mrinal talukdar is right! It is not correct to presume that everything is wrong here on the banks of the brahmaputra. mrinal has already pointed at some of the numerous positive things that are happening here. what is lacking is a bold civil society which wakes up to push aside a handful of self-appointed saviours of assam who have negatively influenced the assamese mindset and woven myths that only drag all of us backwards instead of contributing towards emancipation of this wonderful ethnic mix called assamese.
people in assam are today willing to say a big No to the bandh culture. people want to climb the ladder of human development in all aspects (it is also true that assam ranks 15th among the indian states in terms of male literacy and 13th in terms of female literacy? do you know life expectancy at birth of assamese males is just 58 years 350 days against all-india average of 63 years 317 days and biar's 65 years 240 days? and that the average assam woman lives only 60 years 317 days against all-india average of 66 years 332 days, and bihar's 64 years 288 days? it is also true that people like moni manik gogoi, who gave up ulfa (but did not become a sulfa) on finding that it was a stupid thing to take up arms, and has in the past six or seven years transformed the economy of dozens of villages near naharkatiya.) what assam needs is a program that can change the mindset of the people. also required is a new generation of leaders wo are literate, forward-looking, committed, ready to sacrifice and also face criticism, and believes that the assamese too is a global citizen and not a nador bhekuli. please come and do something, if you feel like, on these areas -- areas of human development and also on areas of leadership development. Samudra Gupta Kashyap/Guwahati On Sun, 19 Nov 2006 Mrinal Talukdar wrote : http://groups.yahoo.com/group/assamonline/message/2791
