[Assam] EMFA's propoganda
There is another opinion. It seems that the journalist, Neog, set the whole incident up. An excerpt from today's Telegraph below. On the other hand, Krishak Mukti Sangram Samity leader Akhil Gogoi today delivered on his promise to show a video footage to substantiate his claim that a TV journalist had instigated the mob to assault and molest the girl. The video showed the journalist, Gaurav Jyoti Neog of News Live, allegedly shouting at the mob to hold the girl while the camera rolled; he also barked orders at the people who were molesting the girl to strip her and then taking credit for the entire episode by telling another journalist of the News Live that he had arranged it (“moi karaisu”). Gogoi had, before coming to the Press Club, met the director-general of police and handed over a copy of the video footage to him. He also sought pardon for not being able to show the “raw footage”, which he termed as “too disgusting”. Regards Disgusted Fellow Oxomiya Sent from my iPad On 15 Jul, 2012, at 8:30 AM, assam-requ...@assamnet.org wrote: Send assam mailing list submissions to assam@assamnet.org To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to assam-requ...@assamnet.org You can reach the person managing the list at assam-ow...@assamnet.org When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than Re: Contents of assam digest... Today's Topics: 1. Ranjit Gogoi' s Bihu dance troupe to perform at London Olympic 2012 (Rini Kakati) 2. EMFA urges for a high level impartial probe (Nava Thakuria) -- Message: 1 Date: Sat, 14 Jul 2012 10:55:46 + From: Rini Kakati rinikak...@hotmail.com To: assam@assamnet.org Subject: [Assam] Ranjit Gogoi' s Bihu dance troupe to perform at LondonOlympic 2012 Message-ID: dub101-w387810126081b40100cbefce...@phx.gbl Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 London Olympic 2012 is a month long celebration of dance taking place in July. It co-insides with 'Big Dance' which is a huge national festival of dance - part of the overall Cultural Olympiad and Olympic festivities. As Britain premier sporting venue Wembley stadium, along with five other venues will be hosting London Olympic 2012. The Olympic torch will reach Wembley from Greece on Wednesday 25 July, 2012 on its way to Stratford. As Rini Kakati is an active member of South Asia Advocate Group, a part of LOCOG 2012 ( London Olympic Committee of Games), she took the initiative on behalf of the committee to invite the well-known choreographer Ranjit Gogoi's Bihu dance troupe to perform at this prestigious event. The 16 member professional Bihu dance group from Assam with traditional instruments (with Buffalo horn pipe, dhol, pepa, gagana, taal, khol, japi and sarai) will arrive London on 23rd July, 2012. Ranjit Gogoi's Bihu team from Assam is selected to perform on that day at Wembley as part of the cultural event. The Bihu dance troupe has already been recognised in London as a popular folk dance after their performance at Nehru Centre, House of Lords last year in June 2011. Ranjit Gogoi will perform at various places in United Kingdom including Southbank Centre. Ranjit Gogoi can be termed as the states cultural ambassador, Assamese Bihu which he has been performing with great aplomb. For him it has become a mission to promote and popularise Asomiya culture, dance, music, songs in western shores. Picture: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NorthEastIndia/attachments/folder/209038857/item/389585843/view Rini Kakati -- Message: 2 Date: Sat, 14 Jul 2012 06:11:55 -0700 (PDT) From: Nava Thakuria navathaku...@yahoo.com To: northeastjour...@yahoogroups.com Cc: assam@assamnet.org Subject: [Assam] EMFA urges for a high level impartial probe Message-ID: 1342271515.65753.yahoomailclas...@web160405.mail.bf1.yahoo.com Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 ? Dear editor, Here is a statement for your use. Regards, Nava Thakuria, President, Parag Moni Aditya, Working President, Bimal Ghosh, Secretary, Bhaskarjyoti Bhuyan, Treasurer, Electronic Media Forum Assam, Guwahati, Assam ? EMFA urges for a high level impartial probe Guwahati, July 14: The Electronic Media Forum Assam (EMFA ) has appealed to the Government of Assam to initiate a high level impartial probe into the allegation leveled by an activist against a television journalist involved with the incident of molestation of a girl at GS Road of the city on July 9, 2012 evening. In an emergency meeting held at Guwahati Press Club today, the
[Assam] Secularism in USA and India
In USA, secularism means absence of religion. In India, secularism means equal treatment of all religions. Thus the multi-faith prayers during state functions. This definition of secularism has been sanctified by years of prevailing usage and case law. There is also the very widespread practice of lighting lamps and chanting a few Sanskrit slokas to bless the start of many functions. This act of lighting a lamp and chanting Sanskrit slokas too is not considered religious but cultural. Trust this clarifies. Best regards Rajiv Sent from my iPad ___ assam mailing list assam@assamnet.org http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
[Assam] Money Makes India Go Around
An interesting perspective about why India's surprises the world with its Macro growth rates while beset with abysmal governance. But the issue is, is this enough? I am not very optimistic. Just one data point might suffice - we talk about the lack of cleanliness of our cities, about our woeful lack of municipal governance. Ancient travellers from Hieun Tsang to Ibn Battuta also had similar things to say about ancient India. rgds *India’s weak state will not overhaul China* By Arvind Subramanian Published: August 16 2010 22:29 | Last updated: August 16 2010 22:29 As India enters its 64th year since independence, its economic dynamism presents a paradox. On most measures of market friendliness, it lags behind Latin America, and even sub-Saharan Africa. It is still more closed to trade and foreign capital than most other countries; still hampered by extensive controls on economic activity, including onerous labour laws; and still dominated by a large public sector. In short, it should be growing at 5 per cent, not 8½ per cent, a year. Long-run growth depends on the quality of supporting public institutions. True, the India of today is less of a regulatory nightmare than before the opening-up in 1991. Some institutions – those that hold elections, preserve financial stability and regulate telecommunications, for example – have worked well. But these exceptions apart, the state is weak and fraying. Policy reforms do not deserve the spectacular acceleration in growth that the economy has delivered. Such is the crisis it seems increasingly possible the Commonwealth games – supposedly a cause for celebrating the rise of a new India – will be scaled down or not held at all. New facilities, including stadiums, remain unfinished. Cost over-runs are astronomical and graft rampant. The obvious contrast with China’s 2009 Olympics will illustrate all too starkly the core weakness of Indian governance.Part of the problem is that Indian politics is getting progressively criminalised. The writ of the state does not run in nearly a quarter of its territory, with much of that area afflicted by violent insurrections. Corruption is endemic. And while India’s high growth should have led to low debt, fiscal populism has ensured that India’s public finances are almost as wobbly as those in the debt-addled industrial countries. This weakness is the result of a mix of both gradual deterioration over time (most obviously in the political arena) with growing demands on the state. But it leaves a puzzle: why is India growing so quickly? Conventional explanations focus on elite education and a dynamic information technology sector. These have played an important role in kick-starting growth but are too small in size and too narrow in the benefits they generate to sustain growth in such a large economy. The real explanation may be that, while policymakers have done the minimum to start growth, growth itself is now the driver of change and is begetting more growth. This dynamic works through three channels. First, growth for three decades has widened entrepreneurship, and made the pursuit of money-making respectable. India, in the words of political scientist Devesh Kapur, is now a new nation of hustlers, constantly searching for economic opportunities – including ways of circumventing onerous rules – that, in turn, keep the growth engine purring along. The second route comes as rising demand allows the private to replace the public sector. Consider education. Development economists have long bemoaned the Indian government’s failure to supply good schools. But growth has changed the picture dramatically, largely because it has increased the returns from, and hence the demand for, education. Just look at private schools mushrooming in rural India because of teacher absenteeism in public schools or companies creating training centres to build skills in the cities because institutions of higher education are in shambles. Finally, competition between India’s states has also helped. The Nano, an iconic attempt to produce a reasonably priced car for India’s mass market, is a good example. Regulations stopped its manufacturer, the Tata group, starting a factory in West Bengal. In the India of old, this would have killed the project. But now the state of Gujarat, which is a rare model of good economic governance, has taken the project instead. Even just a few Gujarats should be enough gradually to force other state governments to change policies, while strong growth will also force the wider state to respond – even if weakly and intermittently. A not totally dysfunctional state combined with a new and no-holds-barred spirit of hustling, mean India’s economic hopes are unlikely to come unstuck. Yet the Indian state will seldom be ahead of the curve in initiating or galvanising wider economic change. And that bottleneck will make Chinese-type growth rates elusive. *The writer is a senior fellow jointly at the Peterson Institute for
[Assam] “Making A Billion Hindus Glow in the D ark
