Aosenla's Story

by Temsula Ao

Seventy-year-old Temsula Ao is a pioneer of northeastern Indian literature, who was recognized with India’s highest civilian honor in 2007 for her work. The author of many volumes of poetry and short stories, Ao returns in this book to her beloved Nagaland homeland to bring readers the beautifully crafted story of Aosenla, a woman who is coming to terms with herself.
            The novel opens on a typical summer afternoon that will soon turn into another oppressive evening. Aosenla sits listening to her children playing nearby and is seized by a great lethargy. As she casts a watchful gaze over the house she has called home for so many years, Aosenla wonders how an inanimate structure like a house can exercise such power over a human being. Looking down at a wedding invitation in her hands, Aosenla begins to recall her own wedding ceremony many years ago, initiating a deep and moving reflection on the parts of this life that were made for her, and the parts she has made for herself.
 

Genres: Fiction, India

250 pages, Paperback

Published January 15, 2018

About the author

Temsula Ao was born in October 1945 at Jorhat, Assam. She received her B.A with Distinction from Fazl Ali College, Mokokchung, Nagaland. She received her M.A in English from Gauhati University, Assam. From Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages (presently English and Foreign Languages University,) Hyderabad she received her Post Graduate Diploma in the Teaching of English and Ph.D from NEHU. From 1992-97 she served as Director, North East Zone Cultural Centre, Dimapur on Deputation from NEHU, and was Fulbright Fellow to University of Minnesota 1985-86. She is a retired Professor of English in North Eastern Hill University (NEHU), where she has taught since 1975.

She received the honorary Padma Shri Award in 2007. She is the recipient of the Governor’s Gold Medal 2009 from the government of Meghalaya. In 2013, she received the Sahitya Akademi Award for her short story collection, Laburnum For My Head, given by the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Literature. Ao is widely respected as one of the major literary voices in English to emerge from Northeast India along with Mitra Phukan and Mamang Dai.

Reviews

[Nanditha]

A beautiful and simply written tale that looks at a woman's journey from early adulthood to middle age, "Aosenla's Story" takes an in-depth look at a marital relationship and a woman's transitions over years. I really enjoyed the book, although I felt like there was an undercurrent of sorrow almost throughout the book which emotionally drained me a little, unconsciously. Would have loved to know more about Naga traditions and culture through the book though.

[Aparajita Gurung · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aosenla's story is a of a woman and her transition over years ...
Written by Temsula Ao from Nagaland
It is a simple story but so well written. I am pleasantly surprised how articulate authors from Northeast are.

[Nayonika Roy · Rating 4 out of 5]

“....who she really is. Is she Aosenla, the reluctant bride and the timid wife, or the disappointing daughter-in-law who could not produce a male heir for the big house? Or is she the wife who once craved for her husband’s approval and love but no longer cared if he loved her or not? She wonders if she is now the amalgamated self of all these other selves and often thinks that she would like to be free of these imposed selves, which have grown on her unawares over the years.” Aosenla’s Story is a narrative of a woman who is coming to terms with herself. It is a transition that happens in a woman’s life and it is about the struggle of every women and finally overcoming it! It is about how a woman’s life can be summarised in 200 pages. It is about how an inanimate structure like a house can exercise such power over a human being. .