Prelude:
As I finished reading the email invitation from this anthology’s editors to write about my field assistant I flashbacked to the crisp Sunday morning of 3rd February 2014.
“Iho, ela ja!” (come here), gestured Naba Jibi Pulu, my Idu Mishmi godfather.
A young man, tall for an Idu Mishmi, emerged from the bustling, colourful crowd. He wielded a bucket full of ashumbihi
(corn porridge) in one hand and a ladle in another. A bamboo hat
perched precariously on his head. It was the Reh festival in Kebali village located 8 km from Roing, the headquarters of Lower Dibang Valley district of Arunachal Pradesh. A few middle-aged men, merry on yu (homebrewed rice wine), swayed to the tunes of loud Idu pop music. Rows of women and children, messily arranged, sat on thinning grass with leaf platters laid out in front, waiting
impatiently for the feast.