Short story collection from Niyogi Books released!

Prof Amarjyoti Choudhury, Tezpur University Pro VC, released Seducing the Rain God – a collection of short stories authored by Prof Smriti Kumar Sinha in Bishnupriya Manipuri and translated into English by journalist Ramlal Sinha and published by Niyogi Books. Seducing the Rain God is a collection of fourteen translated short stories, originally written in Bishnupriya Manipuri. Bishnupriya Manipuri, a language almost on the verge of extinction in the 19th century, with the revitalisation initiatives, has emerged as a strong voice from north-eastern India.

Nicknamed Metaphor Che, as author Smriti Sinha is fondly called by the student community in Tezpur University, Prof. Choudhury said that Prof Sinha not only studies Indian literature but the wider spectrum of Indian culture and the Vedas.

‘Sabi, the main character in the title story ‘Seducing the Rain God’, is one of the strongest women characters in Indian literature created by Smriti Kumar Sinha,’ so said Littérateur de renommée Prof Nirmal Kanti Bhattacharjee who happened to read the book both as manuscript and in printed form before hitting the selves. He was the special guest at the function. He was open in his appraisal of translator Ramlal Sinha’s performance as a translator when he said ‘he (Ramlal Sinha) did fairly good in communicating the original text in Bishnupriya Manipuri into English.’