No Home for Leopards!

Guwahati is a unique city. While it is a hustling and bustling metropolis on one hand, on the other hand it is a city that has ample amount of unabashed natural beauty. The hills that surround Guwahati are special as they house some of the wild beauties that other city goers don’t usually get to see at such close quarters. And yet this natural beauty has been upset by the increasing urbanisation and encroachment into the forest areas. And the worst casualties in this mayhem have been the leopards.

Guwahati has been home to a sizeable leopard population that has thrived in its surrounding hills and the forest areas. Over the last three decades, Guwahati has expanded in all directions and this growing urbanisation has eaten up most of the city’s natural forest cover that has been a part of it since time immemorial. While the need to create houses for the increasing populace of Guwahati continues to exert pressure, the traditional leopard habitat has been hit hard with most of their homes been taken over by the concrete structures. This has resulted in increased man-leopard conflict over the past few years that has reached a worrying level today.

Once, leopards were found in almost all the hills in and around Guwahati. Over the last few decades, their habitats have been destroyed due to encroachment and destruction of forest covers over the hills. The city is no longer a safe zone for leopards as per most conservationists and experts and it is only a matter of time before the resident leopards of Guwahati go completely extinct. Leopards have already been exterminated from the main hill of Nilachal, the GMCH hill and the Nabagraha hill. Today most of the leopards in the city areas are concentrated in the hills at Maligaon and Pandu, where thankfully, the forest cover over the hills has also been largely intact so far.

But these habitats are also being threatened as more and more houses are being built adding more woes to the survival of Guwahati’s local leopards. Leopards normally live within rocky structures or caves where they rear their young. Most of such rocks on the hillsides are taken away and used up in the quarrying process for cement, leaving the leopard homeless. The loss of their habitat also means that they lose out on their natural prey due to the vanishing forest cover. As a result of this, they have to venture out into the city areas in search of food that brings them in direct conflict with man. The result is that we have had several news of leopards straying into the city areas and then being brutally put to death by a mob of panicked people.

The largescale encroachment of people into the forest areas over the hills has put the leopard population at stake today. What is surprising is that most of the encroachment has happened in the reserved forest areas of the hills as well but forest authorities are completely helpless in removing the encroachers from there. This is because of the political backing that these encroachers get due to vote bank politics and often we see violent resistance for any eviction drive.

The worst part is that the forest department seems to have no response mechanism to this growing threat of encroachment to Guwahati’s forest areas. There is no presence of any rapid action force in the forest department to look into immediate cases of encroachment. And it seems the government is not interested in forming strong anti-encroachment laws in the areas because of their rotten vote bank politics.

It is extremely important to save the leopards of Guwahati as they are the oldest residents of the city and not us humans. There should be strict laws whereby further encroachment should be stopped and strong mechanisms should be undertaken to empower the forest department to tackle the issues concerned. Translocation of the big cats should not also be ruled out and they can be taken away and resettled to other reserved forests where they can get ample food and shelter. It is still a better option than to silently watch these magnificent felines be killed due to mindless mob violence.

As per an estimate that is several years old, the total forest cover in the hills was just 13.60 percent. Today it is bound to be far less, given the ongoing encroachment, illegal logging and earth-cutting on the hills. Of the 7,023 hectares of hill land, about 2,642 hectares fall under reserve forests but a major part of even these protected forest covers lie destroyed and degraded due to encroachment and tree-felling.

Something needs to done fast in this regard before we have to experience the misfortune of lamenting the demise of the last leopard of Guwahati. Afterall, if you think deeply, it is we who have invaded their territory and not the other way around. 

The beautiful world of Pobitora

If you are someone who itches for a peek of nature and wildlife then there are lots of options for you since you are living in Assam. For someone in Guwahati though, the options are not bad considering that the Deepor Beel birds sanctuary is quite nearby. Also, there are several hills around the city that allow nature lovers a peek into some local wildlife. But if you are itching for a real safari experience then again you should be thankful for being a Guwahatian.

Not far from the city, about 48 kms away in the Morigaon district is situated the Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary. For those who feel that Kaziranga is too far away to fit in their hectic routines, a day’s getaway to Pobitora is a refreshing experience as it allows you to spend some time among the Great Indian One-Horned Rhinoceros. Covering an area of about 38.80 square kilometres, Pobitora is perhaps the other most prolific place to witness the rhino in its wild glory after Kaziranga.

Reaching there is no hurdle as it is just about an hour ride away from Guwahati. But yes, do take your own vehicle as there are no bus services till there. I had lived all my life in Guwahati, but got to visit the place only recently. The sanctuary is quite close to Mayong and even covers a small hillock in the Raja Mayong area. The area for effective rhino habitat is only about 16 square kilometres. So one good thing is you don’t to travel long distances within the sanctuary to catch a glimpse of the magnificent beasts.

