Volume 31, Issue No 2, November 2003
ASA Newsletter
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News & events of the Assamese people living around the
world
In this issue:
Guest Editorial: Development of Assam and
Globalization
ASA President Requests Texas to Hold Assam Day along
with Assam Convention in 2004
Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi visits New Jersey
Chief Minister in the Bay Area
Sankar Deva's Tithi Observed in New Jersey
Community News - Visitors from Assam
Assam Forum formed in the UK
Discovering Assam Tea!
From Oz-land, with love
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Guest Editorial :
Development of Assam and Globalization
The process of globalization is a result of the
interacting dynamics of capitalism and the revolution
in information technology (IT). Globalization and
localization must go hand in hand for sustained
development of any economy. Integration into the
global economy has benefited India somewhat,
especially in the IT sector. It has also resulted in
intense competition for resources among the states,
the business sectors and the rural population since
the relevant resources have been managed in favor of
urban activities. Rural folks are increasingly more
isolated from political participation in
decision-making and have lost the control of their
lives.
Assam as a whole cannot benefit much from the process
of globalization. 88.9% of its 26.6 million people
live in rural areas. Without attaining economic
sufficiency for this segment of the population, the
development of the state will remain a far-fetched
dream. Embracing localization by adopting small and
affordable technologies suitable to our needs, we have
had some successes: Self-help groups of women in
different districts for micro lending, the boost in
agricultural production due to minor irrigation
through shallow tube wells, commercial farming by
unemployed youths, handicrafts, metal works to name a
few. Concurrently, it is high time to capitalize on
globalization in the tourism sector and marketing of
rural crafts across the globe. Non-resident Assamese
can be of help in directing revolution in IT towards
micro economic sectors in the state with lead from the
Grameen Bank of Bangladesh where mobile phones and the
Internet are being used to provide information to
borrowers regarding the market so that they can obtain
higher prices for their goods and products.
Along with the development of the infrastructure,
mainly communication and transportation, the rural
masses must have strong political representation in
various seats of governance so that their problem can
be understood in real and practical sense by the
policy makers comprised of urban elites.
(Contributed by Ganesh Bora, Manhattan, Kansas)
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ASA President Requests Texas to Hold Assam Day along
with Assam Convention in 2004
ASA President Mantu Baishya of Omaha, Nebraska,
requested Barada Sarma of Austin, Texas to hold Assam
Day 2004 along with Assam Convention 2004. Baishya
also requested Barada Sarma and Texas Assamese
residents to call the 2004 get-together Assam 2004 in
the tradition of the neutral names used during the
last three years: Assam 2001 in Toronto, Canada; Assam
2002 in Denver, Colorado; and Assam 2003 in St. Louis,
Missouri. Here is a copy of the letter sent by Mantu
Baishya on October 5, 2003.
-----
Barada Sarma
President, Steering Committee
Dear Sarma da,
Thank you for inviting us to the Assamese get-together
via your email dated 30th September 2003. We like to
be a part of this get-together as much as you like us
to be, however after carefully reading this letter I
noticed that you have kept the name of the
get-together as Assam Convention 2004. My
understanding is that it has been AANA's tradition to
name its annual meeting Assam Convention for the past
20+ years and hold it around the country. The name
Assam Convention is more or less synonymous with AANA
as far as the Assamese people in North America are
concerned. ASA also has been successfully holding its
annual meeting along with cultural festivities around
North America under the name Assam Day for the past
many years. The name Assam Day is more or less
synonymous with ASA.
Now, I need a clarification from your end that whether
you are holding an AANA convention and ASA is invited
as a guest, a common practice of AANA from 1992
through 1998, or it is a real joint event as has been
the new and commendable tradition from 1999. If it is
a real joint get-together, I like to request the Texas
Assamese community and you as the President of the
Steering Committee to select a non partisan name. If
you think, you do not have intention to change the
name to a non partisan name, at least please allow us
to hold Assam Day 2004 also at the same venue you have
selected for Assam Convention 2004. This will continue
the wonderful tradition of having joint get-togethers
creating goodwill among all Assamese people in North
America.
