More than a book


The book


Em - No - Nahin


November 2025

ISBN 978-81-933492-7-4


Pages 205

Multilingual

INR 1,200/-

This is a book which reminds us of -
  • The beauty of black and white photographs, of rains
  • Khasi Hills beyond the tourist brochures, beyond Shillong
  • The power that Schedule 6 of our constitution bestows
  • Protest poetry (a rare species in our country!)
  • What all an individual can do
  • All that sustained efforts can achieve
  • Life being about a lot more beyond money
  • World having changed a lot during the last couple of decades
Above all the book brings the term PROTEST back in our conscience. This it does in times when standing up to power is disappearing, when NO is met with violence, when most voices that question have been silenced by those in power, absolute power, and when the only people who rise up the proverbial ladders are those who agree.

And, it does what books are meant to - makes us think.

The book is about Khasi hills, about Kong Spillity Lyngdoh Langrin - the lady who was rock solid, said NO to government and money, about the disaster that uranium mining is. The nicely produced, hard cover book is accompanied with a booklet on uranium mining.

It is yet another story of ‘development’ where English speaking, learned men from cities, men who cannot bear an iota of change in their lifestyles suggest rehabilitation (moving homes, culture, occupation and more ~) to those they are far from, literally and otherwise, without a second thought.

An uncommon story though where, so far, might and money have not tasted victory. A story that today encourages, presents hope. For this we are thankful to Kong Spillity Lyngdoh Langrin for taking a stand and sticking to it over years, and to Tarun for documenting over these years. The book does not talk about Angela and Tarun but it reminds us of the team they were!

Tarun’s words, from his notes, sum it up the scenario aptly. “It is the conflict between those who think that a bigha of land makes you free finally and those who think many hills don’t make you rich. It is the world of productivity against the dreams of commons lived”.

This is book that has taken time to reach us, we too will do good to invest time with it.

Memories

The book took me back in time. To the days at Baghmara, the fun, the trips to Shillong, the mistakes we made then and more ~

Uranium mining rumours sprung up at Balpakram National Park during the time. Apparently the UCIL team had visited the site and mentioned of it having major potential - read uranium deposits! We had met senior Forest Department officials then who had expressed helplessness saying, ‘yeh to national security ka mamla hai’. We are thankful to whatever it was that saved the Balpakram National Park from UCIL then - be it the bad roads, the incessant rains, the then recent kidnapping of the Divisional Forest Officer or else.

Garo Hills though could not escape coal mining. During my early days at Baghmara it was such fun to swim in, to drink from, the crystal clear waters of the Simsang, especially at Alokpang, a handful of kilometres before it entered Bangladesh and became Someshwari. The coal mining since ravaged it all!

Then of course the book reminded me of the few of the many times, over the years, that I have been told that I an outsider!

Finally Tarun. I remember Tarun making coffee at his home - around 2 decades ago. He had a Moka pot and made very good coffee. One of our conversations I recall is his explaining the connection between KSU, the then hot Godavarman Case and tree felling (commercial) in the region. And of course chatting about films he had been a part of and the RTI that had then come in.

Later, over email conversations on the couple of articles I wrote for RAIOT the website he edited I always found him excited about asking questions - right questions, difficult questions, questions that few wanted to ask and fewer wanted to answer.

Other recent books by friends and acquaintances






Thanks to Angela for the copy of the book


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