Pobitora is quite an interesting place. It is surrounded from all side by villages and has a strict area boundary unlike Kaziranga where sometimes the boundaries blur with human settlements. There are reportedly about 93 rhinos within the sanctuary and if reports are to be believed, it has become overpopulated for the species. Most of the rhino grazing areas are near to the human settlements and the boundary is demarcated by a road running along the area. Cattle and livestock from the nearby villages roam carefree within the park area among the rhinos and other animals such as water buffaloes and wild boars. We went on a jeep safari ride and it was already late in the morning and we were surprised by the number of cattle present within the park area. The rhinos didn’t seem disturbed at all by the presence of the large number of cattle and livestock around them and peacefully carried on with their grazing.

The safari ride took us through a patch of area that had ample amount of shady trees that gave quite a picturesque look to the place. And on top of it you could see the cattle roaming in the area along with wild boars and rhinos in between. Pobitora is a beautiful place and some of the most picturesque locations if you are interesting in wildlife photography. But do remember to reach the place by 7 am if you want to enjoy an elephant ride safari.

Because of its comparatively smaller area to other sanctuaries, the problem of poaching is quite unheard of here, unlike Kaziranga where it is rampant. The rhinos have grown accustomed to the presence of humans and their livestock in their vicinity and hence peaceful coexistence prevails here. Apart from rhinos, the sanctuary also has a sizeable population of water buffaloes, wild boars and over 2000 varieties of birds and reptiles. There is no population of tigers or deer here. There are some leopards but their presence is only in the deeper areas of the sanctuary. Pobitora is a fine place to spot several species of birds, especially in the winters when migratory birds come in large numbers here.

Pobitora makes for a great day long getaway along with your family to witness the beauty of the wilderness in the presence of the magnificent rhinoceros. And the best part is it is quite close to a major city like Guwahati. 

Batman v Superman: A missed opportunity!

Let me begin by saying that I enjoyed Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. I’ve watched it twice so far. No plans for a third viewing though! The first time I watched it, I enjoyed it a lot although I could see some glaring loopholes in the movie. But I decided to go for a second viewing. Not because I loved the movie a lot, but because the internet had exploded with reviews and fights between the fans and critics. 

Nobody had anticipated such a wide divide on the movie and over the last week the movie fights escalated considerably on the internet. There were people who loved it. There were others who hated it. I enjoyed it, but I couldn’t ignore the fact that there were some major defects in the movie. The second viewing turned out to be rather interesting. I still enjoyed the movie, I’ll not lie. Especially the action, those scenes were magnificent. But the loopholes became even more apparent this time and I was left fuming over the phenomenal fuck up that DC and Warner Bros had done with their cinematic universe.

Let’s go back to the beginning. Back in 2013, when Man of Steel came out and kick started the DC cinematic universe. While that movie too faced a lot of criticism, I was blown away with what I saw. This was not just a good reboot, but it was also the most realistic take ever on the character of Superman. Credit goes to the great Christopher Nolan and David S Goyer, who wrote the story, and gave such a realistic treatment to the character of Superman. I quite liked the dark tone of the movie as I prefer DC comic movies to have darker tones than the others. They established a perfect origin story for the newer generations who had either not seen the old Christopher Reeves movies or were not much familiar with the Superman lore as we comic book fans are. Nolan and Goyer’s aim was to invest into the audience who had never read a Superman comic in their lives and hence we got a rich backstory into the character. I really did not mind all the destruction of Metropolis in the climax as so many people complained. Yes it did take me by surprise in the first viewing, but even back then I could understand that this was a raw and inexperienced Superman who was taking on a formidable opponent like General Zod. This was a Superman who was still coming to grasp with the full potential of his powers. He was a very conflicted character, which is why I did not mind him killing off Zod in the end. What Superman purists forget here is that Christopher Reeves’ Superman also killed Zod in the old Superman 2 movie, but I never heard anybody complain about it. That’s hypocrisy, bitches!

Anyway, I was quite happy with Man of Steel and felt that the DC cinematic universe was in safe hands with writers like Nolan and Goyer and a director like Zack Snyder. So when Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was announced two years ago, I was pumped up like hell even though I must confess I was a little miffed as to why they did not go with a Man of Steel sequel and further develop Superman’s character. But this is also where shit started to go down. Warner Bros could not contain their greed over the huge money that Man of Steel made and decided that it was time for them to compete directly with Marvel who had painstakingly established their own cinematic universe successfully. But DC decided to take a terrible leap without doing their homework and decided to bring a prelude to Justice League without going for any more movies to establish the characters of their cinematic universe.

