My apologies Chitta. I was merely thrown off by your hope :-)
Hope you will take some initiative to fill the gap on biographies front too.
No I am not a or the list owner of assam.org. I
have however helped defray the cost of
maintaining this
site and hope to as long as I can. It would be
nice if others participated too. For all these
years Jugal Kalita has been spending his own hard
earned money to maintain the site. I doubt they
get any advertising revenue worth the mention.
I am not exactly sure who owns the site. But
Assam Company with Jugal Kalita as a principal
most likely owns it. Babul Gogoi seems to do most
of the maintenance work.
I am sure one or the other or both would love to
accept anything you or others wish to contribute.
Babul Gogoi's e-mail address is: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Jugal Kalita's is: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
m-da
PS: FYI, another illustrious Assamese amongst us,
perhaps with collusion with someone in Assam
attempted to destroy assam.org by claiming it sponsors terrorism :-).
At 8:42 AM -0700 7/5/07, chittaranjan pathak wrote:
Mahanta da
All I wanted to know was whether you are one of
the custodians of the Assam.org list. And if you
do not want to get into this biography business
because of some past bad experiences, your
abhorance for hero worshipping, you could have
said it in one line.
By the way I am not sure how knowing about our
own people is hero worshipping. I was amazed
reading about Kashinath Saikia in the list as I
did not hear the name before. Similarly, may be
I would have liked to read about Pilik Chaudhury
or Parvati Prasad Baruva or Ganesh Gogoi. For
people like you and me-busy in our own
materialistic pursuits-it ends at that. Where is
the hero worshipping part ?
Regards
Chitta
that Its not clear to me whether you are one of
the custodian but not into biography writing or
you have nothing to do with assam.org and dont
want to add the biographies
Chan Mahanta <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Hi Chitta:
While I admire and respect achievers and
do-gooders, I am not into hero-worshipping. More
so because our people have degenerated the
hero-worshipping to a substitute for emulating
what their heroes exemplified. In an extreme
example of it, one illustrious NRA ( I am being
extremely generous here) , who fancies himself
to be the defender of Xonkordev's legacy, even
threatened to shut down an exhibit honoring
Xonkordev, if the organizers used the X letter
in transliterating the departed hero's name in
English. With such examples of
hero-worshippers, who needs hero-trashers :-)?
So, I will pass on writing biographies. But I
hope to set examples thru MY actions, shaped by
learning from and emulating those who came
before me, whom I admire.
I also am not the kind of person who go about
waving my pride in this or that, person or
action or achievement. Pride waving is
something that becomes necessary only when there
really is scant amounts for it to be found.
Again, not to suggest I don't admire others'
contributions or achievements. But that is not
something I build my self-worth upon. And if
ALL or many individuals take that approach, we
will become much better people.
Finally, there are many individuals who did many
fine and admirable things, and many are doing it
now, unrecognized and unsung; as many will do
in times to come. In this era of information
overload, I do not even think of attempting to
know all that is worthy of knowing, people,
actions or things. We will, of necessity, have
to focus on issues, people, things--that are of
interest to us, individually or collectively.
So, biographies should be written by those who have an interest in it.
Finally, the piece below, is definitely NOT one
to emulate to document someone's life, with such
banalities like:
>The doctor told her he could cure her in a
day. And cure he did. A clinical diagnosis by
the gifted >doctor established that a purgative
would heal her. She had the pill and as if by
magic, she was cured >instantly.
OR
with such poor understanding of a language, like:
> He miraculously survived inspite of drowning
in the Brahmaputra at one pont of his career.
c-da
PS:
>Alright-what you are saying may be true for
some Indians, but is equally true for most of
the Assamese.
*** Yes, and that is precisely because Assam's
establishment is little more than a bad copy of
India's.
And I recognized the 'some' aspect of it, when I
qualified my statement with 'by-and-large'.
Question would be what you imply with 'some'?
Hope it is not an attempt to portray it as a
minuscule, aberrant segment and thus a
rebuttal , on the sly, of what obviously is an
uncomfortable truth to you and others . If that
is what you are trying to do, that would be
dissembling :-).
