Of Rajas, big and small, and some creepy crawly insects

It is a sad day for the world -- there is so much unsettling that is happening around the world ...

That a dear friend of mine died yesterday seems to be the only grief that seems justified... all the rest seems totally unnecessary and unjustified... perhaps it is the beginning of the end of this world and this civilisation as we know it... the humanitarian crisis in Sudan, the unbelievable tragedy that is unfolding in Gaza, the misery in the aftermath of the earthquake in Venezuela, the madness of the many wars led by the orange-head in the US and back home... images of protesting fasting students and the arrogance and total insensitivity of those in power at the capitals, both big and small, of the country. 

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Accepting charity is fine, doing charity is not, for the likes of me in Germany

Well, the title is a rather tall claim to make on the basis of just a couple of such incidents. But still these incidents happened and so I have to write and tell you about them. The first incident occured at a well known charity shop in town very close to where I live, and the second has to do with a One-World Shop in a nearby village. And the third story I tell here, just to put things in perspective and to show how things could and should really be; it took place in a Gymansium in a little town outside Wuerzburg. Nothing really happened in any of these occasions, but still a lot happened. So here goes...
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Remembering Rabin Goswami Sir

I am not sure why I have not been able to write about Sir in all these days although his death affected me very badly. On hearing the news of his demise on Friday, 26th June, 2026, I first froze, then came acute cramps, on the third day I started to cry and kept crying for the next three days.  It was only on Wednesday when I needed to write a condolence message on behalf of Sishugram that I first forced myself to find words to say what I felt. But even then I wrote about what he meant for all of us, as a senior and very active member of the Trust Board, as the Koka for all our girls at Sishugram, as a teacher, as a writer and editor, as a lover of plants and vegetables, there were so many roles that he played...

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Discovering Umbria

This was a trip to the lesser known but historically rich and naturally beautiful heartland of Italy : Umbria.  Everyone has heard of Tuscany in Italy, but not everyone has heard of Umbria, which is pretty much the region in the very heart of Italy and lying to the east of Tuscany. The big cities of Italy Rome, Florence, Venice,... are elsewhere. But many have heard of places like Assisi (the home of St. Francis) and of Perugia, the capital of Umbria. Umbria has no coast and hence also no beaches. But it has hills, it has valleys and it has history going back a very long time. 

I was in the Umbria region of Italy from the 19th to the 25th May 2026. The main attraction was meeting my dear Italian friend Silvia Barbina who lived in Foligno [also known to be the 'Centre of the World'], and worked in Camerino over the hills. Since my Finnish friend Helena was also in Italy around the same time, she also came over to Foligno, and the three of us had a wonderful time. As we later realised, Foligno was the perfect place to base ourselves to explore the Umbria region. I will tell you why later.

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If you want to know what socialism can do and what real development can mean, go to Odisha

Naveen Patnaik in no longer the Chief Minister of Odisha; why I do not know, because what he has done for the people and the state of Odisha is still very visible for all to see... The few days I spent in Cuttack, Bhubaneshwar and the countryside last week convinced me that he had somehow done a lot and also got it right... 
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Telling signs

When you begin to get subtle hints that your presence (or absence) does not make a difference...

You know, in India a person is measured not by the person he or she is but by what job, what position he or she holds... the Ministers and the Babus have the right of way everywhere, also cricketers and filmstars, I guess.  Of course if you are a university or IIT professor, it is not so bad either... but give it up, and say you are bekar, or that you are self-employed, or that you have retired, ... and slowly you begin to notice the difference. I guess the first time I noticed was when some people at RGU asked me to come and give a talk... I agreed and even started preparing for it. But then one of the organisers asked me for my institutional affiliation and I said I didn't have one anymore. I never heard back from them! I'm not sure when I have actually last spoken (or been invited to speak) at an event that I have not organised myself. Not that I want to speak anywhere but slowly the realisation seeps in.
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Bidding farewell to a troubled year