I think this was also the reason why Christopher Nolan backed out of this project because he and Goyer had a specific vision and a process to establish the characters of this cinematic universe. I’m sure they wanted to develop Superman’s character with another movie before they push him into a frame with the other DC superheroes. DC’s decision to cram in atleast five different storylines resulting in a jumbled up mess must have prodded Nolan to back out although his name still remains as Executive Producer in the movie credits. Unlike Marvel, who decided to stick to most of the lore from their comic books, DC made a glorious mess by fusing so many storylines that could have made great standalone movies individually. I call it a glorious mess because inspite of all the shortcomings, it is still a good looking movie. The credit here goes to Zack Snyder. He is a fantastic visual director, but not a good storyteller. His previous films, which can be termed as good movies, are so because they were backed up with solid stories. 300 was fun to watch because Snyder copied the movie exactly frame to frame from the original Frank Miller graphic novel. Snyder’s Watchmen was also a fantastic watch because he gave out great visuals to a well written story based on a rather difficult graphic novel series.

But Snyder’s shortcomings as a storyteller become evident when we see movies like Sucker Punch. That film has some of the most amazing visual sequences I’ve ever seen in cinema. But at the end of the day, I was left wondering what the hell was that all about?! Pretty much the same thing happened with Batman v Superman. A shoddy script with several plotholes could not be saved by Snyder’s mediocre storytelling skills. The result is evident. The film’s story has got plots from several DC Comics story archs such as A Death in the Family, The Dark Knight Returns, Justice League: War and of course Death of Superman. The worst part is that while fans like us could get all the references in the movie for the different story archs, non-comic book reading people, who formed the bulk of the audiences, were left confused.

The nightmare sequence has left most of the audiences heavily confused. In that sequence, they teased the coming of Darkseid with the Omega symbol and the parademons in the movie, but how many from the audiences got that? They showed a grim and darker Superman who complained of a dead Lois Lane to Batman. Then immediately in the next shot in that same nightmare sequence, they showed Flash making a sudden appearance and warning Bruce Wayne to be careful of Superman and fear him. That was a direct reference to DC’s Injustice story arch. How many people in the audience got that? In a theatre full of, let’s say about a hundred people, there are a maximum of 30-40 die hard comic book fans who are familiar with all the story archs and can enjoy these scenes to the fullest. But what about the rest of the audience who were left confused as hell? Then there is another scene where Bruce Wayne walks past the suit of Robin which has the words ‘Ha ha! The joke’s on you Batman!’ written over it. This is a direct reference to the second Robin, Jason Todd, who gets brutally murdered by the Joker in the A Death in the Family storyline. But how many in the audience really got that?

I see it as a great disservice to the audience in general as the non-comic book reading folks are those who make up the bulk of the audience for these movies and DC has taken them for granted. Man of Steel set up such a rich origin story for Superman with even the movie’s first fifteen minutes dedicated to the events on Krypton so that audiences connect fully to the character’s background. Here characters are introduced from the middle without any explanation as to what led them to their current state? Bruce Wayne is quite a bitter man from past events and he has pretty much given up his moral code never to kill as Batman. This surprised many die hard Batman fans like me, but frankly, I really don’t have much problem with that. I never really could connect to the theory as to how you can fight some of the worst imaginable villains in human consciousness without killing off even a single one of them. This is exactly why I did not have problems with Superman killing Zod in Man of Steel.

All the good work of Nolan and Goyer, which had been achieved with Man of Steel, was undone in this movie. People got to see a good origin story for Superman, but they could not see his character grow with another standalone movie. In the movie, people are still divided over their opinion for Superman and it is quite evident from the TV debate shots that are shown in the movie. It’s only been eighteen months since the events in Man of Steel, most of the people in the movie are still coming to terms with the presence of a godlike character such as Superman, but what is strange is there is a huge Superman statue in the city as well. If there is such a strong division of opinion regarding the guy, who let such a big statue be constructed in the middle of the city that the fellow almost ruined eighteen months back? Makes no fucking sense! The last shot in the film that is shown of the general public is a mob burning an effigy of Superman. And when pretty much the same night, he gets killed by Doomsday, he becomes a hero in the eyes of the very same public? Makes no fucking sense!

Now I come to my biggest resentment in the movie. The death of Superman. This is the second movie in the DC cinematic universe, and they killed off Superman so soon! Seriously, in their haste to match up with Marvel, DC has ruined the character of Superman. No space was given for the character to grow and become relatable to the audience and believe me when I say this, nobody, I repeat, nobody could feel the full emotional extant that one should feel at the death of a character like Superman. Somehow I had suspected it beforehand when I saw Doomsday in the movie’s second trailer. I felt Doomsday was too early a character to be brought in the cinematic universe’s second movie itself. But I dismissed the idea of Superman’s death because it seemed too early to go that route. And boy was I wrong! Now that Superman is dead, there is really no point in making any more Superman sequel. Yes he will be resurrected, but they can’t kill him off again! That’s been done!

