See also my Shillong post, which contains movie recommendations at the end, my rural Meghalaya post, and best of all my post on the great music of Meghalaya.
I read a lot in Meghalaya. It’s one of the best things to do there, and reading is actually sort of what sparked my trip. Within the span of a few weeks I randomly came across numerous books set in Meghalaya as well as renowned authors from Shillong. I was in Hyderabad at the time, which has probably the weakest literary scene of any major Indian city, and I thought to myself “Huh, this random town in the hills that I know nothing about has more of a lit scene than the great city of Hyderabad!” That put Shillong on the map for me as a place to go beyond just being one of many anonymous pretty hill towns.
That said, I didn’t love most of what I read, nor was there a great abundance. The rest of the northeast had decent lit scenes too, it turned out, and Shillong’s probably isn’t as good or as special as it initially looked. Really, Hyderabad is just uniquely bad in that regard and anything would stand out in comparison. Shillong has a solid scene per capita though, and the timing of all of this worked out in my favor as I’m glad we went to Shillong and other parts of Meghalaya when we did. And some of the books were pretty good, with some scattered greatness.
Everything I read I got from Amazon. Shockingly there’s no nice book stores in Shillong! Seems like a missed opportunity, given that the book fair happening when I was there was packed and the books there weren’t even on sale. For comparison’s sake, there were very nice book stores in Imphal, Dimapur, and Kohima. To quote from my main Shillong post: “Shouldn’t Shillong be at least as happening as these poorer places that have less tourism and greater and more recent social/political conflicts? What’s the deal?” The best book store in Shillong was probably the small one at the small mall in Police Bazaar where Smoky Falls Coffee is. There was a fancy Christian book store in Laitumkhrah, but the books there weren’t exactly what I was looking for, though it was still kind of interesting to browse through, with some curious titles. Hebrews: A Thematic Exploration by P.C. Nghâklianmawia & Matsüng Longkumer looked interesting. Jewish history from a northeast India perspective?
I’ll start with non-fiction and then go to fiction, though I’ll state up front that my top reads were Janice Pariat’s short story collection Boats on Land and the Khasi folk story collection Around the Hearth by Kynpham Sing Nongkynrih.
Non-Fiction
I wish there were a great non-fiction book about Meghalaya. Maybe one exists and I just didn’t find it. When researching in the Northeast, it seemed like a trend that there are 100+ year old British-written tribal ethnographies, and then more modern books covering the various long-running conflicts in the region, some academic histories, and then little else. In Nagaland I found some more accessible books on the history and culture that draw from various sources and tie it together with more recent happenings, but I found nothing of that sort from Meghalaya.
I started with Northeast India: A Political History by Samrat Choudhury, which starts with a broad overview of the northeast and then has different chapters on each state. A bit dull (I’d personally prefer a non-political history) but quite informative, good for a trip to the region, reading whichever chapters are relevant. The Meghalaya chapter, about 40 pages, begins with the early history and covers the arrival of the British, the missionaries, the debates over which script the language should be rendered in, more stuff that I forgot, and post-independence political happenings. There are a lot of interesting stories in here but it’s all run through so quickly that it’s hard to connect with (which is the case for every chapter that I read). Still, it’s a good overview.
I also read In Arden: A Memoir of Four Years in Shillong, 1974-78 by Brijraj Singh. This is a fun, well-written memoir of the time an English professor spent teaching in Shillong. It’s a light, breezy read that does a good job of evoking the city during that time, which is radically different from the city today. The fourth and fifth chapters (respectively titled The Place and The People) are particularly good, brief portraits of the history and culture of Shillong and Meghalaya. He has a lot of interesting observations and I enjoyed his unfiltered opinions, and those two chapters make for an excellent introduction to the region and can be read independently from the rest of the book. It’s a memoir, so I wasn’t that interested in many portions (the university, his social circle, setting up the house, etc), but one can skim judiciously and still get a lot out of the book, and even the parts that weren’t relevant to my interests were still enjoyable to read and had interesting tidbits. Recommended!
The best looking book on Meghalaya is probably Gwalia in Khasia by Nigel Jenkins (not to be mistaken for the poetry collection titled Khasia in Gwalia). Unfortunately I couldn’t find a copy. It’s a mix of travelogue and history about the missionaries. This book spawned some documentaries (one of them in Welsh!) but I can’t find those either.
