Deceit Brought Us To Assam And Other Stories from the Barak Valley

Fresh from prison, a woman returns home to grapple with her husband’s betrayal. Accused of witchcraft, an aging midwife becomes the scapegoat for a tragedy. A destitute widow’s life takes a surreal turn when she’s thrust into local politics.

Barak Valley—lush, picturesque, and seemingly tranquil to outsiders— appears in these stories as a land that serves as both tormentor and refuge, a witness to its people’s quiet hunger for connection, belonging, and dignity.

Whether it is a mother confronting her daughter’s pregnancy out of wedlock, an octogenarian rediscovering her forgotten love for the sitar, or a child forming an unlikely friendship with an elderly man, the characters in this anthology reveal the singularity of seemingly ordinary lives.

At once intimate and universal, bleak yet exuberant with hope, these stories swing between oppressive despair and human resilience, revealing the scents, shades, and sounds of daily life on the banks of the Barak.