This is what has pissed me off so bad! They did not let the character grow, they killed him off so suddenly, and it’s pretty much certain that now his impact won’t be as it should have in the upcoming Justice League movies. And in the movie, they’ve teased Injustice, which means they’ll be turning Superman into a villain during the last phase of the DC cinematic line. They have ruined Superman in ways none could have fathomed. In their haste to catch up with Marvel, DC has suffered from a bad case of premature ejaculation.

Marvel had standalone movies for their major characters like Iron Man, Captain America and Thor before they came up with the first Avengers movie. The movie was a grand success because audience all over the globe connected with the characters as they knew their backgrounds from the previous movies. There was no such scope in this movie and none remains so for the Justice League movie. So when Superman died, it did not leave the impact it should have otherwise left on the audience. Marvel is coming up with Captain America: Civil War next month, and mark my words, the audiences around the world will give a reaction filled with emotions when a certain major character goes down in the movie.

I don’t want to delve into the details of the storyline of the film or discuss its plotholes as that has been done meticulously by critics. You can get those stuff on Youtube. I will though say that the scene where the other Justice League characters are introduced when Wonder Woman opens an email that Bruce Wayne sends her, feels completely rushed, badly executed and out of place in the movie. In that particular sequence, the files that contain the CCTV camera footages for the characters had the actual symbols of the characters from the comics. What should I call it? Lazy story writing? Bad direction? Or have the makers of this movie taken us audiences to be so stupid that they feel we should be spoon fed this nonsense. Why do the files have those symbols over them? Did Lex Luthor hire a team of designers and put those over the files that best fits each character? During my first viewing, when the scene came out, I almost blurted out loudly in the theatre, “That is so stupid!”

Another scene that left me fuming in anger was the one where Batman and Superman stop fighting after they discover their moms have a common name, Martha. This time I could not contain myself and actually said out aloud in the theatre, “Ok now this is fucking stupid!” Those were the exact words I uttered and a few people sitting around me laughed at my comment. Really DC, the audiences are not so stupid. Even the ones who don’t read your comics. Batman planned this attack on Superman for months and you expect me to believe that he would give up the idea of killing Superman just at that point? Pure case of lazy story writing!

Like many critics, even I agree that Lex’s motivation against Superman are unclear. Bruce Wayne’s motivations are established clearly in the film’s opening when he witnesses Metropolis’s destruction during Superman and Zod’s fight. But what were Lex’s reasons? Also I don’t understand why did he take that stupid approach to make Superman and Batman fight! He knew the true identities of both the characters and in my opinion, he could have either exposed them publicly or meticulously destroyed their lives step by step. But no! He came up with his half-baked plan to make them fight which had to fell apart. And then he created Doomsday as a backup plan, which I’m pissed about because the writers ruined Doomsday’s origin story and his character. I feel Metallo or Bizarro would have been better choices for a villain in the film’s scenario.

On a positive note, I feel delighted with Ben Affleck’s Batman. Like all, I would reiterate that he was the best thing in the movie and I am looking forward to his standalone Batman movie. Plus, at the end of the day I have no qualms over Batman killing bad guys. In fact I do prefer the brutal Batman now. Henry Cavill was good as Superman, but the writers did not give any space for his character to grow so it would be unfair to make any negative comments on him. Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman was also fantastic and her entry in the last fight had me roaring in applause with the rest of the audience. Jesse Eisenberg took a very odd take on Lex Luthor. But I won’t blame him because he did what he was told to do. I feel he would have looked much better if he had carried on with his cold and calculative business tycoon act from The Social Network. But I must say that the fight scenes in this movie were so good! Especially the one where Batman takes down Lex’s goons in the warehouse. That was brilliantly done. When I look at these delightful action scenes and then I compare them with the rest of the movie, I can’t help but notice that this movie is nothing but a huge missed opportunity.

In the end, I will not say like others that the movie could have been better. In my opinion this movie should not have existed without a proper Superman sequel in the first place. DC has fucked up big time with this movie. I don’t know how they are going to proceed with the other movies. They’ve ruined Superman and now there are really no stakes attached to that character for future. And sadly by teasing Injustice, they’ve hinted that they are only going to further deteriorate him.

Yes, this movie is making tons of money and I enjoyed watching the movie both times. But I can’t help lament over the mess that DC and Warner Bros have made with this movie. This is not really a rant. I am just expressing my concerns over a movie franchise that I really wanted to shine. I really wanted this movie to be good. I am a Batman fanboy and I was delighted with the new Dark Knight in the movie. But it somewhat hurt me to see Superman’s character being demolished so unceremoniously. Warner Bros tried to take on Marvel with this one, but the truth is they are not even half as smart as the bosses who decide the course of Marvel’s cinematic universe. It's not a bad film. But it's not that good either. 

Before you buy a new Smartphone!