I only found out about it after my trip, but White as Milk and Rice by Nidhi Dugar Kundalia has a chapter on Khasis and looks very good from the sample I read.
Beyond that, there are books such as The Khasis by P. R. T. Gurdon, first published in 1907 (free with Internet Archives). To my regret, I felt too disconnected from traditional Khasi culture in Shillong and even other places I visited in Meghalaya to really find this interesting and relevant.
I did find some fun articles and essays to read online:
Janice Pariat (whose short story collection I wrote about below) has had a number of good pieces. Here’s one about the interest for WW2 jeeps in Shillong, which was a base and R&R center for Allied troops in a time that became a source of nostalgia for some of the locals. Here’s one about walking the David Scott trail. And one about fading folk music traditions of Meghalaya (the situation seems to have improved since she’s written it).
I also really liked the essay I Love This Dirty Town by Anjum Hasan (another author whose fiction I read). Also, Shillong, Bob Dylan And Cowboy Boots is fun. I just don’t find Shillong that interesting to read about, though.
I vaguely recall reading and liking the 19 page Shillong: An Anthropological Journey by Sharmila Ghosh, which I’ve saved in my notes, but I don’t actually remember if I read it. Skimming through it, it seems plausibly familiar, and worthwhile. I’ll (re-?)read it next time.
I found a site called Raiot which has a lot of different posts on Northeast India. Worth browsing through and searching for things that interest you. There’s a lot of stuff that was too whiny, or had too much detail into topics that I was only somewhat curious about, but it’s an interesting site. Where else will you get A Short History of Khasi Comic Books? Or how about Early Bengali Influences in the Commercial Heart of Shillong? Good stuff.
Fiction
Everything I read was written in English, though there is local language literature out there. Other than poetry I don’t believe I saw anything that was translated. Here’s an article on Khasi literature.
I’ll begin with the strongest fiction I read, which was the short story collection Boats on Land by Janice Pariat. The stories are all set at least partly in Meghalaya (a few are also set in Assam) and are in chronological order, spanning from the colonial era to the present day. My favorite stories were the early ones, which are really compelling and atmospheric gothic historical tales with a touch of folklore to them. The first three were particularly excellent.
I wish I could say I loved the rest of it the same way. As with all collections, not all of them worked for me, and as is typical with short stories I found a lot of the endings to be abrupt and unsatisfying, but I generally really enjoyed the stories. They almost all grabbed me from the beginning and had a strong sense of atmosphere. And ultimately, I found this to be a more successful collection than most. Of the 15 stories, I probably loved five, really liked five, and kind of liked five, and even the stories that fell flat for me had compelling elements.
It’s also a great Meghalaya book and it made me appreciate my stay in Shillong even more. There are many valuable historical and cultural details, and it gives a portrait of both small town Shillong life and rapidly changing big city Shillong life, both idyllic Shillong and troubled Shillong. Best of all was how it conveyed an emotional and mythical feeling of the region. I was reading this at the same time I was reading Khasi folk stories, and it was fun to see some of the same elements show up in stories in both collections, but they actually came to life for me more here because of how they were integrated in the characters’ lives.
This made me want to read more from Pariat who also has three novels. Her third novel Everything the Light Touches is I believe the only one set in Meghalaya (partly, as it follows a number of characters in a number of countries over a number of centuries), and I look forward to reading it one day, it sounds quite interesting.
Here’s a list of books on the Northeast that Pariat recommends, a lot of interesting sounding books in there that I wouldn’t have encountered otherwise. I despise Instagram as a medium of communication, but Janice actually does it well, sharing nice photos of lesser known parts of Meghalaya along with interesting cultural and historical information. Here is one example, and I had others I was going to share but I can’t browse through Instagram without an account because it’s terrible. She also edited the collection We Come From Mist: Writings from Meghalaya which brings together poetry, short fiction, lyrics, and more from female writers in Meghalaya. Didn’t seem like my thing, but it’s nice it exists (it’s part of a series of similar collections from other northeast states). I’ve linked to some of her short non-fiction pieces on the state above. I’d love a Janice Pariat Substack, or history book, or heritage walk. I say she’s one of Meghalaya’s key cultural figures.
