I've started a new website called SEVEN SISTERS ARCHIVE 🐍. Let me tell you why (long post).
TLDR; these are my notes.
Basically this is my personal, decade-long project to document the unique lives of Northeast India; warts and all. It is an archive of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura.
I've been staying in Shillong for 3 months. Whenever people told me 'read this book', 'follow this person', 'this word means this', 'this event happened in history', 'go to this festival', I'd literally forget the proper nouns the next day. Why? Because I'm not acquainted with the language family at all. I have to make written notes to keep remembering and learning. No other choice.
So the twofold purpose of this website is (1) explain Northeast India to mainland Indians, and (2) to support the arguments that I will produce in my fiction books.
Northeast India is a vast place. It is deceptively larger than what the political map of India shows. The diets, languages, religions, festivals, costs of living, power structures and almost every other barometer is markedly different from that of mainland India.
For instance, did you know that chickens in Shillong cost Rs. 300 per kilo, if you’re lucky? Did you know that there are areas in Arunachal Pradesh where people do not know the concept of rotis and chapatis? Did you know there are still unrecognized tribes and unexplored locations in this corner of the world? Did you know a large amount of educated people continue to assert, without hesitation, the existence of forest spirits, vampires, and black magic?
SSA is a cultural archive more than a daily news portal. It will not produce day-to-day reports on elections or current affairs. This is not an online news portal, nor is it a current affairs magazine. It is an archive—an arduous attempt to document the truths of more than 40 million people over a period of several years. Its articles will be long, exhaustive, constantly revised according to new information, and will make zero attempts to dazzle readers with exaggerations, lies and gossip.
Please follow the page for updates; would really appreciate it.
So there is a village in Meghalaya where people’s names are literally songs and whistles.
Did you know no one was talking about it until three years ago?
I travelled with my friend Harmon to India’s only known Whistling Village in Kongthong, 🎶 East Khasi Hills. The route there was breathtaking. The village itself was extremely illuminating in the way its locals chose to live life. And the legends about whistling require some clarification.
Here’s how it went: https://lnkd.in/dTzga_8N
![Inside India's Whistling Village in Kongthong, Meghalaya]()
Inside India's Whistling Village in Kongthong, Meghalaya
sevensistersarchive.com
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10moThanks for the party!