2025 was not easy, by many counts. The world was imploding at various fronts, there were wars and famines and natural calamities, the powerful few were playing their dirty games to keep the rest of the world out, common people were suffering yet powerless to change their fate; at a personal level, 2025 is the year when my dear friend Tithi left for another world and left me stunned and unable to cope.  It was also the year when I was forced to admit that although I have a strong and healthy body, even I can fall sick seriously; it was also the year I felt very strongly blessed by the healing power of the love and affection of my many wonderful friends.
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Sishugram of my memory and of my dreams

Sishugram, a Girls Home that I help to run in North Guwahati is celebrating its Golden Jubilee this year. Established in 1975, Sishugram has been part of my life right from its inception. In this article, meant for publication in the Golden Jubilee Souvenir, I chart out the broad outlines of my association with it. This is no report of the Managing Trustee. Nor is it some kind of a factual recounting of milestones and achievements. It is just a rambling recounting of my sometimes close, and sometimes distant association with Sishugram for almost the entire fifty years of its existence. For context, my mother Smti Renuka Devi Barkataki was one of the founding trustees of the Sishugram Trust and was associated with it since its inception in 1975 till her death in 2017. At the outset, I pay homage to her memory and to the memory of her close friend and associate Smti Minoti Chowdhury; both of them were very closely associated with Sishugram, both are no longer here today to see Sishugram attain this golden milestone. May they guide us, if only in spirit, also in the years to come.

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4. What after finishing school? Higher Education/Vocational training in Germany

Written with inputs from Zeynep Acharya, Petra Varma and many others; and also from official internet sources

In a certain sense it can be said that the decision for what a child in Germany will go on to become in life is already decided in the 5^th grade with the choice of which type of secondary school that child joins; of which there are essentially three kinds -- the Hauptschule, the Realschule and the Gymnasium. Let us take a closer look at what choices students have after finishing one of these three forms of secondary school.

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3. Some further aspects of the German school system

Written jointly with Zeynep Acharya and with inputs from various official internet sites

This is the third part of a series of essays on the German school system, the first was the school through the eyes of a student, the second was the school system through the eyes of a teacher and this third part is about some important points that have not been mentioned so far.

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2. The German School System – A View from the Teacher's Room

Written jointly with Zeynep Acharya and from her view point, with inputs from various official internet sites

I have been a teacher in Germany for many years, and during this time I have accompanied children and young people at very different stages of their educational journey. As a teacher, I face a class full of young people every day, each of whom brings their own unique story. When I look at our school system, I see a complex web of opportunities, challenges, and traditions. Let me begin by saying that what I describe below from my own experiences in Hamburg is only a representative example – Education is a state subject in Germany and hence the details of the education system vary slightly from state to state.

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1. Between the Blackboard and Dreams – Lena's Journey Through the German School System

The German school system through the eyes of a student Lena. Written with the help of Zeynep Acharya, who teaches in Hamburg, with inputs from various official internet sites

Lena sits at her classroom window, gazing out at the gray schoolyard. It's her last day at the Realschule (Intermediate school) in Hamburg, and while her classmates talk loudly about the upcoming summer holidays, Lena reflects on her journey – a journey that has led her through the many facets of the German school system.

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Tithi, my strong but silent friend, is now still forever

Her trademark smile: 18.6.24

A tribute to my dear friend Tithi (Monjari Barooah) who passed on the 3rd July 2025, after a 14-month struggle with a deadly disease.
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Childhood: a carefree romp that didn’t last

A random account of some events of my childhood... I began to write this piece because I wanted to send it to Teresa Rahman as part of her series on childhood memories in the Thumprint Northeast. But it turned out to be a very therapeutic exercise as well as the news of the horrible aircraft disaster in Ahmedabad came in. It might sound self-indulgent but it kept me from sinking... 

My childhood was mostly happy, and spent mainly at three places, Guwahati, Delhi and Shillong. I was born in Delhi as my mother, Renuka Devi Barkataki, was a young parliamentarian at that time. But whenever my mother needed to go anywhere, since my absentminded and rather impractical father, Munin Barkotoki, could not be trusted with such things, I was left with my aunt, my Jethima, in Shillong, who ran a full house with six kids of her own. The first time I was left there I was barely a few months old – Ma was selected to be part of a parliamentary delegation to the US. She was gone for more than a month.  When she returned, I did not recognize my mother anymore and refused to go back with her. I am told I was put in the care of two very nice kongs, first the very pretty Kong Cross and after her Kong Cheni, but I have no real memory of them. 