Another of Meghalaya’s key cultural figures, and maybe the most interesting writer from the state, is Kynpham Sing Nongkynrih. Unfortunately I’m very mixed on his work, but it is noteworthy for being deeply rooted in Khasi culture. He writes in both English and Khasi, and in English he has a folk story collection, some poetry collections, two novels, and a play.
I’ll start with the folk story collection Around the Hearth: Khasi Legends, which is my one strong recommendation. The stories (many of them “just-so” origin stories) are fun and charming, but the appeal is just as much anthropological and it’s a great look at traditional Khasi culture. The stories are very short, usually around five pages, and they’re great to read while out in Meghalaya’s countless beautiful settings. My favorite is the story of the Thlen, which also makes an appearance in a memorable story in Boats on Land. The highlight, though, is the longest story U Manik Raitong (around 25 pages), which retells the most popular Khasi legend. I loved that one. The penultimate story Ka Likai is another highlight and also lengthier than average, and you can visit the site it relates to, the NohKaLikai falls in Cherrapunji. Similarly, many stories relate to specific places in Meghalaya. I wish the book contained a map. Someone should make one!
U Sier Lapalang is also available in an illustrated version which is currently free on Kindle.
By the way, here is another collection of folk tales of Meghalaya from a different author. I haven’t sampled it, but this one contains stories from the Garo and Jaintia tribes as well, while Around the Hearth is limited to Khasi stories.
More than the folk stories, I really wanted to read his novel Funeral Nights, a 1000 page tome said to be like a Khasi One Thousand and One Nights. It sounded crazy and awesome, but I didn’t have the time to devote to a 1000 page book.
I went with his other novel, The Distaste of the Earth, only 400 pages, which is a retelling of the Manik Raitong story. Though I loved parts of it, I decided to give it up after 100 pages. I was excited at first to enter its world of Khasi kings and queens, merchants and farmers, tavern owners and tavern dwellers, and I like the idea of incorporating the folk tales I read in the collection above into the narrative. I was surprised at but not bothered by the kiddy and cartoony tone. Unfortunately after a strong (if uneven) start it became pretty slow and tedious. Dialogue is often repetitive and at times annoying, but the dialogue is much better than the endless, pointless descriptions of geography, clothing, and customs. Is this what it’s like to read unabridged versions of ancient epics? I wondered if that’s what the author was going for. There seemed to be a commitment to being anthropological over dramatic, which might work for some people but just felt like work to me. It’s also an odd mix since it alternates between feeling like an academic work and feeling like a cartoon.
It’s a bummer because this had a ton of potential for me, and there were many delightful, creative moments and insights into Khasi culture, and I would frequently get pulled into the story only to get yanked out of it again. There’s definitely a 200-300 page book in here that I’d love, but once I got a quarter of the way through I knew I couldn’t possibly read another 300 pages of this. Going by some reviews of Funeral Nights, it sounds like it suffers from the same issues. Can we get an abridged version of these? Are fan edits of books a thing? Someone should do this, for the sake of sharing Khasi culture with the world in an accessible way. While I admire what Nongkynrih is doing, I feel his talents aren’t ideal for lengthy novels, at least for me.
Nongkynrih also has a play based on the Manik Raitong story, Manik - a play in five acts, only 84 pages, and some poetry collections.
And here is a song about Manik Raitong!
On the topic of books rooted in Khasi culture and history, there is One Sohra Summer by Iadalang Pyngrope. I randomly saw a rave review of this little known, self-published book, and it was short (around 100 pages) and cheap enough that I decided to pick it up. This is, in many ways, not a very well written book (it’d be better with an editor, or a quick run through ChatGPT), but I actually enjoyed it more than the objectively better books. One reason for this is the subject matter. It is about Khasi traders who travel to Shilot (now Sylhet) just as the strange white men with their strange language were arriving in the region. I love this material, which I didn’t get anywhere else either in fiction or nonfiction, and despite the writing often being fairly amateurish, there is a really compelling story here. Unfortunately, it’s too thin. I mean, it’s really short for a book covering a fairly big story. Everything happens too fast, and there’s so little character development that I could hardly remember who most of the characters were. Though there are occasional stretches that went more in depth, it often felt like an outline to me. But it is a really good outline! This could be a great movie, or a better writer could turn this into a great novel. I actually really enjoyed reading it, and it helped me connect with Meghalaya and its history more. Semi-recommended.
