06 April 2010

Manipur Records Highest Rainfall So Far

rain through window Imphal, Apr 6 : The ongoing rainfall in the State is three times higher than that of last year, according to Meteorological (MET) Office sources.

When compared with last year’s record, the ongoing rainfall rate is much higher. The State has recorded around 185.5 mm rainfall till April 2 this year against last year’s 51.1 mm.

Kh Meghachandra Singh, officer in-charge of the MET office Imphal at Tulihal airport, told this reporter that the rainfall now is not unusual. “We experienced a similar rainfall pattern some years back”, the official claimed.

But the continuous rain and thunderstorm which began on March 29 has disturbed the landing of aircraft at the Tulihal airport. An Imphal-bound Indigo aircraft returned to Guwahati without landing here due to low visibility yesterday.

According to MET officials, an aircraft needs clear visibility of not less than 1,500 metres.

Meanwhile, reports of damages caused by hailstones accompanied by strong winds in various parts of the State are pouring in since the past three days. The Government and private NGOs are assessing the damages in order to prepare a report to be submitted to the Government for grant of relief.

MLA Prithibiraj of Moirang distributed relief materials to the affected villagers of Phoubakchao village yesterday while MLA Thangkhonlun of Chandel inspected the cyclonic rain-hit government buildings in Chandel district headquarters.

Reports said that at least 100 houses were destroyed in the nature’s fury in the Chandel district while 500 houses were damaged in various parts of Thoubal district. Imphal West and Imphal East districts have recorded damages to about 50 houses each.

Hmar Students Want AIR Link Language Decision Deferred

All_India_Radio Imphal, Apr 6 : The Hmar Students' Association (HSA) Churachandpur District, clarified that claim that "The Hmar people of Churachandpur and its adjoining areas had withdrawn from the earlier stand on the issue of Link Language in the Churachandpur local station of All India Radio" is totally false, concocted and baseless.

The charge seems to have been created by individuals with vested interest and for their personal gains or with the intention of glorifying someone else, a release said.

The association reiterated the fact that it had never said "Hmar dialect" should be used as a link language in the radio station.

It said they had in fact said that the three more prominent dialects of the area – Hmar, Paite & Thadou (Kuki) should be used on rotational basis.

The HSA suggested the use of English or even Lushai (Mizo) which is easily understood by different communities of Churachandpur district rather than using a particular dialect mentioned above.

The association on behalf of the Hmar people asserted that in view of the volatile and sensitive nature of the issue, it will be unfortunate to commence service of the said station at this juncture with one dialect as the "link language".

Community mandated organizations should mutually agree and not by few individuals with vested interest it said.

For instance, if Thadou(Kuki) have to be the said dialect, let other organizations of other communities such as the Paite/Zomi Council,YPA and SSPP officially endorse with their Hmar counterparts such as the Hmar Inpui, HYA and HSA and vice-versa ratify the decision.

The association appealed and requested the state government as well as those who matter in Prasar Bharati to take some time to consider the matter instead of rushing it, so as to avoid any confusion and chaos.

05 April 2010

Talented Naga Designer Enthralls Audience at Wills Fashion Week

Atsu_Sekhose New Delhi, Apr 5 : The Wills Lifestyle Fashion Week 2010 saw the participation of many young fashion designers, including Atsu Sekhose from Nagaland.

The glaze, the style and the unique signature style of this Naga designer enthralled onlookers at the weeklong fashion extravaganza.

Sekhose, a Delhi-based Naga fashion designer, showcased his autumn winter collection.

Atsus exclusive signature style of designing made many fashion connoisseurs check out his collections.

Atsu is passionate about his work and believes the northeast is a hub for young talented people, who need to focus on their careers as he did.

From the other states of India, the northeast is a place where everyone dresses up fashionably. Everyone knows what fashion is, maybe because people are very inclined fashion, art and music. So, when you see northeast India, they are more fashionable, they are trendier, claimed Sekhose.

Sekhose believes in harmony and unity for the all round development of society.