Not related to Assam but netters might find this interesting. Cheers Rajiv June 30, 2008 Did A Plutonium Generator End Up in the Ganges? Making A Billion Hindus Glow in the Dark By PETER LEE For the U.S. intelligence establishment, the Cold War was a time of certainties: Communism had to be stopped; no cost was too great, no technological obstacle was insurmountable. And, in the case of gaining information on China's missile program, no mountain was too high. A legendary CIA mission - employing some of the world's greatest mountaineers - sought to place a nuclear powered listening post on Nanda Devi and Nanda Kot, two of the highest peaks in the Himalayas, to eavesdrop on Chinese missile tests at Lop Nor. But in planning its Himalayan adventure, the CIA apparently disregarded the dangers and unpredictability of the element at the heart of its certainties - plutonium - and the consequences haunt the mission and its survivors to this day. In 1966, four pounds of plutonium were lost on Nanda Devi, a sacred Himalayan peak at the headwaters of the Ganges, and to this day nobod~ knows where the plutonium is, what it did to the mountaineers and Sherpas on the expedition, or what it n-tight do to the hundreds of millions of people who live and die along India's sacred river. The Himalayan expeditions and their aftermath are chronicled in An Eye on Top of the World by Pete Takeda (Thunder's Mouth Press, New York, 20o6). Takeda, himself a mountaineer, won the cooperation of the US. mission members and journeyed to the Himalayas to retrace the steps of the expedition almost forty years later - and to share with his readers the suffering, terror, and exaltation that high altitude climbers risk their fives to experience. Conceptually, the mission was quite simple. Simple enough to be pitched, cocktail-napkin style, to Air Force Gen. Curtis LeMay by a patriotic mountaineer Barry Bishop at a reception in Washington in 1964. In those pre-satellite, pre-digital days, missiles fitted with simple radio devices and instruments transmitted unencrypted telemetry data on speed and altitude during their test flights to base stations for analysis. Anyone with a line-of-sight radio receiver could listen in. To shield their program from prying electronic ears, China tested its missiles in the western wastes of Lop Nor. The only place for outsiders to access the signal was on top of the Himalayas. So, the CIA took on the project and decided to place a radio receiver in one of the most inhospitable and inaccessible locations on earth, 25,500 feet above sea level, on top of Nanda Devi. Obviously, the station would be unmanned. And, obviously, there was no place to plug it in. Given the immense difficulties of a Himalayan assault, replacing a battery every few months, as had been done with unmanned weather stations during World War II, was unworkable. A solution was found in the radioisotopic thermal generator, or RTG, which had already been proven as a power source for satellites in the US. space program. The RTG exploits a characteristic of bimetallic circuits, the Seebeck effect, that has been known since the 19th century. Passing electricity through a bimetallic circuit can generate cold ... and passing heat through the circuit can generate electricity. If the heat is coming from the natural decay of plutonium 238 (a highly radioactive isotope - with a half life Of 87 years - that can produce surface temperatures of 1050 C in some configurations), a generator that can operate for decades at high power without refueling or service is created. The CIA commissioned the construction of an RTG-powered radio transceiver and recruited a high-level team of six American mountaineers to place it on Nanda Devi. It also reached out to the Indian Intelligence Bureau (IB) for assistance. The Indian IB, suspicious of the Chinese, agreed to cooperate informally with the United States despite the Indian government's official non-aligned policy. Captain M. S. Kohli of the Indian navy, who had become a national hero as the first Indian to reach the top of Everest in 1965, was given the immense task of handling the logistics and recruiting the Indian climbers, porters, and Sherpas needed to push a piece of equipment the size of a decent-sized refrigerator to the top of a Himalayan peak. Kohli wrote his own memoir of the expedition, Spies in the Himalayas, together with Kenneth Conboy, a writer on security affairs affiliated with the Heritage Foundation. Kohli's account differs strikingly in some details from Takeda's in terms of who messed up during the disastrous mission, but the overall narrative is the same.
Re: [Assam] Why this IIM-A graduate sells vegetables?
Umesh, Methinks you have commented without reading the attached article. My reference is to Perhaps the most highly educated green grocer India has ever produced, he has founded a farmers' cooperative 'Samriddhi' which sells vegetables in ice-cooled pushcarts. The private-public partnership venture, launched about a couple of months ago with assistance from the Agriculture Technology Management Agency (ATMA) with just one pushcart, has now placed an order for 50 more, thanks to a collateral-free loan of Rs 50 lakh from the Punjab National Bank. This is commendable. The gentleman has gone from a job seeker to a job creator. More power to him. best regards Rajiv -- Original Message -- Received: Fri, 04 Jul 2008 01:55:54 AM SGT From: umesh sharma [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: assam@assamnet.org, [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [Assam] Why this IIM-A graduate sells vegetables? Bikash-da, I think I did not make it clear. It was a sarcastic take (C-da style) about top MBA graduates using their management skills in selling soaps , cigarettes, etc etc (IIM-A etc's top choice for recruiters are soap and perfume maker MNCs) . Those who get in thru quotas never get these top jobs anyway - quota guys (my idea) end up getting more mature/development oriented jobs - in sugar factories, construction companies and the like. After that is their skill and luck. Umesh Sharma Washington D.C. 1-202-215-4328 [Cell] Ed.M. - International Education Policy Harvard Graduate School of Education, Harvard University, Class of 2005 http://www.uknow.gse.harvard.edu/index.html (Edu info) http://hbswk.hbs.edu/ (Management Info) www.gse.harvard.edu/iep (where the above 2 are used ) http://harvardscience.harvard.edu/ http://jaipurschool.bihu.in/ --- On Thu, 3/7/08, DR BIKASH KUMAR DAS [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: From: DR BIKASH KUMAR DAS [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [Assam] Why this IIM-A graduate sells vegetables? To: assam@assamnet.org, [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Thursday, 3 July, 2008, 3:33 AM Hi Umesh, This is the scenerio of QUOTA system.What they can do more if comes through Quota??? ARjun Singh etc never thought of the aftermath of that. Bikash --- On Wed, 2/7/08, umesh sharma [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:From: umesh sharma [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [Assam] Why this IIM-A graduate sells vegetables? To: assam@assamnet.org, [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Wednesday, 2 July, 2008, 11:13 PM Hah Hah, Just like Coca Cola sells water and IIM-A grads in Hindustan Lever sell soaps and those in ITC sell cigarrets. Umesh Sharma Download prohibited? No problem. CHAT from any browser, without download. Go to http://in.messenger.yahoo.com/webmessengerpromo.php/ ___ assam mailing list assam@assamnet.org http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org __ Not happy with your email address?. Get the one you really want - millions of new email addresses available now at Yahoo! http://uk.docs.yahoo.com/ymail/new.html ___ assam mailing list assam@assamnet.org http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org ___ assam mailing list assam@assamnet.org http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
Re: [Assam] Assam International University-AT edit
Can Assam support another University? We need a world class university, yes, but why build another institution. Why can we not invest in Guwahati University itself? I would propose diverting the Airport Road away from the University campus, combine the resources and infrastructure of the Engineering and Law colleges and you have an enormous area to build a world class university. It needs financial commitments but needs a strong empowered administration free from government interference more. Finally, is there will the students and teachers also share the ambition to build a world class university in Guwahati? Best regards Rajiv -- Original Message -- Received: Sun, 11 May 2008 06:27:08 PM SGT From: Manoj Das [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: A Mailing list for people interested in Assam from around the world assam@assamnet.org Subject: [Assam] Assam International University-AT edit *Assam International University ? Pratap Bora* *T*he recent declaration by the Chief Minister of Assam regarding the Central Minister for Human Resource Development's announcement of establishment of one university of international standard in Assam is a development pregnant with many implications. Universities, as these are generally known today, were born in medieval Europe and were gradually exported to other parts of the world as a part of the European expansion. In India, Calcutta, Bombay and Madras universities were established in 1857 synchronizing with Sydney and Melbourne Universities in 1850 in Australia. However, universities with classical and spiritual ideologies had been first established in India more than 2000 years ago. Two of them, Nalanda and Taksila were known in countries like Tibet, China, Korea, Japan, Thailand, Malayasia, Burma, Ceylon, Cambodia and Indonesia. As these modern cradles of wisdom started growing the universities of Punjab (1882), Banaras (1916), Mysore (1916), Patna (1917) and Osmania (1918) were established in India progressively. Assam joined this quest for sweetness and light with Gauhati University in 1947-48. Today our State has five national level universities and one Indian Institute of Technology. Still there is a very wide void and enough space for one international university in Assam. Twenty first century has already exhibited many uncertainties. The challenges before mankind today are entirely different from those faced by us during the whole period of human existence. Technology has led us to a new era which is yet to acquire a proper nomenclature. Information boom, automation, electronic revolution, biotechnology, nano technology, to name only the familiar few, have created for us a new world, the ways of which are not known to us. The new concept of a modern university is that it is on the one side a huge warehouse of information and on the other an excellent workshop for production of human resource capable of handling this information through knowledge and wisdom for welfare of man and nature. These universities must offer impressive range of academic resources and research facilities. It must have a state of the art library with three to five million volumes with on-line catalog system and database search service. It must subscribe to at least 30,000 periodicals. Its extensive research facilities must have wings of, 1) Biotechnology, 2) High Energy Synchrotron Studies, 3) Nano Fabrication Facility, 4) Centre for Theory and Simulation in Science and Engineering), 5) Centre for Specific Regional Studies. The major fields should be created after most careful consideration. Besides being highly competitive the fields ought to be able to fulfil universal as well as regional needs. These must include, Outer-space Engineering, Agro-biological Engineering, Cellular - Biology, City and Regional Planning, Environmental Engineering, Communication Technology, Consumer Economics, Development Sociology, Food science, Hotel Administration, Human Service Studies, Immunology, Rural Development, Management Science, Neurobiology, Nuclear Science. Atmospheric Science and Performing Art beside basic fields of Science and Humanities. The seed money required for building up infrastructure par excellence for such an institution is approximately Rs 3000 crore. The figure is carefully projected by comparing expenditure on infrastructure of two IITs and two Central Universities of India and that of two leading universities of the world. As suggested by the Chief Minister land required will be from six to eight hundred hectares. Most important is the careful planning of the entire project making through comparative study of the master plans of major European, American, Australian and Asian Universities and keeping in mind the history and heritage of Assam. The university has to be raised at a tranquil, unpolluted locality. Instead of further eroding either forest area or the available land in tribal belt two outstations of
[Assam] Purno Sangma's Son's hands in the till too?
