Bitter lesson  The nearly three decades of the ‘glorious’ but roller-coasler saga of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) had its ultimate annihilation recently coupled with the killings of its top leaders in massive operations, read war, by Sri Lankan forces. It is a stark reminder to all Governments and such other nationalist movements involved in insurgency and terrorism for narrow selfish ends. Without the tacit Indian help the LTTE would not have become the most powerful such outfit in the world with own currency, defeuse forces including airforce, and a government of its own. But the blows India received from LTTE in the killilng of Rajiv Gandhi among others ultimately opened the eyes of Indian think tank. And cooperation of the Indian authories with the Sri Lankan forces in snapping all links to the LTTE spelled the doom for Prabhakaran and his followers. It’s like another Frankestein Indian politicians produced in the form of Jarnail Singh Bhrindanwale and only the death of Indira Gandhi led to the annihilation of the Khalistani terrorists. There are lessons galore for the Governments and such insurgent outfits to learn from the LTTE catasthrope; but the main thing to remember in this small global world is that such nationalistic aspirations should not be nurtured by any community; and the politicians with narrow selfish ends should be cautionsly watched so that their ulterior motives do not bear bitter fruits leading to tensions and turmoil oil around – our Assam is a perfect example of all these dirty politics, lest the bloody incidents in NC Hills, Bodoland and other places would not have taken place.

New entrant  That the world of newspapers, magazines and other publications has made rapid strides in Assam in the past couple of years is an established fact. Today, there is a wide variety of options before the readers to select and read these periodicals with varied tastes. And what’s heartening is the fact that they don’t seem to compromise on quality — be it printing, binding and what not — dishing out a decent stuff to the readers. Assamese monthly Mandakini is among those periodicals to have hit the stands recently. Targeted specifically the women, this two-month-old periodical however has all the ingredients to suit the tastes of general readers, including the children with topics like health, travel, culinery, crime diary, legal advice, fashion and modelling, beauty tips, home decor, horoscope, cinema, etc, besides the literary stuff like short story, poetry, satire, et al. Published by the non-government organization (NGO), My Fair Lady Welfare Organisation (MWO) and edited by Runu Hazarika, Mandakini was formally released by litterateur Nirupama Borhohain at an august gathering where she expressed happiness over the fact that in recent times a new breed of young women writers have come up contributing immensly to Assamese literature, and said that it’s magazines and periodicals like Mandakini that have always played a big role in this front. It may be mentioned here that the NGO also runs an institution billed ITC My Fair Lady Training Centre that offers various courses related to beauty and hair therapy, besides mass communication and computers, among others.

Another fair  It’s time again for higher education aspirants to indulge in the action to realize their cherished goals. Yes, another education mela billed Eduquest 2008 is being held on May 24 and 25 at Deshbhakta Tarun Ram Phookun Indoor Stadium, Guwahati where 50 leading institutions of the country and abroad are taking part. Held under the aegis of Saraswati ABP Group and online.com.india ltd the courses and career options being offered in the Eduquest include advertisement, animation, banking, biotechnology, computer training, engineering, film and TV, finance, graphic desigining, hospitality and travel, IT, insurance, interior designing, management, mass communication medicine, research sales besides vocational courses. Banks and financial institutions would provide expert advise on suitable education loans in the Eduquest where institutions would be holding spot admissions besides providing scholarships to the eligible aspirants, sources informed.

Simanta / Mridumoloy