Journey of women through the heart of Assam across the banks of Brahmaputra is indeed an interesting one. It is a journey of knowing the length and breadth of the nooks and corners of the country at one go. Baatein Aman Ki or Peace Conversations is such a process which engages people, institutions and organisations to explore ways of understanding each other. It involves communities, people, women, activists, academicians and students to uphold the values of peace, co existence, harmony and democracy. This journey begins on Sept 22 and extends till October 13. It will be starting from Jorhat then go to Kaziranga, Tezpur, Nagaon, Guwahati, Bongaigaon, Gossaigaon and Kokrajhar before moving to Alipurduar. It has music, songs, stories, theatre, arts, culture and social awareness of engaging with cultures across the country. Why is it important to listen to the women and others who are not in positions of power and dominant political affiliations? Who is listening and who is creating this atmosphere to hear and be heard?
In a constitutional democracy of the country it becomes extremely important to share one’s story of trials and triumphs which has shaped the women as they are today. Sometimes we wonder why there is a culture of silence when it comes to women voicing their views and opinions in both public and private spaces. Women are always expected to be someone who she hardly identifies with. Her essence is always rooted with the family, community, culture and gendered perceptions revolving around her existence. Wonder if at all women have her own views and opinions beyond the strictures of norms associated with her bondages of life and living. In this journey will the conversations be stories of difference or commonalities or will they be stories of collective joys and sorrows which never find any public space otherwise. Should women be only speaking about her maladies or does she have to represent the medley of momentary pleasures? Women have played many roles of being spectators, inspirers, nurturers and recipients of the political, economic, social and cultural ecology of the idea of Assam in particular. Are they simply mouthpieces of larger interest specific agendas or are they really engaging with their issues of resilience and inequalities.
Peace conversation is indeed a journey of sharing the idea of peace amidst extreme intolerance, insensitivity, misogyny and hate where people become their own enemies. It entails a journey of ideas and identities which does not reach the podiums, platforms, dais, pulpits and sacred spaces otherwise. It generates a discussion around how the constitution of India translates to each and every person who identifies with the access, abilities and ambit of this dynamic document. Peace Conversation makes an attempt to set on a journey of living democracy through the ripples of hope, peace, equality and social justice. It engages with both public and private spaces where people tries to understand each other’s actions, limitations and strengths in drawing the dynamic idea of being part of a democratic nation like India. Can this journey of women from across the country really endure the bruises of indifference and ignorance which affects hazardous assumptions in a multicultural society like Assam? It is indeed a journey of her stories which are charted through the wheels of reaching out to the unseen contours of the state represented in many pockets through a confluence of communities working towards democracy, peace and coexistence. The journey begins from September 22 at Jorhat press club and moves to Kaziranga at Bokakhat field and then starts from Tezpur at Puruwa on September 23 and moves to Nagaon at Kamala Todi Bhavan and reaches Guwahati. It starts again on September 24 from Guwahati at CBCNEI Mission Compound at Panbazar and moves to Bongaigaon and reaches Kokrajhar on September 25 and moves to Alipurduar on September 25. Do join this journey of peace and democracy at any of these locations and talk about peace.
1 Oct 2015 - 9:31pm | AT News Itanagar
Arunachal Pradesh governor JP Rajkhowa on Thursday reviewed law and order in view of the Supreme Court’s recent judgment concerning settlement and grant of citizenship to the Chakma-Hajong refugees...
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Hardly a week after his patch-up with chief minister Tarun Gogoi, Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma is desperately trying to refurbish his image with a slew of measures to jack up the ruling party.Dr Sarma who...
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CID will probe the Sarita Toshniwal murder cases in AMCH. This was what Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma announced on Sunday when the health minister visited the state’s first medical college three days after...
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“The company of students are the driving force of my life and teachers are a kind of psychiatrist as dealing with scores of students they become acquainted with human psychology” said Professor...
On a Saturday afternoon I rushed to watch a much-awaited film called Emuthi Puthi in Guwahati. The best part was that it was running in the nearest movie theatre for a reasonable price of Rs. 100. I had already met the whole team of actors and directors at Tezpur University council hall when they came for their promotions. The film had hilarious moments of fun and entertainment throughout. It was a journey of salvation through fish for one generation, while it was a way of getting out of the country to fetch an American dream for another generation. Women are the protagonists whose trials and tribulations compel them to move into this journey of life and death. The travels around the...
Elections have become the T-20 matches these days. Everyone is busy with balancing equations with religious, class, regional, ethnic, traditional lineages. Today our household voting practice started with the staff seeking leave from work to vote for the 1st time in life. One is 18 and the other 22. Rushing home to cast their 1st votes. One friend went to his hometown in the 1st phase of voting. His ailing mother, caregiver wife and young daughters could not vote. Only one vote was registered. Another neighbour went home in Darrang to cast her vote. Voter information is defined by the symbols that they would cast their vote on. Whom to vote is a big question for Assam assembly elections....