As you are aware, starting 1999, ASA and AANA have
held joint annual meetings with a name that is
associated neither with ASA nor with AANA. The names
used have been "Assam Convention/Assam Day1999", "Y2K
Assam Conference", "Assam 2001", "Assam 2002" and
"Assam 2003". Kindly let me know by October 31st,
2003, if the Texas Steering Committee is ready,
willing and be able to organize Assam Day 2004 along
with Assam Convention 2004 in Austin. If you decide to
facilitate the holding of Assam Day 2004 with Assam
Convention 2004, I would request that it be named in a
non-partisan manner. My personal preference would be
"Assam 2004" although a name like "Assam
Convention/Assam Day2004" will be acceptable. Thanks.
Mantu Baishya
President, ASA
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Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi visits New Jersey
Assam Chief Minister Sri Tarun Gogoi and his wife met
with about thirty Assamese residents of New Jersey and
New York at Akbar, an Indian restaurant in Edison, NJ
on Monday, the 13th of October 2003. The meeting
started at about 8:30 PM and lasted about two hours.
Sri Gogoi was in the US on a personal visit to meet
with his daughter's family in California. Sanjoy
Krishna, IAS and the head of Indian Tea Board in the
US hosted him in New York and accompanied him to the
meeting.
The Chief Minister gave a short speech after he was
introduced. It was followed by a cordial question and
answer session in which the attendees queried the
Minister on issues and problems facing Assam.
Finally, there was dinner during which the discussions
continued.
In his speech, Sri Gogoi dwelled on the need to
develop Assam through tourism, infrastructure
development and growth of industries. He lamented at
the fact that though Assam had one of the highest per
capita incomes in the nation in the 1950s, it now
ranks close to the bottom. He sought help of the
NRAs in developing Assam. He also mentioned that he
held meetings with several high-powered Indian and US
officials in New York which were facilitated by Sri
Krishna and that the Taj Group has expressed an
interest in opening a five star hotel in the state.
Though it was friendly session, the Chief Minister was
defensive on most questions about illegal immigration,
poor roads and infrastructure and the industrial
development of the state. For example, when several
attendees asked him about immigration, he rhetorically
replied, "Even in the US there is illegal immigration,
but this country is so developed". He did not mention
the fact that the US is a country of immigrants and
within a generation or so the immigrants integrate
with the rest of the population and become
English-speaking. He added that Census data now show
that the pace of immigration to Assam is slowing.
When asked about violence in the state, he
conveniently said, "Which nation in the world is not
afflicted with the curse of terrorism these days? Even
in the US, I see so much of violence." He added that
violence has declined in Assam over the last couple of
years and foreign institutions including WB and ADB
are now expressing confidence in investing in the
state. On the issue of infrastructure, he added that
the roads in many other Indian states such as UP,
Bihar, Orissa and MP are in equally bad conditions.
He also talked about privatizing ASEB, attempts to
promote the Beach Festival in Guwahati and river-based
tourism.
The defensive posture adopted by the CM is quite
understandable for the Assam government lacks any
serious source of funding except for the doles it gets
from Delhi. These problems of immigration, poor
roads and terrorism have been festering in Assam for
several decades and would need time to heal or be
solved satisfactorily.
Despite all these shortcomings, the Chief Minister
seemed very knowledgeable about the problems facing
the state and about international affairs. He
mentioned that he knew Rajiv and Indira Gandhi, and
have always tried to highlight the achievements of
Assam. Indeed, he has had an illustrious and long
career as a politician in Delhi and Dispur. Three
nicely done color booklets on Assam were distributed
at the meeting. Arup Das and Anjan Saikia organized
the meeting on behalf of the Assamese community in NJ.