Everybody uses a smartphone today and India is undergoing the smartphone revolution right now which is transforming most Indians into techno freaks. More and more feature phone users are switching to smartphones and this has made India into the world’s second largest market for smartphone makers globally. As more and more buyers have emerged in the country’s growing smartphones so have been the vendors offering various devices with different features and on different platforms such as Android, iOS and Windows Phone. It is therefore very important that the prospective smartphone buyer must be educated about certain aspects of the device before buying it.

While it is true that small screen smartphones are largely a thing of the past, the standard size for a smartphone is normally around 5 inches. There are many smartphones on the market that have a screen size of almost 6 inches, but that is totally on the preferences of the customers. There are some key points that you should always consider while buying a new smartphone if you are planning to use for a period of atleast 2-3 years without much hassles.

RAM: A smartphone’s RAM is very important to determine how the device would fare in day to day usage and multitasking. Different devices have different ways of utilising their available RAM and hence going by today’s standards a smartphone should have a minimum RAM of 1GB atleast. There are many phones in the market that offer upto 3 or 4GB of RAM, but I’m talking mostly of those devices that come below the range of 10K pricing. If you can spend more than 10K than you will probably be able to afford a device with 2GB RAM.

STORAGE: Phone storage is a very important factor while buying a smartphone. The internal storage that is available out of the box in a device is important as it affects the performance of the phone greatly. Users get frequent updates for the apps on their devices and they tend to take up more and more space of the phone’s storage. Hence it is important that when you buy a phone go for a device that gives you atleast 16GB of internal storage. Anything less than that is nothing short of a compromise and it will affect the optimum usage you can derive out of your device. Also, it is highly advisable to go for devices that give the option of expandable storage such as Micro SD card or OTG support. In case of no expandable storage, try to go for a device that offers larger storage such as 32 or 64 GB, although for those you may have to dish out some extra money.

CAMERA: Camera is a very important aspect of a smartphone today. Most smartphone makers compete among themselves to offer good camera specs in competitive price ranges. Although the game of megapixels if rather overrated for me, I would say that the most acceptable camera specs among smartphones today would be a 13MP camera in the back and a 5MP camera in the front. If you can increase your budget beyond 15K than you can get even better specs for the camera on your phone. The best cameras however come in the extremely high price categories. But always remember that your camera should have HDR mode, optical image stabilisation and various shooting modes that enhance your experience in a rich way.

BATTERY: Battery life is very important nowadays. Most smartphone users complain of battery life as their device fails to take them through most of the day and they end up worrying about charging them once in every few hours. Today many devices in the price range of around 15K are offering a battery life of upto 3000 mAh. But if you don’t want to go upto that sort of price bracket then atleast make sure that your battery has no less than 2000 mAh juice in it. Also you can save up your battery during the day by minimising the internet data consumption and managing it in a more profitable way.

SOFTWARE: Though some do not attach much importance to the software of the Operating System (OS) of the device, I feel it is quite important as having the latest OS can give you a great experience on your phone’s platform. Be it Android, iOS or Windows Phone, it always advisable to have their latest versions as they always bring something new and fresh with them in their successive versions as it greatly enhances your overall experience. While it rather depends on your smartphone maker on whether they give you future software updates or not, it is rather better to start with the latest OS in the market in all purposes. 

India’s Smartphone Revolution

Technology is such an integral part of our lives today that we often do not realise the huge impact it has on us daily. Be it email, social networks, messaging, video chats or whatever, the fact is that our daily activities are governed by our access to technology which unlimits our access to the world around us. And in this tryst with technology, our medium for accessing today is none other than our trusted mobile device.

Yes, the very mobile phone which has taken the form of the savvy smartphone has become the most important asset that we possess for most of our daily activities today. More and more people are going for smartphones today ditching features phones to access the options available through the means of internet and technology. The advent of the culture of professionalism in lieu of the traditional laid back government jobs that have dominated our attitude for the past many decades has been heralded by the coming of the mobile devices like smartphones, tablets, etc which has made the internet an almost essential component such as water supply or electricity.

In the last few decades, some people in the urban scenarios were seen with devices like pagers for their work purposes but they never really got popular beyond a point. While desktop computers brought Indians closer to the world in terms of technology, it was really the popularity of the portable laptop over the last decade that revolutionised how Indians access technology. Thankfully, India witnessed an internet revolution in the last ten years in the urban centres that changed the face of the country’s professional and technical scenario. Easy access to internet through various service providers and the role played by portable laptops brought people of this country join the proverbial global village that technology had built up across the world in the last couple of decades. While mobile phones largely remained a device for primary communication such as making calls and messaging, it was really the advent of the smartphone that made it into the powerful device that it has become today.

