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