(Contributed by Jukti Kalita, NJ)
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Chief Minister in the Bay Area
The Bay Area Assamese community held a get-together on
October 04, 2003 in honor of Tarun Gogoi, Chief
Minister of Assam. After the introduction, Sujal Das &
Satyajit Nath made a very nice and thoughtful
presentation on behalf of the community called
"CREATING OPPORTUNITIES FOR FOREIGN INVESTMENTS IN
ASSAM". The presentation focussed on the growth of
niche industries by utilizing the existing environment
and enhancing it where necessary. They also explained
how the NRA can help Assam a) by working with local
and external experts in improving the business
environment, and b) by "Selling Assam, Inc." by
garnering investments from US-based entrepreneurs. The
audience also had the opportunity to discuss with the
CM such topics as fishery development, cottage and tea
industries. Other topics discussed were the state of
Assam Medical College, Dibrugarh, and the future
status of the LGB International Airport, Guwahati,
with reference to the discontinuation of the only
International flight from Assam. The Chief Minister
showed keen interest in the topics discussed and told
the assembled that what he would be able to do. After
the vote of thanks, snacks were served.
Some photos of the get-together can be seen:
http://home.comcast.net/~r.natarajan/Assam_CM_Visit
(Contributed by Mahesh Baishya, Dublin, California)
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Sankar Deva's Tithi Observed in New Jersey
Srimanta Sankar Deva's Janmotshov was observed at
Dayton Center, New Jersey, on October 4th, 2003. About
50-55 community members from New Jersey, Pennsylvania,
New York and Delaware participated in the event. The
event was jointly organized by the North East chapter
of Assam Society of America (ASA) and Assam
Association of North America (ANNA). The rainy and
grey weather failed to dampen the spirit of the
community members celebrating this important event
honoring the Gurujana. Brojen Bordoloi and Bimal
Rajbanshi conducted the Naam-Proxongo. Prafulla
Chowdhury played the nagra. The highlights of the day
were very active participation by the young Assamese
Americans in various events. It was very encouraging
to see Borgeet performance by Ponkhi Sarmah (age 6
years), Rick Bhuyan and Nick Bhuyan (age 13 years).
The other members who presented Borgeets are Umesh
Tahbildar, Madhusmita Bora, Nilakshi Thakuria,
Gayatree Sarma, Prafulla Chowdhury, and Malabika
Brahma. The food coordinators were Surabhi Kalita and
Kalpana Bordoloi. To encourage the future generation
for active participation, each and every children
present at the tithi were awarded with gifts.
(Contributed by Utpal Brahma, Burlington, New Jersey)
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Assam Forum formed in the UK
The Assamese people living in the UK have formed the
Assam Forum recently with the objective of addressing
the social and economic conditions in Assam. The Forum
would like to work with Assamese community of the UK
in case of big crises in Assam. They want to set up a
phone tree to be able to do teleconferences. One of
their objectives is to maintain neutrality and
transparency in the discussion of all issues regarding
Assam. The Forum's activities will be based on a
democratic process and the Forum membership is open to
the entire Assamese community and individuals who have
interest in Assam.
(Contributed by Babul Gogoi, Guwahati)
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Community News - Visitors from Assam
Dr. Mrinal & Monica Barooah from Guwahati are in San
Jose, California. They are visiting their son Manas,
daughter-in-law Seema Nayak & granddaughter Lisa
Varsha.
Dr. Premananda Goswami and his wife Dr. Jayashree
Goswami along with their high school going daughters
Neeha and Pooja visited the USA during the month of
July, 2003. They are originally from Nagaon in Assam
but they came from Saudi Arabia. They were in the USA
for about two weeks and visited many places in the
Midwest and in the East Coast. Their eldest son
Koustuv Goswami currently lives in USA. Several years
ago after completing high school in India, Koustuv
came to USA to undergo pilot training at Emery Riddle
University in Colorado and then Arizona. Koustuv has
already completed pilot training and he currently
works as a pilot in a commuter airline. Perhaps he is
the only Assamese pilot in America. Premananda Goswami
and wife Jayashree Goswami are now debating whether to
send Neeha to India or to USA for college education.
