The Changeling

Speculations amongst various quarters are rife with my new career move. And why not? Looks like whether I am right or wrong, this career is going to be a pretty up-hill task going by what people are saying. But whatever they say or do, I have the conviction that a seed when planted in the soil needs time to adjust, needs the proper fertilization, enough sunshine, fresh air and water. The care would then make its roots stronger, make it stand upright and fortunately bear flowers and fruits. No seed can bear fruits overnight.

Unfortunately however, it has been noticeably understood that people want everything to happen at this very moment. It’s good to be ambitious but ambitions without learning what to do would eventually spell doom for the self and the country.

Now, many would argue; where is the time for all that? We want things to happen to us right now. We want money, money and more money! Who is going to wait forever? We want success right now!

But what is the meaning of success? Is it to have pots and pots of money? To possess a huge house or a huge car? All that is good. We need this to have a better life but not at the cost of the country’s future or the future of the youth. Can any right thinking individual compromise with something as precious as leaving a wonderful world for the next generation? Is money so important that we cannot part with it for someone’s future?

With a career move that has taken me worlds closer to the people who need me, I definitely am happy with the choice I have made. And for me, the future can wait. I am working on it right now!

Teen of the Year 2013

I know I definitely had a perplexed look writ large on my face when Fr. Anthony Thekkel, the principal of Don Bosco School asked me to mentor students for the event, TEEN OF THE YEAR, 2013. It’s true that I counsel students but mentoring them? Now that was something new. The teachers asked to help me around were also new to the process and had absolutely no clue of what they should do. However, all of us sat around, discussed and with the help of an amazing friend, we went onto select twenty eight students out of a hundred and twenty from classes IX,X,XI and XII. And goodness, were they good!

Though I would have been comfortable with time on my side, yet three days before their D-day, I went onto select the crème de la crème from the twenty eight girls and boys. I knew I would have a tough time cause every two minutes, it was a gem of a genius who stood in front of me to speak about themselves. I felt overshadowed. Though I had to choose thirteen out of close ties, I knew I had the best. But deep down in my heart, I knew I had the best.

After this came the mentoring of these thirteen ‘champions’, as I went onto call them. Was I going to be a good mentor for these already tutored-by-themselves-amazingly-intelligent-and-exuberant-individuals? I cowered at the thought of making a wrong move lest the best gets side-tracked.

A day before the final show, I had a heart to heart talk with these little angels and told them how important it is to be a part of the process than to win the title. They understood when I talked to them about cooperating with each other and to cheer their friend, who will win the title.

So when they walked down the aisle to the tune of “We are the Champions and we will, we will rock you,” I felt goose bumps rise and tears of joy well up in my eyes. After all, my children were going to perform. I just had a few hours of a day with them to talk about everything to win the title, but I knew each one of them was a winner. They were absolutely over the top with excitement ‘cause this is what I wanted them to do; to speak from the heart and do what they would with a passion unbounded.  And that is what they did!

They spoke, danced, performed, enacted, bemused, mesmerized, captivated and outshone with zealous magic! I was over the moon. While I shouted and screamed in glee on stage, egging the school crowd to cheer my kiddoes, the whole hall echoed in unison to the excited beat of my heart as the final names were announced. Trijayananda Choudhury made a clean sweep of the title. I was only too happy to realise he worked hard on his body language, which was apparently debilitating his performance in the past. The first and second runner’s up Talukdar and Ayushi Sharma, missed the title by maybe half a mark, so the judges said.

Backstage, I thought my other kiddoes would be all down and out, moping and crying their heart out. But I was in for a pleasant surprise; most of them were all geared up for the challenge next year and a national level competition on similar lines this year. I came home happy and equipped, more so ‘cause these Champions mentored me about a-never-say-die attitude that I am going to make my life motto from now on. Hola!

The Winners!

