Big Boys play at night

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India's northeast, like the rest of the nation, seems to be hit by the IPL virus. In Thomas Freidman's flat world, IPL, the pundits tell us, is a genuine global brand India has produced; it is creating opportunities for thousands and cricket, like always, is building bridges. So for the "strangers of the mist"-the northeastern states-to be part of this truth is probably to be part of a wider acceptance of their Indian identity. Local papers in Assam were happy with double columns on a young cricketer who is now part of the IPL gravy train. Not just Assam, which many think is closer to the mainstream anyway. On a visit to Mizoram in 2008, I found little boys and girls swearing by the name of Sachin Tendulkar and Mumbai Indians. Yet something seems to be perverse with this cricket league. The perversion has nothing to do with the format....

The Phantom of the Opera

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Current Scenario "I am neither in the dark, nor in the knowhow, I am somewhere in-between", was Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi's response when I asked him about the coordinates of Arabinda Rajkhowa. This was two days before Rajkhowa was handcuffed and produced at a Guwahati Court on December 5. Over the last few weeks, conspiracy theories, plots and sub-plots about the status of one of India's most wanted militants - Arabinda Rajkhowa, chairman of the banned militant outfit, United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), have been flying thick and fast and from all quarters. One was made to believe that he was willing to talk peace, to put an end to the three-decade-long history of violence in Assam. The prospect of a face-to-face dialogue with the ULFA was, in itself, a significant step forward. It was obvious that something was happening, but there also....

No Time For The Dead

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There is no Northeast beyond Calcutta. That is what many believe and often unfortunately that is what appears to be true. India's Iron Man Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel as the Deputy Prime Minister when informed in 1949 that the "native state" of Manipur might be reluctant to merge fully with the Indian Union came out with the response, "Isn't there a Brigadier in Shillong?" (Baruah: Durable Disorders, OUP). The tone and tenor set by Patel, still rules New Delhi's vision of the Northeastern states and the mainstream Indian perception about the Northeastern States. They are lumped together, all individuality erased when it comes to governance or any other issue be it life, or death. Amidst all the complaints of neglect of the Northeast an unfortunate precedence is being set in the manner India has suddenly started remembering its dead. The context is, of course, the terrorist attacks that took....

Chasing The Old Monk

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Dalai Lama means different things to different people. To some it means that I am a living Buddha, the earthly manifestation of Avolokiteshvara, Bodhisattva of Compassion. To others it means that I am a "god-king". During the late 1950s it meant that I was a Vice President of The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China. Then when I escaped into exile, I was called a counter-revolutionary and a parasite. But none of these are my ideas. To me 'Dalai Lama' is a title that signifies the office I hold. I myself am just a human being, and incidentally a Tibetan, who chooses to be a Buddhist monk. Freedom In Exile--Dalai Lama In March 1959, a new batch of IFS probationers were escorted by K Natwar Singh for a meeting with Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in South Block. Midway the meeting stopped.....

On the margin

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Sirajuddin Ahmed does not believe in votes. Last time he stood in a queue to vote was on February 14, 1983. Four days after that Ahmed's parents and two of his daughters were killed and his wife's hands were chopped off because they went out to vote. Ahmed speaks very slowly. His words almost come out in slow motion. He is unsure about his age. "I think 65 or 70", he says. "I will show you the place where they killed everyone because they went out to vote against the boycott call given by the All Assam Students' Union. They came at 8 am and it went on till 4 pm." I was with Sirajuddin at the killing fields of Nellie. A quiet village in Assam that shot into unwanted prominence after 3,000 men, women and children were killed by a rampaging mob. Muslims in Nellie were killed because....

States too distant to remember?

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MANIPUR: You can never douse a flame by putting a cloth over it, the cloth itself will burn - Manipuri saying On October 17, 2008, I received a phone call from Bijoykrishna Aribam, a freelance journalist in Manipur. In a barely audible voice, he told me that 17 people had been killed in a terror attack in Imphal, Manipur's capital. Very few people in the country got to know about this attack. Over the past five decades, virtually every state in India's Northeast has witnessed the emergence of powerful militias to contest the Indian state's narrative of socio-economic progress and integrating the margins into the "national mainstream." Implementation of measures, such as the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) (1958) which gives security forces the authority to use lethal force and legal immunity from independent investigation of their actions, have done little to improve the situation in....

Still crazy after all these years

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Just a few days back some of my friends and I were at the Manas Sanctuary in the Assam-Bhutan border. We were staying at a forest bungalow on the banks of the Beki river that flows from Bhutan. There are 64 tigers in Manas. They proved elusive but a large number of water buffaloes, bisons, elephants, sambars, barking deer and peacocks could be spotted. The bungalow staff were happy to receive us. Yet within them there was some nervousness. One morning when the smell of fresh paint managed to navigate my Otrivin-fed nostrils, that anxiety struck home. "Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi is to arrive in Mathanguri," said the ranger. The poor ranger had shrunk in anxiety, possibly at the thought of the bungalow overhaul that needed to be done before the arrival of the lord and master, the Chief Minister. Mr Gogoi, the Chief Minister of Assam for more than....

Modi Madness

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We...bow to him ...with the manly, unbroken pride of the ancient Norsemen who stand upright before their Germanic feudal lord. We feel that he is greater than all of us, greater than you and I. He is the instrument of the Divine Will that shapes history with fresh, creative genius." The Rise And Fall of the Third Reich---William L Shirer Narendra Modi will either win or lose Gujarat elections. But win or lose, he will surely be there to influence what India thinks today. Many think, Modi has ideas and Modi has vision. These are attributes often absent in many leaders. At the National Development Council in New Delhi Modi was very clear that India knocking on 2008 should talk about economic criteria not religion. His presentation was that of a man who knows his economics. He was hitting out at Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh's plans to....

The genius of Euler

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If you are a nerd, you probably know why, this year, it's cool to celebrate April 15 in Basel town of Switzerland. Not that if you are not a nerd, you do not celebrate the birth of mathematician Leonhard Euler in Switzerland, 300 years ago. Euler according to some is the Mozart of mathematics. Another group might just think he's the Elvis. So what did Euler do? It's the dumbest question to ask. It's almost like asking so what did Elvis do/or say Mozart did or say what did Einstein do or what does Naomi Campbell do? Opinion polls across the world on Physics' greatest equation ranks Einstein's e=mc2 to be the number 1 on the charts. Always. In Mathematics, it's Euler's beautiful equation, which is always either number 1 or number 2. Please google his equation. According to some his equation reaches down to the very depth of our....

The 'Bankim' test

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Remember the Tebbit Test? In 1990 British Politician Norman Tebbit proposed the Cricket test that told the ethnic minorities in United Kingdom they wouldn't be considered truly British until they supported the English cricket team when it played the country of their origin. So if you are a "Paki" ( Indians, Pakistanis or Bangladeshi) you have to cheer for Michael Collingwood over Inzamam or Rahul Dravid. HRD Minister Arjun Singh's grand idea to celebrate 100 years of Vande Mataram reminds me in strange ways of the Tebbit Test. The BJP wants everyone to sing. The Congress says it's not compulsory. What's the difference? Can anyone tell? First one proposes this grand idea of singing a song and then says it's not complusory. That in no way helps anyone. Because by that time everyone has hijacked your idea. People at the receiving end are those who hardly have a voice--economically....