An Allegory of Love and Hope: A Review of Son of the Thundercloud

Author: Easterine Kire
Publisher: Speaking Tiger Books
Month/Year of publication: December, 2016
Pages: 149
Price: 350/-

The latest novella from Easterine Kire titled Son of the Thundercloud is a fascinating read right from the start. I read it just before Christmas, and I could immediately see it as an allegory of the biblical story. Coming up fresh from winning the Hindu Prize 2015 for When the River Sleeps there is certain anticipation from the readers. And Easterine didn't fail to awe them! There is an interesting thematic connection between the two fictions as they both are closely sourced from the time tested legends that continue to wield its influence in the present imagination of the Naga world.

The plot of the novel is a straight forward narrative of a man, Pele, who left his village after severe famine took his wife and children away. He became a traveller to the unknown, partly to escape the distraught of the pain and loss, partly to escape death, but not sure if he would survive the journey. His path led him to a drought affected “abandoned village” where he met two sisters who were several hundred years old and had been living on “hope”. They told him of their wait for a prophesy, the birth of the Son of the Thundercloud, which would regenerate the land to its fruitfulness once again. While there with the ancient sisters the rains came extraordinarily. Shortly, he travels with them to the Village of the Weavers, where the third sister, known to others as the tiger-widow for her husband and seven sons were killed by the tiger, has been impregnated by a “single drop of rain” that fell from the thundercloud. Pele continues to stay on as the guardian of Rhalie, the Son of the Thundercloud. True to the prophesy Rhalie kills the tiger, but also dies in the hand of his friend who became envious of him.

It is interesting to discover how Easterine seamlessly weaves the biblical narrative of the virgin birth of Jesus Christ with a Naga creation story. Any Naga reader would be able to decipher that the birth of the Son of the Thundercloud is closely drawn from the oral story of the primal woman who was overcome by a cloud and gave birth to the proverbial three brothers. As a myth it is told with latent meaning to explain how things came into being and its relevance in understanding of the world around us. And in the Naga cosmology even today there is a close proximity between the worlds of the animal, spirit and man. In fact, they continue to interface, though not in a friendly way as it used to be. Things have become more violent. This is where Son of the Thundercloud has a lesson for us.

Metaphorically, the story of Pele is the story of mankind in search of a meaning in life. The two sisters of several hundred years old in the famine struck village of seven hundred years stood for mankind's wait for a saviour to reverse the tragedy. The prophesy has it that “... the great hope of the ancestors who used to say that our ancient misfortune will end when the Son of the Thundercloud is born. Everything will be transformed then” (p. 19). Their watch over the stars every night for the sign of the promised birth reminds us of the Magi who followed the stars to pay homage to baby Jesus. The birth of the Son of the Thundercloud was shrouded in suspicion and distrust from the people of the village, much like the people during Jesus' time was steeped in disbelief. The birth of Rhalie restored the land to prosperity but the people refused to believe the signs. On the contrary, his own friend Viphrü grew jealous especially after he killed the tiger.

Interestingly, the tiger is “no ordinary being”, it is spirit tiger that cannot be killed with “worldly weapon”. The “well-tempered spear” that the two sisters kept for Rhalie was the only potential weapon to kill the tiger. By its sheer power to incite fear the tiger has influenced people to make sacrifices to it. In essence, the tiger is the embodiment of the evil that has dominated the imagination of the people. This again, echoes how the Bible warns that the battle against the devil is a spiritual warfare which has to be principally fought in the spiritual realms. Rhalie was able to kill the tiger because he has no “pride” and his “heart was pure”. Just as his name mean “the redeemer”, his killing of the predator brought relief to the people. His mother, Mesanuo exclaimed, “what joy you have brought to all of us!” But men loved darkness instead.

The arrival of Son of the Thundercloud is quite timely. Christmas is the time of celebrating love, peace, hope and joy. It is a reminder of how God loved the world dearly that He sent His only Son to redeem it. Easterine's story reveals the shortcomings in human beings and their inability to change the reality. Only a divine intervention can reverse the tragedy. And while that message is being powerfully told, the novella is also beautifully woven together with many endearing wisdoms of cultural specificities. The generational transmission of knowledge is shown time and again in the older ones' conscious teaching of the young Rhalie. The people's need to preserve and protect God given natural resources for a sustainable future are asserted through the various conversations. And one of the most enduring picture is the 'hope' of meeting the departed loved ones in the afterlife.

First published in Eastern Mirror, December 27, 2016
http://www.easternmirrornagaland.com/an-allegory-of-love-and-hope-a-review-of-son-of-the-thundercloud/

Revisiting the Parable of the Good Samaritan

For most of us who have grown up in a ritualistic church going set-up we would be pretty familiar with all the popular stories of the Bible, including the parables of Jesus. We get so used to listening to them as time-pass stories or seeing them staged at occasional religious functions like the nativity scene at Christmas, but that is it. The tragedy for today's ‘modern’ Christians is that we get so familiar with those stories that we fail to apply them to our lives today. After all, isn’t the Bible supposed to be the guidebook for Christians along life’s journey?

The parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10: 25-37) is another story that we often fail to look beyond its mere narrative. But I think it still speaks in volume if we closely follow it. And as I see it, the parable has pointers to who a ‘true’ Christian is. Just a recap of the story in a nutshell: A man traveling to Jericho was robbed and beaten to a point of near-dead; a priest came the same way but walked away from the other side; a Levite also passed by but ignored him and walked away; finally, a Samaritan came along, saw the wounded man and helped him.

If we look at the context, the priest and the Levite were people who have businesses at the Lord’s temple and yet they failed miserably in what they claim to profess (For instance, “Love your neighbor as yourself” [Lev. 19:18]). On the contrary, the one who was supposedly an alien came to the rescue of the unfortunate man. It is important to understand that the Jews at that time despise Samaritans as outcasts and even refer to them at the level of dogs. (One can also infer this from Jesus' discourse with the Samaritan woman [John 4: 1-26]) Perhaps, the Samaritans also treated the Jews likewise. And yet, Jesus did an outrageous thing by presenting the Samaritan as the true ‘neighbour’. Of course, the Bible did not record the reaction of the ‘expert in the law’ or the crowd (including the disciples) present there but it would have been certainly interesting to behold!

Not only did Jesus upheld the Samaritan but he even told his listeners to “Go and do likewise” (v. 37). For Jews it must have been an insult to the injury: first, Jesus projected the Samaritan in the positive light and then told them to make him their role model! I believe Jesus chose the character of the Samaritan deliberately to make a point about the relationship of the Jewish people with other people groups living side by side with them. Jesus commended the act of the Samaritan to imply that we need to look beyond who the person is. The Jews, as we know, considers themselves ‘chosen people’ and therefore thinks highly of themselves.

Now, let us consider the situation of our contemporary society, more specifically of the relationships we share with communities living next to us. Let me take the case of the Naga Christians in Manipur as an example. I don’t think we’re any better than the Jews the way we think ourselves superior to communities living next to us. Religious bigotry is perceivable everywhere. Perhaps, our identity in Christ has not really sunk in to help us think beyond our subjective selves. But if we are to qualify ourselves as followers of Christ then we certainly need to broaden our definition of who our ‘neighbour’ is. If Jesus were to come in our midst today I’m sure he would have used the Kukis or the Meiteis or other people who are not of the same people groups in his parable to teach us a lesson. And as I see it, most conflicts within communities in the state would have been better monitored had churches and Christians looked deeper into the Bible for answers.

The relationship between different communities in the state can turn volatile any time because the old wounds have not really healed. And so, I think we need to be more cautious and act with a clear conscience. And the Word of God can be the light to light our way. Jesus said, “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you for this sums up the Law of the Prophets” (Matt. 7: 12). Most rules or laws made by man are normally stated in a negative way, like “Don’t do this…”, “Don’t do that…”, etc. But Jesus instead put it the other way round and tells us to “do to others”, implying a positive attitude towards our relationship with others. Generally, human tendency is to reciprocate to anything done to her/him. Good or bad, most of the time we only respond to the action done on us, and, perhaps, with the same measure precisely. Yet, Jesus instructs his followers with a different philosophy, that is, to be the first in doing good things for others. That way we can be certain nothing negative comes our way!

Jesus’ commandment to His followers implies a rather unusual approach to life altogether. But very seldom do we try and digest what His teaching would mean to us as His followers today. When he says, “Do to others as you would have them do to you” (Luke 6: 31) Jesus meant that his listeners should not only to be good to those who are good to them but to be good to everyone; not to only love those who love them but to love even their enemies! Such kinds of teaching by Jesus has often been considered ‘hard teaching’ by His own disciples and modern day scholars alike. Perhaps, that is so because Jesus was teaching contrary to the principles of the world!

The worldly principle would persuade us to be good to those who are good to us alone; to be bad to those who are bad to us; to love those who love us only, and likewise. Quite often, our desires seem to have grown to ditto others when it comes to relating with others. Somehow, it seems difficult to initiate but easier to follow suit! Our perspective to life is centered on our own world, so much so that we’ve developed a worldview of displacing the ‘other’. And in a world where ‘individualism’ is being encouraged, there is less and less time to think beyond the ‘self’! The principle that Jesus laid down for His followers is to first picture the ‘other’ before considering the ‘self’. He wants us to know that peace comes from looking into the interest of others. Harmonious co-existence of all living beings on earth entirely hinges on the respect for the opinion or the belief that each one may be contended with. When there is intolerance, hostilities certainly arise.

Jesus said that if we love those who love us only, we’re no different from any other person. In other words, He wants His followers to be different by being more than the worldly-wise; “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:35). Here, Jesus was talking about ‘love’ that is without any pre-condition. To remain faithful to the teachings of our Lord today, let us be active in doing what is good because only then can we expect people to reciprocate in a positive way.