THE ART OF CONVERSATION - SHILLONG CALM FESTIVAL 2013

Chilean authorities are conducting toxicological tests on the remains of Nobel Laureate Poet, Pablo Neruda, who died in 1973, to ascertain if he was poisoned.

Whatever the outcome, Neruda lived in a violent and charged environment and so he wrote: and you'll ask: why doesn't his poetry speak of dreams and leaves and the great volcanoes of his native land? Come and see the blood in the streets…

India has also been bloodied with rape, murder, corruption or plain indifference towards the weak and the artist in every individual are reflecting on these pains and sufferings through their medium of choice more strongly and convincingly than ever before.

“For the Neanderthal man a step outside his cave made the difference between life and death. Yet he painted beautifully and forcefully on his cave walls about his world and his lonely battles…,” poet Jerry Pinto sketched the relationship of art with living beings.

But the question that begs an answer: is this voice of art audible in a volatile environment, when the argumentative Indian is constantly shouting down the other, politicians talking down gullible voters, TV shows becoming louder and brash?

“Conversation is a creative art and it is also a dying art in India, because we don’t listen as our decibel levels have taken over our senses,” journalist, author and columnist, Jug Suraiya touches on the metaphysics of Indians.

On the contrary, Suraiya finds literary festivals as “democratic” forums where everyone gets an opportunity, not just the intellectuals, to speak and hear through various mediums.

Like Suraiya and Pinto, writers, authors, artists, thinkers, publishers, students and people from diversified fields united at the three-day Shillong Calm festival last week to exchange ideas, not to lecture, speak, not to shout, hear and be heard. Calm aptly is the acronym for Creative Art, Literature and Music.

Ananya S Guha, poet and author says art is not extraneous from life and touches our life in one form or the other. He is of the view that conversations are the bedrock of any form of art and literature, be it paintings, poems or even letter-diary-writing, as demonstrated by Anne Frank in Diary of a Young Girl and the letters between Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi in Letters from a Father to his Daughter, to name a few.

Guha, meanwhile, says that the oral tradition of the Northeast needs to be recorded and documented for future generations. “Some of the authors and writers are doing it, but, we need the State support in this regard,” Guha said.

One of the top publishers and authors of India, David Davidar says creative art is a “soft power” that reduces tension and “encourages amity” and with more festivals like Calm coming up across the country, he thinks India has a “fabulous future.”

“India is one of the most interesting countries on the planet with different stories, traditions and cultures, waiting to be shared,” the author says confidently.

The co-founder of Penguin India, publishing house and now Aleph Book Company observed that Indians writing in English are being better received in India and abroad. He admits that English literature penned by Indians does suffer from a colonial hangover, but the “British Baggage” is slowly, but, surely being shed away. 

“The writers from the Northeast are slowly coming up, like Mamang Dai and others, and in the near future more colourful and vibrant stories from this region would be accessible to the people around the world,” Davidar feels.

On the other hand, actor Victor Banerjee, gave a motivational talk and believes that “what goes around comes around” and therefore reminded that it helps to be kind, gracious and honest. 

He elucidated his point with anecdotes, be it from his personal life or from examples drawn from inventors such as Thomas Edison, Polish Prime Minister and Pianist,Ignacy Jan Paderewski and others.

Talks over Northeast India’s perceived alienation was a key point of conversation during the several book releases of authors, mostly from the region.

“Sometimes we are also too defensive and consider ourselves as one from the Dark Continent. Why should we keep complaining that the so called mainland Indian doesn’t care about us…Who cares,” says Mamang Dai journalist and author from Arunachal Pradesh.

Then on the burning issues of ULFA’s diktat to sing only Assamese songs during the Bihu festival, Suraiya says that cultures doesn’t require iron-gates and body guards. “Cultures, languages must thrive organically and must thrive from within rather than being protected,” he said.

Pinto on the other hand said nobody can mandate culture. Instead, culture must be strengthened with more grants given to local artists from the Government. Local language must be taught from the school level to the University with more intensity and encourage activities that would strengthen local cultures. “But prohibition won’t work as it has always failed,” Pinto said.

Guha emphasizes that it is wrong to discourage other cultures to be part of the Bihu festival. “The purity of the Bihu festival must be maintained and elements of populism mustn’t overtake the spirit of the festival. On the other hand, any song which is in tune with the spirit of the Bihu festival should not be discouraged,” Guha was of the opinion.

Apart from the “serious” discussions there was also Flash Mob at the festival. For those unacquainted on this modern art narrative a quick Google search helps. The search defines Flash Mob as: “a group of people, who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual and seemingly pointless act for a brief time.”  