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Re: [Assam] Some Assam rare book/map
Hello Ramda, Thank you for giving me an opportunity to sound off on my hobby horse - history of SE Asia. You mentioned "there seems to be a lot of influence." There were a lot of influences but most went one way - from India to China via Buddhist Scholars or via South East Asia. It is not widely known that for over a 1000 years Sanskrit andIndianculture was widely embraced in South East Asia in a manner very reminiscent of the enthusiasm for Americana that has captured the whole world now. In that advance too the primary motives were growth of profits through trade, and a sense that the globally connected and laissez-faire culture that came with the foreigners was going to raise the standard of life of all who adopted it. Just as there was no military to reinforce the advance of Microsoft, Mickey Mouse or Michael Jackson, so too was the spread of Indianisation. There has been little sense that the advance had been planned or co-ordinated by political powers in the center of innovation, whether in India then, or in the USA now. And the linguistic effects are similar too: Sanskrit, like English now, had advanced as a lingua franca for trade, international business and cultural promotion. [ Nicholas Ostler's Empires of the World - A language history of the world has a full treatment on the spread and influence of Sanskrit in the first millenium] India can take the credit too for the spread of Islam in Indonesia and Malaya since it was the Gujrati merchants who were responsible for converting the Acehnese.best regards Rajiv[EMAIL PROTECTED], assam@assamnet.orgSubject: Re: [Assam] Some Assam rare book/map This is very interesting. Browsing thru any of the "Chinese" supermarkets in the US, you come across "Leeche". We say "lechu". Don't which came from which, but it does seem there was a lot of influences. --Ram On 2/22/07, Rajiv Baruah [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Folks, A small correction about scripts in South East Asia and in India. In Ashoka's time, there were about nine scripts in South East Asia, Indonesia and the Philippines, that were derived from Indian scripts, many thorugh the Pallava script. These SE Asian scripts are Burmese, Lao, Thai,Khmer, Javanese, Balinese, Tagalog (Philippines), Batak ( Sumatra) and Bugis ( Sulawesi). Incidentally, in the Cambodian pillars that carry rules for monastries, Sanskrit in Khmer script one one side is paralleled by Sanskrit in a North Indian script on the other. Interestingly, Sumatra is derived from Samudra, Malaya from a Dravidian word Malai - a hill, Java from Yava - dwipa, Cambodia from Kambuja, Irrawaddy from Iravati ( means - having drinking water, the old name of Ravi river in the Punjab). And soon. Also wonderif anyone knows that the Tibetan script too is derived from Brahmi. From what I have seen ofKorean,it is definately Chinese inorigin and inspiration. The difference is that the Korean have taken the Chinese pictograms and converted theminto a phonetic alphabet,just as the Japanese have done to produce theJapanese "kana". bestregards Rajiv -- Original Message --Received: Wed, 21 Feb 2007 11:16:54 AM SGTFrom: "Rajen Ajanta Barua" [EMAIL PROTECTED]To: "Ram Sarangapani" [EMAIL PROTECTED], "Barua, Rajen" [EMAIL PROTECTED]Cc: assam@assamnet.orgSubject: Re: [Assam] Some Assam rare book/map That is becaue at one time, the Indian culture propogated to almost all the Southeast countries. Buddhism on one hand and Brahminism alongwith thestory of Ramayana propogated to all these countries. Along came the writing and the Devanagari script. In fact the alphabets all these Southeast Asian countries, are based on Devanagari script. Even the Korean language alphabet is based on Devanagari script. BTW there is a version of the Ramayana in all these countries. The bottomline is, all these countires picked up a huge number of Sanskrit words. Thus Rama, Krishna, Arjuna, Hanuman names are very common on most of these countries. Indonesia's one offshore platform is named Arjuana Platform. The capital of Thailand is named Ayudhya, to cite just a few examples. I think if one explore, one wil find many Sanskrit words, besides Bhumiputra, in many of these countries. etc Rajen Braua - Original Message - From: Ram Sarangapani To: Barua, Rajen Cc: assam@assamnet.org Sent: Tuesday, February 20, 2007 12:34 PM Subject: Re: [Assam] Some Assam rare book/map If you notice, all the names of rivers in Assam are mostly Boro words. I think Brahmaputra is the only one which was successfully Sanskritised. That is very interesting. BTW - I came across the word "Bhumiputera" in Thailand. And it means exactly like that - Sons of Soil. Thanks --Ram On 2/20/07, Barua, Rajen [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: The word Brahmaputra was spelled various ways by the Europeans before. They used phonetic spelling the way they heard local people pronounce it. I h
Re: [Assam] Some Assam rare book/map
Folks, A small correction about scripts in South East Asia and in India. In Ashoka's time, there were about nine scripts in South East Asia, Indonesia and the Philippines, that were derived from Indian scripts, many thorugh the Pallava script. These SE Asian scripts are Burmese, Lao, Thai,Khmer, Javanese, Balinese, Tagalog (Philippines), Batak ( Sumatra) and Bugis ( Sulawesi). Incidentally, in the Cambodian pillars that carry rules for monastries, Sanskrit in Khmer script one one side is paralleled by Sanskrit in a North Indian script on the other. Interestingly, Sumatra is derived from Samudra, Malaya from a Dravidian word Malai - a hill, Java from Yava - dwipa, Cambodia from Kambuja, Irrawaddy from Iravati ( means - having drinking water, the old name of Ravi river in the Punjab). And soon. Also wonderif anyone knows that the Tibetan script too is derived from Brahmi. From what I have seen ofKorean,it is definately Chinese inorigin and inspiration. The difference is that the Korean have taken the Chinese pictograms and converted theminto a phonetic alphabet,just as the Japanese have done to produce theJapanese "kana". bestregards Rajiv -- Original Message --Received: Wed, 21 Feb 2007 11:16:54 AM SGTFrom: "Rajen Ajanta Barua" [EMAIL PROTECTED]To: "Ram Sarangapani" [EMAIL PROTECTED], "Barua, Rajen" [EMAIL PROTECTED]Cc: assam@assamnet.orgSubject: Re: [Assam] Some Assam rare book/map That is becaue at one time, the Indian culture propogated to almost all the Southeast countries. Buddhism on one hand and Brahminism alongwith thestory of Ramayana propogated to all these countries. Along came the writing and the Devanagari script. In fact the alphabets all these Southeast Asian countries, are based on Devanagari script. Even the Korean language alphabet is based on Devanagari script. BTW there is a version of the Ramayana in all these countries. The bottomline is, all these countires picked up a huge number of Sanskrit words. Thus Rama, Krishna, Arjuna, Hanuman names are very common on most of these countries. Indonesia's one offshore platform is named Arjuana Platform. The capital of Thailand is named Ayudhya, to cite just a few examples. I think if one explore, one wil find many Sanskrit words, besides Bhumiputra, in many of these countries. etc Rajen Braua - Original Message - From: Ram Sarangapani To: Barua, Rajen Cc: assam@assamnet.org Sent: Tuesday, February 20, 2007 12:34 PM Subject: Re: [Assam] Some Assam rare book/map If you notice, all the names of rivers in Assam are mostly Boro words. I think Brahmaputra is the only one which was successfully Sanskritised. That is very interesting. BTW - I came across the word "Bhumiputera" in Thailand. And it means exactly like that - Sons of Soil. Thanks --Ram On 2/20/07, Barua, Rajen [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: The word Brahmaputra was spelled various ways by the Europeans before. They used phonetic spelling the way they heard local people pronounce it. I have seen spelling as 'Baramputor' and various others. The spelling 'Brahmaputra" is rather a modern spelling to match the Sanskrit word. BTW Brahmaputra as well as the Luhit areSanskritised words. Originally It hadBoro name which is similar to the word Luit (which I forgot at this time). If you notice, all the names of rivers in Assam are mostly Boro words. I think Brahmaputra is the only one which was successfully Sanskritised. Barua From: Ram Sarangapani [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, February 20, 2007 11:36 AM To: Barua, RajenSubject: Re: [Assam] Some Assam rare book/map You are welcome. BTW: Was Brahmaputra spelt like "Bramapootra" before? Did the spelling change after independence? And where exactly did Lohit start and Brahmaputra finish? Did you see Sadiya (Xadiya) is also spelt different --Ram On 2/20/07, Barua, Rajen [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Thanks Ram for the information. I heard about the book but did not know it is available. Barua From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of Ram SarangapaniSent: Monday, February 19, 2007 10:10 PMTo: AssamnetSubject: [Assam] Some Assam rare book/map For those interested in this kind of stuff: I came across this rare book on Assam on eBay. Being rare, the book is quite expensive $1100. What was more interesting was that the way the authors spelt "Bramapootra River" The modern spelling obviously changed somewhere along the line. If you look at the accompanying map (all Copyrights belong to the authors/publishers) closely, you will notice "Lohit", and "Bramapootra" "Assam" I couldn't make out the spellings of other areas -its a bit fuzzy. Anyway, I thought readers may find it interesting. See attached maps/photos/links The Mishmee hills: an Account of a Journey made in an Attempt to Penetrate Thibet from Assam to open new Routes for Commerce.Publisher: London: Henry S. King Co., 1873. Very Rare First Edition Notes: Account of a journey made in 1869"(Yakushi C344) from
Re: [Assam] From NY Times
