Afghanistan revisited...

Ten years after my first visit to Afghanistan in 2004, there is nothing spectacular to report. The country limps forward, the bombs and the natural disasters notwithstanding. Whether the situation there is better today than it was ten years back is hard to say. 

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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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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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Another conference on the Northeast, this time in Delhi

The Northeast is making the news in Delhi for all the wrong reasons these days; but our little conference on the Northeast titled 'Diversities and Connections: Reconsidering ethnic boundaries in Northeast India ' at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML) at Teenmurti on the 6th and 7th Feb. 2014 gave us some reason to cheer.

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Munin Barkotoki Awards, 2013

GUWAHATI, Dec 31. 2013 – The Munin Barkotoki Memorial Trust has announced the Munin Barkotoki Award for the year 2013. Poet Mridul Haloi gets the award for his collection of poems Akole Aaso Kushale Aaso and story writer Apu Bharadwaj gets the award for his story collection Mostiskar Cinema. The cash amount for the award has been increased to Rs 40,000 said a press release. 


Three other promising writers to be honoured by the trust include Suresh Ranjan Goduka for his poem collection Eta Sadhukothar Arombhani, Chandana Pathak for her story collection Antir Goli and Pankaj Kumar Dutta for his story collection Fugu Maasor Maasuoi. Altogether 35 writers have been awarded the Munin Barkotoki Award since 1995, said a press statement.

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Four...three...two...

Haven't written anything for long. So thought I'd write a few lines, and tell you a little about our whirlwind trip around Germany covering close to 2000 kilometers in 8 days. And if you want to know what the numbers in the title mean then you have to read on till the end...

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Indians at Manchester

My recent experience with some of my fellow countrymen:

Although many Indians could not attend the conference either because they did not get visas to travel to England or because they could not manage to get financial support, nearly a third of the participants at a conference that I recently attended in Manchester were Indians. Which meant that we were very visible (in our elegant colourful sarees and long flowing hair) and audible everywhere. I tried to get introduced to a few at the reception after the inauguration, but they seemed to be not too interested -- they were more interested in catching the eye of the waiters to get themselves some more to eat and drink.

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After England

Just back after a 16 day trip to England; given that the last time I was there was in 2004, there was a lot of nostalgia involved. I met old friends, saw many new places, I also participated in a conference... here is a report:

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Two months down and nothing to show

How can it be that one had not a minute to spare, was always busy with something or the other, got barely any time to rest, and then at the end of two months, have the feeling that one has not done anything! But that is precisely the feeling I have about this last trip to India. The details...

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Our visit to the Fortis E. Heart Institute, New Delhi, in March 2013

After my mother suffered a mild heart attack in the beginning of March 2013, we took her to the Fortis E. Heart Institute in Delhi on the advice of several doctors in Guwahati. We were told that the Chairman of the Institute was the best there was, in his line of expertise, in the country.  While there, we saw a lot -- some good, some not so good -- but we didn't get a chance to see him live up to his reputation. The following is an account of what happened during our visit.

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