a royal family and posses no tragic flaw. His heroic acts include going against the rigid caste system, fighting for caste equality, and burning the Manu Smriti.  In terms of the art used in Bhimayana, it breaks the Western co

 Chapter Wise Summary Chapter One Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart begins with an introduction to the protagonist of the novel Okonkwo. The narrator informs the readers that Okonkwo is well known in more than nine villages since he threw Amaziline the Cat in a wrestling match when he was 18.  In terms of physical features, Okonkwo is a tall and huge man with bushy eyebrows. An intriguing emotional peculiarity of Okonkwo is the inability to express anger due to stammering, and thus resorting to using the fist.  The narrator then begins talking about Okonkwo's father, Unoka. Unoka is an improvident lazy man, and Okonkwo is a stark contrast to his personality. Although, as a young boy, Unoka was good with musical instruments, the grown Unoka was a debtor who owed " few cowries to quite substantial amounts " to all his neighbours. The villagers even decided to not lend Unoka any money, but he always managed to talk his way out with them; " piling up his debts ."