Dear MM, Sometimes I see Pol Pot in you, sometimes a disspointed communist. But whatever it may be, you seem to have some juicy news that I have not come across before. I refer to "And look who released Rahul from US prison post 9/11" etc. Is Rahul, Rahul Gandhi? Or someone else? Do remember reading about Rahul Gandho ever being in a US prison!! best regards Rajiv -- Original Message --Received: Wed, 20 Sep 2006 12:14:01 AM SGTFrom: "mc mahant" [EMAIL PROTECTED]To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]Cc: assam@assamnet.orgSubject: Re: [Assam] From NY Times a big lie India's commitments to socialism were Till today there is no Panchayati Raj--Ministers/IAS love the spending authority. Nehru mumbled- only once- "We shall develop India in a Socialistic pattern of Society". He and each of his Yes men- (he had no colleague/friend) merely wantedthe votes to come back for more money/poiwer/feel-good equalness with USA and even UK. The solid strength derived literally freefrom USSR -ONGC/Refineries/Steel(Bhilai,Bokaro) Atomic Power, Lignite, Dozens of Thermal Power Staions,Dams,HE powerPlants,Mig/Koraput- were paid with Assam Tea. All the Soviet effort to uplift were never recognized -lest USA felt jealous! Morarjee Desai was CIA agent- he died without clearing his name. And look who released Rahul from US prison post 9/11--Vajpayee! Look at all today's IndianVVIP's families-most are USA citizens! But the most pathetic part is that many Assamnetters are elated with what some columnist (like AT/Sentinel's) about India's PROGRESS Let's all feel GOOD! MM From: Chan Mahanta [EMAIL PROTECTED]To: "Ram Sarangapani" [EMAIL PROTECTED],"Chan Mahanta" [EMAIL PROTECTED]CC: assam@assamnet.orgSubject: Re: [Assam] From NY TimesDate: Tue, 19 Sep 2006 08:23:14 -0500 Ram: for a country that has been stagnating for years on a semi-socialistic setup, *** India was NEVER socialistic or even semi-socialistic. India's slogans about socialism, at best, was a cover for protecting those industries that supported and financed politicians, from competition, for decades. The other result was to discourage and PREVENT entrepreneurship. *** Socialist countries improved basic services for their populations dramatically: in sound primary education, in basic healthcare, basic shelter and eradication of hunger. You look at India's performance on these fronts and you will know what a big lie India's commitments to socialism were. c-da At 10:34 PM -0500 9/18/06, Ram Sarangapani wrote: Thanks C'da for forwarding that. This is indeed a sad scenario. IMHO, the shift in policy decisions at the Center, often hurt the poorest of the country. On the other hand, for a country that has been stagnating for years on a semi-socialistic setup, the early 90s seemed to give her that one shot she needed to play in the big leagues. I think its a difficult thing to balance this opportunity to become an economic power and at the same time improving the lot of the poor. At present, I am reading a book "The End of Poverty" by Prof. Jeffrey Sachs (Columbia). Sachs makes convincing reading as hediscusses poverty, social and economic problems facing India's middle and lower middle classes,and the economic benefits thatothers (IT sector for example) seem tobe enjoying. Nevertheless, this is a very serious problem for India, and needs to find longterm solutions, specially if it wants to play in the big league. It can't be one, if a sizable population is left behind. --Ram --Ram On 9/18/06, Chan Mahanta [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On India's Despairing Farms, a Plague of SuicideBy SOMINI SENGUPTAPublished: September 19, 2006BHADUMARI, India - Here in the center of India, on a gray Wednesdaymorning, a cotton farmer swallowed a bottle of pesticide and felldead at the threshold of his small mud house.The farmer, Anil Kondba Shende, 31, left behind a wife and two smallsons, debts that his family knew about only vaguely and a soggy,ruined 3.5-acre patch of cotton plants that had been his only sourceof income.Whether it was debt, shame or some other privation that drove Mr.Shende to kill himself rests with him alone. But his death was by nomeans an isolated one, and in it lay an alarming reminder of thecrisis facing the Indian farmer.Across the country in desperate pockets like this one, 17,107 farmerscommitted suicide in 2003, the most recent year for which governmentfigures are available. Anecdotal reports suggest that the high ratesare continuing.Though the crisis has been building for years, it presents anincreasingly thorny political challenge for Prime Minister ManmohanSingh and his relations with the United States. High suicide ratesand rural despair helped topple the previous government two years agoand put Mr. Singh in power.Changes brought on by 15 years of economic reforms have opened Indianfarmers to global competition and given them access to expensive andpromising biotechnology, but not necessarily opened the way to higherprices, bank loans,
Re: [Assam] 'Assam' is an Indonesian Dish
Hello, Both Malay and Indonesia speak Malay - so asam means sour in both countries. best Rajiv -- Original Message --Received: Fri, 15 Sep 2006 12:41:28 PM SGTFrom: "Barua25" [EMAIL PROTECTED]To: "Santanoo Medhi" [EMAIL PROTECTED], assam@assamnet.orgSubject: Re: [Assam] 'Assam' is an Indonesian Dish That is interesting. Rajib told that the word Assam means 'tenga' in Indonesia. Do you know any thing about the word meaning in Malaysia? Rajen Barua - Original Message - From: Santanoo Medhi To: assam@assamnet.org Sent: Wednesday, September 13, 2006 6:15 AM Subject: Re: [Assam] 'Assam' is an Indonesian Dish well. this dish is also popular in Singapore and Malaysia. This one tastes like a cross between :tom yam of Thailand"and our ""tenga" I have not eaten the version with prawns as I have seen mostly that they dish with made with fish head. In the menu it is listed as "Assam Fish head curry". it is delicious. santanoo - Original Message - From: Barua25 To: assam@assamnet.org Sent: Wednesday, September 06, 2006 9:47 AM Subject: [Assam] 'Assam' is an Indonesian Dish Do you know that 'Assam' is also a popular Indonesian Dish. Heard it before but did not know what it is. Here is the recipe. Next time you go an Indonesian Restaurant, ask for it. RB RB m I am Raj from Sydney Australia here is a recipe of a Dish which I enjoy when I travel to Bali Indonesia. Hope you like it too. E-mail : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Prawns Udang Goreng Assam (Indonesian) Ingredients 350 gm Prawns with tail, peeled deveined 60 ml Vegetable Oil 80 gm Onions cleaned chopped. 10 gm Garlic fresh chopped 100 ml Tamarind pulp 30 gm Lemon Grass crushed 10 gm Galangal Root or substitute with fresh Tumeric Root 5 nos Lime Leaves or substitute with Curry Leaves 2 nos Star Aniseed 10 gm Chillies Red (long) chopped 1 no Cinnamon quills whole 3 gm Cummin (jeera) seeds 100 gm diced tinned Tomatoes or peeled ripe diced tomatoes Salt Pepper to taste Method: Remove spike but keep the tails on the prawns. Maninate in red chilli powder, salt, half the tamarind pulp, cummin seeds and corn flour quickly deep fry in hot oil. Do not over cook as prawns turn dark. Must have good colour. Keep prawns aside. . Method for sauce: Fry chopped onions in oil with chopped garlic sweat onions well. Add lime leaf, bashed lemon grass stalk, galanga, star anise, cinnamon quill, chopped fresh long red chilli chunky tinned peeled tomato. Cook well till sauce has a coarse cosistency. Season with salt pepper. Serve prawns on hot turmeric rice or steamed jasmine rice top with sauce on prawns rice. Garnish with coriander sprig. home | saroj's cookbook | non-veggies | amul recipes | contributions | features | glossary | tips | mailbag | ask saroj | links You can write to us at [EMAIL PROTECTED] The information contained in this e-mail is intended only for the individual or entity to whom it is addressed. Its contents (including any attachments) may contain confidential and/or privileged information. If you are not an intended recipient you must not use, disclose, disseminate, copy or print its contents. If you receive this e-mail in error, please notify the sender by reply e-mail and delete and destroy the message. ___assam mailing listassam@assamnet.orghttp://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org ___assam mailing listassam@assamnet.orghttp://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org___ assam mailing list assam@assamnet.org http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org ___ assam mailing list assam@assamnet.org http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
Re: [Assam] 'Assam' is an Indonesian Dish
Dear Mr Barua, There is unfortunatlyno link to Oxom - though I dare say the romantics amongst us caneaslily manufacture one.:). ASAM in Malay means sour. So ASAM ( or ASSAM as is now spelled) curry is a sour dish - very similar to our "tenga" though with a generous dollop of fish paste or dried fish in the real thing. Bahasa Indonesia is linguistically the same as Bahasa Melayu or Malay- so asam in Indonesia also means sour. So the dish in question is Fried (Goreng) Prawn(Udang) Sour (Asam). best regards Rajiv -- Original Message --Received: Wed, 06 Sep 2006 09:42:27 AM SGTFrom: "Barua25" [EMAIL PROTECTED]To: assam@assamnet.orgSubject: [Assam] 'Assam' is an Indonesian Dish Do you know that 'Assam' is also a popular Indonesian Dish. Heard it before but did not know what it is. Here is the recipe. Next time you go an Indonesian Restaurant, ask for it. RB RB m I am Raj from Sydney Australia here is a recipe of a Dish which I enjoy when I travel to Bali Indonesia. Hope you like it too. E-mail : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Prawns Udang Goreng Assam (Indonesian) Ingredients 350 gm Prawns with tail, peeled deveined 60 ml Vegetable Oil 80 gm Onions cleaned chopped. 10 gm Garlic fresh chopped 100 ml Tamarind pulp 30 gm Lemon Grass crushed 10 gm Galangal Root or substitute with fresh Tumeric Root 5 nos Lime Leaves or substitute with Curry Leaves 2 nos Star Aniseed 10 gm Chillies Red (long) chopped 1 no Cinnamon quills whole 3 gm Cummin (jeera) seeds 100 gm diced tinned Tomatoes or peeled ripe diced tomatoes Salt Pepper to taste Method: Remove spike but keep the tails on the prawns. Maninate in red chilli powder, salt, half the tamarind pulp, cummin seeds and corn flour quickly deep fry in hot oil. Do not over cook as prawns turn dark. Must have good colour. Keep prawns aside. . Method for sauce: Fry chopped onions in oil with chopped garlic sweat onions well. Add lime leaf, bashed lemon grass stalk, galanga, star anise, cinnamon quill, chopped fresh long red chilli chunky tinned peeled tomato. Cook well till sauce has a coarse cosistency. Season with salt pepper. Serve prawns on hot turmeric rice or steamed jasmine rice top with sauce on prawns rice. Garnish with coriander sprig. home | saroj's cookbook | non-veggies | amul recipes | contributions | features | glossary | tips | mailbag | ask saroj | links You can write to us at [EMAIL PROTECTED] The information contained in this e-mail is intended only for the individual or entity to whom it is addressed. Its contents (including any attachments) may contain confidential and/or privileged information. If you are not an intended recipient you must not use, disclose, disseminate, copy or print its contents. If you receive this e-mail in error, please notify the sender by reply e-mail and delete and destroy the message.___ assam mailing list assam@assamnet.org http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org ___ assam mailing list assam@assamnet.org http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
