silchar revisited

while two unfinished posts are lying there in my blog dashbord (on allergies and laziness, how apt!) ... here am I starting another one,

I know this is not a good sign

unfinished projects....disorganisation...impatience ... messyness... all these signals some kind of psychosomatic disorder ... or something of the sort, I read somewhere ... or was it just some grandma's superstitious saying to make children work hard?

of course i don't remember ... forgetfulness is another of my many flaws

anyway, I must write a blog about my February visit to Silchar

the place which, among other things, inspired some of my initial blogs

like this one, this one and this one

(I cannot believe I used to bulk mail these postings, and to people I am not in touch with right now, embarrassing!)

anyway, this time it was a seminar -- of course it has to be a seminar, I feel guilty about travelling for just for the sake of it-- the stay was for five days only--could not be expanded as i was doing some seminar hopping during that period, -- and it was on Indigenous and Endangered Languages, something that has been on my mind for the last five years -- something that - again- was inspired by Silchar, and my stint at Assam University, during my interaction with the colourful, multilingual, multiracial student community.

 But I was also excited about just being there after five years... of course there are a number of reasons to feel like this... but in this blog I will not analyse... and not analyse why I will not analyse.

The plane landed and I immediately liked the sight of that small airport, of the ridiculously security less lounge and the slow pace of everything around it, of the amiable relaxed police-men, of my friends coming to pick me up

one of the changes that happened since I left is that everybody's driving---almost everyone --- and most showing off brand new cars-- but more importantly they were driving -- in that dangerous hilly terrain uneven dusty road with slopes where its impossible to see where you are going before you actually start going down and bends that act similarly and ditches here and steep mountains there— and to add to all that some of them refuse to give gaddas their due respect.Does not bother slowing down.

And the second change is that a baby boom happened—every where I go, there is an army of three to thirty six months olds out to kill you with deadly cuteness­.

And silchar also noticed a few changes in me – namely the 12+ kgs that I have acquired. Recognition of it went from a subtle ‘ you look a little different’ to a more honest “madam khub mota hoisen”. Well, who’s to blame? I don’t need to huff and puff and go on a trek for reaching one department to another anymore. It’s pretty much home-taxi-university-taxi-home routine now. Besides as Einstein said “The devil has put a penalty on all things we enjoy in life. Either we suffer in health or we suffer in soul or we get fat.” link to petpujo

The university also changed a bit, the auditorium where the conference was held, was not there. The gate that was being built when I left, is now complete. Many departments have moved to the new buildings at the extreme end of the campus, which seemed like the end of earth – its such a big campus!

But what was surprising is that in spite of it all the changes, it seemed like it was yesterday, not five years since I was there. It still felt a little bit like I belong there. This is not to romanticize. I do remember it was not the easy being there. it was difficult academically. Young library. Very small department. Frequent power-cut. Scarce net connectivity. Most of all, it was very very different from everything that I was used to. But I am proud that I made it all my own.

Silchar taught me that you have to like a place on its own terms … or suffer it