Rocker Girls On A Roll

By Swati Vishnoi

They came together in 2010 to be a part of the emerging music scene in Delhi. Hailing from Arunachal Pradesh and Assam, an all-girl band The Vinyl Records a.k.a TVR will be performing in the city tomorrow at LEMP Kitchen, Gurgaon.

Initially, TVR was a three-member band, with Banu Jini, the guitarist of the band, along with Minam Tekseng and Mithy Tatak, who used to play together in high school. Cherriyan Bank, the keytarist and vocalist from Assam, joined in 2011, and that was when the band started performing actively.

“After coming to Delhi in 2007 from Arunachal Pradesh, (Cherriyan is from Assam), we played at a gig. The response was good. So we continued at different places. That’s how The Vinyl Records was born.” shared Mithy.

The band never looked back since. Describing their sound as indie rock and post punk with a dash of glam rock, the band’s major influences are bands like C.S.S., The B52s, Blondie, The Clash, The Ramones, The Strokes, Arctic Monkeys among others.

“Also, all-girl band Afflatus from Shillong inspired us. An all-girl band comes with a lot of ups and downs. There are both praise and criticism and that is what boosts us to keep going. Though we never want a male member, we don’t mind featuring with one in future.” says Mithy, who also shares that the band has a dream of performing with band C.S.S from Brazil in future.

Till now, they have performed in all popular places in Delhi and Mumbai. “In Mumbai, people are familiar with our kind of music, whereas in Delhi, metal, blues, Punjabi and Bollywood music are popular. But with increasing venues for gigs, music festivals, the music scene in Delhi is improving,” says Minam, bassist of the band.

These 22-year-old rocker girls are self-sponsors of their gigs. Whatever little they save from their pocket money, they spend on their practice, travelling charges etc. “Wherever we performed, 85 per cent of them were free gigs. It gets a little tough, but after a power-packed performance when you go back home, the satisfaction is priceless.” TVR is also planning to come out with an album by the end of this year.

Indefinite Blockade Cripples Traffic On Silchar-Aizawl Road

Aizawl, Jun 26 : An indefinite blockade on NH-306 which started at 6am on Monday disrupted traffic on the important national highway connecting Silchar in Assam with Kampai in Mizoram. Sonai Road Unnayan Sanstha (SRUS), a Silchar-based NGO, launched the blockade seeking immediate repair and improvement of the national highway, which is dotted with innumerable large potholes.

Members of the NGO put up blockades at three points along the highway in the Assam area. They didn't allow any vehicles to ply on the road. This led to hundreds of trucks, buses and other vehicles lining up on either side of the blockade points. Mizoram and southern parts of Cachar district continue to remain cut off from the rest of the country due to the blockade.

SRUS convenor Manjur Ahmed Chaudhary said although the agitation continued throughout the day triggering complete disruption of traffic on the national highway, no official from the district administration or Border Roads Task Force (BRTF) personnel turned up to talk to the agitators. This is an instance of sheer negligence on the part of the government towards the poor condition of roads across Barak Valley, Chaudhary said.

He said this time SRUS would not withdraw the stir simply on the basis of promises. "The authorities will have to start work first and only then we will end our blockade," said the functionary. He said the indefinite agitation would continue until work for repair of the highway begins in full swing.

Chaudhary said during rains, the condition of the road worsens and in some places there is virtually no road. Huge potholes and big drains on the road cause frequent accidents. Despite this, neither the district administration nor the BRTF are taking up the job to repair the road, he added.

Silk Route To Northeast India

By Sunanda K. Datta-Ray

Northeast is awash with money. But the money is often treated as Delhi’s bribe to once rebellious tribes to make their peace with Central power.

My Nor-theastern frien-ds must be laughing up their sleeves. Dismissed as “chinks” in Indian universities, beaten up or even murdered in some cities, arrested as Tibetan protesters in Delhi and required to prove their citizenship at airports and hotels (Mumbai’s Taj Mahal once demanded that a former chief minister of Nagaland, Hokishe Sema, produce his passport), they have suddenly become the flavour of the month, thanks to two outstanding women.

The global acclaim for Aung San Suu Kyi has brought home the realisation that the stampede to do business with the new Burma will leave India behind unless connectivity is improved with the three border states, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Manipur. Then, there’s American secretary of state Hillary Clinton harping on a New Silk Road linking Central and South Asia with Southeast Asia. It will “connect markets, businesses and consumers from the Caspian to the Ganges and beyond,” she says.

It may be a worthy idea but doesn’t seem relevant in this context. The Silk Road was the route the Italian traveller, Marco Polo, took to (and from) China. Any new variant of it should logically connect that country with Europe. Contemporary US strategic needs in Central and Southeast Asia don’t have to be legitimised by being forced into the straitjacket of alien tradition. The needs are valid in themselves and India has a stake in them.