While the credit for making the smartphone a savvy device goes largely to the legendary Steve Jobs and Apple, in India the revolution was brought in Google’s Android devices. Indians, who had already gotten hooked onto the search engine, now found the Android OS from the same company as a powerful platform to explore the vast world of internet. Suddenly, the mobile phone was no longer a means to just make calls or send messages. It became a medium of multimedia that could not explored in earlier mediums and made Indians experience technology like never before. So be it social networking, video chatting, on phone editing and what not, the smartphone has become the plaything of the average tech savvy urban Indian today which makes him or her empowered to achieved several feats on  touch screen platform.

While Android was around for the first couple of years in the Indian markets during the turn of 2010, the devices did not hit instant popularity as they were highly priced. It wasn’t until the game changing advent of the Indian vendors such Micromax, Xolo and Lava that the smartphones reached out to the hands of the middle class Indians. The widespread popularity of these devices forced the more lucrative brands to rethink their strategy and today some of the best brands with great features are available at the most competitive prices. The competition among these various brands, be they foreign or Indian, has sparked off the smartphone revolution that has engulfed most of the urban youth in its grip.

The smartphone revolution has resulted in the mobile device becoming a means to express yourself in the most diverse way possible. The presence of the online stores in mobile OS platforms like Android and iOS has brought in several options for the users as they can download various apps for free that help in their daily work in various ways. Many professionals do several of their editing works on their mobile devices, be it smartphones or tablets. The scope for net banking or online share trading has also increased significantly on the mobile devices that make such work very easy for professionals while being on the move.

While the urban centres of the country seem to have embraced the smartphone revolution with open arms, the smartphone is slowly making inroads into the rural centres as well. This is the sector that has been untapped and has great potential to use technology to overcome most of the problems that have plagued villages for so many years now. While it is heartening to see people from the lower strata of life in the urban centres using smartphone in their daily lives, it is only a matter of time before the same scenario is seen among the people in the urban sector as well. The presence of internet and technology can open up a lot of options for the rural people and bridge the gap with the urban folks that can go a long way in bringing in a semblance in the development of both sides. The current government’s policies like Digital India is also taking the internet and smartphone revolution in the right direction.

The world is making most of internet and technology today. We Indians must not lag behind in this regard, be it in the rural or urban sector. The smartphone can play a pivotal role in making this dream a success and we must grab it with both hands. 

Durga Puja in Guwahati: Viewing through my Lenses

Durga Puja as a grand festival is mostly associated with West Bengal among the people of the rest of India. But it is also a very important festival in Assam as well with the festive fever reaching a crescendo in the city of Guwahati. People from both the Assamese and Bengali communities come together in the city to put up grand pandals and innovative Puja themes. Over the years, the scale of Durga Puja has increased manifolds in Guwahati and today many believe that after Kolkata, Guwahati holds some of the best Puja pandals in the entire country. 

An idol of the Goddess Durga at a pandal

A closeup of a Durga idol

An illuminated gate entrance at a puja pandal

 The city's Santipur Sluicegate pandal with the theme of the Ganges flowing out of Lord Shiva's matted locks

A grand puja pandal set up in the city's Maligaon locality

Earthen lamps being lit at a Puja pandal

A group of women performing traditional kirtan at a puja pandal

Durga Puja is a favourite time for people to gorge on street food. Here is a gol gappa stand near a pandal

The puja theme at the city's Bishnupur pandal depicting the goddess as mother nature killing the Asur who is shown here as a poacher

 A Durga idol made entirely of dried coconut leaves at a pandal from the city's Rehabari locality

The Kalimandir pandal of the city's Chatribari locality came up with this unique idol made entirely of aluminium and stainless steel utensils

The Durga idol from a pandal in Fancy Bazar locality was made to wear real jewellery. The chain around the idol's neck was reportedly worth Rs 25 lakhs

Several puja pandals in the city put up donation boxes to provide relief for the victims of the recent floods in Assam

A young reveller waits before the beginning of the Bisarjan (immersion) procession on the last day 

Annals of a Proud Meat Eater

Only yesterday I was having a great dish of beef Biryani at a Muslim restaurant and decided to post a pic of the dish on Instagram. Instantly, one of my Muslim friends poked fun at me saying that he would expose me in front of the RSS. Immediately I looked around the place and observed that in the restaurant, out of about nine tables, in the chamber where I was seated, four were occupied by people who were visibly non-Muslims. I could see almost all of them had ordered red meat items, and I’m hoping that all of them would be beef and not mutton. But what seemed funny to me is that in a nation where the Hindu right wingers are trying to get a ban on cow slaughter, there are many Hindus like me who are beef lovers. And mind it; I’m neither a Communist nor an atheist. You can term me more like a liberal right winger.

