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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Latest Munin Barkataki Award Meeting

The meeting to give away the Munin Barkotoki Awards for the years 2011 and 2012 was held on 2nd March, 2013 at the Vivekananda Kendra Hall in Guwahati. The well-attended meeting was presided over by Professor Nagen Saikia, from Dibrugarh University and former President of the Assam Sahitya Sabha, and the invited speaker on the occasion was Professor Dilip Kumar Barua,  formerly from Burdwan University. The four awardees were Rasmirekha Bora and  Arindom Barkataki for the year 2011 and Sanjibpaul Deka and Sharmistha Pritam for the year 2012.

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Our continued obsession with fair skin

A  symposium that I  recently attended in Guwahati was a good illustration of our continued obession with fair skin, which is bad twice over not only because it makes us behave abnormally with fair skinned people, but also because it prevents us from valuing and giving due respect to the great ones among our own brown-skinned locals. Read on to find out more...

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Going to Assam again

Yet another year has begun, time once more to go on another trip to Assam, but this time the errands are somewhat different, and very many, and my programme is very tight -- that is why I am not too sure what I will be able to get done in the time I have... will report back in April when I am back in Germany again. Can only say now that I plan to take a break from Tangsa work on this trip and concentrate on my parents, and things around them. The next prize giving meeting  of the Trust is coming up in March. Then there are various things around Baba's centenary year that need to be done. Sometimes I am tired of all this rushing around, but then there is no way out...

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O mor aponar desh -- English-German-translation

To mark the 150th birth anniversary of Lakshminath Bezboruah a project is underway to translate 'O mor aponar desh' into other languages. Here is our contribution to the project. Comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome. For more details look in the Facebook site 'O mor aponar desh' where many translations are already available. It would be great to have translations in as many languages as possible -- please help if you can.

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The forgotten state of Tripura: a whiff of Bengal in the north-east

An account of a short first trip to Agartala and its neighbouring areas in December 2012

When we decided to go to Tripura for a short holiday, neither my husband nor I knew what to expect.  Our combined knowledge of Tripura was negligible. Of course, I knew we were not the only ones with such an abysmal level of ignorance of the state -- I was sure many main-land Indians have never even heard of it. But we were keen to find out more. Moreover, a trip to Tripura seemed easy to arrange; we also knew at least one person there; so we decided to go.

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Not your idea of sightseeing

Some thoughts on what sightseeing means to different people in different parts of the world...

‘This is not the western idea of sightseeing’, Katrin told me recently, ‘just to sit in cars and look out of the window while being taken from point A to point B. Western people like to walk, to trek, to look at the plants and the trees, to take in the air....’ 

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Another year comes to an end

Today is the last day of 2012 -- what should one do on such a day? Look back at the year that has gone by -- anniversaries, special events, trips to new places, small pleasures at home and at work, with family, friends and colleagues, ...well...many memories of many events and experiences...almost all of them nice... therefore a day to say thank you to whoever it is who is in charge of these things...

But many others were not so lucky --

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Munin Barkotoki Award 2012

Guwahati Dec 24, 2012. The Munin Barkotoki Memorial Trust has decided to confer the Munin Barkotoki Award, 2012 to Sanjibpaul Deka for his story collection Ei Pine Ki Aase and Sharmistha Pritam for her autobiography Aatmakatha, stated a press release. The award carries Rs 30,000 in cash. The award will be given at a function to be held on March 2, 2013 at the Vivekananda Kendra auditorium.

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