TURA: An international webinar, thematised on ‘Sajinma-sagop (pandemic): COVID-19 and Culture’, was organised by the Department of English, Don Bosco College, Tura, on Monday, in which as many as 450 participants from six countries took part presenting their views, research and findings.
The convener of the international webinar, also the chairperson of the session, Dr Barbara S Sangma, HoD, Department of English, explained that ‘Sajinma-sagop’ is the Achikku or Garo phrase for pandemic. Thus, the compound word means a great number of people succumbing to sickness one after the other or at the same time and the resultant death.
Resource persons for the webinar were Prof Kailash Chandra Baral, who superannuated from English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad and Prof Jyotirmoy Prodhani from North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong, who gave their inputs about the present pandemic scenario and ways to combat it. The sessions enlightened the participants and also threw a challenge to them, calling forth for individual and collective response.
Don Bosco College principal, Fr Bivan Rodriques Mukhim welcomed the participants from abroad and India and expressed his great sense of joy and satisfaction to see that time of lockdown is being used to learn in very effective ways, about the cause of the lockdown and to ponder about the way forward.
In the course of the webinar, a book on poetry with the title ‘String in a Lute’ was released by Fr Mukhim.
The poetry book is a compilation of forty (40) poems by Dr Barbara S Sangma. The book is the first complete poetry book in English composed and published by a Garo.