I’m an Assamese caste Hindu who has a penchant for non-vegetarian items. But then most of my kind are, and I secretly pity any one from my breed who turns out to be a vegetarian. We Assamese are voracious meat eaters. Though like all Hindus, most of us abstain from eating beef, there are a few of us who love to do so. While Assamese Hindus may traditionally abstain from beef, we indulge in a variety of other meats which make our culinary options quite colourful. Like most Assamese families, ours is also a unit that indulges in varieties when it comes to non-veg. Our family belongs to the Vaishnav sect of Assam, and unlike the Vaishnavites from other parts of India, we are traditionally voracious meat eaters, except for beef and pork. This is quite like the Kashmiri Pandits who love to gorge on mutton, unlike their brethren from other parts of the country. Leaving the Vaishnavs and the Brahmins, and of course the Muslims, traditionally pork has been a most favourite item among the other communities. Almost every indigenous community of the state like the Ahoms, Kacharis, Bodos, Mishings, etc love pork. If you love pork, then you will find yourself in paradise while exploring the dishes made here locally.

In my family, traditions had been maintained quite strictly and both pork and beef remained out of the house for long. In a large clan of happy non-vegetarian Vaishnavs, I feel proud to admit that there are three black sheep, viz me, my brother and our Deuta (father). How did I become a beef eater? Well the credit goes to my Deuta. He was a rebel among all his siblings and ventured out in his younger days and indulged in both pork and beef. The best part was that he did not feel it necessary to hide his indulgence out of shame and hence earned contempt from his relatives. Deuta says even today, “If you don’t feel the guilt for something, then you should never be ashamed of having indulged in it.” And religion acts as no bar here. In fact ask my younger about it and he would say that religion is a complete bitch when it comes to fooding habits.

A question that I have often been asked is how many different types of meat forms have I eaten? This question came up during my stay in Delhi, a place where most people never rise above chicken or mutton. Fish is seen more like a ‘Bangaliyo ka zayka’, and Muslims mostly indulge in sale of buffalo meat, and never really real beef, to avoid controversy. Since I don’t have the typical yours truly ‘chinki’ look from my home region, I was mostly passed off as a Commie Bong who loves to indulge in food adventures. But the truth is most Bongs would shy away at the kind of meat forms that I indulge in.

Let me start with the basics, of course I began with chicken and mutton which forms a staple part of our culinary routine at home. Fish is more common in an Assamese household and like the Bongs, we have an extremely soft corner for the tasty Hilsa fish. In my house, we have rice, dal, atleast two to three varieties of vegetables, and fish on every alternate day. Chicken or mutton makes their appearances on weekends. Apart from chicken, other birds that we are fond of eating are pigeon and ducks. They are occasional appearances at our dining table and need special events for that matter. While most people in north India would cringe at the very thought of eating a cutie pie bird such as the pigeon, here in Assam, it is a delicacy among our people across various communities. Traditionally, it is expected that a newly wed bride in an Assamese household must cook a splendid dish of pigeon meat curry after her entry into the in-law’s house so as to win their hearts. Duck meat is a very warm variety and is preferred mostly during the winters. People do not shy away from hunting migratory ducks who come in from far off places such as Russia as they make splendid dishes for the wintery nights. We have ourselves indulged with this variety on quite a few occasions. Traditionally, we also have a soft side for crabs and prawns. If cooked in the proper manner, they are absolute delights for your taste buds. Tortoise meat is rarely cooked anywhere nowadays as the restrictions are so sharp. I remember having eaten tortoise only once as a kid and still reminisce the juicy flavor of the meat. But ever since then I haven’t come across this variety anywhere. Venison is also a prefered item among our people and it is hunted in an albeit hush hush manner in the rural sides so as to avoid detection by the authorities. I personally feel it is the Baap of all form of red meats.

I began eating pork much earlier than I decided to go for beef. My mother has always been against eating both beef and pork and today after so many years, she has reconciled to the fact that her husband and both her sons are beyond redemption in this regard. Pork is readily available in almost every corner of Guwahati. So it was no issue having pork momos or other such dishes as kids. Ma however wouldn’t let us come in with pork inside the house and on several occasions made us eat the pork momos while seated in the courtyard of our house. Today however, she has warmed up as we bring in packed pork items inside the house. But she still refuses to eat them. She has promised to eat pork the day I cook it for her. That day is coming soon I say! For us, pork is still an acceptable eating item compared to beef and I have continued to eat beef inspite of so many heating arguments over the issue with various people.

Eating beef was a process where I overcame my own demons. I ate beef when I was about 14 and was encouraged by the sole fact that my father was a beef eater. At that young age, the thoughts of religion and the divine consequence often bears down on you. While both my father and brother are agnostics who are not at all religious, I am mildly religious as I still frequent temples and other religious shrines now and then as I have been since I was a kid. I must say eating beef has been a liberating process for me from the dogmas of religion and peek more into the culture and rituals of people whom we perceive different from ourselves.