Re: [Assam] US court retains flawed Hinduism textbooks - HT/Indo-Asian News
Dear Ramda, I saw your highlighted portion ..."textbooks that presented the debunked Aryan Migration Theory as fact". I thougt Aryan Migration is a widely accepted theory ...Is this controversial? Has it been debunked? I seem to completely behing the curve on this topic. best regards Rajiv -- Original Message --Received: Tue, 05 Sep 2006 10:21:42 PM SGTFrom: "Ram Sarangapani" [EMAIL PROTECTED]To: AssamNet assam@assamnet.orgSubject: [Assam] US court retains flawed Hinduism textbooks - HT/Indo-Asian News This is interesting. Highlights are mine. ___ A California court has accepted a Hindu body's contention that some textbooks with a flawed presentation of Hinduism were approved improperly, but refused to throw them out of schools for now. A flawed approval process had resulted in textbooks that presented the debunked Aryan Migration Theory as fact, misrepresented caste as central to Hinduism and left the impression that Hinduism devalued the role of women, the Hindu American Foundation (HAF) said in a press release. The California Superior Court last week upheld HAF's claim that the state School Board of Education (SBE) had followed a flawed and illegal approval process for sixth grade textbooks. But the court denied its demand that SBE be required to throw out the currently approved textbooks and revisit the entire textbook adoption process, it said. In his ruling, Judge Patrick Marlette wrote the California SBE has been conducting its textbook approval process under invalid 'underground regulations', but said the rejection of textbooks would be disruptive not only to affected sixth graders, but potentially every California public school student using any and every textbooks. So while the process followed in adopting the contentious Hinduism sections, and all recently approved textbooks in California, was illegal—as HAF had argued—the judge apparently decided against a sweeping ruling that could open the door to other lawsuits discarding textbooks in the most populous state in the US, the release said. As the immediate goal of revising textbooks was unmet, HAF attorneys are considering their options for an appeal to force revisions to the Hinduism section in the contested textbooks, it said. ___ assam mailing list assam@assamnet.org http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org ___ assam mailing list assam@assamnet.org http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
Re: [Assam] About 'A Bowstring Winter'
Dear Mr. Barua, "Was there any other Assamese writer whose original English novel been published by any National/International publishers like Penguin etc. " Well there is Mitra Phukan - her Collector's Wife is possbily the first of the "post Salman Rushdie"" generation. Ofcourse, there are a number older Assamese writers in English - Arup Kumar Dutta's magnificient children's books being the most memorable. And I remember Satyen Barkataki's "Escapades of a Magistrate" and a book of folk tales in my father's bookshelf. Attached below is a profile of Mitra Phukan written by Utpal Borpujari in the Deccan Herald. A google search under Mitra Phukan will turn up dozens of references, book reviews etc.- Stories to be told from North East Utpal Borpujari interviews Mitra Phukan, author of ‘The collector’s wife,’ who believes that regional works can become known universally, by English translations. The collector’s wife, the first novel to roll out under the Zubaan-Penguin label after the recent tie-up between the two publishing houses, is an important book. It is the first English novel written by a writer from North-East India to be published by a major publishing house. It deals with the subject - the effect of continuing violence on the day to day life of people. And, it opens up for the so-called ‘mainstream’ Indian book lover a hitherto unknown world of original writing in English from a region which has excellent literary traditions. Naturally, the novel’s author Mitra Phukan, also a classical singer of repute from Assam, is elated. But more than personal elation, it is a sense of community achievement that is making her happy- that the publication of her original English novel will hopefully start a trend of publishing houses looking at more and more English writings from a region where the language has firm roots thanks to a long history of excellent Missionary educational institutions. “I think we are going to see more and more of original English fiction writing from the North-East getting published now. Mine is perhaps the first original English writing from the region to be published by a prominent publishing house,” she says. “Of course, there have been self publications as well as books from local publishing houses in English, but they have suffered from the lack of professional editing and distribution facilities. “There are so many stories to be told from the North East, so I believe we will see more and more original English writing getting published through big publishing houses now,” she adds. Her novel, maybe reflecting her own experiences as a woman from a highly-respected family in a trouble-torn region “where you don’t know where the next bomb will explode,” has a female protagonist, the college teacher wife of a district collector who has access to “both sides” of the divide- the officialdom and the society at large- at the centre stage. On the surface, she leads a comfortable life, but there is much inner turmoil. And compounding that is the disturbances affecting life all around. Set in the backdrop of the epochal students’ agitation of the 1970s and 1980s and the insurgency spawned from there, the novel is a personal tale of a woman gripped by events that has altered life at large in Assam, be it illegal migration of Bangladeshis, political instability, extortions and the resulting mistrust and bitterness among people. “I don’t think it is fair to burden the writers with the view that a writer must show the society the way. A writer must be realistic and true to his vision, whatever that may be, but it is not fair to expect that of all the people that make up the society, the writer be called upon to show the way forward,” she says. Phukan is also a strong advocate of getting regional literature translated into English and other languages. She herself is deeply involved in trying to get writing in various languages from the North-East translated into English, perturbed particularly over the fact that though Assam has had a strong literary tradition, very few of its writers are known outside the state. -- Original Message --Received: Thu, 31 Aug 2006 11:52:16 AM SGTFrom: "Barua25" [EMAIL PROTECTED]To: "utpal borpujari" [EMAIL PROTECTED], assam@assamnet.orgSubject: Re: [Assam] About 'A Bowstring Winter' Dear Borpujari; Thank you for sharing the information. I am glad to see that you have written an article and published it in the Deccan Herald.Congratulations to you. We need to expose our creative writers the way you are doing. Regarding Dhruba Hazarika's novel, please let me know if there had been any serious literary review in a any paper or magazine in Assam. If there had been, I am surprised to see that nothing filtered in to the net yet. Was there any other Assamese writer whose original English novel been
[Assam] A Bowstring Winter - By Dhruba Hazarika
Hello All, I heard of "A Bowstring Winter"during my holiday in Shillong last week. I mm told captures the Shillong of the 70's very accurately - I have not had the chance to read it as yet. Dhruba and his sibling were our heroes in those days, especially his brother who was a black belt in Karate - a sixth dan I was told by another kid from their neighbourhood - so that was huge. I am told he is still as fit as ever, which I guess he has to be being the commandant of the India Reserve Batallion in Dibrugarh. A book review is attached. A Bowstring WinterDhruba Hazarika.Penguin. Pages 343. Rs 295. Dhruba Hazarika’s realistic novel is set against the lush-green hills and the mist-laden mountains of Shillong. The pristine silence of the valley suspended in time and space stands in direct contract with violence and bloodshed in the work. The story deals with one winter, the book itself being divided under the headings November, December and January. John Dkhan, a teacher of political science at St Edmund’s College, enters into a dangerous friendship with James Kharlukhi and his gang. These gangsters had connections with the bookies and made money out of manipulating the number of arrows. These occasions never went unscathed without incidents of violence and killing. Loneliness is inherent in each of the characters. Without family and friends, John Dkhan craves nostalgically for a world that now existed only in his mind. James Kharlukhi, an orphan and a philanderer, makes dirty money and spends his entire life playing with dangers. Dor Kharkonger, who finds poetry in the bow, fails to relate to a similar situation in his marriage. Friendship is what knitted James and his companions together: "It was the code of friendship, like a bowstring: tight, like an arrow: straight." The blind faith and loyalty to James lands all of them into trouble. John Dkhan walked tightrope between friendship and love, guilt and justification. He now finds himself a stealthy lover, a hypocrite friend and a coward with no guts to face the truth. Was it James’ personality that swamped his or was it Jemmifer, the woman he fell for? The mysterious hands of destiny work their way unexpected on human beings. One can try to be what one can be and if one is pulled away from it by other things, then that is the way it was meant to be. John Dkhan had the least premonition when he first met James that instead of holding pen and paper, he would pick up a knife. There is an unending yearning for love. John was looking for love, but instead enters a circle of violence over which he had no control. Life at the Kaizang was a feast all the way until love came in, but finally when it comes, it feasted on all of them. Almost all the characters are swayed by a ruling passion. James Kharlukhi has a passion for danger, Charles has it for hatred, Dor Kharkonger for friendship and John’s for his woman. Passion leads all of them into serious consequences. The book is on the whole an amalgam of human instincts and emotions. The context of the work makes the use of swear words necessary. The narrative is racy and the use of vernacular makes it even more charming to read. AND ANOTHER A new novel for Shillong lovers - A Bowstring Winter by Dhruba Hazarika A Bowstring Winter by Dhruba Hazarika. A novel set in Shillong by: Dev Kumar Vasudevan on May 18 2006 11:16AM in Books comments rss: Memories of Shillong: Hills, clouds, rain, mist, cold, plums, pineapples, oranges, good music, guitars, good clothes, faded jeans, pretty girls, the Khasis, Garos, Jaintias, Assamese, Bengalis, Army, Assam Rifles, Geological Survey of India, Laitumukhrah, Nongrim Hills, Nongthymmai, Spread Eagle Falls, Laitkor peak, Happy Valley, Burra Bazar, Police Bazar, State Central Library, Rock concerts in Laban, Dhankheti, St. Edmund's College, Brother Pinto and his Alsatian.For Shillong lovers and Shillong watchers (and for book lovers too). A new novel set in Shillong. Just came to know about it from the Penguin India website.A Bowstring Winterby Dhruba Hazarika. Dhruba (b. 1956, Shillong) is a product of St. Edmund's College Shillong and of Guwahati University. He has won the Katha award for creative writing in English in 1996.Looking forward to getting a copy of this book. Will send a recommendation to my online bookshop. ___ assam mailing list assam@assamnet.org http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
