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...

The three-day SMILE Film Festival came to an eventful end on April 26 with an aim of taking some new steps for the development of the youth in the near future. The audience and former members of the SMILE organisation formed a Smile Movie Club at the end of the festival. The Smile Movie Club will be screening various documentary films by conducting youth related events in Northeast to generate social awareness. Students Mobilization Initiative for Learning through Exposure (SMILE) is a youth programme under the aegis of the Indo Global Social Service Society (IGSSS). The film festival was...

Few years back Uday Path, a bylane connected to the Zoo Road was one of the worst lanes in Guwahati. The road was potholed and would turn a muddy stretch during the rainy seasons. There was no proper drainage system and therefore the water could not flow out freely into the main drain along the main road. Moreover, there was always a waterlogging problem in the area. This continued for almost ten long years. Even after repeated complaints and letters to the PWD department nothing truly happened. Finally, the tenants and the flat owners of the Tenement Apartment decided to repair the road all...