Litterateurs in the making
One of the complaints of parents today is that kids don’t read enough and only write when they are compelled to.
The two-day Junior Calm Festival organised in the city would have calmed the nerves of most jittery parents who wish their kids would give vent to their hidden creative talents.
Sambha Lamar of BookMark whose Calm festival is much talked about has taken an excellent initiative in hosting the Junior Calm Fest. It is an earnest effort to inculcate creative writing and tease out those childhood fancies before they are hardened into adult cynicism.
Modern day kids spend so much time in the virtual world just staring at the screen and allow the computer to do the thinking for them. The Junior Calm brings kids back to imagining things and constructing narratives of their own by looking at the world through their own prisms.
Governor Dr KK Paul’s message on imbibing the reading habit; the paintings on display and other competitions held as a part of the event were a welcome break. They gave the kids a respite from their IPads and mobile phones on which they seem to hang on for dear life.
However, the festival could have been better timed. With most schools closed for the winters and some students still writing their final examinations the attendance at the event left much to be desired. Nevertheless, the organisers deserve their share of applause for the two-day extravaganza. Well Done BookMark!
The red beacon and academia
On Sunday December 15, evening a vehicle bearing No ML 05 G 0536, emblazoned with the NEHU insignia on the number plate was on its way from Guwahati to Shillong. The vehicle with a red beacon fitted on top speeded through and overtaking many less significant vehicles.
Anyone taking note of this would believe that the worthy occupant of the vehicle was in some emergency or had to catch up with an important engagement (on a Sunday?). After the recent Supreme Court ruling that literally rapped the Government and other hoity-toity institutions on the knuckles for this unnecessary display of power, one would have thought that the first to take note of the apex court’s ruling would be those in academia who everywhere else are classed as Left Liberals shunning any kind of pomp and show.
Evidently the North Eastern Hill University’s top honchos don’t believe in moderation. They probably feel they are equivalent to those holding constitutional posts. In a sense, the top profs of NEHU might be cerebrally way ahead of MLAs and ministers but whether their position demands that they get the right of way over other mortals is a matter of academic debate.
Quotable quotes from social media
Social media is abuzz with reactions against the recent bandh with some even lambasting the Government and its bureaucrats for failing to challenge bandh callers.
Here are some of the excerpts from the Facebook pages.
GJ: Why does the govt not come in the front to ensure that the bandhs don’t get enforced..
HW: I worked in Duliajan, Assam 6 years and now in Arunachal for 3 years and I learn a lot about people and religions. If 30% of locals join central jobs, 30% state jobs will be vacant for our people. This is more patriotic
VK: I have never seen a state where all other ministers are ‘mum’ and only the chief minister speaks. I have worked in Andhra Pradesh where if someone calls a bandh the Chief Secretary and DGP would call a joint press conference and urge people to defy the bandh and also muster public confidence
AKB: When you do not have enough support to take out a procession or demonstrate like Anna Hazare used to do, you can easily resort to a bandh with a bit of sporadic violence. The state needs to understand that these are signs of weakness and not of strength.
But sadly here in Meghalaya even the political parties do not have demonstrable support. The small section dominating all institutions, civil and otherwise makes consensual dominance possible.
Everyone can afford to ignore the large rural masses whose agricultural products like vegetables rot during bandhs because they are unorganised.
And of course the poor daily wage earner is not a human being so far as a large majority of the urban educated middle classes cushioned with the principle of privatization of public funds, are concerned.
Only those who have our life style are human beings like us; rest are dispensable beings. What a great democracy!
AT: So there are under cover dealings! Are only marriage parties important? Don’t daily bread earners, labourers, sick who cannot afford ambulances, common folks, students, relatives who want to visit ill in hospital and the like who suffer silently due to bandhs not matter? The church does not speak for the voiceless and stand for the weak. It prefers partying. It should have simply defied the bandh call. What about the voices of defiance against the HNLC recently? A one off show? A defiance against a ‘dead’ Bangladesh based outfit? Against pro-ILP groups no one dares? Double standard is perhaps too strong a word!
YM: Govt of Meghalaya has given my Organisation a deadline till Jan 10, 2014 to start 3 skill development centres in Jowai, Nongpoh and Tura to train 300 students and provide them jobs. Since my support staff are mostly from mainland, I am worried about their security.
I am also looking for local employees to fill the gap and do most of the project implementation. Can the Govt of Meghalaya/ protesting bodies give us identification tools (like baloons) which will help us to carry out our project without much hindrance?
PB: Today it’s gas balloons and the weddings go ahead: tomorrow it will be proof of citizenship on each car or no wedding.
RD: Interesting, how “secular” politics works in some of the states…