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A lesser known version of Rajasthan

The most touristy thing we did on this trip

Our annual road trip this time was to  Rajasthan -- yes, it was in Jan-Feb this time and  not in November and yes, it was much shorter than the usual three weeks, we did what we could, but at the end of the two weeks we had covered 3342 kilometers which is about the same if not a little more than what we had done in our annual forays lasting about three weeks in previous years. We drove a lot but all that driving was enough only to discover a very tiny part of that large, beautiful, colourful and extremely attractive state. 

There were essentially three cities we planned our trip around this time -- Bikaner, Jaisalmer and Jodhpur. But we also got to experience some parts of Rajasthan that tourists normally do not have time for. We saw many imposing but abandoned hawelis, huge but deserted villages, breathtakingly beautiful architecture and exquisite frescoes, pretty lakes, vast desert landscapes and much more... Also, it was the first time I felt that while on a road trip, the journey itself is what was special, much more than the destination. Looking out of the window of our Kia Seltos into the endless desert sand dunes and the scruffy green-gold landscape filled with low bushes and thorny shrubs, one could experience not just the magnificence of it all, but also the pettiness and meaninglessness of so many of our earthly ambitions...

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Back again in Germany at springtime

I don't have a lot to say right now....because just as I was planning to write a happy post about the lovely things I saw during a forest walk in the Eifel the other day, terror struck in Pahalgam and killed so many innocent people that I am terrified, terrified even to be happy. Terrified to say that this world is in order because my world back home is not in order. How could it be when so many people were killed needlessly by a bunch of terrorists who have no religion, no country, no God, or perhaps that is wrong, perhaps hate is their religion, their country, their God... who can say...

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The year 2024 : a short recap

The year began well with the starting of my pet project Creative Hands on the 6th Feb 2024. It was a lovely occasion and we were all very happy and enthusiastic. There was another big high with the starting of Sabhaghar at Panchabati on my mother's birthday on 29th November 2024. Besides this we had a memorial event for Jayantada on his first death anniversary on 26th August. It was held at the small hall at the ITA Machkhowa Complex with a screening of Bisheshwar's film and readings from the anthology Scent of Rain. 

And the year ended on a very friendly note when 15 of us went to the Bouganvillea Resort on the last Sunday of the year to spend some time together in memory of our dear friend Sruti. It was long pending and I was really happy and relieved that we could make it happen so beautifully on that day.

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Reckoning with death

Two deaths in the last days have shaken me up. The first was the death of my teacher from Gauhati University Professor B.P. Chetiya and then a day later Biren Datta Sir's baideo. I was not in direct contact with either of them in recent times. They were both ailing for some time. So the deaths were not unexpected. But still these two deaths have affected me in ways that I cannot explain at the moment. Let me try to put the facts down here and try to understand what happened.
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Travelling in God's own country

The three of us at the Padmanabha-
-swami Temple in Trivandrum

Kerala has been on my bucket-list for a very long time. So when Jaynee, my British friend from Leeds, UK, mooted the idea of travelling to Kerala and doing a trip together of the main sights, I was excited. Yesssss! Here are some thoughts on the 10-day trip that Jaynee, her husband Dugald, and I did starting at Trivandrum and ending at Cochin on Diwali day 2024. Our actual travel itinerary* is at the very end. 
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A weekend trip to the Land of the Thunder Dragon

These days it takes less than three hours of driving to get to Bhutan from Guwahati, yet I had never been there. So this weekend, Prabin da, Manjushree bou and I set off to Sangrup Jhonkar, which was supposed to be a very pretty place in the Bhutan hills. And since we wanted to make the most of the two days on hand we decided to take a long detour to Sangrup Khonkar and go via the scenic spot of Daragaon on the Diring river beyond Mushalpur and Nikashi. Here is the account of our trip.

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