Janice Pariat

Boats on Land is a unique way of looking at India’s northeast and its people against a larger historical canvas—the early days of the British Raj, the World Wars, conversions to Christianity, and the missionaries.

This is a world in which the everyday is infused with folklore and a deep belief in the supernatural. Here, a girl dreams of being a firebird. An artist watches souls turn into trees. A man shape-shifts into a tiger. Another is bewitched by water fairies. Political struggles and social unrest interweave with fireside tales and age-old superstitions.

"Boats on Land" quietly captures our fragile and awkward place in the world.

A Collection of Short Stories

Boats on Land

diya

As a born bengali from Shillong, most of these stories hit home in multiple ways for me. The uprisings of the 80s and early 90s told through the eyes of my parents, khasi legends and rituals and beliefs, told through friends I grew up with, of heartache and places we'd hang out around, of days where we'd be busy with life as a child and yet as a grown uop understand the depth of having an armed personnel point a gun at you as you step out to get the milk from outside of your gate during a curfew, of melodramatic grayness seeping into the city sky as a fresh drop of rain wipes away the sorrow of the day and the golden river of the evening sky makes you hopeful of a better tomorrow, they all; hit home for me. I came into this place not knowing how much I'd miss the green leaves and the mucky roads after a rain, it took me a few years away from home and this book to find my way back to my one true love again. And I thank you for that Janice.

Boats on Land A Collection of Short Stories

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