‘Shelmi Sankhil’s stories seamlessly move between the past and the contemporary while at the same time providing important trajectories in understanding the people’s history and culture. I am quite fascinated by his creative reconstruction of history in ‘The Defence of Lamkang’, the people’s rude awakening to World War 2 in ‘Death from the Sky’, the heart-wrenching story of ethnic conflict in ‘Survivors’ and many others. This collection of stories is an archive of memories that holds an important place in the collective experience of the Lamkang community and the people of Chandel at large.’ – Veio Pou, author of Waiting for the Dust to Settle ‘This collection of writings defies neat categorisation as short story, history or autobiography because it is all three in different measures. What we are reading here are narratives in which the author captures moments in time just before they are overwritten by that grandest of narratives we call History. Writing from the inside of his place of birth, Chandel, Shelmi Sankhil reminds us that time never stood still in the forgotten places of history. It is we who forgot how to read.’ - Shad Naved, Translator of The Hindi Canon: Intellectuals, Processes, Criticism