Their eldest daughter Neeha likes America and she
wants to study in the USA when she graduates from high
school in about a year and half. Neeha was born in
Saudi Arabia and has lived all her life in Saudi
Arabia. Still she does not have any Saudi rights and
won't get Saudi social benefits. All Saudi citizens
get regular monthly checks from the government. She
does not have any birthright. She will never get Saudi
citizenship.
Seema Dutta, daughter of late Bikash Dutta and Mrs.
Indira Dutta of North Carolina was married to Joseph
Lohr in late August 2003. The wedding was attended by
many Assamese families and individuals from all across
the USA. About a half dozen of Seema's relatives came
from Assam to bless the occasion. After the honeymoon
the married couple now happily lives in Raleigh, NC.
Mr. Buddindra Nath Gogoi and Mrs. Ahalya Gogoi have
recently visited the USA. Buddhindra Gogoi is a
retired Commissioner of Assam Public Works Department
and Ahalya Gogoi is an author and has published
several books. They are parents of Samar Gogoi,
Treasurer of Assam Society of America. Samar Gogoi
lives in Omaha, Nebraska. Initially, his parents came
to Paris, France, where Samar, Archana (Samar's wife)
and Maya had gone to receive them. They stayed in
Paris for one week before coming to the USA.
Incidentally, the Gogoi family visited the Eiffel
Tower in Paris the day before there was an electric
fire on the top floor of that famous tower.
Mr. Ratneswar Das and Mrs Bina Das, parents of Mridul
Das are visiting Omaha, Nebraska. Ratnewar Das, a
retired Block Development Officer, is from Nowgong.
Bina Das is an active social worker in Nowgong. The
main reason for their visit to Omaha is to see their
brand new grandson. Mridul and Anjana Das are the
successful parents of a little boy, born on September
10, 2003. The little boy's name is Luit. Mridul and
Anjana want to make the little boy a great computer
scientist to follow the footsteps of his dad. However,
the others in the Omaha Assamese community, most of
them civil engineers, want to make the baby a great
civil engineer. Let see who wins.
Mrs. Amiya Bezbaruah, mother of Achintya Bezbaruah and
mother-in-law of Nandita Bezbaruah, is visiting
Omaha. Rit, the grandson of Amiya Bezbaruah is very
happy to see his grandmother after four years. As a
result of her trip to USA, the best thing that
happened to Rit is that he can now speak fluent
Assamese. The best quality of this lady is that she
can adjust to any situation and is also a wonderful
cook. The Omaha Assamese community is beneficiary of
her beautiful Assamese cakes (pitha). The Assamese
community is trying to impress upon her to make her
stay in Omaha little longer.
Mr. Santosh Kumar Chakrabarti and Mrs. Bhabani
Chakrabarti recently visited their son Deepak and
daughter-in-law Mondakini in Denver. Santosh Kumar
Chakrabarti, MA, LLB (both Calcutta University) served
in the Assam cadre IPS since 1956, and worked for CBI,
BSF, Indian Railways and retired in the rank of
Inspector General of Police, Guwahati in 1985. Right
now, the Chakrabartis are settled in Silchar, Assam.
Bhabani Chakrabarti has BA from Guwahati University.
She has written two cook books, a few books of poems
and one book on traveling US. She has received
several cooking awards including ones from Femina,
Bajaj, Sananda, and other Assamese associations in
Guwahati and Silchar. She has won many prizes for
vegetable and flower gardening. She has been
associated with local ladies congregation in Jorhat,
Dibrugarh, Guwahati and now in Silchar that made
periodic donations to the for the flood relief, and
helped poor children for education. The Chakrabartis
visited for three months to see their baby grandson
Avinav. They returned to India on September 26.
(Contributed by Mahesh Baishya, Dublin, California;
Kedar Bhuyan, Atlantic City, New Jersey; Mantu C
Baishya, Omaha, Nebraska; and Jugal Kalita, Colorado
Springs, Colorado)
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Discovering Assam Tea!