It’s good, therefore, that the US consul-general in Kolkata, Dean R. Thompson, travelled recently to Aizawl, capital of landlocked Mizoram, to remind listeners that “Northeast India plays an important role as the region connects India with neighbours in the east.” Mr Thompson might have added that only 250 km of the region’s outer perimeter touches India. The remaining 4,750 km borders China, Burma, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Nepal. Not one to let the grass grow under his feet, he also organsied the first-ever “Taste of America” festival in Agartala, Tripura’s capital.

Geography alone doesn’t separate the Northeast from the rest of India. Ethnicity is even more divisive. When it comes to language and culture, the descendants of the Aryans who people the Gangetic plain have more in common with Pakistanis than with the Northeast’s Tibeto-Burman tribes. Note that when Dr Manmohan Singh spoke of connectivity in a speech that Ms Clinton invokes to sell her New Silk Road, he mentioned “breakfast in Amritsar, lunch in Lahore and dinner in Kabul”, not meals in Kohima, Imphal and Yangon.

Let’s be fair, the government hasn’t totally ignored the Northeast all these years. Jawaharlal Nehru’s concern for minority cultures prompted him to appoint the eminent British anthropologist, Verrier Elwin, anthropological adviser to the government of what is now Arunachal Pradesh. The North-Eastern Council was established in 1971 as to develop the eight Northeastern states. The North-Eastern Development Finance Corporation was incorporated in 1995, and the ministry of development of North-eastern region set up in 2001. Seven years later came the “Peace, Progress and Prosperity in the Northeast Region: Vision 2020” document with the objective of banishing poverty by that year.

Cultural integrity isn’t as much a major concern any longer because many north-easterners seem quite happy to front for businessmen from the plains. Bangladeshi infiltration — a major demographic feature of Assam, Tripura and Manipur — is slowly diluting racial exclusiveness. Money isn’t the problem either. The Northeast is awash with it. But the money is often treated as Delhi’s bribe to once rebellious tribes like the Nagas, Mizos, Meteis and others to make their peace with the Central power. It isn’t used for the development that the Northeast needs so desperately.

Now, Dr Singh’s visit to Yangon has focused attention on the need for improved connectivity to and through Burma. This is certainly necessary but it isn’t a new idea. The far-sighted Lord Dalhousie, India’s governor general from 1848 to 1856, dreamt of a railway line from Singapore to Constantinople and beyond, with a branch track meandering up to Lhasa. The Asian Development Bank has taken up a part of the project.

There was enthusiastic talk at a recent informal meeting on the New Silk Road with Donald Lu, the US charge d’affaires in Delhi, about a $120 million highway to link Mizoram with Burma’s Sittwe port. My mind raced back to the 1950s when Sittwe was Akyab and two boys from there were boarders at my school in Calcutta. I envied them not because they came from a foreign land called Burma (no Myanmar then) but because they flew home even for long weekends. I had never been on an aeroplane then. Union of Burma Airlines ran a regular Calcutta-Akyab service.

What worries me is whether grand new plans to restore connectivity will materialise.

Jaswant Singh’s ambitious Mekong-Ganga project, launched in 2000, hasn’t progressed much. The hopes it aroused of direct flights from Imphal or Guwahati to South-east Asia petered out. The hugely popular 2004 India-Asean car rally (slogan: “Networking People and Economies”) wasn’t repeated. The organisers of two magnificent Singapore exhibitions in 2008 (“KaalaChakra” and “On the Nalanda Trail”) had a terrible time persuading Indian museums to lend them artifacts gathering dust in their warehouses, unseen even by Indians.

Geographical contiguity doesn’t need stressing. As we say in Bengali, you don’t need a mirror to see the bracelet on your wrist. Some of us are also aware of Suvarnabhumi, the Land of Gold, that once encompassed the entire region. But can Suvarnabhumi be regained? That I don’t know.

A terrible lethargy overwhelms foreign policy. Mr Lu didn’t answer my question about whether South Block officials are as keen on the New Silk Road as Ms Clinton. Perhaps, even those who like the idea object to an inaccurate name.

Cash Grows in Assam Wetlands

Money might not grow on trees, but it emerged from water in Assam's capital on Monday - in currency notes of Rs. 1,000 and Rs. 500 denomination.

A group of fishermen was the first to strike it rich at Silsakho, a wetland and popular fishing site close to the office of a central intelligence agency in Sasal area of Guwahati.

They caught money along with a handful of fish around 11am.