While beef eating is regarded as a heinous crime among Hindus, there is a lot of conflict over the issue if we come to the sacred texts. Since Hinduism has a variety of sacred literature, many of them differ from each other on the issue, while others remain silent mostly. While right wingers can literally bleed their hearts out on this issue, and even though I am with them on some fronts, there is no denying the fact that ancient Hindus were beef eaters. Beef was served as a mark of respect to the guest at a house during the Vedic era. Several chapters of the texts such as Manusmriti state in Chapter 5/Verse 30 that “It is not sinful to eat meat of eatable animals, for Brahma has created both the eaters and the eatables.” The Shatpath Brahmin also states that Sage Yagyvalkya reportedly said that he is a lover of beef. The father of Hindu revivalism, Swami Vivekanand also reportedly said, “You will be surprised to know that according to ancient Hindu rites and rituals, a man cannot be a good Hindu who does not eat beef”. In the Brihadaranyak Upanishad, the Adi Shankaracharya talks of a certain delicious rice dish that is made with beef.

While these are only the few arguments propagating consumption of beef by ancient Hindus, most of today’s right wingers who espouse the cause of Sanatan Dharma completely condemn the consumption of beef. Most of the views such as those mentioned above are often dubbed as propaganda by Muslims and Communists. The right wing lobby mostly espouses the cause of vegetarianism and states that no Hindu scripture espouses the killing of animals in any way. While it is true that the cow has been revered and given a high status in several scriptures that make it holy and nearly untouchable in terms of eating, I feel it is still highly doubtful if there is a blanket ban on meat eating in Hinduism altogether. Some ancient texts do speak out against consumption of beef. The Mahabharata’s Shantiparv states that “The very name of cow is Aghnya (not to be killed).” This means that a cow should never be slaughtered. So, one who kills a cow or a bull commits a heinous crime.

These were the kind of things I was digging into during my initial days of beef eating. I remained an occasional beef eater for the early years, before I finally decided that its all just crap and decided to follow the footsteps of my father. The Hindu texts and scriptures create a sense of confusion on the subject as they differ so greatly from each other. The Manusmriti, which advocates beef eating in one part, is self contradictory as it denounces meat eating in general in other sections. Some of the oldest texts like the Vedas remain largely silent on the issue. The good thing with Muslims is that they have just one holy book, the Holy Quran, which quite explicitly forbids the consumption of pork and non-halal items. Period. This is not so with our religion. I ultimately decided to go ahead as an absolute beef lover by the time I was seventeen, and realized that I loved it because it is indeed very tasty. Though to be honest, pork still remains my favourite meat. My younger brother did not have to go through any dilemma as me. Since he is absolutely irreligious, he just went ahead and tasted and approved it with a complete thumbs up in one go. All these years, I have been eating all sorts of meat forms and have moved on pretty well in life. There have no divine anger upon me, nor has ever any lightning struck down on me for my ‘sins.’ I continue to visit temples and other religious shrines. It is as if I have this little pact with God that I would continue to be a faithful Hindu in most ways, provided I’m left to pursue my choice of culinary delights. I know its complicated, but I believe He understands. I completely agree that a cow or a bull alive is worth more useful than one dead. But instead of advocating for a ban on cow slaughter, I suggest it should be done in very limited numbers with a stock that is bred separately just for that purpose.

Consumption of buffalo meat is not an issue to me at all. Forget the religious texts, people may revere the buffalo in their own way and consider it holy. But the truth is that in Assam and West Bengal, buffaloes are sacrificed during Durga Puja and Kali Puja, and the meat is distributed among devotees. Surely then it cant be an issue to be equated with cow slaughter. Buffalo meat is also a popular delicacy among many sections of Hindus such as the Nepalis. Now lets not get into the arguments of vegetarians and the Sanatan Dharmis of mainland India. Deuta describes them as a lot useless to argue with and describes them as a ‘ghaas poos’ variety who are happy consuming milk products.

But it is not so that we are averse to vegetarian cuisines. A good vegetarian item always spruces things for our appetite and I would anyday choose a Marwari function over others just to taste the delicious sorcery they conjure up with all those vegetarian food.

However, as a non-veg lover, my pack of sins is not completely done yet. I have also tasted dog meat at a Naga friend’s place. Found it completely disgusting, and swore never to taste it again. Plus I’m also a dog lover, so it made kind of guilty from the inside. That sort of feeling was never present there for the cow. I’ve also tasted snake meat in Meghalaya, and trust me, you’d happily eat them up thinking them to be boneless chicken if nobody tells you what they really are. My brother scored a point over me when he tasted bat meat which was prepared by some of his Garo and Mishing friends. He said it was quite bony but tasty. I don’t think I can bring myself to that level. Now what remains in my list are a few more exotic items which Deuta has tasted. They include octopus and squid. I may have to wait up for those two.

There are a few more items in my list which I really dont want to discuss here. I would love to try them out if I ever get the chance. But rest assured, I’m never turning to cannibalism.