Read about the Anne Frank of the North East

Reading Easterine Kire's new book Mari would take you back to a time when you used to cuddle up to your grandmother and urge her to repeat the stories of her childhood and a pre-independent India. However, there is a difference. In this book the British are portrayed as protectors and not destroyers of Kohima.

As the book reveals how simple hill inhabitants relied upon the white men, who were ready to face death to save them, you can almost visualise a town waiting with bated breath for the war to strike.

The story revolves around the life of Mari'O Leary, a young girl whose life changed forever after Japan invaded India in 1944. The book written in the form of a diary is a personal journey but somewhere also shows how Kohima, a small town turned into a nightmare for the easy going and contented Naga community.

Though the story begins with Mari's life, somewhere it loses the personal touch and becomes a chronicle of Kohima. As the story moves on, the horror of the war intensifies and you realise how the ravages of war are borne through generations. Lucid in its flow and broken in short chapters, Mari is ideal if you want to know about a community that still suffers and lives with the scar of the Japanese invasion.

Mari
Author: Easterine Kire
Publisher: Harper Collins
For: Rs 250
Pages: 171