The Platinum Jubilee of the

Assam Legislative Assembly

“Discipline, Decorum and Dignity, the three Ds of legislative bodies are of paramount importance and must be safe-guarded for the efficient functioning and success of parliamentary institutions. Breach of these values need to be seen as an aberration and corrective measures must be taken to find remedies to them. These breaches are discordant notes in the symphony of democracy and need to be appropriately modulated for the rhythmic flow of our evolutionary democracy.” Tarun Gogoi, Hon’ble Chief Minister of Assam.

The Assam Legislative Assembly completed its Platinum Jubilee Celebrations on 7^th of April, 2013. Constituting an important landmark in the pre-independence history of India, Assam Legislative Assembly came into existence on April 7, 1937 when the first sitting commenced in the Assembly Chamber at Shillong, the erstwhile capital of the composite State of Assam. It was the first body of the people’s elected representatives of the entire Northeast region and it represented the collective aspiration of the diverse ethnic groups in the region. With the passage of time in the post independence period, the Founding Fathers identified the Parliamentary democracy as the suitable system of governance and accordingly a democratic set-up based on Parliamentary system with federal structure was provided in the Constitution.

The Assam Legislative Assembly has seen a glorious past, having pioneered several significant legislations, which became milestones for the Parliamentary system. To commemorate these 75 momentous years of legislation, the Assam Legislative Assembly started its Platinum Jubilee Celebration year with a colourful celebration at the Dispur Parade Ground on April 20, 2012, which was attended by a plethora of distinguished guests including the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh, His Excellency, the Governor of Assam, Shri. J.B. Patnaik, His Excellency, the Governor of Meghalaya, Shri. R. S. Moshahary, His Excellency, the Governor of Bihar, Shri. Devananda Konwar, Hon’ble Union Minister of State(Ind.) for DONER, Shri. Paban Singh Ghatowar and Hon’ble Chief Minister of Assam, Shri. Tarun Gogoi.

To record the historic events of the Assam Legislative Assembly and to mark the closing ceremony on the 7^th of April, 2013, His Excellency, the Governor of Assam, Shri. J.B. Patnaik, released a Souvenir.

“The Constitution of India places the Legislative Assembly at the centre of governance in a State and conceives of it as the primary instrument of socio-economic change. Legislators have to be sensitive and responsive to the problems and concerns of the people, give voice to their grievances, hardships and problems by raising them on the floor of the Legislature and act as the link between the people and the Government.” Shri. Pranab Mukherjee, the Hon’ble President of India.

HOLI-daying in my city!

Guwahati city was resplendent with all the hues of love on Wednesday and the streets were a riot of revelry. There was a lot to look forward to than just the screaming youngsters in war-paint. General happiness seeped in to every person on the road as they shook hands and exchanged colours in spite of being complete strangers. 

Dancing, singing and then lunch with family and friends was the highlight for the day, with very little untoward incidents. The police though were on high alert and did their rounds on testing drunken drivers. 

Guwahatians have become pretty conscious about using the right type of colours and most of them were noticed to be buying skin-friendly colours. All in all, a wonderful Holi this year! 

Como por arte de Magica

I felt world class as I sat in the cane chair of my balcony, propped comfortably against two cushions, waiting for day to break. The rain poured, each strand of water drenching everything in its stead. The leaves were painted a new colour and there was only the call of two cuckoos in the distance. And I had absolutely nothing to complain about. I just sat there as my mind flew into oblivion.

I watched the clouds change shape. One piece of cloud almost looked like a person with arms wide open; to enthuse the rays of the sun to play with it while it coloured the rims of the clouds an orangish- golden hue. The sun did peep through for a minute but was soon blanketed by a layer of grey clouds. My world seemed to start and end there, so awestruck was I during this enchanting, mesmerizing, mystic moment. 

Rain, do you know?

Do you know

That you create

Magic

With her?

She dances,

Sings

And the musky 

Aroma

You leave 

Behind

On her bosom

Is a heady

Concoction

Of your

Endearment

Of a lost

Love

Reunited.