>How many Nolboriya Assamese know about Samson
Sing Ingty or Kalicharan Brahma
*** Let us not equate trivia collection with
learning about people or cultures, even though
that is exactly what the whole desi-education
system has degenerated into, where information
collection and regurgitation passes for learning
and measuring its worth.
At 8:42 PM -0700 7/4/07, chittaranjan pathak wrote:
Mahanta da
Thanks for your interest and contribution so
far. Hope you will take some initiative to fill
the gap on biographies front too. Others will
surely follow. I am not sure who the owner of
the list is as my earlier post elicited no
response. Are you one of the custodians? If so
,please let us know how we can all go about
filling this gap. May be we can have a time
frame and all of us can volunteer few
biographies of personalities we feel we are
familiar with.
Regards
Chittaranjan
By the way Mahanta da-these biographies are not
about educating Indians. These will be useful
for every one and most useful for the Assamese
(including us and hopefully/wishfully our
children). You also know it Mahanta da-is not
it? The educating Indians bit was just out of
old habit. You said that Indians are not
interested about others, their culture, their
history, their language and by and large,
Indians are perfectly happy to suck-up to those
who they deem are superior and are ever ready to
push down on whom they deem inferior.
Alright-what you are saying may be true for some
Indians, but is equally true for most of the
Assamese. How many Nolboriya Assamese know about
Samson Sing Ingty or Kalicharan Brahma. Bokul
Bonor Kavi does not ring a bell in Bijni
nowadays nor does Kamala Kanta in Karbi Anglong.
And now the situation is such that a Roy boy of
Goalpara will idolize as Jatiya Bir Chilarai
only leaving Lachit Borphukan to his Upper Assam
friends. I feel such a list with life sketches
with luminaries of Assam will be a learning,
relearning exercise for all of us and to some
extent make us all broadminded enough again to
feel proud of all these luminaries from Assam
forgetting the ethnic divides.
Now tell me, should we not all feel proud this
octogenarian Assamese doctor who is still on his
mission at the ripe old age of 97. I have been
fortunate enough to drink the pink concoction
administered by this Good Samaritan during
those childhood fever bouts. Here is the life
sketch of Dr. Nalini Sarma published in this
Saturdays Sentinel magazine.
Atifa Deshamukhya in an interview with the venerated doctor.
He is 97 years old and still practising as a
doctor, bringing succour to patients from far
and wide. It is interesting to note that is
these days of advanced medical tests and
treatment people still flock to him for
clinical diagnoses based on the senses, and in
some cases samples of body fluids tested by
himself over a microscope. A stethescope and a
BP machine are the only adjuncts that
distinguish him as a doctor. Therein lies his
uniqueness.
He puts his hand at the pulse point and
diagnoses the disease, said a loyal patient who
has been consulting him for over 50 years now.
She also recounted a mysterious case about a
lady of Uzanbazar who had been diagnosed with
cancer by a leading hospital in the city. Just
before leaving for Apollo Hospital, Chennai, she
visited Dr Nalini Sarma at the behest of some
relative. The doctor told her he could cure her
in a day. And cure he did. A clinical diagnosis
by the gifted doctor established that a
purgative would heal her. She had the pill and
as if by magic, she was cured instantly.
When asked to comment on scores of such
incidents reported to me, Dr Sarma put it down
to originality of approach. In fact the late Dr
Bani Kanta Kakati had once defended his system
of diagnosis by saying that Nalini has
originality during the early part of Sarma's
career. It acted as a spur egging him on to
develop this god-gifted trait. Now, at ripe old
age he justifies his approach saying that
stalwarts in every field are divinely gifted.
If I have been able to do something significant
it is also a gift of god, says he.
Not only education and professional experience,
but a host of co-curricular activities and a
childhood spent in the close proximity of nature
have helped to shape the man as he is today. He
learnt French and Korean, took lessons on the
piano, learnt martial arts and was actively
involved in games and sports. Perhaps thats why
he is healthy in body and mind till date. No
specks, no artificial teeth, and still very much
on his feet.
Dr Sarma is effusive in his insistence that the
very medicines that heal can also kill. It is
necessary to exercise utmost caution that
medicine itself does not become posion.
