We have seen two, virtually spontaneous, bandhs in the Northeast in the days just gone by. One was a relatively-short 12-hour Assam bandh called in protest against the letting off of the accused in the botched-up Parag Das murder case. The other was a much more gruelling 48-hour bandh called in Manipur over the cold-blooded, fake encounter of a former militant. Bandhs have been so rampant in the Northeast in the last 20 or so years that people have become inured to them. And bandhs, more often than not, are a success without the advocates of the bandhs having to drum up much support for them...

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...