2009 INDIA WRITES, INDIA SPEAKS COUNTRY BOOKSHOP HOSTS AN UNFORGETTABLE EVENT WITH THREE AWARD-WINNING WRITERS FROM INDIA Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Coastal Karnataka are a long way from Country Bookshop in the Peak District of Derbyshire in the UK but Mamang Dai, Temsula Ao and Bolwar Mohammad Kunhi came from India to speak about their writing, about their poetry and about their lives. They were all so talented and we were all fascinated to hear their stories. Sanjay Sarkar, from the British Council, spoke briefly about their roll in bringing these authors from India to take part in seminars at the London Book Fair - India was the focus of the Book Fair this year. I then introduced our guests. Temsula Ao, an Ao-Naga, from Shillong, Nagaland, in the North East of India, read some of her poetry that was moving and poignant and unforgettable. The stories within her poetry was of a culture of the past, of the Irish and Welsh Missionaries who declared their songs and stories primitive nonsense and of how they willingly gave up their past and embraced the new religion until their rich oral traditions were lost, maybe forever. There was no written language to record the lost past. Now ninety-nine percent of the population of Nagaland is Christian! 'Blood of Other Days' describes this loss in her book of poems, 'Songs From the Other Life.' Roma, in the audience, commented on the struggle the Welsh now encounter trying to preserve their own language, and the Irish Gaelic too and oh, how what goes around comes around. How little of the world we know. How do ordinary people cope with life lived within a war zone, in the midst of terror? Temsula's book 'These Hills Called Home' describes the bewildering experiences of a people caught in a spiral of violence. They speak movingly of home and of their continued search for identity in their struggle for an independent Nagaland in over half a century of bloodshed. Temsula is a scholar, a poet and novelist and is currently the Dean of the School of Humanities and Education at North Eastern Hill University, Shillong, where she has taught since 1975. She is also a professor in the department of English. She has published five books of poems and a book of short stories. Mamang Dai, from Itanagar, Aranachel Pradesh, bordering on to Nagaland and also Tibet and Burma, read from her book of poetry 'River Poems' and we were rapt. I've never been passionate about poetry but these poems grabbed me and made me listen and appreciate the beauty of the words. Mamang also spoke of the desire to put into writing the oral traditions of the past before they were lost. Mamang is a journalist working from Arunachal Pradesh and has been a reporter for Hindustan Times and others and is currently president of the Arunachal Pradesh union of working journalsits. A former member of the Indian Administative Service she left the service to pursue a career in writing and has written 'Arunachal Pradesh - the Hidden Land' that won her an award in 2003 and she is described as one of the most intensely poetic new voices from the North East. The enthusiastic reception of her first collection of poems, River Poems', has rightly acknowledged her importance as a significant new poet in the country. Bolwar is from a different part of India, from coastal Karnataka in the South and he had a different story. He spoke with honesty and with humility. He was a Muslim, a minority amongst the Hindus in the village where he grew up. He told how he wasn't allowed to attend the village school because his religion dictated that he should only study in his native tongue or God would not be able to understand him. Eventually, however, his sister was allowed to attend the Hindu school because of the relationship forged between his parents and one of the school teachers and a year later he was allowed to attend. Later he went on to become a postgraduate with a gold medal in Kannada literature from Mysore University. Bolwar's stories of his Muslim culture, little put into print before, earned him an award but didn't put him in favour with his Muslim community. Bolwar is credited with introducing Muslim culture into creative Kannada prose. He has eight short story collections, one novel, two stage plays and six children's books to his credit and was conferred a lifetime achievement award and also won National awards for his contribution to Kannada films. All of their stories were fascinating and the questions and observations from the audience could have gone on for hours but unfortunately our guests had to leave for their train back to London. This event was one of the best ever for me and I came away feeling that I had just experienced something very special, an experience that was rare and precious. Geraldine Rose Friends of the Festival - for details see below or request further information: http://www.countrybookshop.co.uk/peakfestival/friends.phtml