Saturday 8 March 2014

How to get things done in India

Coming home always brings with it new revelations. Living in Germany I had foolishly begun to expect that things function everywhere as they should as a matter of course -- coming home to Guwahati and having to go to renew my driving license in the DTO office recently cleared my head of many of those illusions.  Last year I had a similar experience trying to get the necessary permission to use the State Archives at Dispur. About what exactly happened on those occasions, some other time, right now I just want to list, for your convenience, some ways (read, tricks) to get things done here.


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Friday 7 March 2014

The Dibrugarh conference: much ado about nothing

The occasion was the annual congress of the anthropologists in the country, hosted by the Dibrugarh University in February. Hundreds of anthropologists from all parts of the country and abroad were expected to attend. I am a life member of the INCAA, but had never attended a Congress. Since the venue was nearby in Dibrugarh, I decided to attend.

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