The Whispering Mountains is a collection of folk tales put together by Namita Gokhale and Malashri Lal. These are folk tales compiled and adapted from the Northeast, Jammu, Kashmir, Bhutan Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and north Bengal. This project had the support of The Royal Norwegian Embassy, New Delhi. Everyone has heard of the Panchatantra Tales and the Jataka Tales, but very little is known about the folklore from the Northeast, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir and Uttarakhand. Tremendous effort has gone into collecting, translating and adapting these stories from lesser known languages. It is a piece of great teamwork that needs special appreciation. It is marvellous that generations of story tellers and communities have served as the custodians of memories—keeping these stories alive through their timeless retelling. The stories in this fascinating book have been adapted and translated by many people including the authors. At the end of the book is a list of the names of the authors as also the regions and languages from which the stories have been sourced. For many of us this is a welcome addition since we are not familiar with the names of the languages spoken in those regions. This collection of tales is both interesting and informative, and would go a long way in familiarizing the readers with the Himalayan regions, their languages and their folklore carried forward by generations of story tellers.
The varied terrain of the Himalayan region hosts its own species and life forms, and each has a story to tell. The first section of the book has stories devoted to Birds and Animals, Flowers and Trees. The stories that follow in the second section lead into the mysterious world of ghosts, goblins and cunning tricksters. Such elusive figures have always dwelled in the mountain paths and caves, and continue to do so. The stories in this section, while surprising and startling, will make the reader think and reveal new ways of seeing. The third section has stories about Shapeshifters—the fluid spirits who can metamorphose their bodies at will, and the fourth is all about River, Lake and Mountain Spirits. I found these stories very interesting since it is true that things are not always what they seem to be. The fifth section has tales that look at the mysteries of nature and the sources of their origin. The last section has folklore that reflects daily life and ways to navigate its challenges. They are practical, sometimes even cynical, and acknowledge the harshness of nature and the flaws of humans, as the foreword to this chapter says.
Whispering Mountains with its marvellous collection of stories from the Himalayan regions will appeal to the young and the old alike. I for one learnt a number of quaint words like Acho La La (Moon, Bhutan), Kherengbar (a kind of Orchid), mai (wooden pestle) and tham (mortar), Ka Phreit (the Khasi wren), etc. I am certain that reading these stories will kindle the reader’s interest to know more about these regions. It is a collector’s item that is worth having in every book lover’s library.