Written by Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar, Winner of the Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar, 2015
The magic of the stories is that I was effortlessly pulled into the story setting and was a part of the lives of the characters and felt comfortable with them as if I knew what they were going through. Yes, the stories revolve around the lives of Santhals but I did not feel that the stories were written to gain sympathy for the people who stand marginalized in every sphere of life.
The stories include a riot in Gujarat, enemies turning friends, one community getting even with another, witch hunting, prostitution, and using the Adivasi as a showpiece at cultural events — Shekhar, an expert storyteller, beautifully weaves universal emotions through the hardships and comforts of the lives of his characters. But then being the activist he is, beneath the utter simplicity and ease of the telling of the stories lies the glitter of steel, that political undertone which kept me on edge throughout.
Thought-process 