Monday, August 25, 2008
Tourism in Northeast ?
We are living in a world of wonderful irony. It is more appropriate when I think of my home state Assam. The separatist movements in the entire Northeastern region are been there for a long time and nothing has been done effectively to address the issues concerning the movements. When I said nothing is being done, I am not only talking about the apathy of Central Government at Delhi but also about the ill functioning governance in the State. In fact blaming Central Government and Migrants from Bangladesh seem to be our favorite shield to cover the poor performance of state in all aspects. I am not sure how we can blame others for rampant corruption in state machinery, poor productivity of manpower and nonexistent public services. Of course Prime Minister Manmohan Singh can’t do much about the frequent Assam Bandh called by anybody and everybody in the state. The central government or the state government can’t do much about the mode of protest that is “Bandh”. In last couple of weeks, we are celebrating the migration issue once again. It seems all the political bodies are concerned with this issue and they believe that if we stop all the economic activities for a day or two than the migrant will vanish from the state. So we have a series of “Assam Bandh” in last couple of weeks. And in this scenario, “The Assam Tribune” publishes an article on potential of tourism in Northeast !! What an irony.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
benefits of failure
J. K. Rowling, the lady who gave birth to Harry Potter delivered her Commencement Address at Harvard on benefit of failure and importance of imagination. In the following paragraphs I have taken some portion of her speech on failure and imagination which I found to be interesting reflection on life.
This is how, today Rowling thinks of failure in her youth for which she believed her parents were to be held responsible ---“ I would like to make it clear, in parenthesis, that I do not blame my parents for their point of view. There is an expiry date on blaming your parents for steering you in the wrong direction; the moment you are old enough to take the wheel, responsibility lies with you. What is more, I cannot criticise my parents for hoping that I would never experience poverty. They had been poor themselves, and I have since been poor, and I quite agree with them that it is not an ennobling experience. Poverty entails fear, and stress, and sometimes depression; it means a thousand petty humiliations and hardships. Climbing out of poverty by your own efforts, that is indeed something on which to pride yourself, but poverty itself is romanticised only by fools.”
“You might never fail on the scale I did, but some failure in life is inevitable. It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all - in which case, you fail by default”
About importance of imagination this is what Rowling has to say, “In its arguably most transformative and revelatory capacity, it is the power that enables us to empathise with humans whose experiences we have never shared”.
… ‘many prefer not to exercise their imaginations at all. They choose to remain comfortably within the bounds of their own experience, never troubling to wonder how it would feel to have been born other than they are. They can refuse to hear screams or to peer inside cages; they can close their minds and hearts to any suffering that does not touch them personally; they can refuse to know”
“We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better”.
She ended her lecture with ……”As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.”
This is how, today Rowling thinks of failure in her youth for which she believed her parents were to be held responsible ---“ I would like to make it clear, in parenthesis, that I do not blame my parents for their point of view. There is an expiry date on blaming your parents for steering you in the wrong direction; the moment you are old enough to take the wheel, responsibility lies with you. What is more, I cannot criticise my parents for hoping that I would never experience poverty. They had been poor themselves, and I have since been poor, and I quite agree with them that it is not an ennobling experience. Poverty entails fear, and stress, and sometimes depression; it means a thousand petty humiliations and hardships. Climbing out of poverty by your own efforts, that is indeed something on which to pride yourself, but poverty itself is romanticised only by fools.”
“You might never fail on the scale I did, but some failure in life is inevitable. It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all - in which case, you fail by default”
About importance of imagination this is what Rowling has to say, “In its arguably most transformative and revelatory capacity, it is the power that enables us to empathise with humans whose experiences we have never shared”.
… ‘many prefer not to exercise their imaginations at all. They choose to remain comfortably within the bounds of their own experience, never troubling to wonder how it would feel to have been born other than they are. They can refuse to hear screams or to peer inside cages; they can close their minds and hearts to any suffering that does not touch them personally; they can refuse to know”
“We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better”.
She ended her lecture with ……”As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.”
Sunday, August 03, 2008
Sanjoy’s Assam
In the last part of July, the security forces in Assam killed one of the accused in the murder of Sanjoy Ghose. The forces were looking for him for last ten years ! and they want us to believe that they were unable to trace him, who was very much there in Assam working for United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA). Surprisingly when he was killed he was armless. The forces got him in alignment with the ongoing drama of peace building where some of the middle level ULFA leaders have taken initiative. The security forces and Government has a great a sense of timing so far as encounters are concerned. The encounter of accused ULFA definitely helped the Government to show their commitment towards the peace building.