Well, I think its about caring for each other, loving each other. That is what we all do. You can start it from your home and I think it will make a big difference, he added.

Atsu is a graduate of the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) and is moving rapidly towards establishing himself as a designer of note on the global stage.

He has worked for the Spanish label ZARA.

He has assisted famous designer Tarun Tahliani in the early part of his career, and now has his own label ATSU.

His hard work has won him praise, and this year, he registered his presence at the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week.

Essentials in Short Supply in Manipur

By Iboyaima Laithangbam

fcihindieng Imphal, Apr 5 : Transportation of sugar, rice and wheat to Manipur from the Food Corporation of India (FCI) Godown at Dimapur in Nagaland has been stopped from March 31 onwards in view of the extortion bid for Rs. 50 lakh by the rebels of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muivah), which is a signatory to the ceasefire with the Union government.

As a result, these essential items are in short supply in Manipur and local market prices have been hiked. This was disclosed by Yumkham Erabot, State Food and Civil Supplies Minister.

He further said that though the extortion letter was given to the FCI officials at Dimapur, the armed National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Kaplang) rebels who are making their presence felt here had prevented the transporters from lifting the goods from the godown for delivering to the Food and Civil Supplies godown in Imphal.

The Nagaland police have not come to the rescue of the transporters now stranded along the national highway.

A high-level meeting was held on Saturday in Imphal to take stock of the situation. Later a letter was sent to the Union Home Secretary G.K.Pillai to examine it in the joint monitoring cell of the cease fire since this kind of extortion is in flagrant violation of the ground rules of the cease fire.

Mr. Erabot expressed the view that the Union government shall take a serious view of the infraction by the signatory to the cease fire.

Meanwhile the transporters told journalists that the FCI had refused to pay illegal taxes to the rebels and as a result they were made the punching kit.

Kwai: The Taste of Meghalaya

By Rituraj Borthakur

Meghalaya Kwai Shillong, Apr 5 : "Even in Heaven, people eat Kwai," goes a popular Khasi saying. Kwai, which is nothing but a paan served with a generous dose of areca nut, betel leaf and lime, is loved by one and all in Meghalaya.

And ask the state's deputy chief minister, B M Lanong, about it, he will go into raptures describing its taste.

“It’s a part of Khasi culture. People get addicted to it,” Lanong says.

Narrating a legend about a poor couple committing suicide after being unable to treat a rich friend visiting their home, Lanong said Kwai had been a bridge between the rich and the poor ever since that tragic event.

“It is a common item you will be served with when you go to any Khasi family. A family can at least afford to give you a piece of Kwai even if they had nothing to offer you in the home,” Lanong said.

In winter, there is nothing like the Kwai with a piece of ginger to keep one warm in this part of the country. Every second person in Meghalaya chews on the Kwai at home, play or office and Khasi women selling Kwai in carryall wicker baskets is a common sight everywhere in the state.

The Kwai has been a traditional habit of Khasi and Jaintias of Meghalaya, the two primary indigenous groups of the hill State.

Kwai is an integral part of social interactions as well as on religious functions. Offering Kwai to a person is offering a hand of friendship and honour.
Over the years, Kwai sellers and ‘addicts’ have had a change of taste mainly because of interaction with other communities. So ginger became an additive to lime and betel nut in a neatly folded Kwai.

A more recent addition has been that of coconut which is alien to the culture of the Khasis and Jaintias. Kwai on offer at roadside outlets or market squares nowadays often have pieces of coconut that provide a sweet-tangy taste.

Thankfully, tobacco or tobacco products have not yet vitiated this tradition.

“No, I can never have zarda with Kwai. How would you relish the typical taste of Kwai if zarda is added?” asks Wallamphang Marbaniang, an elderly teacher.

For Kong Diamond Rani, a housewife, Kwai is best taken in its original form.

“I don’t take coconut with Kwai. This is something new which has only recently begun,” she points out.

It’s interesting to note that Kwai is intrinsic to the Khasi food habit. Its wide availability makes it easy to pamper the palate.

