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Ram:
Please allow me not to agree with you.
First keeping records is one thing and forecasting
is one thing.
Keeping records of daily weather condition such as
highest and lowest temperature and rainfall is important and cannot be
compensated by high tech forcasting what the weather will be
tomorow.
Second I donot think it is expensive. It is basic
elementary and does not need to full office. A clerk sitting at home can do it
for Rs 100 a day. I think every citi and town of the rank of Jorhat,
Guwahati etc in India ought to have it.
Indians are known for not keeping any records of
things. We Indians think that histroy is circular and what ought to happen will
happen and what is the point in keeping chronology of things. In this the
Chinese are far ahead of us. They kept records of all earthly and
terrestial event since thousands of years. Unlike the Indians they also
kept chronology of events. It is in this line on Mongolian tradition that the
Ahoms kept chronology of their rulers. But I would assume that we Indians have
improved on this after the British. If Assam now lost the tradition of
keeping records of things, I bet we lost it due to the influence of Pan Indian
philosophical tradition that there is no point in keeping records of things
(like you are arguing). Assam has lost many of its originalities due to
the infux and influence of Pan Indian ideas from the mainland. (Poor
Assamese!!!) We have dilutated our history, culture, language and lost our
independence due to this.
Coming to the modern science such as weather
(incidently the word 'weather' and Assamese 'botor' have the same Indo-European
root) , we must note that keeping records of the weather is a modern western
tradition. During the Ahom days, we did not even have concept of Centrigrade or
Farenheit temperature. But in modern days, I would consider it a crime if a
citi or town does not keep records of the daily weather. If India is not keeping
records of daily weather of each town and citi, that does not mean Assam would
have to follow India like a 'litikai'. Assam should revamp its its own
tradition.
These I am writing from my 'kharkhowa' common sense
(or what I would have ordered if I were the king of Assam or India). In
light of this, we can dig history and try to find out what the European or the
Western or the Middle Eastern tradition is in this reagrd say during the last
200 years.
This brings to mind of the 'Diray of
Biman Barua', the diary of a famous school head master from Jorhat who kept
his diary from 1919 to 1983 for every day without fail. Recently his
diary was published as a book. His diary always started with the weather
condition of the place. Suddenly people are finding that his diary is very
important since it gives weather condition of every day of Jorhat for the last
so many years. I am sure Biman Barua learnt the trade from the
British. I simply wish that other Assamese and Indians would also learn
the tradition of just keeping records.
It seems we Indians may try to go for high
tech Weather Forecasting without caring to keep records of daily weather. (Poor
Indians!!)
RB
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