One of the shared passions my wife and I have is tea.
We have had the pleasure of sipping mint tea while
buying rugs in Morocco, of participating in an African
Tea Ceremony in Cote d'Ivoire, and of course
partaking of High Tea in England. One of our favorite
social gatherings is to host a tea-tasting party at
our home. Over the course of our marriage, our
knowledge about tea has grown and our palate for tea
has become if not refined, at least opinionated. We
like our tea black and sniff our noses at mere
tisanes! Even green teas are eschewed in favor of a
bold quality black tea. And of all the black teas, our
favorite comes from the region of Assam. A few years
ago, our local source for quality Assam tea changed
ownership and the new owners stopped ca rrying tea.
The situation was desperate! The battle to keep the
Internet from becoming commercial had been lost so I
turned to it hoping that somewhere, some entrepreneurs
had started selling tea through a web site. At first,
my searches were disheartening. Most tea sites were
Only selling what I call "new age" teas. Suddenly the
proverbial light clicked on and I realized that if I
searched for Assam followed by Tea, I would be guiding
the search engines towards what I really wanted. The
results from that search were encouraging: the summary
for a particular site, www.specialteas.com seemed
particularly hopeful. My dearest hopes were far
exceeded when I clicked on the link to find not only
that they sold Assam tea, but that I could get one of
over a dozen different single-estate Assam teas!!
There, listed by rating (e.g. FTGFOP-1) were teas from
estates like Harmutty and Hajua and Mangalaam. Each
tea was described in prose that would make even a
wine snob envious. We have been a devoted customers
ever since. Now all we have to do is add "sipping
Assam tea in beautiful Assam itself" to our list of
travel stories.
(Contributed by Tracy Petrie, Colorado Springs,
Colorado)
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>From Oz-land, with love
An illustration from "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz"
A little girl Dorothy with her dog Toto crouching
in a small house. Scared. Their round, big eyes
staring through a cracked window pane to the vastness
wilderness and beyond. The house itself is being
uprooted and carried away by a fierce tornado. This
tornado carries these two scared souls, from the
homely security of Kansas, to the wonderful Land of
Oz ruled by the great wizard. From there to the
Emerald City, where the old wizard rules, a yellow
brick road leads they way.
My own story is somewhat Dorothy's story narrated in
reverse and also, being stripped of its fantastic
and magical elements, pretty sedate. Born and
brought up in Assam-land (which is somewhat like the
land of Oz for reasons which will soon be clear), I
was condemned to exile in Kansas for some years and
am still busy carrying out that sentence. On her way
to the Emerald City, Dorothy finds herself a bunch of
quaint pals: a Scarecrow with no brains, a Tin
Woodman with no heart and a Lion with no courage. And
I am not very sure I have not befriended or at least
came to contact with these amazing characters a few
times in my own Assam.
A few days ago I got into trouble when, in a group of
Indian friends, mentioned that Indian people are more
apt to act by their instincts rather than by reason:
yet I still maintain I was nearer the truth. Now
zooming back to Assam, the same malady of limited
vision, the desire to react to situations in a manner
rooted and expounded in the hundreds of years of
tradition of Assam is still persists. The average
Assamese, like any average Indian, is used to live by
his instincts: his reactions to different situations
are already pre-defined by his caste, his religion and
his class. A person in Assam is not, above all, an
individual with individual views and reactions to
situations like in the West. He is primarily a part of
a clan before he is an individual and his actions
reflect the views, the traditions and the taboos of
the clan.
But we have to remember that things can never be
expected to change overnight. For hundreds of years
Assam was under foreign rulers. Even now one cannot
say that the solutions provided by the present
government are tuned to the Assamese needs and
sensibilities. Liberty itself is a very sharp
instrument to be used with care, especially by people
who are new to it. When an oppressed race is given
the gift of liberty, his first identity, to quote
Naipaul, is always a small one. The religious and clan
boundaries are the support system of the people. They
are not only here to stay for quite some time, but
they are also necessary. The good thing is that people
are beginning to express their individuality within
these new boundaries.
