‘The Provincials’: Sumana Roy breaks the artificial barriers about the provinces in her book

Rack your brains for the last time you heard the word “provincial”. Tough to recall and remember – an outcome of changing lexicon and merging “boundaries”, perhaps. This is where an author comes in as a keeper of time, traditions and tyrannies. Sumana Roy in her new book, Provincials: Postcards from the Peripheries, talks about disparate elements of the identitarian politics of being a “provincial”. Roy not only sensitively echoes from memory and emotions of growing up as a provincial but also places it firmly in the histories of man and mankind. In resurrecting lesser-known facts and trivia about literary luminaries across topographies and tongues, she builds a strong case against the artificial, classist borders humans build as she tries to forge a bridge of humanity. The book reads as an interplay of observation and memory, what touches the heart and what the mind retains.

Away from the centre

The preface to “Pran” marks the five alliterative sections of the book that span the course of this delight in language and philosophy – a hallmark of Roy’s social media posts as well as creative writing. Researched thoroughly yet woven ever so lightly, Roy’s book is an ode to all things, provincial. From playing with the word...

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