Fond of playing the pepa with the bihu orchestra group, Dhiran Kalita never thought that one day he would have to move away from his village Raha and settle in Guwahati city. Performing bihu dance and playing the pepa still excites him. But he finds a tremendous change occurring among the young children today. He sees that his own children are not interested in enjoying the traditional bihu dance and the music. Today for many young boys and girls like Kalita’s children bihu is just a ‘local holiday’ to relax and reconcile at home and play computer games. Bihu is the most integral part of the...

I still remember that I had my first mobile phone connection done in just one rupee. Reliance had offered connections at one rupee to lure customers. That time all my friends, relatives, neighbours had a Reliance connection. Today, Reliance Communications, or RCOM as it is known now, probably has the largest network coverage area in the Northeast. But as far as the service is concerned it will be wise not to comment anything because the customer care people here are always busy attending calls. Few months back I was using the Bol India Bol plan of Reliance because the outgoing calls were free...

Cellphones had always fascinated me as a teenager. So I wanted one the day I finished with my Class XII board exams. My father took me to a Nokia Priority Dealer and asked me to choose a handset. But there was none of my choice and therefore I decided to opt for a Samsung mobile. And I landed up buying a stylish sliding Samsung mobile (D840). My father was not very happy with my choice for he prefers only Nokia phones, as though others are not very trendy. A month after I got my cell I left for Delhi with my parents on a vacation. One fine day while we were on our way to Haridwar I found that...