There are other books that are better in many ways but I didn’t like them as much. One is the 90s-Shillong set Lunatic in My Head by Anjum Hasan, which didn’t work for me, though I really liked a lot of things about it. It jumps between the intersecting stories of three characters and the people around them. In all of the stories I liked some of the elements and characters, but I was only ever intermittently interested, and it kept focusing too much on things I didn’t care about while sidelining the stuff I did care about. And the writing style kept distancing me from the characters, however well drawn some of them were. Despite a lot of strong material I felt it suffered from an overextended ensemble and too many irrelevant, poetic asides.
It is a very good portrait of Shillong at a particular time. How interesting that is beyond some brief cultural details and insider/outsider dynamics, I don’t know, and I got a lot of similar insights via the more engaging stories of Boats on Land. This book did give me a good sense of the pettiness, ennui, and lack of ambition of small town life, but that’s not so exciting for a 350 page book. I rarely feel this with literary fiction, but I kept thinking this would have been a better movie. Maybe some of you will like this, I don’t know. I didn’t find many reviews but everyone seemed to like it much more than me, and Anjum Hasan’s later works are very well regarded, though I’ve yet to read any. If it sounds good to you, give it a shot.
I heard a rumor that Hasan is working on a non-fiction book about Shillong. I suspect that will be very good.
A book I enjoyed more but maybe got less out of and am similarly mixed on recommending is The Girl from Nongrim Hills by Ankush Saikia. Saikia is a popular thriller writer who has a detective series that focuses on Northeast India (as well as some non-genre work, including a recently released coming of age story called Rough Streets, set in Shillong) (also, his mom has a great bakery in Shillong called Moinee’s!). This is a standalone noirish story set in Shillong. I like this kind of stuff, and it’s an engaging, well-plotted read. More than that, it stands out as a Shillong book, with a good feel of the city and many cultural details, and there’s a clear affection for the city and its mostly Khasi characters that makes this more than a straightforward genre piece.
With that said, it perhaps was still too much of a straightforward genre piece for me, and I wanted more depth from the characters, or more immersion into its misty noir world, or more of a crackerjack plot (I always have a hard time articulating what distinguishes a book like this from being, say, a 6/10 and an 8/10, but I know it when I read it). Though I was never bored, I was also never truly hooked, and it was just too by the numbers for me, though as I said the setting elevates it. If you want to read a book set in Shillong and are the kind of person who sees the cover of this and says “Yes, that’s my kind of book!” then I definitely recommend it (and check out more from the author if you’re interested in more Northeast-set thrillers). If you see the cover and are like “Ehh, only if it’s really really good” then you can comfortably skip this, though it’s maybe better than you think, and I should note that every review I could find seemed to like it more than me. This would make a good movie too.
I enjoyed following Saikia on Twitter as well. He posts a lot of good photos and interesting facts about Northeast India.
I thought Siddharth Deb’s books sounded good, but I could neither find his Shillong-set debut The Point of Return nor his Northeast-set sophomore novel Surface.
Some other Shillong books I’ve seen good reviews for are The To-Let House by Daisy Hasan (Anjum’s sister, and this was longlisted for the 2008 Man Asian Literary Prize), Bowstring Winter by Dhruba Hazarika, Shillong Times: A Story of Friendship and Fear by Nilanjan P. Choudhury, and Name, Place, Animal, Thing by Daribha Lyndem. Honestly though I don’t feel I need another book set in Shillong anytime soon, unless I hear it’s extraordinary.
I wish I could find more books set in other parts of Meghalaya. Maybe someone will like the translated-from-Bengali adventure book The Treasure of The Khasi Hills by Hemendra Kumar Roy. I don’t know whether it will cover the region with any depth or authenticity. Probably not.
I probably should have taken some time while in Shillong to do some reading on this whole Christianity thing, but I never got around to it and remain largely ignorant of the world’s most popular religion.
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