Rain,

Do you remember?

Of the 

War-dance 

Of the 

Yester-years?

With her?

Where are the Indigenous People?

Long many years back, during a seminar on race and ethnicity, I had asked the then President of Axom Xahitya Xobha, Birendranath Dutta why he kept mentioning the original people of Assam as tribes and not the indigenous people. Interestingly, he didn't have an answer to this most vital question. He only loosely said, "Well, some people say tribes and some say indigenous." Not a very satisfactory answer for a President of such a pretigious organisation of Assam. 

If we were to take the history of Assam, the whole place was a region covered in swamp and surrounded by hills. Mughal historian, Sihabuddin Tahlish said that "...it rained for more than 8 months in Assam and it rained for the rest four months, which was during winter...". Insects of various kinds, wild animals of all species roamed freely making it totally uninhabitable for any other people except for people of the land. 

The first inhabitants were the Khasis and the Garos of Indo-Austric origin. They came from Kampuchea, now Cambodia and also from Laos. All this occured before 2500 B.C. These people were able to tolerate extremes of everything, which Assam was famous for. 

Then came the people of Tibeto-Burman origin; the Koch Rajbongshis, the Bodos, the Kacharis and the Mech Kacharis. 

These people were the only people who could survive under such extreme conditions. Food for them was available in the wild and without any doubt, they have to be said to be the original , the ethnic, the indigenous people of the land, Assam. But where are they now? They have been marginalised to such an extent by the later settlers, that their very existence is at stake now. They live in small pockets of the state, bereft of several opportunities that a mainland Indian enjoy without a care in the world. But why such injustice? Their land has been taken from them and they are left with very little to be proud of of their ethnicity.

Today, I happened to have a brief interaction with Prof. C. Mathew Snipp, Department of Sociology, Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity, Stanford University at the Administrative Staff College. The seminar revolved around the topic 'Immigration and Conflict Resolution'. Prof. Snipp is a person of Cherokee origin, one of the first Red-Indians of the USA and he spoke at length of this world-wide phenomenon of depriving the original people of the land. He took four countries, New Zealand, Australia, Canada and the US as case studies. For each of them, he spoke of the conflict between the indigenous people and the immigrants, who immigrate to a particular country for political freedom and economic opportunity. Colonialism was another topic he spoke at length.

My question to Prof. Snipp was, "The Government of Assam and also of the 6th Schedule states of Northeast India have done a lot of injustice to the ethnic people in the garb of giving them 'a lot'. If I may mention about Arunachal Pradesh, a voter would be anxiously waiting for the election times when he will be given Rs. 10,000/- for every vote that he casts. The victory feast that follows leaves the voter unable to contribute towards his work front for more than 2-3 days. Also, on my visit to Canada, I noticed that the original inhabitants of the country, the Inuits were given everything by the Government; Free homes, subsidised food and health care. However, the government might have a hidden agenda as all these people have become unable to do any hard persistent work. They have become totally dependent on the Government. In context to Northeast India and Canada, is the government slowly trying to destroy these indigenous people?"

Prof. Snipp did elaborate on this but I was not completely satisfied with his answer. Though over lunch, he did say that he would have loved to give a better answer. 

Anyway, going by my title, I am still wondering where are the indigenous people of Assam; where are they in politics, in high-end jobs,  in the centre, in the state, in important decision-making rituals? What is their fault that are not included? Is someone thinking that they are less intelligent or not capable enough? Have they been given a chance? Will such injustice continue till they completely disappear?

Well, I know what all of you would say, "Hey, there they are calling for bandhs (forced closure) and being violent?" However, why are they violent? Do they have something to say, some frustration deep within their hearts? Do we even talk across the table on issues as vital as this? But my statement is, even in spite of the government providing them lucrative sops, which they are yet to avail of, they are a lost generation, until they help themselves. And like Prof. Snipp says, "The only indigenous community that is alive is in the museum." A sad situation indeed!