Both areca nut and betel vine are important cash crops of the state. Areca nuts grown in Meghalaya are sold in several parts of the Northeast.

Crossing Over

Patients Draw Near-Death Experiences

Patients Draw Near-Death Experiences

Descriptions of near-death experiences (NDEs to those in the know) date back to Plato's ‘Republic,’ and though the gods have changed, the experiences have often been religious. Hieronymus Bosch (El Bosco) painted the pathway to death as a tunnel in "The Ascent of the Blessed," (right) depicting souls drifting skyward, carried by winged beings to an illuminated rapture. His painting captured the notion that heaven could set tortured souls at peace. In modernity, the art world is less interested in the road between this life and the next, but many people who claim to have experienced NDEs have drawn their experiences. These drawings and others have been published in P.M.H. Atwater's "The Big Book of Near-Death Experiences."
Painting: Hieronymus Bosch, "The Ascent of the Blessed" / Web Gallery of Art


















Tannis Prouten, depressed and severely underweight at age 20, drew this diagram of her extrabody experience. She described a wave of warm lovingness that moved up her body from her toes, propelling her toward a corner in the living room. "I felt like ducking, as the ceiling was only an inch from me," she recalls. But Prouten says she passed through the wall and into darkness, where glowing spheres that "seemed like ... spiritual presences" watched her follow an unwavering path towards an unknown destination. Eventually dark faded to light and Prouten recalls experiencing complete euphoria. "I fell madly in love with the SPIRIT OF TRUTH!" she writes in Atwater’s book.
















Tonya was a young adult when she nearly drowned in a backyard swimming pool. While she was unconscious, Tonya says an ethereal, radiant woman reached lovingly toward her. She says the same woman reappeared to her years later when her daughter was attacked by a dog and needed facial surgery. Tonya calls the woman her guardian angel.

























At 6, Scott was hit by a car and knocked unconscious for several hours. During those hours, Scott recalls recalls an out-of-body experience where he fruitlessly swiped at his father with a phantom's arm and yelled at his older brother to play with him (his brother told his parents he could hear Scott's voice at the time of the accident). Then he says he was whisked down a dark ‘wind tunnel’ that took him to a monstrous mass of rotting flesh he calls the Devil. The Devil (at left, drawn by Scott shortly after the accident, and at right, redrawn five years later) accused him of being bad and threatened to keep him forever. Scott says he was comforted by his dead uncle, still shrouded in the hospital sheet that covered him on his death bed, and then found himself enclosed in a 'dungeon' that eventually opened up to consciousness.







Gracie Sprouse of Keene, Va., recalls an NDE when she nearly drowned at age 11. In this drawing, she shows how an angel presented her with a slideshow of her life. As Sprouse watched, she says, "I judged and convicted myself" for bad things she had done to her sisters.












Arthur Yensen of Parma, Idaho, is so certain he saw heaven after being injured in a 1932 car accident that he wrote a book about it (aptly titled "I Saw Heaven"). He says heaven was entirely translucent but filled with joyous people and stunning natural scenery. Yensen remembers ethereal beings telling him he had to return to Earth. "There will come a time of great confusion and the people will need your stabilizing influence," he quoted them as saying. Yensen died in his 90s, after years of service to his community (including playing Santa in his local mall). In his picture, he depicts the women who came to his rescue after his car crash and the hilly heaven that greeted him.



















Celeste Weitz of Yuma, Ariz., says she died while she slept in her father’s arms as an infant. She says she awoke to realize she was looking over her father's shoulder, accompanied by invisible "others," and witnessing her father's anguish. "Upon realizing his distress was due to my not being in the body, I became somewhat upset that I was responsible for the state he was in. This is the point I believe I chose to go back to the body."





















Chris Brown says he recalls witnessing the emergency response to his angina attack in 1962. He claims to remember watching from outside his body the ambulance ride, the doctor and nurse who cared for him and the nearly fatal mistake the nurse made, preparing to inject him with the wrong medication. While the doctor injected him with the proper drug and began massaging his heart, Brown says he thought up a laundry list of his debts and responsibilities and concluded he was square with the earth and was ready to go. But a "grayish and somewhat cloudy group of men" begged to differ, sending him back to his body.
















