An Eco-Critical Perspective on Temsula Ao's Collection of Short Stories Laburnum for My Head

Temsula Ao is a poet, short story writer and ethnographer. She is a retired Professor of English in North Eastern Hill University (NEHU), where she has taught since 1975. In 2013, She received the Sahitya Akademi Award for her short story collection, Laburnum for My Head, given by the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Literature. This set of short stories is deeply embedded in the lives of people who belong to the region from where she writes, the north east. She finds her characters in people, flora and fauna of her region. The reader can find the laburnum an equally interesting role to play in the story as Lentina. The wild boar and elephant also have an equally important role in The Hunter and likewise. This paper analyses the first and the last of the stories to present the gamut of ecological symbols she uses to narrate her stories.