The Son of Santra Hill

Otenga’s father, Paniram Rabha, a poor peasant, has a dream to see his son as an officer. His father gets angry when Otenga tells him about his BA result. Otenga fails to pass BA. His father asks him to search for a job at a school. But Otenga refuses to search for a job. He tells that he will work for Santra Hill to save the decimated forest and help his father in the crop fields. His father disagrees and thinks him a wastrel. His mother Mekhela Rabha supports his father. On being expelled from the house, he finds shelter in his friend Mantri Rabha’s house. Mantri has a tea stall, named Mantri Tea Stall. His mother goes to Manti Tea Stall and convinces him to come back home.     He encounters Evana, a very beautiful Rabha girl. He falls in love with her. But the guru of their village, Santra Gaon, identifies the girl as a fairy. Otenga doesn’t believe her to be a fairy. Then he leaves his village after being bitten by his conscience. He has stolen money from Mantri’s cash box. While going through a forest to an unknown destination, after being bullied out of the bus in the evening because he has no money on him, he happens to find a box of gold ornaments. He meets Dani Ferang near Chandubi Lake. Dani Ferang takes him to his home. Dani Ferang’s daughter Violet loves him. He does not respond to her love. He shows them the ornaments. They ask him to quickly leave their house because they now think him a robber. He returns to his village. In Santra Hill, he happens to see two persons wearing black robes. He thinks they are fairy sisters, trapped in Santra Hill by their guru. He follows them to know whether they are fairy sisters, and if they are really fairy sisters, he decides to ask them to help him find Evana; it is his belief that fairies can do so, or if Evana is a fairy, she may be one of them. He fails to meet them. He finds himself in an unknown village, where he is made a prisoner. In a rainy November night he escapes from that village and comes back to his village. Then in Dadan Fair in April, he meets Evana and comes to know that she has been identified as a fairy by their guru, who is also Evana’s maternal uncle. The guru does not want that Evana should marry a boy like Otenga.This is the first Indian English novel on the Rabhas, one of the major tribes in Assam.