In A Kite of Farewells, Ovungthung Jungio weaves a poignant collection of stories that pulse with nostalgia, sorrow, mystery, and remembrance.
Published by Rupa, this debut offering transcends the traditional short story format, emerging as an intimate exploration of the human spirit set against the rich cultural and physical landscape of Nagaland.
Jungio anchors each narrative in everyday objects—casseroles, chairs, kites, scoreboards—that quietly bear witness to lives once lived and moments long gone. These items, seemingly ordinary, become vessels of emotion and memory, carrying the weight of departure, endurance, and lingering presence. Far from mere props, they serve as silent sentinels of personal and collective histories.
The collection begins with a quote from Rainer Maria Rilke:
Let everything happen to you.
Beauty and terror.
Just keep going.
No feeling is final.”
This epigraph serves as the emotional compass for the entire book.
A Poetic Preface and Its Echoes
From the outset, Jungio declares his thematic intentions in the preface: “Each story within these pages is tethered to an object that bears silent witness to the lives that once brushed against its form.”
This poetic framing sets the tone for a reading experience that is not just literary but also meditative. Jungio invites the reader to embrace not only the “act of releasing emotions and memories into the sky” but also the possibility that these releases might be healing acts in themselves.
“Fire” — Where Realism Meets Surrealism
The opening story, “Fire,” sets a high bar for the rest of the collection. It follows a man stranded due to a landslide, who seeks shelter in a nearby village. What begins as a realistic, almost humorous journey quickly spirals into a surreal nightmare. “The village tree adjacent to the entrance gate…was charred to its last living cell,” he notes ominously, foreshadowing what’s to come. He is welcomed by a strangely jovial man and then left with raw food and an eerie silence.
The suspense builds steadily until a bonfire triggers the wrath of spectral villagers, who chant, “Skin the visitor!” The horror is not gratuitous but existential—about being a stranger in an alien space, and the guilt of disrupting forgotten rituals.
The protagonist narrowly escapes but is forever haunted: “A part of me echoed its mockery for having expected anything good from strange places and strange people.”
This story is emblematic of Jungio’s skill—combining grounded realism with elements of myth and horror, reminiscent of Shirley Jackson and Ruskin Bond.
Jungio captures the quiet intimacy of everyday family life with tenderness and sincerity. His narratives are rich with delicate, evocative moments—such as the image of “Apo, bent over a bowl of soup, looked pale and bony,” or the observation (in one of the stories) that “the criss-crossing lines on the board persevered… in a big scheme of even more interconnecting lines.”
These details, though subtle, resonate deeply. Despite Apo’s physical decline, he remains tethered to the rhythms of life, finding purpose and connection through the familiar rituals of football.
“The scoreboard was more than itself—it embodied the stubborn hope of a dying man. His father had reached out into the future and played his last card at the table with fate.”
Cultural Anchoring and Linguistic Texture
A Kite of Farewells thoughtfully incorporates a section titled “Translated Terms,” offering brief explanations of local words such as chulha (stove), Echu Li (folkloric purgatory), gaon bura (village elder), and kata biskot (local biscuit). These terms subtly enrich the narrative, grounding the stories in the cultural landscape of Nagaland while remaining accessible to readers unfamiliar with the region.
Jungio’s storytelling is firmly rooted in the traditions, cuisine, language, and spiritual beliefs of his homeland. Yet, the emotions he explores—grief, displacement, affection, remembrance—are universally resonant. This duality makes A Kite of Farewells both a deeply regional work and a profoundly human one.
Themes and Motifs: Loss, Memory, and Objecthood
At the heart of A Kite of Farewells lies a meditation on the transience of life and the enduring presence of objects. Mundane items—a scoreboard, a chair, a newspaper kite—transform into vessels of memory, preserving fragments of lives once vibrant.
These objects serve as emotional anchors, around which the stories’ grief, longing, and remembrance revolve.
This motif of objecthood as memory recurs throughout the collection, threading the narratives together. Each item is more than a prop; it is a silent custodian of the past, bearing witness to moments of loss and the echoes of what remains.
In “About a Chair,” an old chair becomes the final remnant of a broken household.
In “The Newspaper Kite,” a simple handmade toy captures a child’s longing for a departed parent.
In “Time,” the passage of days is literalized through a broken wall clock that only resumes ticking after a family comes to terms with their grief.
The stories in A Kite of Farewells are, in essence, psychological portraits cloaked in the guise of object-driven tales. While each narrative is framed around a tangible item, the true focus lies in the inner lives of the characters—their emotional landscapes, quiet struggles, and intimate reflections.
Language, Tone, and Literary Voice
Jungio’s prose is lyrical without being overwrought. He wields similes and metaphors with precision:
“The sun had shrunk into a pale orange imitation of its boisterous self.”
His humor is subtle, often self-deprecating:
“Starving like a rat in an abandoned mall.”
Jungio’s characters are layered and deeply human—flawed, often unreliable, yet always relatable. Whether it’s the guilt-haunted voice of the narrator in “Fire” or the weary but resolute salesman navigating life’s disappointments, each figure is portrayed with quiet empathy.
Jungio resists judgment, allowing his characters the space to be vulnerable, contradictory, and real.
Critique and Conclusion
If there’s one minor critique to be made, it lies in the pacing of a few stories. The narratives in some tales, though crafted with the same care and stylistic finesse as the rest, lack the emotional depth and resonance that define the stronger pieces in the collection. As a result, they feel somewhat less compelling within an otherwise powerful and cohesive body of work.
A Kite of Farewells is that rare debut that arrives fully formed—mature in voice, rich in emotional texture, and timeless in its themes. It’s a book about absences: the words never spoken, the people who slip away, and the memories that cling, faint yet persistent, like the scent of old paper.
Ovungthung Jungio doesn’t just introduce readers to the Naga experience; he does so with remarkable sensitivity and elegance, making the local feel universal.
Whether you’re mourning, reflecting, or simply seeking meaning in the everyday, this collection offers quiet companionship. And like the kite of its title, it lifts your emotions skyward—unbound, ephemeral, and unforgettable.
Rating: 5/5