Flame on A Hill- A Collection of Stories

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The stories in this collection may be clubbed into three categories with overlaps. Some of the stories are based on specific moments in the history of the Lamkang people. Starting with the historical event of the third century Common Era, when a Lamkang village was razed to the ground by Leiya Punsiba, the then king of the Moirang kingdom, the historical arc of the stories in this category includes later encounters with the unified kingdom of Manipur (1570 CE), the British in the early nineteenth century, and the Japanese during World War 2. These stories, written in the mould of historical fiction, should not be read as 'pure' history, for they are imaginative reconstructions of actual events. Nevertheless, their historical relevance should not be dismissed as 'fiction' either.

The second set of stories can be categorised as memoir. Some of them recount my encounters with military excesses in Manipur at a given time, while others recount notable experiences of select individuals that were narrated to a living audience. And though I have exercised poetic licence to flesh up these oral accounts, the original beginning, middle, and end have been retained in the main. These stories offer useful perspectives on history and culture, and they are intended to generate conversations about the gap in the existing narrative on certain subjects. For example, the WW 2 stories are meant to highlight the experiences of the people of Chandel, which have been largely underwritten in mainstream discourse about the War in Manipur.

The third category is the short story. What separates the stories in this category from those in the first two, though all can be labelled as 'short story', is that they are entirely fictional in both their conception and treatment. They are topical and intended to generate healthy dialogue on some aspects of culture and tradition. The story form provides the opportunity for an 'objective' and harmless evaluation of certain issues that afflict contemporary Lamkang culture.