prelude  The bahuwa culture was not confined to the bhaona performances alone. Various other performing traditions had multifarious use of the name and significance of the bahuwa. Clowning, the art of revelry and humorous antics, seems to belong to many ethnic and tribal groups too. In areas like the Goalpara district of lower Assam, there are performances like the Bhari Gan and Kushan Gan where songs sung by choruses or extra characters with masks were introduced — singing, dancing and clowning. Bhauriya Anusthan (institution), and Bahuwa Anusthan are some other significant items of culture in upper Assam. Bahuwa Anusthan is the singing of the bahuwa nam or song during the Bar-Sabah or ‘big Kirtan’ celebration. In Kachari tribal areas in upper Assam the bahuwa nach (dance) is performed every two years after the celebration of Bohag Bihu on April 13 or 14. The actors in the celebration have one bahuwa and one bahuwani (both played by unmarried males). They wear masks made from gourds, shaped like an egg. Two horns are kept pointed at the attendant to the sage Narada. But the bahuwa has more important sociological functions than Balbasu. Yet, they both seem to function independently within their own particularities. Quiz news: The quiz competition of the Varsity Week, Gauhati University was held on November 10, 2009. The first prize was won by Bikram Ranjan Roy, Pranab Jyoti Baruah and Umar Faruque. The second prize went to Ankit Tiwari, Gayatri Baruah and Jintu Rakha, while the third prize was bagged by Tanushree Singh, Pratika Basumatary and Nabajit Sarma. The quiz master was Neelotpal Deka. Correction: Please refer to Question No. 6 (The Colosseum, November 13, 2009) by Dipankar Koushik. When Eight Bells Toll is a book by Alistair Maclean and not by James Hadley Chase. E-mail your questions with answers at: only4_pol@yahoo.co.uk or post at: THE COLOSSEUM, Mosaic, Friday Supplement, The Assam Tribune, Guwahati-781003 or SMS at: 9864102417. Send your name in each SMS.

side screen  1) Picture clue: Identify this Indian author in his younger days. (Deepjyoti Deka, Nalbari)

harmonisers  From Alakananda Medhi, Guwahati – 2) Baiju Bawra (also Ram Das and Sur Das), the famous musician of medieval India flourished during the reign of which king? 3) In which classical dance a performer wears a headgear called ‘kiritams’? 4) If The Prince was written by Machiavelli, The Princess was written by whom? 5) The novel Alchemist is written by Paulo Coelho, but who has written the drama Alchemist?

unities  From Saroj Kr Deka, Guwahati – 6) Teesri Kasam was the directorial debut of Basu Bhattacharya. Incidently it was the only film produced by a lyricist. Can you name the lyricist? 7) What screen name was assumed by Mary Evans after her husband Homi Wadia asked her to act in film? 8) Which is Shakespeare’s shortest play?

do-re-me  9) What is Lachanophobia? (Saikh Md Sabah Al-Ahmed, Dispur, Guwahati) 10) Which Brazilian football legend acted in the famous Hollywood movie Escape to Victory? (Manash Datta, Guwahati) 11) Who is the present editor of Shillong Times? (Polly Dutta, Jorhat) 12) Balram Halwai is the protagonist of which Booker Prize winning novel? (Gunjana Dey, Christianpatty, Nagaon) 13) In Harry Potter series, how do we popularly know Sirius Black? (Snigdhendu Das, SNBC Hostel, Cotton College, Guwahati) 14) Who wrote the Just So Stories? (Amlan Saikia, Don Bosco School, Tezpur)

crescendo  15) Shammi Kapoor’s trademark cry ‘yahoo!’ from the song Chahe koi mujhe junglee kahe in Junglee (1961) did not come from Shammi Kapoor or Mohammad Rafi. Who recorded this cry? (Dipankar Koushik, Guwahati)

answers  1) Ruskin Bond 2) Akbar 3) Kathakali 4) Alfred Tennyson 5) Ben Jonson 6) Shailendra 7) Fearless Nadia 8) The Comedy of Errors 9) An irrational fear of vegetables 10) Pele 11) Patricia Mukhim, one of the Edit Page columnists of The Assam Tribune 12) The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga 13) Prisoner of Askaban 14) Rudyard Kipling 15) Scientist and dialogue writer Pranay Raj