[caption id="attachment_285126" align="aligncenter" width="565"]
Renthunglo Tungoe (right) and Jungmayangla Longkumer during the launch of “Wild Sunflowers” on Friday, in Kohima.[/caption]
Our Correspondent
Kohima, Nov. 29 (EMN): Living close to nature in the countryside and growing up under the canopy of wild sunflowers inspired a Naga writer to go down the memory lane and engrave those memories in the form of a book.
Renthunglo Tungoe launched her book titled “Wild Sunflowers”, a collection of poems, in the conference hall of The Heritage, Kohima, on Friday, November 29. She said the subjects she has touched in the book include her childhood memories in the village, women and farming.
“Coming from an agricultural background, I wanted to highlight how women take part in agriculture where they play a very major role but they are somewhat in the background, invisible and insignificant,” she said.
She shared that she has lots of childhood memories about village life and has written a poem, Bamboo Song, “which is my way of documenting how Lotha women go to the deep jungles and collect bamboo shoots”. She also stated that she has written about Jhum cultivation because “it is our way of life where farmers go to the field and cultivate and till the soil”. “I have neither tried to glorify it nor degrade it,” she added.
It is only natural that I should write about human issues too, she said, adding that she has written about her own point of view about human society. Recalling how her love for reading started in high school, she recommended everyone school to have a good library.
“Constructive feedback and criticism is always welcome so that I can also improve”, she concluded.
Jungmayangla Longkumer, professor at SASRD Medziphema, stated that the focus of Tungoe’s poetry in “Wild Sunflowers” is about women, the many roles they play and their status. The poems are both ‘overt and covert illusions in the muted protest; about various ways of gender discrimination and societal expectations and responsibilities that lie on the heavy shoulder of women but there is strength and Naga women are proof of that’, she said.
‘We only need to recognise and embrace our own strength and boost ourselves and we do not need anyone’s permission and this is pointed out in her poem entitled ‘empowerment’,’ she added.
She shared that everything starts from home and ‘we must keep in mind that to build strong generations, we need to be very supportive and also give freedom’. She also lauded Tungoe for her keen observation and sensitivity to understand women in the rural areas; about how hard they strife and work and “her works bring to the fore the vitality of the women and the sense of duty that they have but at the same time the ‘never dying spirits’ of the women”.
Vishü Rita Krocha of PenThrill Publication House said that ‘poetry is a popular medium of expression among our people but it is definitely not easier to write poetry than other forms of writing’. She expressed her appreciation for the efforts and creativity that goes into making any form of art.
“Any good work of art is not easy to create,” she said, adding that the only way to support a local author is by buying their books and reading them.