News of the floating money triggered a frenzied treasure hunt. At least 500 people dived in to fish cash. While some said they made Rs. 10,000-15,000, a few claimed to have laid their hands of entire bundles totaling Rs. 50,000 and Rs. 1 lakh.

"God must have taken pity on us and showered his blessings," said daily wager Rajen Deka, without disclosing his catch.

Locals claimed the notes, estimated to be worth several lakhs, were genuine, but many assumed they were fakes. Police did not rule out the possibility of the cash being connected to a tribal hill council scam that the National Investigation Agency is probing.

City superintendent of police Apurba Jiban Barua said, "We hope investigations will reveal the source of the money. Of course, the Reserve Bank of India would be verifying the genuineness of the notes first.

" Police have seized cash from three treasure hunters for investigation.

Mizoram To Have World Class Swimming Pool

Aizawl, Jun 25 : Mizoram would soon have an international standard swimming and diving pool to promote aquatic sports in the hilly state, Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla said today.

Addressing a Olympic Day rally at the Assam Rifles Ground here, the Chief Minister said world class swimming and diving pool, which only neighbouring Manipur and a few other states in India have, would be constructed at the aquatic complex at Lawibual on the eastern fringes of Aizawl.

He attributed the significant development to the initiatives of the energetic sports minister Zodintluanga.

The young Aquatics Association of Mizoram was overjoyed at the news.

"We have not dreamt of having such international standard swimming and diving pool even in our wildest imaginations," said AAM president Dawngzuala.

Saying that Mizoram has huge potential in aquatic sports, the AAM president hoped that the infrastructure would be instrumental in tapping the potential. "Once we have the swimming and diving pool, Mizoram will soon swim past Tripura and Manipur in the aquatic sports," he claimed. Formed in 2009, the AAM is gearing up for Mizoram open swimming championship for the third consecutive year.

Besides this annual championship, the association has regularly conducted talent search and competitions for school students using every convenient river.

As the aquatic complex lies in the same vicinity with the under construction Rajiv Gandhi sports stadium (also world standard) and Hawla indoor stadium, sports officials hoped that Aizawl would soon be able to host mega event like the National Games.

Braving the rains, about 1500 runners took part in the rally. Starting from different points, the runners converged at the AR Ground where they were addressed by the Chief Minister and president of Mizoram Olympic Association Lal Thanhawla.

Kuki Body Slams Mizoram Govt For Arrest Of Its Leaders

Imphal, Jun 24 : The United People's Front (UPF), one of the two apex bodies of various Kuki militants, which are signatories of the ongoing Suspension of Operation (SoO) with the government, slammed the government for the recent arrest of its leaders by Mizoram Police from Silchar airport.

On June 10, Mizoram Police arrested UPF vice chairman Lalroupuia and deputy commander Viek from Silchar airport on the charge of attempting to carry out subversive activities.

Stating that the arrest would slow down the SoO process, the UPF demanded unconditional release of its leaders.

Since the Kuki underground groups are signatories of the tripartite SoO pact and their families and relatives reside in various parts of the country, UPF's spokesperson Jacob Thadou assumed that they can move freely across the nation.

The tripartite SoO agreement was signed in August 2008.

Presidential Poll: Mizo National Front To Support Sangma

Main opposition party in Mizoram, Mizo National Front (MNF) is likely to support the candidature of Purno A Sangma as President of India. 
 
Aizawl, Jun 24 : Main opposition party in Mizoram, Mizo National Front (MNF) is likely to support the candidature of Purno A Sangma as President of India when the polling will be held on July 19.

Former chief minister and MNF chief Zoramthanga said on Sunday that formal announcement would be made during this week after the meeting of the party high command on the issue.

"I think we will support Sangma as he is a tribal from North-East and also a Christian as the country is yet to have a tribal and a Christian in the top post," Zoramthanga said.

MNF has one member of parliament (Rajya Sabha) and four legislators including a member of its junior partner - Mara Democratic Front (MDF).

2500 Participate in Olympic Day Run in Mizoram

Aizawl, Jun 24 :  An "Olympic Day Run" was organised Saturday in Mizoram's capital Aizawl to celebrate the setting up of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on this day in 1894.

Over 2,500 sports persons and runners participated in the colourful run, organised by the Mizoram State Olympic Association (MSOA).

"Through sports, youths of the northeast will show their talents and skill while people of different ethnic groups and castes will come closer," said Mizoram Chief Minister and MSOA president Lal Thanhawla while addressing the gathering at the famous Assam Rifles Ground here.

MSOA senior Vice-President and Mizoram Sports Minister Zodintluanga urged Mizo youths to dedicate themselves to place the mountainous state in the national and international sports arena in a more bigger way.

Olympic Day Run is an international Olympic movement activity promoting mass participation of people in sports.