Why the North East intimately cares about what they eat

November 16, 2023 38 Views No Comment

‘Food Journeys’ brings stories from the NE culinary heart

Morung Express News
Dimapur | November 16

Like an old scent evoking nostalgia or a particular memory, food tends to have a similar effect on the mind. ‘Food Journeys’ — a contributory compilation of intimate ‘Stories from the heart,’ brings together people, essentially from the Northeast (NE) of India, reconnecting with the food they grew up on, the sensation and emotions it evoke, while capturing the essence of the culinary cultures of the region and its peoples.

As revealed in a brief synopsis to the book, it brings together chefs, poets, activists, artists, writers, and researchers, who explore how food “allow us to find joy and strength while navigating a violent history, while also revealing “Why people from Northeast India intimately care about what they eat and consider food an integral part of their history, politics, and community.” The book was conceptualised by Dolly Kikon, who co-edited it with Joel Rodrigues, and published by Zubaan Books. They teamed up with a group of inter-generational group of writers, from the NE region, whose experiences make up the essence of the book.

Kikon is a Naga anthropologist and author, whose work focuses on the political economy of extractive resources, militirisation, migration, indigeneity, food cultures and human rights in India. Rodrigues, born in Goa and grew up in Mumbai, is an author and a post doctoral researcher at the Department of Social Anthropology, Stockholm University. Their essays are also featured in the book along with the stories from the contributors, 4 of whom are Nagas.

The book launch-cum-book reading at the New Hope Cafe, Duncan Basti, Dimapur, on November 14, saw two of the Naga contributors— Yanbeni Yanthan and Neivikhotso Chaya, joining Kikon in a chat with an audience, which included mostly educators.

Yanthan, who writes under the pen name Beni Sumer Yanthan, summed up the essence of her essay: ‘Mapping the self through a legacy of food’ as “How I map myself, my experiences of life and how food has been such an integral part of this journey of mine.” She teaches at the Nagaland University as an Assistant Professor of English and Cultural Studies and also publishes poetry and prose.

Oddly yet relevant, Chaya’s story titled ‘My journey with rice beer’ centred on what he held was the discrimination and stigma associated with brewing and selling rice beer. His work calls out the hypocrisy of targeting rice beer sellers by the community at large, while ignoring flashy hotels/restaurants catering bottled alcohol. A geologist, who also freelances, editing research manuscripts in the earth sciences, he said that while the rice beer sellers are viewed with disdain, they are actually the ones, who have preserved an art closely attached to Naga culture.

Unfamiliarity has often had the diverse food habits of the NE peoples looked upon with disdain and in Kikon’s words viewed as “Parochial and shallow.” The book, she said, is a way of “showing them a mirror” to the “depth, richness and amazing wisdom” found in the food culture of the indigenous peoples through an eclectic band of voices.

But this disconnect, in recent years, seems to be closing. Kikon and Rodrigues, in their introduction to the book, write how food from the NE has made their way into certain segments of the Indian palate. According to them, it is a validation and “shines a spotlight on the rich ecological and cultural diversity of communities from the region.” They said that while it celebrates food from the region, the book, through the contributors brings alive the “lives of people who produce, cook and eat every day.”

At the book launch, she told The Morung Express, “From foraging, from the way we cook, from the way we have inherited the stories of our forbearers; I think there is a way to tell that ‘Listen, you cannot belittle our food culture. It is part of this amazing world of wisdom.”

As an anthropologist, whose academic work also covers (indigenous) food, she said that her academic work touches on healing, finding voice and fighting discrimination and racism.

The book also included contributors from Sikkim and from West Bengal’s Kalimpong and Darjeeling.

Politician, author and poet, Mmhonlumo Kikon, who was at the launch, termed the book as a milestone not only in terms of documenting but opens a vista to the stories and people connected to the culinary cultures.