“School is for the rich man’s bachaa,” says six-year-old Meenara Begum, her tiny hands busy peeling betel nut. In the Nurul Islam Supari Factory, Meenara is one of the 19 children at work, bread earners of their families. And she isn’t the youngest. Anisur Rahman is four, Sofiqul Islam, five. Ensconced in the dingy shed, it is their world, where a day’s earnings amounts Rs 15; it keeps her alive along with her family, most of whom work as domestic help in the rich man’s house.

The Administrator of the Gauhati Municipal Corporation, Phani Sarma, has a strange way of describing the non-functioning of his department: “the lack of administrative and implementing authority”. Any question that begins “Why is this …” is met with “Sorry I have no information. If you do please tell me …” One does, actually have some: that out of the 800 meat shops in the city, only 150 have licences. Mercifully, that is the only piece of information that Sarma says he has, as well, but, obviously can do nothing about.

Even as the Manik Sarkar-led Left Front government manoeuvres to broadbase the responsibility for getting militants back to the mainstream, the opposition Congress and the Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura (INPT) seem to have pre-empted what may well be the intentions behind Sarkar’s latest move to convince the ultras, this time through statewide all-party peace rallies: a basic game of political one-upmanship.

With the Hindustan Times launching in Guwahati in March this year, the city now publishes seven English dailies, that, along with 13 Assamese, three Bengali and two Hindi papers add up to a total of 25 papers that hit the stands every morning. Waiting in the wings: the Times of India (TOI), that has begun publishing a ‘national edition’ from Calcutta, in what could well be a dry run for a satellite edition of the paper from Guwahati. TOI, it is learnt, is aggressively looking for a business associate in the city.

This time we have rechristened it as "Amerikar Oxomi" to reflect that it is published from the Americas. The magazine will be distributed during
Assam 2003 in St. Louis. It is 62 pages long and has writings by youngsters and adults from around the US, and some from Assam.

There are essays, poems and fiction writings by young Assamese Americans on the pages of Oxomi. There are articles on linguisics, environmental issues related to Assam, Xatriya dance, public service topics, Assamese publications on the Internet and on preserving Assamese hand-written and illustrated manuscripts.

The ruling Democratic Alliance of Nagaland (DAN) has support of 39 MLAs in the House. With reports of the newly formed party offering its support to the DAN, the figure could increase to 46 MLAs. There are 34 ministers in the DAN government.

As part of its efforts in helping the student community of North-East Society for Careeer Orientation & Promotion of Education (SCOPE) organized a career counseling session for students seeking admission in Delhi University. The session was conducted by professors Dr Ratnadeb Sarma (Rajdhani college) and Debashree Goswami (Hindu College) on 22nd June, 2003 at the centrally located Assam Bhavan, New Delhi. The session began with an introductory note by the Secretary, spelling out the aims and objectives of the NGO.

Essentially a philanthropic project, this school is the first of its kind in the North East. All group schools throughout the country are controlled by a trust.

The state-of-the-art school, a Rs.10 crore project, is likely to be completed in phases over the next 3 years.

St. Louis, MO, USA: Amid great enthusiasm, festivity and delicious cuisine of Assam, the Assamese community of North America held their annual get-together, the Assam 2003, to celebrate their heritage of Assamese language and culture, in St. Louis, coinciding with the US Independence Day celebrations as well as the bicentennial commemoration of the expedition by Lewis & Clark into America's Midwest over the Missouri-Mississippi river.

It’s hot as hell and it’s called bhoot jolokia to boot, jolokia being chilly in Assamese. And she not just eats it but rubs it, quite liberally, in her eyes as well. Anandita Dutta of the Titabor sub-division in Jorhat district in Upper Assam is all set to become news, the 21-year-old being invited by Guiness Records Ltd to set what could be a record in the consumption of the ‘highest number of chillies in a minute’. ”I can eat a 100 chillies in 60 seconds,” says Anandita.

Far from being an exercise in updating democracy, the proposed delimitation of Manipur’s 60 assembly constituencies is beginning to show the effect that was expected of it in the first place: that of further dividing the state’s two main communities, the Manipuris and the Nagas, who have for long been ethnically polarised.

And the list of such ‘employers’ is gradually increasingly, stretching between a much-hyped call centre set up by the North Eastern Development Finance Corporation (NEDFi), and the medical transcription centre of Hindustan Computers Limited (HCL) which left people without paying their salaries and basic facilities such as food and pick up.

The state government has taken necessary steps in order to give a new lease of life to the Assam Syntex Limited (ASL), a spinning mill industry in the public sector situated at Nathkuchi near here and it has naturally created a jubiliant atmosphere in and around the area besides making its more than five hundred employees joyful. Unfortunately the industry remained closed for long nine years back.

It ranges between an editor of a "national" daily wanting to see ULFA camps in Shillong in the early '90s, to Swami Dayanand Saraswati of Coimbatore saying a few months ago in Guwahati, in what seemed to be his perception of the Nagas' eating habits, that he had heard that their state didn't even have crows, to Union minister of state for home Swami Chinmayanand calling for Naga unity, in Arunachal, a few days back.

It is the sad story of a former student of Cotton College
who is eager to continue
her higher education in Chennai. She recently completed her 12th
class requirements from Cotton College. In Chennai, it is customary to produce a transfer certificate to obtain admission in any institute of higher study. This certificate simply contains the name of the student,

Sir/Madam,

Today Assam is facing a critical situation because of floods. The Assam Association, Mumbai is collecting funds for medicines clothes and other basic needs for the flood affected people. I wish to appeal to all Assamese people of America to kindly donate cheques in the name of The Assam Association Mumbai as early as possible, all donations will be sent to NGOs who will be directly invloved with the relief activities.

The receipt will be sent by courier against the cheques.

Cheques may be sent to the following address:-

President

This isn’t tourist time in Kaziranga, and the picture nowhere close to being as green as it is meant to be. It’s time to count the dead. With the water level receding in the past three days (that would be a moment’s respite before the second, third, fourth and fifth waves come in), the staff at the Kaziranga National Park (KNP) is gearing up to assess the extent of damage, so far: it includes, among others, 36 animals dead, and a completely destroyed network of roads.

Chief Minister Okram Ibobi today escaped an attack by suspected militants of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in the state’s Thoubal district, even as two security personnel were killed when the militants launched a second attack, this time on the police commando team that pursued the militants from the scene of the first incident. The chief minister was on his way back to Imphal after inspecting a dam site in the Salungpham area in the district.

“I have always told every person who has coached Baichung that his header is the strongest weapon in his arsenal,” says Karma P. Bhutia, superintending engineer at the state Transport Department, and Baichung’s mentor. And, it was a header in the 54th minute in East Bengal’s quarter finals clash against Indonesia’s second-best club, Persita Tangerang, that eventually took his club into the semis of the LG Asean Club Championship that East Bengal went on to win, in glorious style.