DR. BHUPEN HAZARIKA A TRUE ARTIST

Describing the legendry Dr Bhupen Hazarika as a “true artist” worthy of emulation, Meghalaya Governor Ranjit Shekhar Mooshahary today said, the revolutionary artist transcended religion and region for oneness and peace through his undying art.

Mooshahary pointed to the phenomenon of the “spectacular footfall of huge multitude of people,” to pay their last respect to Dr Bhupen Hazarika after his demise, being unparalleled in the music world, and goes to prove that the singer “touched people’s consciousness” through his undying art.

The Governor said the quality of a true artist, is in being first and foremost, a peaceloving man, just as Dr Bhupen Hazarika. The Governor said that “unnecessary intolerance” has been created around the world as people do not want to reach each other by simply trying to understand the other person’s point of view. But, a true artist, like Dr Bhupen Hazarika, is someone who believes in reaching out to the masses though the doctrine of peace, integration and learning.

“After the singer’s demise there was an upsurge of emotion and uncountable people visited to pay their last respect. Such a spectacular footfall was never heard anywhere in the music world,” Mooshahary said in his inaugural address at the four-day Shillong Calm literary festival here. The festival would also feature motivational speeches from personalities like Chetan Bhagat, MJ Akbar and others besides art, photography exhibition, etc.

Mooshahary added that “art and culture can help reduce misunderstanding” and the “North East is a treasure house of art, culture and tradition” with “music being its forte.”

Touching on the literary scene of the region, the Governor lamented that the North East has several talented writers in the regional language, who do not get the kind of exposure that writers in the English language gets.

On the overall scenario of the North East, he said some of the problems of the region have accentuated as people believe in living in isolation, due to insecurity of being overwhelmed and exploited by “outsiders.”

“Art and culture,” he stated, has the capacity to liberalise people from this sense of insecurity and take them forward in the path of liberty.

Earlier, Chief Minister Mukul Sangma said the Meghalaya Government wants to partner with the people through various modes and the recent creation of the district-level arts and cultural societies is an effort in that direction.

DURGA PUJO, SHILLONG 2012

Durga Puja 2012 Kumari Puja, Shillong

Different Durga Puja Pandals on Mahashtami performed Puja of Goddess Durga here. At the Ramakrishna Mission in Meghlaya's capital city Shillong, the “Kumari” or the virgin Goddess Shakti was worshiped as per rituals.

Amongst the different forms of Goddess Durga, the virgin form is said to be the most dynamic. According to the Markandeya Purana Mother God appears as Virgin-Kumari, to save the virtuous from the evil. Each year, therefore, this form of “MahaShakti” is worshiped during the festivities.

According to Hindu scriptures, Goddess during her annual four-day visit to her parental home on Earth with her four children is worshiped in differnt forms. One of the forms is a virgin girl or Kumari. The ritual of performing Kumari Puja finds mention in all the holy scriptures of the Hindus such as the Veda, Puranas, Tantra and Upanishad.

“Every woman is a manifestation of divine motherhood. And it is most prominent in a virgin. The tradition of worshiping virgin God is therefore age-old,” the Ramakrishna Mission said.

The age of the girl signifies the different form of Goddess Shakti. A one year old is Sandhya form of the Goddess. A two year-old girl is in Sarasvati mould. A child of three years is Tridhamurti, a four-year-old is in Kalika form. A five-year-old child is Subhaga, the sixth year is Uma, on her seventh year she is Malini.

An eight year girl is called Kubjika. Kaalasandarbha is the ninth year. In the tenth year she is Aparajita, on eleventh she is Rudrani. On the twelfth year she is Bhairavi, she is Mahalakshmi on the thirteenth year, on fourteenth she is Pithanayika. In the fifteenth year she is Kshetragya, and she is known as Ambika on her sixteenth year.

The Ramakrishna Mission takes care in choosing the girl to be the Kumaris at the different Missions across the country and abroad. The unmarried young girl has to be “dynamic, pure and serene with a bright disposition” matching the Goddess.

Before the Puja, the girl is given bath and adorned with new clothes, ornaments and floral garland. Vermilion is put on her forehead and the feet is washed and smeared with Alta – a red colouring liquid. She is then seated on a decorated chair and the Puja articles are placed on her feet and worshiped as the divine Goddess.

This year, the Ramakrishna Mission chose a five-year-old girl, Ashmita Bhatacharjee, as the Kumari and was worshiped. The young girl sat for nearly an hour as people watched in reverence with the Maharajs (priests) of the Mission performed the Puja. Later, she was placed at a room at the Mission and people sought here blessings by touching her feet.   

The practice of Kumari Puja started at the Ramakrishna Mission way back in 1902 when Swami Vivekananda performed it at Belur Math, Kolkata. Ever since, the ritual is performed on Mahashtami at the Ramakrishna Mission and also other Temples.

BY GOD'S GRACE INMATES FIND WAY TO AIR GREVIANCES

Deprived of paper to pen their grievances at the overcrowded Shillong district jail in Meghalaya, northeast India, inmates are still dropping written complaints, albeit on Church brochures, distributed by clergymen as part of their counseling.

The matter came to light, after several of the complaints addressed directly to the higher jail authorities were found etched on religious brochures.

Sources said that the jail staffs have stopped handing out papers to the inmates probably fearing that they would start revealing the “inside stories” of the overcrowded jail.

However, the inmates, in the absence of  paper found the ingenious way and started to write down their grievances on church pamphlets and brochures, which are handed to them occasionally by the preachers who visit them.

“It is true complaints were written on the church brochures and pamphlets and the same were found in the two complaint boxes. This, was done, probably, as the inmates were not provided paper by the jail staffs,” a police official said on condition of anonymity.

The controversy-ridden Shillong jail, infamous for several jail breaks, some in collusion with jail authorities, set up two complaint boxes as per the direction of the National Human Rights Commission from August this year.

The British-era jail was established in 1895 and the capacity to house 150 inmates, however, there are over 300 inmates cramped in the jail. On the other hand, there were 30 Jail breaks between 1990 and 2009, averaging one jail break every nine month.

In the initial few days, the official said, inmates were given paper and the complaint on the general condition of the jail came thick and fast. “This led to the jail officials not distributing the papers,” the police official said.

Meanwhile, there is demand by the jail staffs to remove the Director General of Prisons, Kulbir Krishan alleging highhandedness. Krishan countered the allegation and said that some of the jail staffs are providing undue favours to some of the prisoners.

Incidentally, the matter of alleged collusion of some jail staffs and UTPs came to light in August this year. An internal inquiry to probe into the allegations is on.