 

She was beaten unconscious at age 4, but Tina Sweeney of Laval, Quebec, didn't recollect her NDE until years later, with the help of a psychiatrist. When the experience came back to her, she first recalled a period of total blackness, made comforting by the steady, warm pulsing of "creation breathing." Then she saw herself--as a child--"standing in front of a wall of light." In this drawing, Sweeney sees herself as a tree in front of the light.


















Richard Borutta of Hopewell, N.J., was an alcoholic with a failing liver when he ‘died’ during a medical procedure at age 42. Surgeons were operating on his liver when Borutta says he slipped over to the "other side" and demanded that he remain there. He recalls feathery spirits convincing him that he would have to earn his way back by making amends with his family.























[ via Newsweek ]

SMS System For Rapid Response to Forest Fires

By Neha Sinha

mobile phone with SMS #2 New Delhi, Apr 5 : In a bid to cut response time to forest fires, the Forest Survey of India (FSI) — using satellite information from the University of Maryland — has begun sending out instant SMSes to forest staff and civilians when a forest fire is detected via the satellite.

This year, there have been above 3,000 forest fires, with many days witnessing more than 500 forest fires. And while there have been several fires in the hot forests of Central India, (Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Chhattisgarh), newer areas of wildfires have also emerged.

Earlier, FSI would send faxes to the Principal Conservator of Forests of states where fires were detected. “It was a lengthy process. Under the new system that started 10 days ago, we sent out SMSes as soon as we detected a fire, giving the latitude and longitude co-ordinates of the spot,” says R D Jakati, Director General, FSI.

The information is also being disseminated in public interest.

“The SMSes goes to anyone who is registered with us, including interested civilians. Based on their demand, we give information for the state, the district or the country, every day.”

This year, the rainy state of Mizoram has registered more than 2,000 forest fires already. “This is because slash and burn agriculture techniques are being followed there. Small fires get out of hand and grow into huge fires. This also has the potential to affect human dwellings,” says a senior official from FSI.

In 2006-07, there were 4,467 fires in Mizoram with 2,830 fires in 2005-06. The forest fire season in India is between February and May, with FSI formally monitoring the fires between the second week of November and third week of June.

Putting out forest fires is not easy — the fires rage for days and while no fire tenders can be taken to these areas, the method used is, literally, fighting fire with fire.

Assam Trade Opens Office in Bangkok

Bangkok, Apr 5 : Thai investors with an interest in northeastern India can now gain assistance from an office in Bangkok.

Anusorn: Office will make trade easier

India's state of Assam - which has promoted itself through various trade exhibitions in Thailand - last week opened the first overseas office of the Industries and Trade Fair Association of Assam (ITFAA) in Bangkok, The Telegraph reported.

The ITFAA office is intended as a meeting point for businesses from both countries to build cultural and trade links with Thailand, and to promote the Indian government's "Look East" policy.

A memorandum of understanding for the project has been signed with the Thai Chamber of Commerce.

"Now the people of Thailand will not have to depend on Mumbai or Kolkata to get information about the Northeast [India]," said Anusorn Muttaraid, chairman of the Thailand-India Business Council and also the executive director of SET-listed Delta Electronics Plc, which has investments in India.

The Indian ambassador to Thailand, Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty, said the office would help entrepreneurs from northeast India to establish business relationships with Thailand.

The agreement was signed by Mr Anusorn and Rajesh Das, vice-president of the trade fair association.

Mr Das said the agreement was expected to change the face of northeastern India and to bring the region much closer to Southeast Asia.

Under the agreement, the fair association and Thai Chamber of Commerce will identify trade opportunities and pursue them to build business-to-business contacts through trade delegations, he added.

"One of the important components is to help the artisans of the Northeast get access to knowledge about the latest styles and designs used in Thailand and currently in demand in global markets," said Mr Das.

"Such collaborations in the handicraft and handloom sector will be a big boost for the region's artisans and enable them to catch the global market."