Review

Name, place, animal, thing, the quirky title excited me and I couldn’t wait to read this book. Remember, the time when the last pages of our books were filled with this amazing game and we could never reach till letter Z?.

Childhood memories stay with us forever, the blurred memories somewhere still impacts our lives, makes us smile. The people we met, the games we played, the blurred conversations, we still remember everything!

Daribhagram takes us to the beautiful politically charged city of Shillong making us nostalgic. I felt like I was reading a diary of our narrator D.

This book will remind you of your favourite stationery shop, that one teacher in a school with whom you can freely talk, your favourite restaurant as a child and your go-to dish there. It will remind you of your childhood friend, your neighbours and the memories of your old home.

You can witness a bits of sweet Khasi language here. With a backdrop of beautiful Shillong, Daribha takes us down the memory lane with 10 chapters about the people she came across and the situations they went through in the politically Charged city.

With each chapter, a layer unfolds, surprising the readers and will make them think. Daribha with her rich and pleasant writing style gives us a sneak peek into the life of people at Shillong dealing with political issues.

She shares about how their lives changed because of the politics happening around them.

From childhood to adulthood, she shares about the bonds with her cousins, with her best friend Yuva and
Not to forget Bahadur, Mr Baruah, Mrs Trivedi, Tommy Lu the owner of her favourite restaurant AVVA and others.

While taking the readers down the memory lane, Daribha interestingly sheds light on some important topics like caste discrimination, Issues the migrants faced there and such others.

There’s the essence of curiosity we had as a child, the fears we had. How now we understand the situations we witnessed then.

This book is a treasure and I feel proud championing the book for #jcbprize2021!

It’s Honest, raw, elegant and interesting is what I would say for the book.