While browsing today, I came across this 'work in progress' (from the editor's note)article by Jaideep Saikia from Guwahati. The title of the article is " The Crescent Waxes Eastward" What I read so far makes quite an interesting reading with great references and quotes, and I have not heard netters discuss this author before.
Apparently Saikia has been writing position/occassional papers on the North East and Assam for ACDIS (University of Illinois, UC campus). Saikia talks about illegal immigration, insurgency, and geo-political affairs of the NE. Below is a link to 4 chapters/prologues/epilogues/references of Saikia's article http://www.acdis.uiuc.edu/Research/OPs/Saikia/contents/chap_one.html To read the editor's note on Saikia's work , please go to this link: http://www.acdis.uiuc.edu/Research/OPs/Saikia/contents/ed_note.html Hope you all enjoy the reading and look forward to some analyses or if anyone knows more about this author. _____________________________ Here is an excerpt from the editor's note: The author and I encountered numerous examples of linguistic and cultural differences that indicated why it was imperative to have some measure of collaboration on the present work. There were too many to mention all of them, so I include a few anecdotal instances here for illustration. Thus, for example, while an Assamese would bring his tiffin to the office, an American would carry his lunchbox. An Indian might "turn a Nelson's eye" to a problem, but stateside that same eye would be blind. Whereas in Guwahati one counts in lakhs, in Urbana-Champaign the same measure is taken in hundreds of thousands. In other words, there was no shortage of opportunities for us to compare the nuances of "British"—or more specifically Indian—English versus American English diction, spelling, and grammar. Saikia conscientiously strove to tailor his material to an American readership, with the Chicago Manual of Style and my input at his disposal. He considered questions like how best to include the quotations of texts not written by native speakers of English, such as when he quotes the published aims and objectives of the United Liberation Front of Asom or provides excerpts of Assamese newspaper accounts. We have presented such quotations verbatim in this Occasional Paper, unless otherwise noted. _______________________________________________ assam mailing list assam@assamnet.org http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