Re: [Assam] An evening in Hyde Park
Rajib, There is thiscorner of the world -disneyland with death penalty I call it, which was my abode for about 2 years. If there was one place wherethe might of the"danda" successfully turneda tropical vice pit intofirstworld orderliness - it is Singapore. And so successful was thepower of the "danda" thatwell nigh the entire populace turned into duty bound salarymen, always keeping to the straight and narrow. But globalisation came, China became the factory of the world and the old certainities of Singapore, that elbow grease and a 60 hour week will continue to put dinner on Singapore's table vanished. Theguv-ment wanted "knowledge industries". But how do you get the creative spark to kick start theseknowledge industries. Aha - some bright spark in the Guv-ment said, we must now permit table top dancing and encourage free debate (S'pore style). And so the Speakers Corner was born. It is behind a police station where you have to take a permit in advance before you talk. In my two years there, I did not see a soul talk here. And I cross this place every day, sometimes twice a day, on my way home or to a coffee from office. Let me give credit where credit is due- Singapore is a wonderful place to raise kids, play golf and, and let me think a bit more. But it is so mind numbinly boring. best Rajiv -- Original Message --Received: Wed, 21 Jun 2006 10:51:53 AM SGTFrom: Rajib Das [EMAIL PROTECTED]To: assam@assamnet.orgSubject: [Assam] An evening in Hyde Park In the middle of a tiring business trip around the world I found myself in London - trying to be a tourist on a very hot Sunday a couple of weeks back. The very unimaginative stories around some really great monuments added to the ennui. I landed up around the Speaker's Corner in Hyde Park and was planning to take the train from around there to my hotel. Which is when I saw the crowds milling around folks doing their speeches. It was a most enthralling experience. I found myself in the middle of a debate between a full bearded mullah (perhaps of Arab descent) with a cockney accent and a white punk with spiked hair about creationism and evolution. Into that mix came a wide variety of people across the length of 2 hours I was there. There were many African Muslims and Pakistanis (perhaps a few Bangladeshis too) looking on with admiration at the mullah who was speaking perfect English and holding his ground. There was a black Brit - perhaps an African - that shouted profanities at the mullah. There was this very quiet white liberal woman who was politically very correct and tried reasoning with the Mullah that perhaps evolution can be a part of God's design. And while the mullah (as also the punk) quoted philosophers and scientists about intricacies of the debate, I figured the Mullah's logic was simple - that before there was any living thing, there must have been something that must independently and absolutely exist. Ipso facto there has to be a God and but one absolute God and therefore there has to be just one word (or book) from this one God. Pretty simplistic argument. The guy was aggressive, didn't listen to any other point of view and used a condescending tone when replying to someone else. My observation - no wonder the human bombers on the West are coming from the West itself. Taking courage from this Mullah, a Pakistani middle aged man started talking about many Hindus having converted to Islam till I reminded him how Spain converted back from Islam to Christianity. When I broke away from this group, I found quite a few people accosting a Jewish American and telling him how bad George Bush is and why he is an Israeli and not an American. All along this somewhat crazy Indian (not me :-)) was trying to tell him how he knew more about America than the American - never mind the fact that he had never lived in America for a long period. There were other speeches about crazy topics and using language that cannot be mentioned here. As I wound my way back around 10 when the sun was setting, I was exihilarated and energized by the experience. Is there any other physical place in the world that this kind of thing happens? __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com ___ assam mailing list assam@assamnet.org http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org ___ assam mailing list assam@assamnet.org http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
Re: [Assam] maniki-madhuri-joha etc.
Maniki - Madhuri Joha is available but is no longer the real thing. The abundance of artificial fertilizers, especially urea, does make the crop grow lush, but the depleting trace elements in our soil ( which is hidden by the abundant application of the same nitrogenous based fertilizer) means that the flavour, the aroma and the taste is completely absent. But more surprising is the absence of the indigenous lemons - I did not find the juicy"kazi" nemu and or the aromatic "gol" nemu in the Guwahati market this winter. Just that poor imitation of a "nemu" from north India - "gol" to look at but with neighter aroma nor juice. Having said that, this time round, I found neighter a bullock cart nor a "nongola" [ those barriers across a property which comprises of three or four banboo poles slung across two posts] this time around in our ancesteral village near Titabor. Welcome to the 21st century where the whole world is being homogenised to the lowest common denominator.rgds Rajiv -- Original Message --Received: Wed, 08 Mar 2006 05:45:42 AM SGTFrom: "Himendra Thakur" [EMAIL PROTECTED]To: "Ankur Bora" [EMAIL PROTECTED]Cc: assam@assamnet.org, Ginima Barua [EMAIL PROTECTED]Subject: [Assam] maniki-madhuri-joha My dear Ankur, Thank you very much! So, komal saul is still available in Assam! That's a very comforting news! Now, can we have it here in the USA in our next Bihu? What about "maniki-madhuri-joha"? Please find out about it. I am sure your friends in the Assam Agricultural University will be able to help, if not, they ought to! I am sure they can find some seeds, and multiply them, and make a huge field of maniki-madhuri-joha, .. and you will have the aroma from miles away! With love to everybody, Himendra - Original Message - From: Ankur Bora To: Himendra Thakur ; Shantikam Hazarika ; Dilip/Dil Deka ; Alpana B. Sarangapani Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ; assam@assamnet.org Sent: Tuesday, March 07, 2006 4:10 PM Subject: Re: [Assam] komal saul, doi and gur And to add few lines to your story. I heard komal saul was the staple food of Indian soldiers fighting in Siachen , located in the peak of Himalaya ,the highest battle field of the world. In the bitter cold night , surrounded by frosty ice and snow , they could not use fire to cook food.They were survivng on Komal saul so convenient to use because they just needed to soak in water. This may be an "icing" to the story. Ankur Dalls , TexasHimendra Thakur [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: To: Ms Alpana Sarangapani Mr. Shantikam Hazarika Mr. Dilip Deka Dear Alpana, Shantikam and Dilip, Many thanks for your encouragement. When Shantikam mentioned the name of Tarun Hazarika, an avalanche of memories came to my mind --- the stories of Major Tarun Hazarika (and some of the stories of his younger brother Bhaimon) will sparkle as jewels in our mind --- they were so lively, vivacious , full of verve, full of positive humor in real life, at the same time complimentary to people without hurting anybody --- a true representation of the cheerful life-force of the Assamese people ! I have second-hand information about a few episodes that Ill like to share, just for the fun. If I make any mistake, I ask forgiveness, and I request people to send the correction. Major Tarun Hazarika was senior to me by several years. We used to call him dada in private, and Sir in public. I met him only a few times. Before I left for the USA, I met him in a wedding party, and told him in a very low voice: Sir, I have a few stories of yours that Ill like to get verified. With a typically naughty smile, he hushed to me, Not here, not in front of so many people! Maybe some time later! Unfortunately, I never met him again. Major Tarun Hazarika was very fond of dressing up in different costumes of our tribal brothers. Suddenly, he would arrive at a high-power meeting of the Governor and the Army Generals in a full-fledged Naga Gaonburha costume or an Apatani Chief costume. In addition to the fun and frolic, he drove the point that we are very fond of our tribal brothers, who must be respected beyond all protocols and regulations. He would also pose as a Punjabi Army officer, a South Indian bureaucrat, or a Sikh businessman --- there would be surprise after surprise! I have a feeling that he was trying to break all the barriers between people. His love for all kind of costumes was so unpredictable that some of his relatives and friends would ponder: Why should he come to an Assamese wedding party in a full military uniform? While driving to a wedding in an Assamese family in a village somewhere near Mangaldoi, he saw two Assamese villagers walking on the roadside, carrying a bhar (a horizontal bamboo shaft on the shoulder, stabilized by one hand) with two loads hanging at two ends, bouncing in a rhyme as the carriers were walking. Seeing that one of the load was a tekeli (earthen pitcher) and the other load was a pachi ( a basket), Major Hazarika stopped
[Assam] Bangalore Squeezes India's Low-Skill Hinterland - What can Assam Do?