I prefer to term this largely prevalent phenomenon of
acting inside preset boundaries as the
Scarecrow-effect. Now finding the Tin Woodman in a
land where largeness of heart is often prioritized
over needs of survival is of course a difficult task.
I still remember reading a story where a rich family,
losing everything in a flood, is rendered homeless.
Things take a turn for the worse and a day comes
when they have to refuse alms to a hag who goes
begging around. At this point, the lady of the house
sits down and wails. Her sorrow does not stem from
the fact that she is poor; she could have borne the
poverty with grace and strength so uniquely Assamese.
She had to refuse alms to a beggar: something she
would have never done if she had even a morsel left
and she weeps for that fact. But even among such
traditions barbaric acts are seen every once in a
while. I don't want to turn this essay into one of
enumerating the social evils afflicting the society.
Almost everyone memorized a list of them from
high-school text books; the evils afflicting the
region are neither more nor less than those
affecting the rest of the country. But there is a
difference in point of view. The rest of the country
does not take any interest in the slow development of
the people; what raises their eyebrows and what
graces their coffee-tables are the individual cases
of cruelty emanating from the state. This builds a
psychology that the north-easterners are a bunch of
barbarian hill-people, which in turn color their
subsequent deductions and opinions.
Lions without courage, I have to admit, are something
we have in liberal quantity. If you have ever read
an Assamese newspaper, I am sure you will understand
what I mean: everywhere there is talk of the "silent
majority". Silent majority! The concept of democracy
itself, prevalent in India in general, is based on
the very fact that the populace, by its overwhelming
numbers, can throw down any errant leader, drag him
onto the street and chop his head off. A silent
Democracy is a farce: it is the Statue of Liberty
clad in burqua! A Democracy, when the people are
silent, degrades into a dictatorship or what is
worse: a plutocracy instantly. One ought not to be
prodded and elbowed to exercise this right: it should
come naturally to them.
Most things in life do not work as they are supposed
to. Talking about metaphorical lamps, James Joyce
says, "I need them only for my own use and guidance
until I have done something for myself by their light.
If the lamp smokes or smells I shall try to trim it.
If it does not give light enough I shall sell it and
buy another." Assam has a sizeable number of
well-educated guys; the only problem is with
application of their education. Most of them are laid
back and take only an armchair interest in what goes
on around him. And the views of most that do dare to
speak up lack vision.
In the same context I remember a quaint incident. A
fellow of a northern merchant caste who had done some
advanced course in computers in USA came to contact
with a famous Indian writer. He claimed that he was
"too-educated" for India as no one was ready to
appreciate his effort to lay down computers in rural
areas. The writer compares him to a plumber from the
slums. A plumber from the slums is a simple soul
called upon to exercise a skill which he exercises
blindly. Tap water to him is a luxury; his wife stands
for hours in the morning to get water from the
municipal tap. So he does not understand why the tap
has to be placed straight at the center of the tile.
To apply new technology in places like Assam, so
vastly rooted in tradition and comparative poverty,
requires vision. That vision is never elusive but is
yet to be actively pursued.
Let's speed our story up to the part where Dorothy
with her merry company finally meets the Wizard. The
Wizard of Oz is not actually a wizard. He is a
pseudo-wizard: just another cunning fellow who, by a
matter of deceit creates for himself an image of
being omnipotent and omniscient; he makes everyone in
the city wear green glasses so that everything will
look fair and green to them: even petty stones and
bricks look like emerald though the sparkling green
glasses. And everyone around, thus, is very happy. He
lives in and rules from Oz. In my case the Wizard
lives somewhere else. He, along with his troupe of
wizard-lings and wizard-wannabes, lives in the ancient
Mughal city of Delhi. Yes Delhi. You know; Jantar
Mantar, new Ferraris, creaky DTC buses, heat-melted
'Picnic' chocolates: Delhi. Sitting on a swiveling
leather chair, he hands out pretty glasses to
Assamese politicians with the word "PROGRESS" written
on either panel. They look at their own state through
them and are happy. Verily impressed, they bring back
with them whole carton-loads of these glasses and try
their best make the people in Assam wear them and
thus be happy and satisfied like them. And the people,
na‹ve as they are, for the most part, oblige. I
lost my pair in the confusion of the tornado that
brought me to Kansas; my friends have been calling me
a stoic or what is infinitely
Worse - a stoic and a skeptic ever since.
