‘National treasure’ Temsüla Ao remembered

October 11, 2022 30 Views No Comment

Vishü Rita Krocha
Kohima | October 11

“I have lived my life believing/Story-telling was my proud legacy/The ones I inherited/From my grandfather became/My primary treasure/And the ones I garnered/From other chroniclers/Added to the lore.” This is a poem by Temsüla Ao, a testimony to the fact that she loved storytelling, clearly mirrored in the several books of poems, short story collections and other books that she wrote.

Described as one of the finest in contemporary Indian literature, Temsüla Ao is credited with bringing out Nagaland’s socio-cultural complexities through her perceptive fiction writing. Her passing away on Sunday has left a void in the hearts of all those who knew her.

In the words of noted author and poet, Easterine Kire, “We Nagas have lost a national treasure, while Heaven has gained a new member.” She also recollects that “Madam Temsüla Ao was our Linguistics teacher between 1979-1981 at NEHU” even while highlighting that it was a time when there were very few Naga teachers and only a handful of teachers from the Northeast community.

Both Naga and Mizo students, she affirms, “were very proud of Madam Temsüla. And rightly so, for she combined grace and intelligence in her presentations even as her meticulousness kept her students on their toes.” Today, “I mourn her passing as a former student, and I mourn even more the lacunae that her passing leaves behind for Naga literature. To requote an old saying, ‘when an elder dies, it is as though a library has burned down,’” Kire conveys.

Taking to Twitter, Speaking Tiger, a Delhi-based Independent Publishing House also mourned her demise. “We are deeply saddened by the news of Dr Temsüla Ao’s passing. A Padma Shri and Sahitya Akademi awardee, she was (and shall continue to be) one of Nagaland’s most eminent contemporary folklorists, academics and poets, and one of the finest authors of the country,” the tweet read.

“We hold deep gratitude to have published her in January this year. ‘The Tombstone in My Garden’– with its pared-down prose and gripping, original stories set in the intimate villages of Nagaland – reflects Dr Ao’s deep understanding not just of the human condition, but of all life. Thank you for your warmth and stories, Temsüla,” it added.

Temsula Ao obtained PhD in 1983 from North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU) and was a Fulbright Fellow in the University of Minnesota from 1985-1986. She served as Director, North East Zone Cultural Centre, Dimapur from 1992 to 1997 and was also awarded the Padmashree for Education and Literature in 2007, the Governor’s Gold Medal in 2009 and the Sahitya Akademi Award in 2013. Some of her poems are prescribed texts in the MA English Syllabus of Nagaland University and MPhil English Syllabus of NEHU. She also has an entry on Folklore of Nagaland in the Greenwood Encyclopaedia of World Folklore and Folk Life, Westport Connecticut.

Source: https://morungexpress.com/national-treasure-temsla-ao-remembered