School students performed “seemingly pointless and pointed” songs and dances - whichever way you like to view it.

There were many book releases too. A Point of View, a collection of poems and photographs by former Meghalaya Home Minister, RG Lyngdoh, The Ao-Naga - Oral Tradition by Temsula Ao, EM and the Big Hoom by Jerry Pinto, Broken Arrow, by Principal Secretary Government of Meghalaya, PS Thangkhiew and Bhaskara - the Last of the Varmans by Principal Secretary Government of Meghalaya, PW Ingty.

An insight into the occult was provided by Bindu Maira during one of the healing session she conducted during the festival. Maira calls herself a professional tarot card reader, crystal healer and life coach. In the session, the different “Chakras” of the human body were soothed through meditation and lessons given to fight stress and other ailments.

But Pinto has a different take on healing and prescribes “at least one poem a day to nourish and heal the mind.” Pinto dryly warned during a session that either people must take to poetry or choose to live a “sad existence” – the audience burst into a confused cackle.

There was also a Spelling Bee competition - a take on the popular US version of spelling competition. In this Spelling Bee, Victor Banerjee and Meghalaya Government officials had or heard it, but found difficult to spell words such as “Diarrhoea or Pharaoh” after taking part in the event together with students and other participants. Then a standup comedy by Apurva Pal for the adults was a hit.

There were also artists from various parts of the country and abroad and some even took to the streets and painted the walls and the small vendor stalls. During the three-day event, photographic exhibitions were also held and workshops for students on painting, photographic creative writings were conducted.

The annual Calm festival achieved by holding  these activities in stimulating the mind into a different level of thought process, reduce stress. It also brought in laughter, scared people with reality, which many don’t want to face and mostly knitted together the idea of India amongst Indians - maybe all for a brief moment.

Pinto summaries: “as artists we have failed. We have not been able to stop a single war... put us behind bars...from the jails we will bring out art and then from our dead bodies more art would rise. We will fight and never give up...”

This is the kind of passion Neruda is demonstrating, who not only fought during his lifetime against injustice with art, but is doing so even after his death in seeking the truth. These are perhaps the defining moments of art.

NON-BAILABLE ARREST WARRANT AGAINST CMJ UNIVERSITY CHANCELLOR

A local court here on May 13 issued a non-bailable arrest warrant against Chandra Mohan Jha, Chancellor of CMJ University and two others who have all gone into hiding.

Public Prosecutor IC Jha said that the Court has issued a non-bailable arrest warrant and search warrant against Jha under various sections of the Indian Penal related to forgery, and cheatings.

Apart from Jha, the Court also issued similar non-bailable warrants against the University’s director Manjeet Kaur and human resource manager Juban Kharpuri. All three had earlier applied for anticipatory bail, but was rejected by a local court.

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has managed to arrest the University’s registrar, Mrinal Kanti Deb and his deputy, Premlal Rai. Rai is lodged in a hospital after complaining about his health.

Visitor of the controversial University and Governor RS Mooshahary has sought a compliance report from authorities of the University by May 21 for flouting laid norms of the University Grants Commission. The CID on the other hand sealed the University and conducting raids and arrests.

Meanwhile, several FIRs have been filed against the CMJ University in cities acroos the country.  Meghalaya Chief Minister Mukul Sangma  gave enough hints that the probe against the controversial University would be taken forward by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI.) 

CONTROVERSY IN CHANDRA MOHAN JHA (CMJ) UNIVERSITY

The controversial Chandra Mohan Jha (CMJ) University was sealed down in a late night raid on Thursday by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID.)

Sleuths from the CID department swooped on the off-campus building, which also house other offices, and seized the office, including the Chancellor Jha’s office. The Investigating officers also seized some of the materials as part of the investigation.

The CID came into the picture after the Governor’s secretariat filed a criminal case against the university for “issuing PhD degrees” without authorization and also for flouting laid norms.

However, the deputy registrar of CMJ University, Premlal Rai today said that the decision to seal the University was “arbitrary which would be challenged.” He however, did not elaborate what course of action the University would adopt.

“We have opened the University and our head office was not sealed as is being rumored. This was an arbitrary decision to seal the University’s campus at Laitumkhrah, but today we have opened it,” Rai said.

He also said that the University “has not issued any PhD degrees” to students in Assam. “Notifications were issued that PhD degrees would be issued after authenticating the academic credential of the students,” Rai explained when asked.

