Book Review: Sentilong Ozukum’s ‘Sincerely Yours’

By Bhumika Rajan

Sentilong Ozukum’s collection of short stories, Sincerely Yours, narrates stories of everyday performances of life by the Nagas. In other words, everyday life constitutes the narrative thread of Sincerely Yours. The stories in this collection can be broadly slotted as dealing with three themes. One is the religious identity and the inner turmoil of a person, on relinquishing an ancestral belief system and replacing it with a new belief system. This aspect is explored in ‘A Fearful Symmetry’, through the anguish of tiger man.

The protagonist is a ‘were tiger’, and shares his soul with a tiger while he lives in the form a human being. This story explores the dilemmas of a man who has accepted a new religion. He does not give up on his earlier belief system or practices and this in turn creates a conflict within the tiger man.

This story captures a sense of being torn between the new and old religious systems. It also destabilises any simplistic understanding of conversion by an individual or community as a simple case of acceptance of the superiority of the new religion. It indicates the pain beneath the attempt in forgetting a way of life and belief system.

Cited is an excerpt from the story, ‘A Fearful Symmetry’; ‘The church continually pressured father to become a Christian . . . Out of pressure, he walked into the Church one evening and returned home a Christian. . . . Nobody saw the inner battles that he fought daily. (38, ibid, ibid: 2017)

Another story ‘Grandfather’ narrates an old man’s resistance to a new religious system and its superiority over the existing one. In this story, the old man (grandfather) becomes a symbol of resistance against the idea of Christianity being regarded as a ‘superior’ religion. The old man asserts that Nagas had their religion, even before the missionaries entered into the picture and began preaching and converting Nagas into Christianity. Nevertheless, grandfather does not restrict his family members from practising Christianity. Cited is an excerpt from the short story; ‘Even before the White people came, we used to believe in God’, he would say. ‘It’s all the same’. (10: 2017)

The two short stories ‘Grandfather’, ‘A fearful symmetry’ specifically, narrate a resistance against representations of ‘simple acceptance’ of cultures and worldviews. Both these stories articulate the story/history of Proselytisation among the Nagas. These two stories speak of a complex intertwining of the process of Proselytisation with traditional practices of the Nagas. It emphasises that conversion into Christianity was not a process of mere acceptance but involved a negotiation by the Nagas.

The second theme concerns the dilemmas of adolescence. Search for an identity, regarded as part of an adolescent’s transition into adulthood, the emotional turmoil which an adolescent grapples with, is intricately captured in ‘Mama’. This story traces shifts in the relationship between the protagonist and his mother. It narrates the story of a son who tries wriggling out of his mother’s shadow and wants to assert his difference from his mother.

In resolving his confusions over what he wants to be and what he wants to do in life, he understands his mother’s unconditional love and values it. This story narrates a common emotion which adolescents experience.

Another story, ‘Silent Screams’ deals with the consequences on the psyche of an adolescent due to parental and societal emphasis on ‘success’ in life. The pressure to succeed and perform well in life and academics when an adolescent is trying to cope with the physical and emotional changes of his/ her transition into adulthood leading to stress and psychosomatic illnesses is represented through the young boy in ‘Silent Screams’.

The third theme engages with a sense of self reflection or looking within. The story ‘The price of Justice’ narrates a change in the attitude of younger generation, indicating their concern for the Naga society. Tarensen, the protagonist, refuses to accept the appointment letter for a teaching post, realising that he has got the appointment letter owing to his father’s political connections and bribing the officials. Cited is an excerpt from the story; ‘I want to belong to the generation that doesn’t repeat the mistakes of the past.’ (97: 2017)

Another story entitled ‘The Service’ puts forth the hypocrisies of pretentious church goers who have failed in internalising the values and tenets of Christianity. The character of the strange, old man who reprimands the pretentious nature of worship of those gathered at the special church service works as a conscience of the society.

Each story in this collection reflects a nuanced understanding of human emotions and life. Sentilong Ozukum’s Sincerely Yours constitutes an important work in contemporary Naga literature. The cover page of the book has a human and a tiger face, against a background of material aspects of tradition and contemporary way of life. The cover page symbolises the complex texture of contemporary Naga self.

Bhumika Rajan is PhD candidate, Centre of North East Studies, JNU. The above is a review of Sentilong Ozukum’s collection of short stories, Sincerely Yours, Heritage Publication House, Dimapur, 2017