Dimapur: Tetso College in collaboration with DOT Talks conducted a session on writing for Tetso students titled ‘Memory, Nostalgia and Orality in Creative Writing’ with assistant professor and writer Inakali Assumi on March 12, 2020 here at the college auditorium.
Currently working as an Assistant Professor in English at St. John College, Dimapur, the resource person’s debut book titled “Potpourri Poesy”, which she co-authored with Soyimla Akum, was published in 2018 by Cyberwit Publications.
Commenting on her latest book titled ‘The Yellow Dress’ which was published by PenThrill Publications on February 29, 2020, Assumi shared that she started working on it in 2018 and took a year to complete. The book is a collection of 16 short stories which “shifts from the innocence of childhood to the realities of adult life,” she added.
Quoting Dr. Kevizonuo Kuolie’s comments on the book, Assumi highlighted that ‘The Yellow Dress’ encompasses stories “from childhood to old age, from comic to tragic plots, from light to darker themes” and asserted that the characters in the book are very dear to her and hoped that the readers will be kind to them.
Inakali who has a Masters and MPhil degree in English Literature from ICFAI University Nagaland shared that she mainly draws inspiration from memories, dreams and imagination in her process of writing. “Memories play a crucial role in our lives and are the storehouses of all the good and bad days we have seen and experienced,” she stated, adding that memories are potential stories which we often choose to keep to ourselves and intrigues us to think about the past with a sense of nostalgia and longingness.
Currently pursuing a PhD from Nagaland University, Assumi also stated that memory and orality are interconnected especially in the Naga context which is why we feel at home when we hear folktales or listen to folksongs, she opined. She further challenged the audience to utilize the oral form of storytelling into writing which has been passed down from our forefathers in order “to preserve what is almost on the verge of being lost and forgotten.” This she said was imperative to let the world know about the Naga way of life and culture through writing.
Creative writing should come from within the person and is something which cannot be forced upon, she asserted, and said that she prefers writing that is simple, clear and easy to understand. While encouraging the students to read as much as possible, Assumi expressed optimism that the younger generation have taken to reading on a much larger scale nowadays. “The more we read, the more we grow,” she maintained.
At the end of the session, a time of interaction was held where the writer answered queries from the students.