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Showing posts from 2014

A visit to Chennai

Ritwick Sinha Class VIII Don Bosco Sr. Sec. School, Guwahati It was 15 th of January, Wednesday, and my parents informed me that we would go to Chennai during our spring holidays. I jumped with joy and great excitement. We decided to go by train. Our reservation was made two months in advance. On the 16 th of March, Sunday, we reached the Guwahati railway station one hour before the departure time. It was to leave at 6.20 a.m. We got into a compartment and the train began to move after sometime. After a tiring journey that lasted for 48 hours, we reached the Chennai Central railway station on the 18 th of March, Tuesday. From there, we hired a taxi and went to a hotel. The next day, we first went to see the Chennai Snake Park. I saw a wide range of snakes such as adders, pythons, vipers, cobras and other reptiles there. The reticulated python looked really scary. Then we went to the VGP Golden Beach, located on the Bay of Bengal. It is a major tourist...

Pocha ojha rises like a phoenix from the ashes

Topo Singha Ojha Brajakumar Sinha, fondly called as Pocha Ojha by his fans, rose like a phoenix from the ashes. The credit goes to Jolly Productions that made its maiden appearance at Shilpgram, Guwahati on April 26, 2014 when an audio and two video CDs on the performances of the late singer were released. The audio CD, a cultural showdown (fangna) between Pocha Ojha and Ojha Chandramohan Sinha, was released by nonagenarian Srimati Githanak Devi, mother of the man behind Jolly Productions, SP Pratap Sinha. The ceremony was quite simple yet redolent of the profound love and respect to a mother whose tender love and care are too important to be without for the all-round development of a child. While the video CD, Manshiksha, was released by none other than Srimati Pramila Sinha, widow of Pocha Ojha, the other video CD, Gosthalila, was released by public prosecutor Bhimsen Sinha. The function on the release of the three CDs and the discussion on rasakirtan were presid...

Delhi Election Day: My first voting experience

By RK Rishikesh Sinha Today Delhi (April 10) went to vote for the 7 Lok Sabha seats. And I am one among millions whose names have appeared first time in the electoral roll. Of course the day is important for me — it was my first voting experience.  Like anything ‘first’, it has its own sweet and sour ingredients to the whole story. Fail in Duty I got my Voter ID card in 2013 along with my father, mother, sister, and my youngest brother. But this time when I submitted an application online for my wife and my younger brother, they were not provided with Voter ID cards. Reason cited, according to the official website — address not found. The day when I got the call from the BLO about the application for my wife’s Voter ID card, I was outside. So, couldn’t meet the BLO. That’s fine. I thought let’s see the fate of my brother’s application. This time, neither any call nor any visit had been done. However, it met the same fate — address not found. So, two people of my...

Back to the future

Children Corner - Ritwick Sinha,  Class-VIII,  Don Bosco Sr. Sec. School, Guwahati.  Year 3100 AD. India has completely changed from what it was some thousand years ago. I was in a place called Axemland, which I think was probably known as Assam long ago. I am not sure, as I had just reached this place with the help of a time machine. I was new to this place. I was one of the very few ‘complete humans’ here. All the others were a mix of humans and robots and called themselves ‘Robohumans'. They had prosthetic limbs. Their brains were more developed than the normal human brain. This combining of humans with robots could turn out to be the end of human life on earth. Then, as I walked down the road, I was stunned to see a skyline where each skyscraper was more than 2,000 metres tall. I also saw some flying cars, which the Robohumans called the ‘carocopters', and then I saw some passenger vehicles – all of which could fly! I also had a view of the ‘warp drive', ...

Another Smriti story in Indian Literature

Topo Singha Bishnupriya Manipuri short story writer Prof. Smriti Kumar Sinha penetrated the Eighth Schedule roadblock on the road to Indian Literature yet again. ‘God for a Night’, English rendering of his ‘Rati ahanor Bhogoban’, was published in the January/February 2014 279 issue of prestigious Indian Literature, Sahitya Akademi’s Bi-Monthly Journal. The story in question was translated into English by journalist Ramlal Sinha. Indian Literature, as Sahitya Akademi claims, is India’s oldest and only journal of its kind featuring translations in English of poetry, fiction, drama and criticism from twenty-three Indian languages besides original writing in English. Offering a feast of literature, Sahitya Akademi further claims, Indian Literature is also highly valued as a source of reference in India and abroad and is a must for libraries and for discriminating readers, researchers and students of creative and critical literature. ‘God for a Night’ is one among the five short stori...

Elegies on Sudeshna rend Guwahati air

Ramlal Sinha GUWAHATI, March 17: Melodious elegies and speeches delivered with fiery passion rent the air in some pockets in Guwahati on sad Sunday last when the Bishnupriya Manipuris of the city recalled their language martyr, Sudeshna.  Sudeshna Sinha, a teenaged girl, fell to the police bullet during a rail-roko agitation at Kalkalighat railway station in Karimganj district in the Barak Valley on March 16, 1996. The community had to agitate for decades to get their demand for the introduction of the Bishnupriya Manipuri language at the primary stage of education fulfilled. At such a function organized by the Gobinda Mandir Committee, in collaboration with Marup, an NGO, at Milan Nagar in the Borbari area in the city, Marup’s vice president and cine artiste Ashutosh Sinha (Rabi) and Bishnupriya Manipuri Writers’ Forum president DILS Lakshmindra Sinha kept the audience spellbound when they sang elegies after paying tribute to the martyr. The paying of tribute w...

