Melodies and Guns is a poetry collection in English, edited by Indira Goswami and authored by Megan Kachari, the arrested Central Publicity Secretary of ULFA. The original version is in Assamese

Assamese language

Assamese is the easternmost Indo-Aryan language. It is used mainly in the state of Assam in North-East India. It is also the official language of Assam. It is also spoken in parts of Arunachal Pradesh and other northeast Indian states. Nagamese, an Assamese-based Creole language is widely used in...

 with the title Memsahib Prithibi published in 1990. It was translated into English by Pradeep Acharya and Manjeet Baruah and published by UBS Publishers Distributors Ltd, Delhi in 2006. The preface of the book is written by Jnanpith Awardee

Jnanpith Award

The Jnanpith Award is a literary award in India. Along with the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship, it is one of the two most prestigious literary honours in the country...

 Indira Goswami.

The author

Megan Kachari is the pseudonym

Pseudonym

A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...

 of the author who is known as Mithinga Daimary. He was the Central Publicity Secretary of the banned outfit ULFA in Assam

Assam

Assam , also, rarely, Assam Valley and formerly the Assam Province , is a northeastern state of India and is one of the most culturally and geographically distinct regions of the country...

.

The poems

The readers and scholars of Assam highly appreciated the poems for their powerful portrayal of the experiences of life. "The fearlessness and spontaneity with which he expresses feelings is remarkable.", said noted scholar Professor Hiren Gohain. The poems focus on the lives of the militants and the pain and brutality that they have to undergo. “These are very different kind of poems. They have the smell of the gun powder yet at the same time expresses great love for humanity. They certainly evoke a strange feeling.”, said Dr Goswami who was instrumental in getting the poems published.

Some noted poems

Some of his notable poems include:

• Soon As Night Descends
• You and I
• The Way You Wish
• The Throb of Life
• The Beastly Darkness – Light
• The Earth a Memsahib
• Cradled Winter Hymns
• Don't Talk Like that Magon and Stray Ramblings
• The Waves
• The Ancient River in Melancholy
• The Void
• This Clear the Water Pons
• The Down Stream Song Words-It's Life Or...
• World Cup of Football
• A Dream Ode to Bird
• Loneliness
• Silver Nosepins
• Gold Bangles
• Pain
• The Song
• The Wounded Search

External links

• Indira Goswami's Blog