Does this means that there are thousands, well hundreds of jobs for our educated but not gainfully employed?? Bangalore Squeezes India's Low-Skill Hinterland By Andy Mukherjee Feb. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Windfall gains are seldom an unalloyed blessing for an economy, and very often a curse. Economists call it the ``Dutch Disease,'' a reference to the deindustrialization that took place in the Netherlands after natural gas was discovered in the North Sea in the 1960s. A variant of the disease -- the ``Bangalore Bug'' -- now threatens India, Kalpana Kochchar and other researchers at the International Monetary Fund warn in a new study. The bug may spread as the current surge in India's software and call-center industries pushes up the price of skilled workers to a point where textile, furniture or footwear makers, which have small profit margins, can't find supervisors and managers. If that prevents labor-intensive manufacturing from expanding, employment may suffer because growth in India's services has created few jobs and too many of the country's workers are still eking out a living from farmland. ``The advanced skill-intensive part of the Indian economy may be bidding up scarce skills in such a way as to slow the growth of labor-intensive manufacture and the exit of surplus labor from agriculture,'' the study says. The fast-growing western and southern Indian states of Karnataka (of which Bangalore is the capital), Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh are narrowing the skills -- and wage -- gap with rich nations. These states, whose population growth has already slowed because of rising literacy and falling fertility, are luring away skilled workers from their poorer northern rivals. This may be most detrimental to Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, which are often referred to as the four ``sick'' states of the country. Laggards As much as 60 percent of India's population increase by 2051 is expected to take place in these northern and central Indian states, which are laggards in economic growth and on most social indicators. For instance in Bihar, a state more populous than Germany, two out of three women can't read or write. In Uttar Pradesh, whose population exceeds the U.K., France and Spain put together, seven out of 10 children don't receive full immunization. In these states, there's little scope for skills-based industries to take root because the infrastructure needed to support them -- assured industrial power, good roads and law and order -- are largely absent. These landlocked states, already at a disadvantage because of their distance from ports, are most at risk from the Bangalore Bug because the current pace of 15 percent to 20 percent annual inflation in skilled workers' pay makes it difficult for them to hire and retain technicians and managers. Containing the Bug That, in turn, undermines their only chance to escape poverty by replicating Chinese-style, large-scale, labor- intensive manufacturing. India's service industries employ about 30 percent of the nation's workers, a figure that has barely moved in 10 years. That stagnation has occurred even as the share of banking, telecommunications, software, tourism, transportation, health, education, entertainment and trade has grown to more than half of the $693 billion economy, compensating for the full decline in agriculture, which shrank to 20 percent of gross domestic product in 2005, from 31 percent in 1991. The share of manufacturing has been little changed at 16 percent of GDP. Stifling Bangalore's growth is not the solution to containing the bug. A much better way would be to ease the emerging skilled-worker shortage by freeing higher education from the clutches of state controls. World-Class Engineers If the supply of technical and managerial manpower keeps pace with the burgeoning demand, the price for skilled labor will remain within reach of what laggard states can afford to pay to create globally competitive labor-intensive factories. ``From a policy perspective, the irony is that in order to promote unskilled labor-intensive activities in the future, a great deal of attention may need to be paid to fostering the supply of skilled labor,'' Kochchar and her colleagues conclude. India's success in skill-based industries has been an unintended outcome of state policy. The windfall accrued because, soon after independence in 1947, Soviet-inspired economic planners decided to make in state- owned factories all the heavy equipment that most other poor countries with surplus labor might have preferred to import. The emphasis, therefore, was on producing world-class engineers even at the cost of scrimping on blackboards in village schools. In 2000, India spent 86 percent of per capita gross domestic product on university training of each student. It allocated 14 percent to primary schooling. By contrast,
Re: [Assam] Fwd: ULFA
Dear Mr. Das, I am very glad that a cultural center is being constructed in Delhi. I could help you with some funding for the same by tapping into the Assamese network here in Hong Kong. I will need some details - can you give me a telephone number I can call you in. Alternatively, you could let me know here on the net some more details of the cultural center i.e where it is being built, at what stage of contruction is it in, what is the total budget, how much have you collected, and how much do you need. best regards Rajiv Baruah -- Original Message --Received: Wed, 01 Feb 2006 07:10:29 PM SGTFrom: Manoj Das [EMAIL PROTECTED]To: assam@assamnet.orgSubject: [Assam] Fwd: ULFA -- Forwarded message -- From: Manoj Das [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Wed, 1 Feb 2006 16:38:10 +0530 Subject: Re: ULFA To: sumita sarma [EMAIL PROTECTED] Ditto Sumita. Thanks for putting across the thoughts of the new generation candidly. We are building a cultural centre "Srimanta Sankaradeva Bhawan" at New Delhi. It's a 1 sqft centre which will house a dance academy for Satriya, Bihu and other folk dances of Assam. A school for short term course on Assamese and other languages of Assam, 250 seater auditorium, conference hall, food court, 14 guest rooms-dormitories, art gallery etc. This will be the hub of our culture in Delhi. We need funds to complete the centre. Would like to know if any NRA will be interested in contributing. We have FCRA registration and ECS facility. Thanks Manoj Das, GS Assam Association, Delhi On 1 Feb 2006 08:10:54 -, sumita sarma [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I dont think it is justified to comment (trivially) about the ULFA and its activities by us people who stay outside Assam. The 'elite' Assamese staying mostly in the USA, UK etc. should instead focus their energy to set up industries or other job and revenue generating enterprises in Assam. Many commendable projects have already been in operation in Assam. But we need a lot more, whereby our educated youth can engage in gainful employment in their home state itself. Also lets try to be more united and genuinely help fellow assamese. Lets come out of our diplomatic ways and of living and our spiteful thoughts and do away with 'bhaal hoise' and 'bhaal lagise' and try to think and act in solid ways to improve our motherland. Let us strive to make assamese community a one to be reckoned with respect in the global civilisation. Sumita Sarma -- Manoj Kumar Das B 109 Gr Floor Rear Sarvodaya Enclave New Delhi 110017 India Tel: 91 11 26533824 Telefax: 91 11 26533829 Hand Phone: 91 9312650558 -- Manoj Kumar Das B 109 Gr Floor Rear Sarvodaya Enclave New Delhi 110017 India Tel: 91 11 26533824 Telefax: 91 11 26533829 Hand Phone: 91 9312650558 ___ assam mailing list assam@assamnet.org http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org ___ assam mailing list assam@assamnet.org http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
Re: [Assam] Fwd: ULFA
Apologies Mr. Das, the earlier mail was fopr your personal mail box only. best regards Rajiv ___ assam mailing list assam@assamnet.org http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
Re: [Assam] Saint Valentine
Oh no .another discombobulatingSINGLE issue partisan best -- Original Message --Received: Fri, 27 Jan 2006 12:41:03 PM SGTFrom: "Himendra Thakur" [EMAIL PROTECTED]To: assam@assamnet.orgCc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]Subject: [Assam] Saint Valentine MISUNDERSTANDING St. VALENTINES DAY An article by Himendra Thakur [EMAIL PROTECTED] Boston, Massachusetts, USA It is rather unfortunate that the Saint Valentines Day is misunderstood in many parts of India as something western, something sensual, something alien to the idea of austerity, an essential trait in Indian heritage. Various Hindu activist groups have adopted tough plans to attack any celebration of St. Valentines Day in India. The distortion of the real meaning of St. Valentines Day was possibly initiated by an irresponsible Bollywood movie star who thrived in Indian movie business of copying everything from America (like they copied the name Hollywood just as a token of their intellectual bankruptcy.) They twisted the St. Valentines Day into a celebration of sensuality. The first victims were adolescents, highly vulnerable to anything new. Some multinational companies (MNC) of India too eager to sell their products are now spending millions of their advertisement dollars to promote Valentines Day as a free-sex disco party targeted to the rising tempo of sensuality among adolescents. Even the government tourism departments appear to be caught in the same business by sponsoring love-parks to increase their profit dollars, ironically required by the new policy of running the Indian government as a commercial enterprise. The idea behind these commercial disco parties where MNCs peddle free-sex sensuality to celebrate Valentines Day is exactly what Saint Valentine tried to stop 1737 years ago. He was beaten and beheaded on February 14, 269 AD under the orders of Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius Claudius Gothicus, also known as Claudius II. Forgetting the stoic teachings of his ancestor Marcus Aurelius (121-180 AD), Emperor Claudius II (214-270 AD) placed himself in a big hurry to expand his empire. He needed a large army. He allured new recruits with wine-women-wealth, which they would be able to loot in the occupied territories. Thinking that unmarried young men would make better soldiers, the Emperor banned all marriages. You want women? You want sex? Join my party youll get all appear to be a modern disco-party equivalent of what was said by Emperors recruiters 1737 years ago. An old Christian monk named Valentine (he was not declared as a Saint at that time) decided to work against the Emperors ban on marriage. His argument was simple: young people would give their lives