Society / Assam

GUWAHATI, Feb 3 ? The Bodo Sahitya Sabha (BSS) has expressed serious concern over the apathetic attitude of the government of Assam towards the Bodo medium schools and other educational institutions having Bodo courses. In an interview with The Assam Tribune here, BSS president Brojendra Kumar Brahma lamented that despite repeated requests, the State government has not filled up the posts of teachers in Bodo medium schools and even the posts, which fell vacant due to retirement of teachers were not filled up. He revealed that a good number of colleges in the State do not have teachers for Bodo...

GUWAHATI, Feb 3 ? What appeared impossible even two years back, has been made possible by the Asam Sahitya Sabha under the stewardship of noted litterateur, journalist Homen Borgohain. The Sabha has completed publication of the 5,000-page five volumes of the Asamiya Biswakosh (the Assamese encyclopedia) within a time frame of less than two years. The fourth ? folk literature and world literature, and, the fifth ? Indian literature, volumes of the encyclopedia were released at a function at the Rabindra Bhawan here by noted philologist Dr Golok Goswami this afternoon.

Earlier, on December 1...

Guwahati, Jan. 31: For thousands of years, countless devotees have walked down the cobbled steps to reach the sanctum sanctorum of the Kamakhya temple to pay obeisance to the goddess. But from now on, pilgrims will not be allowed to break a coconut at the altar of the goddess or light incense sticks inside the main temple.

Threat to the structure of the temple due to vibrations, smoke and harmful chemicals ? pointed out by the Archaeological Survey of India ? have prompted the temple authorities to impose a ?ban? on breaking of coconuts and lighting of incense sticks inside the sanctum...

Guwahati, Jan. 29: Seventy-five-year-old Himangshu Sharma will no longer be a lonely man. A retired government official, Sharma can look forward to shifting to the state?s first old-age home coming up here shortly.

Sharma does not mind shelling out a bit of money, provided his stay at the Ambikagiri Memorial Trust Old Age Home is a comfortable one.

The trust, instituted as a public charitable one to cherish the memory of author Ambikagiri Roychoudhury, will build the home in three phases, the first of which will start in April. The home will come up on a plot allotted by the government at...

CHANDUBI, Jan 29 ? Fed up with the secluded life on the uninhabited island of Juan, Fernandez Alexander Selkirk, the explorer and navigator considered his lonely life a curse bereft of society. Pinning to return to the arms of humanity, he admitted , Friendship and Love, Divinely bestowed upon man

........ of a love

........ I taste you again!

Truely. So have the employes of Chandubi tourist lodge. A government job has forced them to stay off the beaten track here at Chandubi. In the solitude of forests they looked unhappy because of unending wait to welcome visitors which was a non-event...

BOGOLAMARI (Goalpara), Jan 29 ? This tiny village, home to barely 2000 people, has suddenly woken up to a new beginning. Till the other day, the people here, almost all tribals, were eking out a living from the fields that yielded just enough to sustain them. Today, they plan to open their doors to tourists from India and abroad who seek the unique. The villagers believe that tourists will bring with them the much needed money to give a push to the local economy.

Bogolamari is 120 km from Guwahati, near Dudhnoi, in Goalpara district. Its population comprises the Bodos, Rabhas, Garos and...

GUWAHATI, Jan 28 ? For more than 50 years, the Village Defence Parties (VDPs) are playing a key role in keeping the crime graph down all over the State and recently the State Government has introduced schemes like giving awards to the best VDP of districts, ex-gratia payments to the next of kin of the VDP men killed by extremists etc to encourage them to put up a better performance. Talking to The Assam Tribune here today, the DIG (Administration) of the Assam police, Sri BJ Mahanta, who is also the chief controller of VDP in Assam, said that the concept of VDPs was first initiated by...

GUWAHATI, Jan 27 ? Maybe it is beyond the understanding of many of our urbanised people. But for most of our village folks, preservation of our cultural heritage is still an obsession. Unlike their little known villages, the reason for this passion of theirs is not obscure. The people of Khaloibari village, about 50 kms east of this capital city, have been preserving the dhulia culture of our society for about 56 years now. They have been practising this form of folk theatre since 1947 and by now they have earned a fame for themselves and for the entire Khetri-Dimaria area too. When the...

NALBARI, Jan 23 ? The internationally acclaimed traditional Japi which is considered a most beautiful item made of bamboo, although has been bearing the self-identity of the Assamese people in the national and international level, this craft has been gasping for breath due to lack of government patronage.

However, the fondness of the people for the Japi craft mostly located in the Nalbari district remains unchanged. The Japi was traditionally used as headgear but with time it found itself as an item of interior decoration for its unparalleled aesthetic appeal. No stage or cultural function...

RAJMAI (Sivasagar), Jan 21 ? The year-long Panidihing Birds? Festival 2003, the first of its kind in India, got-off to a colourful start today with the Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi lighting the ceremonial lamp in the inaugural function at Rajmai, 10 km from Panidihing Birds Sanctuary proper, under the broad wings of a huge bamboo-made image of a Ruddy sheldrake (Tadorna ferruginea) ? the logo of the festival. In his inaugural address Sri Gogoi lauded the effort of the organisers and the local people in and around Panidihing for arousing mass awareness about conservation of nature, especially...