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A Cursed Land

A wrong step Nonglei has taken haunts him and it turns a demon when he finally commits the crime. Since the teenager’s association with the violent world doesn't promise him any safety, he is secretly taken to one of the cities in mainland only to dilute his disturbed mind in the chaos of a city. Without leaving any hints, he arrives in the city of Pune.

Time takes him through incidents and people, and offers him sufficient time for self-consolation, and what strongly replaces the demon is the ability to own up his violent past and tread the opposite path.

But there is no return journey, he has to remain, like someone in exile, in the city which he has adopted with a job that can make his stay possible and also to support his family. His stint at one of the country’s prominent media houses exposes him to the deteriorating state of intellectualism, but it also introduces him love. Just as things appear to be getting better, the trouble that he has kept at bay re-erupts; his father has been diagnosed with cancer and more violent protests begin to erupt.

As time has placed a significant distance between Nonglei of then and now, fortunately he is just a memory to those who once knew him well or who could be looking for him. But this relief and beginning of a new life is overshadowed by the certainty that the death of his father is within reach. His father's painful death coincides with his partner's in Pune in his absence.

Things seem to be getting ready for him, the engulfing circumstances is the script he has to read and act out. The violent protests turn nastier. In such a state anybody could either be made a live victim or a dead one. What Nonglei gets is the former; surrendering to them to fight his case means to allowing them to deliver his end as the place has been under a draconian law harsher than the colonial version, and not doing so means finding himself declared 'a wanted man'.

He chooses to fight back with resources within reach. Declared wanted and now taken a side, he surrenders his earned conscience and the intellect for the sake of survival. What follows is even nastier; like someone who toys with swords and perishes with it, he has his end scripted quite clear before him.

The backdrop is violence-torn Kangleipak ( or Manipur) and Nonglei is a direct product of the conflict region. The author started working on the book in 2012 when he was scouting publishers in Delhi for his first book, Tales of Human Mischief.






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