to defend their motherland. But, just to fulfill Emperors craving to subdue other countries, they would not give up plans of their lives which were much more precious than wine-women-wealth. Joy did not depend upon the quantity of wine consumed. Happiness could not be purchased with ill-gotten wealth. Love was much superior to debauched sexual sensuality. Valentine secretly solemnized the marriages of those young couple who wanted to marry in violation of Emperors orders. Marriage was love culminated into commitment: and a set of promises : that we would be together, taking care of each other till death do us part. Very soon Valentine was caught by the Roman soldiers. He was thrown into the dungeon. When he was waiting for his death, the young couples married by him used to come to see him, and cry. Apparently, the jailer helped these young people to see him. They were consoled and cheered by the doomed man. They were surprised that he was happily ready to die for the truth. The jailers daughter took care of the old man. When the last day came and soldiers dragged him away to the chopping block, he quickly scrawled a note on a crumbled piece of paper and gave it to the jailers daughter From your Valentine! That was the first Valentine Card. The date was February 14, 269 AD. No wonder in America today fathers give Valentine Cards to their daughters. Brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles give Valentine Cards to each other. The idea is to uphold pure love as the highest treasure of humankind. As the bedrock of a family, the institution of marriage is the climax of love and commitment between a man and a woman. The institution of marriage, and not free-sex sensuality, was the strong undertone of St. Valentines martyrdom. Instead of disco parties, these MNCs could have organized mass marriage of young couples in India without pomp and show and dowry on the Valentines Day and call it Bahu Divas (Daughter-in-laws Day) as a tribute to real family values. In fact, Antarjyoti a social organization in India, has been celebrating St. Valentines Day every year since 2004 by holding Bahu Divas as a mark of respect to the institution of marriage. By felicitating a daughter-in-law as grihalaxmi (wealth of the family), they uphold the value of
Re: [Assam] Top Ten bestsellers from the NorthEast
a. That does bring back good memories. But I am afraid that entire corner was demolished quite some time ago, in the 80s in fact. MBD then shifted to a half build concrete shell in GS road, and the shop wasn't the same anymore. there was an MBD in the neighbourhood of our college in Delhi - also mentioned clearly was that it was a branch of the MBD in Guwahati and Shillong. Brought a little bit of cheer to a then very home sick boy. rgds -- Original Message --Received: Wed, 11 Jan 2006 02:13:16 PM SGTFrom: Rajib Das [EMAIL PROTECTED]To: Ram Sarangapani [EMAIL PROTECTED], ASSAMNET assam@assamnet.orgSubject: Re: [Assam] Top Ten bestsellers from the NorthEast Any one knows whether the one in Shillong still stands at the Police Bazar corner? This was the haunt for many afternoons reading up 10 to 15 cowboy and war comics and then only deciding to buy one, if at all. --- Ram Sarangapani [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: The Modern Book Depot, Guwahati has released the top 10 NE book list (including some new releases). Its great to see MBD issue such releases. I wish they also included the number of copies sold (like the NYT). BTW: A bit of trivia: What does the dagger (looks like a + sign) besides a book in the NYT bestseller list signify? ** *NE TOP TEN* *Year-end Northeast India Books Bestseller list* 1. Nirmal Nibedon: North East India The Ethnic Explosion (Lancers) Rs 440 2. Stirn Ham: The Seven Sisters of India (Prestel) Rs 3,600 3. Ajmal: Handbook of Medicinal Aromatic Plants of North-east India (Spectrum) Rs 2,100 4. Sanjoy Hazarika: Strangers of the Mist (Penguin) Rs 350 5. Girin Phukon (Ed): Inter-ethnic Conflict in Northeast India (South Asian) Rs 395 6. Jaideep Saikia: Islamist Militancy in Northeast India (Vision) Rs 395 7. SN Sharma: Herbal Flora of Assam North-Eastern India (Spectrum) Rs 880 8. Niru Hazarika: Ethnic Autonomy question in N.E. India (Spectrum) Rs 480 9. Chandra Bhushan: Terrorism and Separation in North-East India (Kalpaz) Rs 690 10. H.K.Barpujari: Northeast India Problems, Policies and Prospects (Spectrum) Rs 380 *Just Released *A.S. Shimray: Let Freedom Ring Story of Naga Nationalism (Promilla) Rs 650 J.R. Mukherjee: An Insider's Experience of Insurgency in India's North-East [Anthem] Rs 395 *Source: The Modern Book Depot, Guwahati, Shillong, New Delhi * ___ assam mailing list assam@assamnet.org http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com ___ assam mailing list assam@assamnet.org http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org ___ assam mailing list assam@assamnet.org http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
[Assam] Replacement for IMDT - News Item on Sentinel
The Sentinal, Guwahati has reported that there is a move to amend the Foreigners Act. It appears that the amendment proposal has been submitted to the Group of Ministers by Abdul Muhib Mazumdar and that the same has already been approved by the state government and the Congress high command. Can someone get their hands on a copy of the proposal? Can someone share a copy of the Supreme Court judgement on IMDT. If the proposal is loaded against the natural citizens of the country as I suspect it will be given the antecedents of the author, we, NRAs should be at the forefront of a massive campaign to highlight the true facts to our countrymen. This is the meaningful role that we have been searching for. best regards ___ assam mailing list assam@assamnet.org http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
[Assam] Obsessions etc. with attached article
All, An excellent article from Udayan Misra on how limited an interaction the plainsmen had with the hill people. Has anyone read the Siddhartha Deb's The Point of Return? A very poignant novel about memories, migration, belonging,being a stranger in one's own birthplace. As a (past) resident of Shillong, it had a very powerful impact in me. To top it all, the house where Siddhartha grew up and our was separated by all of a kilometer, we would have gone to the same school and had the same interests - the State Central Library, egg rolls, and the rock concerts. In fact, I recognise him from his photograph in the back cover of the book. I so wish now that I had stepped out from my comfort zone of my group of (Oxomiya) friends and spoken with him. Attached Article On reaching out to other cultures NORTH-EAST PERSPECTIVE Udayan Misra R ecently I had the opportunity of going through a PhD dissertation on the Khasi poet Soso Tham by Kynpham Singh Nongkynrih. It was a highly satisfying piece of work accompanied by some excellent translations into English of Soso Tham’s poetry. Soso Tham’s biographer, Hughlet Wazri, tells us that the poet was born in Sohra near Cherrapunji in 1873 to a poor family which had been newly converted to Christianity. He studied upto class six in Sohra in a missionary school, resisted attempts to be put into a theological college, and then moved on to Shillong where he eventually became a teacher of Khasi in the Shillong Government High School. He served as a teacher for 26 long years before retiring from service in 1931. A self-taught poet, he took pains to understand the rules of poetry and finally wrote two volumes of poems entitled Ka Duitara Ksiar ( The Golden Harp, 1925) and Ki Sngi Ba Rim U Hynniew Trep ( The Olden Days of U Hynniew Trep, 1936). Both these works are heavily laden with the tradition and culture of the Khasi people and expresses Soso Tham’s deep love for them and his faith in their future. Throughout his poetry he engages himself deeply with the customs and traditions of his forefathers, the Hynniew Trep people who were the ancestors of the seven Khasi sub-tribes. Describing how the socio-economic and political systems as well as the religious beliefs of the people were forged by the uncles and the fathers of U Hynniewtrep on the hearth of the ‘Mother’s House’ , Soso Tham writes: Since the days ancient and lost / There it rests their kinship their wealth; Then they raised their Rites their Rituals / There they founded their religion; It was the Fire in the Hearth, / Then they raised their politics. The poet continuously strives to go into the mythic past and spiritual life of his people and laments that they were now far removed from their traditional roots: Enlightenment we seek around the world; That of the Land’s we know but not. Expressing deep faith in the future of his people, Soso Tham says: Though you may be small and week / Quietly if you have to weep; Who will say you cannot claim, / Glory and a name. (all the translations by KS Nongkynrih) Reading the thesis on Soso Tham by Nongkynrih opened up a totally new world of perception and experience for me. Soso Tham’s lyricism, his world view, his innate love for his people and his faith in their future have all made Soso Tham the father figure of Khasi poetry. I wondered why I had not read anything by this poet before. When we were in college in Shillong in the mid-sixties we had vaguely heard of a Khasi poet by that name. Shillong was then still the capital of Assam and the first stirrings of the Hill State movement were taking place. When I look back on those days now I am stuck by the ignorance, indifference and prejudice that marked the relationship between the plains people and the hill men. The Assamese were then running the Government and were too obsessed with their language and culture to make any effort to relate themselves meaningfully with the history, tradition and culture of the local Khasi and Jaintia people. There were Government holidays to mark the Assamese festivals and the anniversaries of the Assamese saints. But the Assam Government had never thought it necessary to declare a holiday, for instance, on the birthday of a martyr as great as U Tirot Singh of the Khasis or U Kiang Nongbah of the Jaintias. I can never recall any Government function being held to honour Khasi or Jaintia heroes. It was only after Meghalaya was formed that a martyr’s memorial was set up to honour U Tirot Singh and others who fought the British. No effort was made at the level of the Government or that of civil society to acquaint one another of their cultural and literary heritage. Walls of prejudice were built on ignorance and soon divisions became so sharp that separation was the only remedy. It is indeed a pity that we belonging to the North-East and who talk so much about the bonds between the seven sisters happen to know so little about one another. It is only recently that some attempts have been
