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| Two girls sip coconut water on a sultry day in Guwahati. Picture by Eastern Projections |
Manipur chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh has a piece of advice for singers and lyricists: use words very carefully while penning and singing patriotic songs so that sentiments of the various communities in the state are not hurt.
The advice came after the chief minister heard a patriotic song at the Khongjom Day function organised by the state government on April 234 to pay homage to the heroes of the Anglo-Manipuri War.
After a local group presented the inaugural song, paying tribute to ?Meitei patriots,? Ibobi Singh opened his presidential speech by saying that it would not be proper to call all the Anglo-Manipuri war heroes Meitei patriots. ?There were also people belonging to other communities who fought against the British. They fought not for the Meiteis but for all the communities in Manipur. So calling them Manipuri patriots would be the proper term,? the chief minister said evoking a thunderous applause from the audience. ?Paying tributes to a particular community would hurt the sentiments of other groups.?
God has his unique way of devising punishment for those who deserve it the most. Recently, some highway robbers learnt the lesson the hard way.
Two of them fell off a cliff near Laitkor under the Madanriting police station in Meghalaya and were killed. Five others, however, escaped unhurt only to land in police custody. The incident occurred when the group of seven made an abortive attempt to loot trucks plying on the Shillong-Jowai Highway. At a secluded stretch, near Laitkor, the group laid a trap for unsuspecting truck drivers. While some lay in the middle of the road pretending to be very sick, the others crowded around blocking the road. As the seven robbers were enacting their little charade, two trucks arrived and the drivers, along with their handymen, got down to enquire whether they could offer any help. The apparently sick men were instantly on their feet and attacking them. One of the drivers, however, managed to flee from the brigands? clutches informed the local people about the attack. On seeing the villagers, the robbers fled. However, in their attempt to flee under cover of darkness, two fell off a cliff and were killed on the spot, while the others managed to escape. The remaining five robbers were later arrested.
Nagaland governor Shyamal Datta is considered being an ?active? governor if not an activist. Consistently meeting people and visiting people, the governor is rather prone to disappoint people or officials who have to follow him and live up to protocol. This week, however, he drew flak from little children. The school education department had arranged an interaction with students at the Raj Bhawan. The department?s circular, though, did not specify who should be attending. Consequently, a teacher from one of the schools brought along students of Class V. Apparently, Datta was not quite expecting it. As he entered the Durbar Hall, where the students were waiting, he showed his surprise at the presence of little children. He asked them to ?go out?, sources said. Disappointed, some of the little visitors started weeping. Later, the former intelligence bureau chief came under fire from school authorities as well as parents who could not take the insult. However, official sources insisted the governor was ?polite?. Meeting people is certainly a hazard, especially if one is not a politician.
The land of the rising sun, Arunachal Pradesh, had yet another moment to rejoice. Moh Mol, the principal of all annual festivals of the Tangsa community, was celebrated recently at Changlang with traditional gaiety and fervour. Moh Mol is basically an agrarian festival signifying the end of agricultural activity and beginning of the harvest season.
The Tangsas offered prayers for prosperity during the festivities, which inspires the younger generations every year to inherit, protect and preserve their customs and traditions.
Speaking on the occasion, the local MLA, P. Khimhun the collective efforts of the volunteers in organising the festival.
Fans of popular singer Shaan were left high and dry in Nagaon, Assam, recently when a socio-cultural organisation duped the people in the name of hosting a show of the singer.
The organisers had, reportedly, entered into a deal with the Bollywood singer for a performance in Nagaon on April 24.
Accordingly the organisers were asked to remit advances, which they failed to provide.
The organisers nonetheless went about selling tickets and collected over Rs 20 lakh from the people of Nagaon, Morigaon, Lumding and Hojai.
Unaware that the show had been cancelled, an enthusiastic crowd turned up on the D-day and after waiting for a long time realised that they had been duped.
The irate public are now demanding that the organisers be brought to book.
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In Manipur, traditionally, it is the women who take the lead in the fight against injustice. Living up to their reputation, a group of women staged a novel form of protest against the all-too-frequent bandhs in the state.
?Fed up? with bandhs, general strikes and economic blockades, a large number of women, mostly housewives from Singjamei in Imphal, brought out their kitchenware and utensils on the main road and blocked the road on the second day of a weeklong general strike called by a militant group in support of the demand for replacement of Bengali script with Meitei Mayek.
One disgusted protester said, ?Frequent bandhs only result in robbing the poor, who live hand to mouth, of their earnings. These bandhs hardly affect the government, so what is the point in calling bandhs??