New manifesto shared by women's groups in Assam is significant. Political assertion through women's collective efforts needs to be incorporated across diverse leadership agendas of social, cultural and political leadership in Assam. When women are discussed as sex objects on stage, pitied as battered persons in news, projected as mere cultural symbols of tradition and heritage during events and defeated as useless leaders in crucial decision making institutions and organisations, women need to assert their presence, participation and perspectives. Sometimes one realises when March 8 is celebrated across the world to endorse vaginal solidarity. With the pandemic times, such solidarity...
We have been residents of Guwahati a city in the making. Its a city of rivers, drains and hilly streams all woven together in a fascinating ecology of hill and valley. Our locality receives annual flash floods during the monsoon months of May till September and remains dry during the other months of the year. We live with respected elite citizens with academic, business, bureaucratic, political, social and cultural affiliations. Our house happens to be a centre of many things like trees, flowers, birds, cats, snails, earthworms, vegetables, grasses of diverse varieties and also water supply lines, floods and three electricity lines which connects the neighbours electricity supply too. We...
Age is celebrated in Assam. People live their life fully through their ageism. Patriarchal ageism goes beyond gender. Any gender might practice ageism. People like to be ageing genders. Owning, patronising, controlling, oppressing and bullying are some of the consequences of ageism. If you are adulting, ageing and male you can earn maximum previlege as an ageist. Some of the classic ageist remarks,"Bura baapekor uporot kotha nokobi." 'Do not talk on top of an old father.' "Ami bohut thair pani khaisu nohoi amatke besi jano niki?" 'We have drunk water from many places, do you know more than us?' "Ajikalir deka tezor bor dom ami nu kun kuta." 'Nowadays young blood has too much power we are...
Covid 19 pandemic has opened up many truths around us. One such truth about our city is the growth of vendors and hawkers who visit our homes, byelanes or localities even during covid times. Only voices sometimes one could hear during home quarentine and lockdown periods were that of vegetable, fish, chicken vendors. Earlier we used to hear 'Dorupay wala' vendors from Bihar and UP with all kinds of utility products in dirt cheap prices and mekhela sador selling vendors during the flood season mostly from flood affected districts of Dhemaji and Lakhimpur. But these days we hear about spice sale, food item sale, delivery staff from various companies like swiggy, zomato and all food joints...
I am 71 years old now since I felt free from being a colony. I have travelled through waves of troubled existence and silent deaths in the last 71 years. Today at the threshold of being free and fair I have many thoughtful reflections. Do I celebrate the freedom of 71 long years or do I believe in the mirage of being free? I am a country with millions to be precise more than a billion odd persons in diverse contexts. My progress lies with the progress of these people and all others around me. My ecological existence is getting very diverse with changing moments in the history, politics and social relationships around my borders. I have survived a million mutinies which are both violent and...
Last month I travelled to Wakru in Arunachal Pradesh through Tinsukia district of Assam with a bunch of young professors. It was a self-driven ride of about 4 hours from Dibrugarh the second city in Assam. The journey was fascinating as my friends stopped at various points on the way spotting orchids, big trees, abandoned shrines and beautiful rivers. Suddenly my friend would look away from the steering wheel and say, “Look look, look at the pride of those orchids hiding behind the tree branches.” Orchids of different varieties bloom along the roadside in Arunachal Pradesh. There are yellow orchids, white and purple ones called ‘Kopou’ in Assam. There were trees along the highway which had...
My wilderness treks have taken me into some of the most memorable forests in India and abroad. Whether it was the sacred grooves of Mawphlang or the Rhododendron forests of North Sikkim, wild treks through community forests in Nagaland or elephant rides through the rhino, elephant and tiger parks in Assam. I was fascinated by the wilderness of Pench wildlife sanctuary in the border of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, Bharatpur and Sariska in Rajasthan and Bandipur in Karnataka. I was lucky to explore the teak forests in Narmada valley in Madhya Pradesh, hornbill habitats in Sejusa in Arunachal Pradesh, thick forests in Ranikhet, Nainital, Dehradun and Mussouri during the 90s and early 2000s...
In a recent incident of writing my name, a receptionist at the hospital asked for my name in full. After haggling with the convoluted spelling of my name, she reconfirmed Miss or Mrs? I said just write ‘Ms’. She seemed very confused. Her male colleague beside her smirked with a side glance while changing the spelling of my name on the file he was preparing. All other people in the queue who were male looked at me and the receptionist with many questions in their minds. I clarified to the receptionist who seemed like a newly trained hospital staff, about the ‘Ms’ part. Since marital status is not revealed in Mr, why should women reveal their marital status through Miss or Mrs. Then she said...
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