The brick paths in Assam are still golden
All we have to do is to discard our sparkling glasses
of false vision and come back to reality. The present
state of affairs is knotty and labyrinthine no doubt
but in no way unsalvageable. Every Assamese worth his
shirt is proud of the lavish natural gifts of his
state; and so he ought to be. Why, even after being
one of the potentially richest states in the nations,
is it still falling behind mainstream India? The hills
and the rivers and the obvious problems arising out
of them cannot be made scapegoats: parts of Europe
are almost inhabitable due to the Alps and have many
fast rivers and neither are they so much endowed with
natural resources. Is it due to the intelligent
exploitation of the resource? Or is it mismanagement
and failure to achieve maximum efficiency of the
resources? I think it is something of both; further
confounded by the Scarecrows, the Tin Woodmen and the
Lions without courage of Assam-land.
Next time I plan drag my pals to a good Fairy. The
Scarecrow needs to fill his cranium up with handfuls
of bran and some pins and needles so that he can have
a bran-new intellect and also a sharp, pin-pointed
judgment. The Tin Woodman needs a pretty silk heart
filled with sawdust and the lion needs a dose of the
green courage-potion. And everyone, I hope, lives
happily ever after.
L' Allegro
Arguably, "Satanic Verses" is one of the most
controversial books of the last few decades and
Salman Rushdie one of the most errant word-smiths. A
passage in the said book runs:
"After that there had been nothing to stay for. The
aeroplane lifted and banked over the city. Somewhere
below him, his father was dressing up a servant as
his dead wife. The new traffic scheme had jammed the
city centre solid. Politicians were trying to build
careers by going on padyatras, pilgrimages on foot
across the country. There was graffiti that read:
Advice to politicos. Only step to take: padyatra to
hell. Or, sometimes: to Assam"
This book was written during one of Assam's more
trying moments: the stormy eighties. We have
certainly progressed a great deal from the time when
we used to be compared to hell. Such unfortunate
parallels are not just due to the fault of the
Assamese people; it is more or less the ignorance
about the ailments of the region among the population
of India. Joined to India by a small strip of land,
the north-east is often viewed by the rest of India as
a mere decorative artifact. The lean physical link to
continental India seems to have bottle-necked even
the intellectual interest of the Indians for this
region. I don't blame Rushdie for what he wrote; he is
a writer: his job is to put to paper whatever he sees
in real life and to his credit, he does it very well
most of the time, objectively. May be it is an
offshoot of his fancy that he is an intellectually
uprooted South-Asian writer, much like V.S. Naipaul
and Nirad C. Chaudhury and that he can observe the
world around very objectively. But for every
objective Rushdie, there are ten analytical
pseudo-intellectuals who look at Assam once every two
decades, in a manner as if they are investigating the
ruins of Giza or some petty tribe tucked away in the
depths of Amazon, with their fat magnifying lenses and
try to deliver instant fix-it-yourself solutions for
the problems of the region. One such Utopian idea is
the idea to join the Brahmaputra and all its
tributaries to the Ganges and other rivers. I often
come across such vibrant speculations in various
magazines and articles.
Back in my Oz-land, at such times, I grab a bowl of
popcorn and say,"Hobo Diok."
(Contributed by Syamanta Saikia, Wichita, Kansas)
||| ||| ||| |||
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