16 August 2013

One India, Different People

By Rahul Karmakar Guwahati, Aug 16 : India's northeast is often out of the subconscious when it comes to ‘Indian culture’. Featured here are people across the NE spectrum who feel as Indian as anyone else until mainland dwellers make their otherness a talking point. John M Sohtun, Meghalaya What's Meghalaya for the rest of the country is ‘Meiglya’ for most of its inhabitants. You can perhaps...
15 August 2013

From Manipur Protest Band Comes A Rousing 'Lullaby'

By Gargi Gupta New Delhi, Aug 15 : “Blood soaked streets/ That’s my ground/ That’s where I play around/ Sound of gunshots/ That’s my song...”So go the lyrics of ‘Lullaby’ by the Manipuri ‘protest’ band ‘Imphal Talkies’ that, since its release in March this year, has become quite a hit online. Ronid Chingangbam, the band’s founder, frontman and lyricist-vocalist-lead guitarist, says he’s surprised...

America’s Most Profitable company per employee makes your phone work—and it’s not Apple

By Christopher Mims What InterDigital makes: an illustration from its patent for "Data transfer between wireless devices." United States Patent and Trademark Office   You’d be forgiven for not recognizing the name InterDigital, despite the fact that it has been around since 1972 and developed many of the technologies that are critical to our increasingly mobile,...

In Mizoram, A PRISM Of Hope Against Corruption

By Prasanta Mazumdar  Almost 7 decades ago, Mumbai's fishermen took up arms for Independence; now Mizo youth wage their battle — for freedom from corruption.When some young Mizos formed ‘PRISM’ seeking freedom for all from corruption, many thought they were only wasting their time and energy.Seven years down the line, the Peoples’ Right to Information and Development Implementing Society of...

Mizoram-HPC-D Talks Fail

Mizoram Govt beefs up securityAizawl, Aug 15 : The talks between the Mizoram government and the militant Hmar Peoples Convention (Democratic) fell through today, bringing the six-month-long suspension of operations with the group to an end.The government upgraded security in the state after the talks failed.“Since we could not agree on anything, it means that the suspension of operations with the...

Junk Band Boomarang Wants To Work with Vishal Dadlani

‘Aizawl’, ‘Mizoram’ are not names that one would be familiar with unless you’re a fan of home-grown blues and rock music. Boomarang, a four member band from Aizawl, Mizoram in the north eastern region of  India, has come a long way since covering angst ridden American band Rage Against the Machine’s numbers and playing their first gigs (including the Great Indian Rock- GIR) in 2007....

Inside Walls That Talk

By UDHADITYA BHATTACHARYA Writer Aruni Kashyap talks about his debut novel, and the burden of representing Assam In a Ted Talk delivered in 2009, the Nigerian writer Chimamanda Adichie talked about “the danger of a single story”. “Show a people as only one thing over and over again, and that is what they become,” she said. Everyone is susceptible to the single story. The mainland understanding...

An Illegal Mountain Constructed Atop a 26-Story Residential Building in Beijing

While most property and homeowners might be lucky to erect a small fence, add a new wall, or plant a few trees without applying for a permit or checking local zoning laws, things in Bejing are apparently quite different. For the last six years an eccentric doctor built a sprawling mountain villa on the roof above his top-floor flat in this 26-story residential building, all without asking...