1 Katha Land and Siddhant's "Fiiz"

The other day I was very upset at the family of our maid. They have been staying at our Company B’low maid’s quarter for some generations.  I was angry that in spite of volunteering to bear all the education expenses, their both children have stopped going to school. The only profession they will take up is either B’low gardener or maid and the continue to live in the quarters of B’low servants followed by untimely death out of heavy drinking and smoking.

This morning, read Akhil Gogoi has vowed to stop Rahul from entering Guwahati as long as land allotment to the landless people is not done. I have been a fan of Akhil all along as with self less devotion, he has exposed corruption and limitation of Administration. But allotting land to the landless people in the wasteland and Hills, an issue I couldn’t support. Will not this result in more of encroachment  and ring the death knell of a city already suffocating?

Millions of hectares of Land, you kept unused for the people from Bangladesh to occupy. If you look at those land and its inhabitant today, you will be amazed by the prosperity those people have achieved -be it agriculture, pisciculture or education. In contrast, look at the plight of the so called indigenous people - shouting for one Katha land allotment at the Dispur Last gate.

All I can say- you deserve to be landless, weak and get trampled.

      

******************

I have been “Papu”, “papla”, “Paputa” or even “ puppy” to our two year old younger son  Siddhant. Now he has a new word in his vocabulary as I heard him calling me “Paputa .. fiiz, fiiz.... ahana”. Needed some time to beak the code of “fiiz”. It was “please”.

With the addition of this new word in his armory, it  will be even more difficult for me not to allow  him ti indulge all the forbidden activities by his Mama. 

You can contact Kamaljit at kamaljitmedhi1975@gmail.com

On Valentine’s Day, to all the Moral Police with love

Finally Valentine’s Day, 2014 has arrived, a much revered day for the couples in love. Equally enthusiastic will be the hordes of morale police who remind me to our days in Hostel at Engineering College when almost all the discussions with friends somehow got deviated towards the girls. Hours of precious time were spent on discussing various juicy subjects of little value. Then all of a sudden, we find one of our regular members starts skipping the adda on account of his new found status of being “engaged” leaving us, the singles, high and dry. Out of sheer envy, we started discussing on foolishness on the part of our friend to be engaged with such a girl who would totally ruin him. This followed by our  honest attempts to save our friend from the likely spoil.

While the puritans scoff, perhaps, more than any other festivals, Indians should celebrate V-day in the true spirit. Though, the divorce rate in Indian society is still far less than the western compatriot, yet love remains far cry amongst many Indian couples. They simply carry on the relationship for years and in most cases, it is the lady who suffers the most. So increasing divorce rate in India to me is not a mere concern but also reflection of women empowerment and a maturing society. Once they are away from the probing gaze of wives and society, Indian males are equally flirty with piercing eyes.  

If you love someone, there’s no harm on expressing that by holding someone’s hand as long as you maintain decency. Those soft murmuring and loving touch of the loved one  can do wonders to life. If someone wants to re-ignite the long dormant passion and love in this Valentine’s Day, why the morale police should worry much!

And still if you can’t re-ignite, go for a mutually agreed separation, start afresh and go out in search of love. We all live only one single life.

In the Evening Garage Meeting

I got a call from Naba Da, my neighbor at about 8:00 pm last night. He proposed for a standing meeting in the open space in front of our garages to review the preparedness of V-day celebration. Many important decisions of our locality are finalized at this spot like the venue and menu of the next party, script of the Durga Puja drama etc.etc.

Someone cracked a hilarious real life incident on V-day.

One Engineering trainee was undergoing her vocational training in the Refinery. A smart and convent educated girl, she was a little bit more attentive to one particular young and dashing Engineer who happened to be her mentor. We are not sure whether he too enjoyed such special attention.

Those days, V-day celebration was not so common like today. One day, the girl asked her mentor to break the ice – “What do you do in Valentine’s Day ?”

Till then, the young Engineer didn’t hear about St. Valentine. He thought it to be some new Holiday’s declared and so replied

 “ Oh.. Valentine’s Day…We..We go home.”

While his friends preserved this statement for posterity, the girl could realize the futility in pinning her future with  the young engineer.

You can contact Kamaljit at kamaljitmedhi1975@gmail.com

Racial discrimination- some random thoughts

The other day, I stumbled upon a Facebook Update of one of my colleagues cum friends. The friend has asked the people of North East to rise against the “mainstream Indian” or “mainstream Assamese” with tit for tat attitude for their continued apathy towards the indigenous people of North East (read as “Non-Mainstream Assamese). My friend, who is prone to such emotional outbreaks, made me ponder over the “Mainstream Assamese” and how do I fit myself into this community. 

My friend’s update reminded me to my Father’s Maternal Uncle, an unknown and unsung face, who met a violent end during the movement for separate statehood for Bodoland . Cladded in a pair of immaculate white Dhoti and Kurta, Father’s Uncle (We called him “Aata” meaning Koka in lower Assam) was a true “Bhadralok” (Gentleman). My earliest memories of him are Aata sitting long hours by the side of Grand Mother and both submerged in family discussion. I never heard him ever expressing displeasure or being angry. Aata used to stay in an area marred badly by communal violence. While most of the other people fled the place, Aata (Grandfather) stayed back believing no one would do him  any harm when he had himself not committed anything against anyone. His belief was utterly wrong. His title “Biswasi” was enough to justify some heinous minds to commit the unthinkable.

I was very young at that time and as usual I was burning with rage at the anonymous killer of Aata. Passing years have soothed my rage and perhaps I will spare the killer if I come face to face someday. I learnt to believe that more than the killer, the system that produced the killer is required to be nailed first. For that reason only , I become panicky, when I see educated people fail to ooze out wisdom out of their education and fall into the trap of mob psyche. We had many who once saw rays of hope with the armed struggle of Assam. Many of them today are obsessed with a new Political party in India whose USP is sheer anarchism and gimmickry.

The racial attack against the people of North East is not new. The cause is not lack of policing which some Kejriwal wants us to believe. You can’t depute one policeman after each and every citizen. The large Mongoloid population of North East doesn’t share a common History and culture with the mainstream India. The successive governments missed the important steps of national integration by keeping people of India unaware about North East. That’s the reason Lachit or Chilarai is not an Indian hero though their military pursuits can far outshine many great historical warriors and household names in other parts of India. Not many outside Assam are perhaps aware about the mighty Ahoms, who stopped the Moghul’s reach to China through Assam. But I see a silver lining when Delhi Minister Manish Sisodia states that North east must be included in the syllabus of our future generation. There is no better way to make North East acceptable to the rest of India that teaching the children about the diversity of our country. The onus of National integration lies more on the rest of India than the people of North East.

The University of Banglore has come out with an idea against racism which is nothing but short of rational thinking . The University wants to build a dedicated hostel for the students of North East to protect them from racial abuses. Don’t know how such fertile idea crop up in people’s mind ! North East must go outside the periphery of North East the way rest of India should come to North East unlike the yearly rituals of  Republic Day parade. Efforts to keep  its people isolated, will cause more harm than any good for sure.

When my sons Hrishikesh and Siddhant grow up, I wish them to grow up as a good Indian Citizen in the midst of other Indian students but never in a place exclusively reserved for the people of North East.
 

You can contact Kamaljit at kamaljitmedhi1975@gmail.com