The Governor in his order has claimed that over 400 students, mostly from Assam, were issued PhD degrees without following procedures.

“We have issued few PhD degrees elsewhere but not in Assam,” Rai claimed.

Meanwhile, the Governor RS Mooshahary has order the all degrees issued by the University must be withdrawn. 

Security have been beefed up after another Government vehicle was torched here in the city by miscreants at Lower Lachumiere here  this afternoon.

MEGHALAYA 12TH BOARD EXAM RESULTS

The 12th standard Board examination results for Science and Commerce stream were declared today in which students from Garo and Jaintia Hills district in India's northeastern state, Meghalaya, lagged far behind.

Conducted by the Meghalaya Board of School, Prityush Haldar from St. Anthony’s Higher Secondary School in the state capital topped the Science exam with a total of 455 marks. Similarly, Arunava Kar Purkayastha again from St. Anthony’s Higher Secondary School topped the Commerce stream with 453 marks.

But what was worrisome is the continued poor result of students from Garo and also Jaintia Hills districts. Nobody cleared the science exam from South Garo Hills. In fact, just six students sat for the examination from this backward district. Moreover, in South West Garo Hills there wasn’t a single student who appeared from the science stream.

The pass percentage of students from West Garo Hills was 60.39, while that of East Garo Hills was 68.18. In East Jaintia Hills, out of the 16 students, just one cleared the examination. The average pass percentages of these districts in Garo and Jaintia Hills were

below the State average pass percent of 73.29.

In the Commerce stream, there were no students who sat for the board exams from South Garo Hills, North Garo Hills and South West Garo Hills. The pass percentage of students from West Garo Hills was 55.60. The only solace was in East Garo Hills where all the ten students who appeared for the examination passed. The overall pass percentage in the commerce examination was 69.24.

Predictably, Schools and colleges in East Khasi Hills from the State capital did well. Eight students were in the top ten list from St. Anthony’s Higher Secondary School in the science stream.

Three students were in top ten list in the commerce examination from the same school, which was only surpassed by St. Edmund’s College who had five students in the list.

BSNL TO CLOSE DOWN OPERATION ALONG INDO-BANGLA BORDER AREAS IN MEGHALAYA

Stating that it “makes no business sense to operate along the Indo-Bangla border areas,” the BSNL today informed that it would operate as a professional corporate unit and close down its services from commercially non-viable areas.

The public sector telephone company said, it has incurred huge losses over the years “running to lakhs” by operating along the Indo-Bangla border areas simple to comply with Central Government norms.

Chief General Manager, Northeast Circle I, DP Singh said that all telephone companies are directed by the Central Government to set up their services in such remote areas or pay penalty. However, most private telephone companies have stayed away from these non lucrative business areas and paid penalty instead.

“It makes no business sense to operate in these areas we would rather pay penalty than continue our services in these (Indo-Bangla border areas) areas,” Singh, whose telephone Circle oversees the operations in Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura, said. Singh added that it makes financial pridence to pay penalty than to run business in these areas.

Singh is somewhat justified in his approach   considering the Union Telecommunication Minster Kabil Sibal assertion that BSNL must be run as a private company to increase it revenue collection. 

The BSNL NE-I chief  that he would be writing to its headquarters immediately to withdraw from these non lucrative areas. “We are making huge losses from these areas. If you are asking me to operate as a corporate unit, we should also get an opportunity to decide where to operate and where not to, so that our business sustains,” he justified.

Meghalaya shares a 443 km long border with Bangladesh and much of these areas are remote. BSNL is the most important telephone service providers in these areas. 

People in these areas in the absence of Indian network are forced to use Bangladesh phones like Grameen Phones and others, which does have security implications. 



There are several instances that villagers cross over to Bangladesh and make International calls to different places of the State. BSNL officials here state that the Union Home ministry must use jammers in these areas to discourage Bangladesh telephones.

Singh however left it upon the central Government to decide on the tricky issue. “We (NE-I circle) would still operate in these remote areas provide that we are given subsidy and the centre make good of our losses,” he asserted.

The chief of the circle further informed that NE-I circle has been the second highest revenue earners in the country last year. During 2012-13 it has increased its revenue collection to Rs. 213.96 crore, which is an increase of Rs. 4.9 crore over the year 2011-12.

Despite the gains, Singh said BSNL NE circle I, like all BSNL circles in the country, is a loss making unit and the losses incurred last year was about 58 crore. “We have not assessed the losses of this fiscal, but we definitely would have reduced the margin with improved earnings,” he added.