GUWAHATI, OCTOBER 20: Asam Sahitya Sabha president Dr Dhrubajyoti Borah traces the journey of a group of militants towards an elusive freedom and an uncertain future in his first English book.
“The Sleepwalkers Dream: A Novel” is about June, Ron and several other rebels fleeing their hideout in Bhutan after an army attack along with their injured unconscious leader, who is unlikely to survive the ordeal of their journey towards the Assam border.
With winter approaching, they desperately need to find a temporary shelter and miraculously their leader emerges from his coma and is able to guide them to a cave which has supplies of food and other essentials. As the only woman in the group, June sometimes feels isolated though she does sentry duty like her male comrades and keeps herself in good physical shape.
But her memories keep taking her back to her long-lost family, her village, her innocent childhood and the tragic circumstances under which she had become an insurgent.
Borah, in his book published by Delhi-based Speaking Tiger, gives life to Ron when he, too, is flooded by his own memories of his boyhood and the early days of passionate commitment and high adventure.
On his first novel in English and the challenges and pleasures of this transition, the Guwahati-based Assamese writer and novelist told PTI, “Its not really a transition. I am an Assamese Indian writer first. But I had thought that if a good publisher accepts my book then I would at least know that I can write in English.” “Little did I know that the manuscript has to pass through a tight scrutiny of a strict editor. Writing in English was both a challenge and a pleasure and also a journey of exploration of the possibilities of literary expression and bridge building,” said the writer, who is a physician by profession.
