Our Burden of Grief
Photo: Dolly Kikon
BOOKS
Our Burden of Grief
Baghjan and the Gas Blowout
This book examines the Baghjan Gas Blowout that took place on 27 May 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic in upper Assam. By drawing on the experiences of the survivors, as well as media reports, official inquiries, and interviews with advocates representing the survivors, this book analyses the historical context of recent environmental conflicts in Assam. It documents, through media reports (both in Assamese and English), content analysis of reports of committees, and first-hand reports of local poets and college students, the various struggles of the local villagers following the blowout.
Reviews
- [It] achieves a feat extremely few books have managed: capturing the intricate essence of what binds Indian communities to food, as well as how important a role food plays in intimate sociocultural settings. This book provides perspectives, voices, and avenues for marginalized groups to offer an unfiltered contribution to representing the culinary landscape of India…. This book paves the way for future representations of culinary heritage across India—ones that should not shy away from the enduring and fraught emotions that shape food communities — Archish Kashikar, Gastronomica, Fall 2024.
- A new anthology brings together an eclectic mix of writers and their personal stories, to document the food of a region that has more to it than bamboo shoots…. This patchwork project works so well it should be considered for other attempts to capture the diversity of food systems in different parts of India. Any lack of cohesiveness is more than made up by the sense that this is how we actually cook today, with all the realities of unreliable food supplies, packaged products, struggles for identity expressed through food, and the influences of the Internet…. Cookbooks often try to capture idealised versions of cuisine, passed on from grandmothers and untouched by current concerns, but Food Journeys acknowledges that real life is different… Food writing in India often avoids uncomfortable questions… and it is to the credit of Kikon and Rodrigues, and Zubaan Books as publishers, that they allow the writers in Food Journeys to raise them. — Vikram Doctor, The Hindu, 10 May 2024.
- [A] collection of essays on food from the north-eastern region of India, is very different: it is rooted to the earth, from where all the food comes (important, because a future generation might well think of food as originating in the super- market); it never fights shy of revealing the politics of class, caste, gender that underlies food; and it is as much about food as about its absence, starvation…. It is the sincerity of the essays that makes Food Journeys a special book. All the usual encomia about food—that it restores, unites, empowers—sound just right here because they are corroborated by the practical experience of the writers (the recipes accompanying the essays sound trustworthy for the same reason). — Anusua Mukherjee, Frontline, 3 May 2024.
- [A}t a time when the Indian state has assumed the role of a saviour in North East India, it has become pertinent to develop community responsibilities to nurture connections with land and natural resources. Food is at the core of this. Eating food from the region as part of one’s desire to try out the exotic will not break the stereotypes associated with it. Instead, there is a need to recognise its socio-cultural and politico-economic manifestations in everyday life. Food Journeys is a much-needed exercise that goes beyond the commonsensical understanding of the North East. — Rituparna Patgiri, The India Forum, 28 February 2024.
[It] offers a fresh perspective on food writing through personal essays (both text and photo essays), deeply embedded in the socio-political everydayness of the region and its communities. Food is political, and this volume encapsulates and shows us the social and political nature of food and how the simple act of cooking and eating can be a form of resistance…. As clichéd as it may sound, stories have this immense power to engage, reflect, heal, and knit solidarity. I would like to believe this book does the same by creating empathy through its diverse stories among the readers. It opens a new window to understanding the Northeast, including the landscape, infrastructures, trans-boundary relationships, evolving palates, and institutions. — Sayan Deori, The Arunachal Times, 15 February 2024.