Douse the flame, dont hit against the smoke
is a precept followed by Dr Sarma. He is
saddened that most doctors treat the symptoms of
the disease, rather than address the root
problem. He cited many examples to corroborate
this. In most cases, it appeared that some
primary cause as gas or malfunctioning of the
liver was giving rise to complications in people
which the front-ranking doctors and hospitals
could not handle satisfactorily. But when Dr
Sarma targetted the source of the disease,
people recovered all too soon. And this is how
his fame spread.
He is happy to be practising at this ripe old
age. Its a learning experience listening to the
accounts of the many experiences he has had.
Grimacing at one moment, heartily laughing at
the other speaking animatedly in a smattering
of Bengali and English intertwined with chaste
Assamese, he made me wonder at this vitality
and zest of a nonagenarian.
Born to Harikanta Sarma and Dharmeswar Debi, he
suffered various ailments and accidents in the
early part of his life. He was sent to the
medical college of Bengal, Calcutta to pursue
medicine as a career. It was a premier medical
college in those days, drawing patients from
eastern Asia, middle-east countries as well as
Europe. While a student, he used to frequent the
Tropical school of medicine at Calcutta where he
acquainted himself with the research work being
conducted on various tropical diseases. The
neigbouring pathological museum was also a
treasure - trove for the young, inquisitive Dr
Sarma who engrossed himself in multi-pronged
studies to equip himself for a fritful career.
He was a bright student and the professors would
often single him out to assist in operations
being performed by them. This practical
grounding has been so succussful that at this
date, when he has long forgotten the theory
inscribed in voluminous tomes, he recalls
crystal clear the hands-on experience which has,
as it were, formed an intuitive basis for his
diagnosis till today. In those days, a course in
medicine know as Bachelor of Medicine included
Medical Surgery, Midwifery, Gynaecology, Ear,
Nose & Throat, Eye, Skin and Teeth also. It was
quite a comprehensive course, which is why Dr
Sarmas patients can consult him on anything and
get results. At present he does not practise
surgery, which is one of the fall-outs of
advancing age.
The masters under whom he received training were
also men of considerable stature. Lt col Green
Armytase, professor of midwifery and gynaecology
was later made honorary gynaecologist to Her
Majesty the Queen of Great Britain. Another
illustrious professor was Sunil Bose, elder
brother of Subhash Chandra Bose, who was the
most well-known cardiologist in East India at
that time. And Nalini remembers how the former
would humbly admit to knowing nothing much about
the heart! A precept learnt of Lt col Vere
Hodge, profesor of medicine, has remained the
buzzword for Dr Sarma patient is the best
book. Thus, he has kept up the learning process
over the decades, learning from his patients
even as he tried to help them with his stock of
acquired knowledge.
Dr Nalini Sarma first set up practice at
Barpeta. Those were days of conflicting claims
of local doctors, homeopaths, Kabiraj, spiritual
and indigenous healers. It took time to carve
out a niche for himself. But in time he did so
incorporating the best aspects of compettitive
fields of medicine, while weeding out peoples
superstitious dependance on quack healers of all
kinds.
Next followed a stint as in-charge, Assam Civil
Hospital. He because known as a strict
administrator who would give the British Sahibs
a run for their worth. Besides attending to
patients and endless post mortems, the load of
the World War-II which was then raging he
managed to usher in qualitative changes in the
isolation ward of the hospital, lying hitherto
neglected.
He helped set up the Indian Medical Association,
and involved himself in relief activities and
disaster management. He strictly imposed hygiene
habits among the abors and was known to resort
to spanking of people and patients to get them
to behave!
He was also associated as in-charge of the
Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi TB Hospital and
visiting professor at Ayurvedic College.
Owing to some conflict with the powers that be,
he resigned from his government job and set up
private practice. Patients queue up in unending
lines to this day.
He advises a good diet concentrating on milk,
butter, fruits, egg and fish, followed by free
hand exercises and long walks as the secret of a
healthy life. He says that sleeping more than
eight hours a day can make the body a hotbed of
disease. One should eat in moderation, have
regular habits and be occupied with
constructive activity to be of sound health and
spirit.
Going by the nonagenarians good health, his
advice is surely worth taking. He miraculously
survived inspite of drowning in the Brahmaputra
at one pont of his career. Here's hoping that he
remains with us for many many years more in good
health and spirits.
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