Sanjoy was killed by ULFA because they suspect him to be an agent of RAW.A lot of people who knew Sanjoy found this explanation quite amusing. Sanjoy was an outsider to North East and came to Majuli in Assam to work for people. He was not a known name for many people in Assam but he was already a recognized name in other part of the Country, especially in Rajasthan where he was associated with URMUL. Sanjoy did his post graduation from Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA) in 1982 at the age of 22. He was a bright and energetic student. I think the most appealing part of Sanjoy was his inability to remain indifferent to the happenings in his surrounding. For most of us we have, the strange but quite common, ability to stay calm and tolerant without any impatience inside us, while looking at the poverty and failed system, would definitely find it impossible to understand what brought Sanjoy to Assam. I was quite young when he was killed by ULFA and had not followed the opinion given by many during that time. But I believe his ability to mobilize and help people in doing something for themselves rather than cursing and blaming outsiders for their misery, had made many insecure and led to his killing.
“Sanjoy’s Assam” is the title of a book containing compilation of Sanjoy Ghose's writing during his stay in Assam.
Sanjoy was killed by ULFA because they suspect him to be an agent of RAW.A lot of people who knew Sanjoy found this explanation quite amusing. Sanjoy was an outsider to North East and came to Majuli in Assam to work for people. He was not a known name for many people in Assam but he was already a recognized name in other part of the Country, especially in Rajasthan where he was associated with URMUL. Sanjoy did his post graduation from Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA) in 1982 at the age of 22. He was a bright and energetic student. I think the most appealing part of Sanjoy was his inability to remain indifferent to the happenings in his surrounding. For most of us we have, the strange but quite common, ability to stay calm and tolerant without any impatience inside us, while looking at the poverty and failed system, would definitely find it impossible to understand what brought Sanjoy to Assam. I was quite young when he was killed by ULFA and had not followed the opinion given by many during that time. But I believe his ability to mobilize and help people in doing something for themselves rather than cursing and blaming outsiders for their misery, had made many insecure and led to his killing.
“Sanjoy’s Assam” is the title of a book containing compilation of Sanjoy Ghose's writing during his stay in Assam.
the story so far....
She is beautiful. She is intelligent. She is educated. She is mother. She is wife. She is daughter. She is sister. She is the victim.
She had a normal childhood. An obedient child to a government servant, she is a darling to her father. She is the youngest one in the family with two elder brothers. Everything was fine until her father died. She was only 17 when she lost her father. Both her brother were also very young. Her mother took the responsibility of the family and moved to their new home. The family lost their support system……..
They tried to fight the evils. Her mother started taking care of the little property that they have in Lucknow. The older son got his father’s job and things started getting better again. Now the first thing that they have in mind was to get her married. She was engaged at 19. They want her to get married as early as possible may be to avoid too much of dowry, may be to get hold of all of the property. So she was engaged. Her husband was a struggling professional. They got married when she was 22. Before marriage, she has no idea of what her husband exactly does, or what is his earning….like most other girls. That is not required as they say. At the time of marriage, her husband was doing nothing. He left his earlier job and was in the search of something new. He took the money that that he got as dowry and used for his new business. He lost all the money in his business. He was jobless for more than a year before he got another job. By this time she was pregnant. They had a daughter. She had a tough time with her in laws. Her father in law is hard man. He beats his wife, in front of her. Her mother in law is an illiterate lady with a foul mouth. They fight constantly. Her husband with his repeated failures become frustrated and started abusing her …..the story moves on.
She had a normal childhood. An obedient child to a government servant, she is a darling to her father. She is the youngest one in the family with two elder brothers. Everything was fine until her father died. She was only 17 when she lost her father. Both her brother were also very young. Her mother took the responsibility of the family and moved to their new home. The family lost their support system……..
They tried to fight the evils. Her mother started taking care of the little property that they have in Lucknow. The older son got his father’s job and things started getting better again. Now the first thing that they have in mind was to get her married. She was engaged at 19. They want her to get married as early as possible may be to avoid too much of dowry, may be to get hold of all of the property. So she was engaged. Her husband was a struggling professional. They got married when she was 22. Before marriage, she has no idea of what her husband exactly does, or what is his earning….like most other girls. That is not required as they say. At the time of marriage, her husband was doing nothing. He left his earlier job and was in the search of something new. He took the money that that he got as dowry and used for his new business. He lost all the money in his business. He was jobless for more than a year before he got another job. By this time she was pregnant. They had a daughter. She had a tough time with her in laws. Her father in law is hard man. He beats his wife, in front of her. Her mother in law is an illiterate lady with a foul mouth. They fight constantly. Her husband with his repeated failures become frustrated and started abusing her …..the story moves on.
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