LL Productions releases Elar Jhaka with a Bollywood flavour

Ramlal Sinha It was not for nothing why a student Prabas Kanti Sinha used bulk of the meagre quantity of paper that his parents could provide their children with at a time when his siblings could ill afford that ‘scarce’ item (paper). With such a message during his brief speech after the release of ‘Elar Jhaka-Part 1’, an audio CD from LL Productions, at Panjabari in Guwahati on March 8 SP Pratap Sinha wanted to bring home that it was his brother’s no holds-barred writing habit that made him what he is today.  Tagged onto the end of the release of the CD was a brainstorming session on ‘The Role of Audio and Video Devices on the Preservation of Culture’. Both the sessions were presided over by the president of the Bishnupriya Manipuri Writers’ Forum, DILS Lakshmindra Sinha.  “My dada was in the habit of writing in various genres of literature, films, art and culture right from his school days. Writing paper was a scarce commodity for us, and that made us adopt str...

Guwahati: Centre Of Bishnupriya Manipuri political structure

By RK Rishikesh Sinha Guwahati has seen sudden surge in its population. It has undergone a complete change in a decade or so, the observation is very visible for those who have witnessed Guwahati in 90s. The impression of Guwahati on me in the mid-90s is very different than it is today. It has somewhere got lost in the flat culture. However , I have noticed one thing that the population of Bishnupriya Manipuris in the capital city has seen a sudden increase. Today, the state of affair is that : You are a Bishnupriya Manipuri, you cannot ignore your brethren in the lanes of Guwahati. You jostle to board a bus from ABC bus stop, you will find there are co-passengers who are also struggling with the same spirit to board the bus! You are sitting in a rickety tracker at Ganeshguri, listen carefully, a mother is talking in Bishnupriya Manipuri with her daughter. You distract your attention to their conversation, and you fix your eyes towards a person who is standin...

Banking with State Bank of India (SBI)

By RK Rishikesh Sinha We all have some sweet and sour relationship with banks. With banks offering many services, the complexities to understand and appreciate it has gone above the board. The simple looking saving account brings alongwith it a hell lot of activities for a customer that it sometimes become headache for them. And my association with SBI Bank, Guwahati University is one such. I opened my saving account a decade ago, today I fill the account has come under my complete electronic control. A great relief and yahoo moment! The biggest problem that I encountered with the SBI bank, was to make ritualistic visit to the home branch every time I visit Guwahati for many simple change like -- change of address, nominee change, new ATM, mobile change, internet banking and mobile banking. This simple looking services being offered by the bank, and to avail them has brought unseen scar in my mind. And of course, it has enriched my approach and understanding about banks parti...

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) before Delhi Election

By RK Rishikesh Sinha The whole country is reeling under AAP effect ever since the party grabbed seats and made their government in Delhi.  I personally never thought or has a slightest hint that the party will bring a renaissance in the political thought of the Indians.  I failed to read the writings on the walls of purani dilli. However, my wife was quick to sense the AAP tsunami! She not only forcefully persuaded me to become the member of the party. But she tortured me to download the nomination form and print the 10 page application form so that she can place her candidature. Alas! There was a point in the application, that 100 members of the constituency must sign and put their mobile number in the form to support the candidature. There she backtracked (I knew), it is Delhi, nobody know us. Our building people don’t know us. The rest is history. In a lighter note, nobody understands women, so is with politics. Those days were really painful. After all I hav...

KP remembered, KP sanman given away

Jatir Janak Dr KP Sinha was remembered on his 78 th birth day at Divyashram, West Kachudharam on January 3, 2014 with a daylong programme including cultural shows. Poet Brojendra Sinha and fiction writer Prof. Smriti Kumar mesmerized the capacity crowd with their skilful arguments based only on reasons on linguistics relating to the Bishnupriya Manipuri language. While the poet questioned the rationale behind the campaign against the honour “Jatir Janak” given to Dr Sinha by as many as many as five organizations, the fiction writer dared Prof. Birendra Sinha to come clear on his stand that the Bishnupriya Manipuri language has come from Sanskrit via Shouroshreni prakrit and that the people who had accompanied Brabrubahana on his homecoming from Hastina. Prof. Sinha is of the view that the time scale never backs both the stands of the scholar (Prof. Birendra Sinha). He clearly spells out that either any of the two standpoints of the scholar is wrong, or both are wrong. What, ...

Dr. Krishnadas Sinha Sastri awarded Dr. Ambedkar Fellowship National Award-2013

Dr. Krishnadas Sinha Sastri, a senior civil service officer of Tripura holding the post of Commissioner of Departmental Inquiries under General Administration (Administration Reforms) Department , Govt. of Tripura has been awarded Dr. Ambedkar Fellowship National Award-2013 on 12th Dec, 2013 in Delhi by the Bharatiya Dalit Sahitya Akademi in 29th National Conference of Dalit Writers. The said conference was held at Panchsheel Ashram, Jharoda village near Burari by pass, Ring Road, Delhi-84, where writers, scholars and social workers were honoured by Dr. Ambedkar National/ International Awards for their upliftment work of downtrodden . Dr. Sinha was awarded the aforesaid National Fellowship Award in recognition of his research type of literary work and promoting social and cultural empathetic services of the backward people like Bishnupriya Manipuri and other downtrodden community. He was selected for such national award in 2012 but he could not attend on account of his pre-occupied a...