Non Resident Assamese (NRI) have been trying to contribute to their state in whatever capacity they can; in the fields of basic education, technology, medicine, and business. It is expected that these ideas and practices would bring tangible result in coming days. This is an ongoing process and may even take decades to attain, however we often come across news or articles from Assamese media often showing cynicism. The following is part of a discussion thread starting with an article by Swapnil Bharali , corresponding response by Ankur Bora and follow up comments from Mofid Rahman.
Excerpt from the article titled
Grumbling GAME-Swapnil Bharali (Horizon, The Assam Tribune, July 05, 2008)
“If NRAs (non-resident Assamese) have to be contributive to Assam, they have to do so with deeds and not words. They have to burn their bridges on their way back and try and work things from the soil of Assam, against the seemingly insurmountable odds” (instead of just giving front-page interviews while on their brief holidays here, else) “they may please remain in their comfort zones and not be bothered about Assam...” (and in which case) “all I can do is quote Clark Gable from Gone with the Wind: ‘Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn.’”
Well (sigh!)…Actually I do give a damn. And I cannot help it that I do. This feeling of mine stems from my past experiences and my various interactions with a number of NRAs on an internet discussion forum called Assam Net (1998-2000, if I remember right). I had watched, observed and sympathized with the large number of expatriate Assamese people, the sole topic of concern being Assam. Often, it had appeared to me that these people had indeed missed out on the love for their soil by becoming so career-centric that their desire to earn in dollars/pounds rather than rupees after acquiring their impressive education and skills led them to become expatriates. It had also often crossed my mind, especially seeing the huge amount of time these people spent discussing Assam, that in the process of earning all those dollars/pounds, they had sorely missed being in Assam and were indeed truly concerned that Assam, except for its tea, terrorism and corruption, did not find any worthwhile place on the world’s physical, political or commercial map.
Reply to Swapnil Bharali by Ankur Bora
Dear Bharali,
This is in reference to your article published in the Assam tribune related to the Non Resident Assamese (NRA).
I am a NRA and found a number of serious flaws in the article. In your article, you are depicting the NRA as self centered lot; a group of pound sterling/dollar earning people who while showing their concern for the motherland, only indulge in debating, quarreling and grumbling. To buttress your views you are referring to the internet discussion forum called Assam Net and your interaction with a few NRI in the late nineties. It seems that you are making a conclusion based solely on this vague and sketchy informative. While portraying the Assamese expatriates as empty, exaggerated talker, you are concluding your piece with a quote of Clark Gable from Gone with the Wind!!.
Let me also take the liberty of quoting the head-master of my primary school. This was actually a favorite story of our respected sir and titled "The Emperor Has No Clothes".
This is a story about a king who had the habit of seeing things as he wanted to see. Two scoundrels took advantage of it and they made the king believe that they had prepared the most fabulous cloth for him. The king parades before his cowed subjects in his imaginary finery, until an astute child calls out: "But the emperor has no clothes!"
In your piece of writing, you are apparently seeing only what you wanted to see. It seems your fixation to the decade old nineties is totally masking the current, the living present. If you do even a little research, you will find out if the concerned NRA are only empty talkers. For your reference, you may read a few current issues of "Posoowa" (www.posoowa.org ), a popular NRI magazine also published by Assam Net. Non resident of Assamese origin from all over glove have been sharing their unique experience of contributing to their dearest state and "Posoowa" is a dossier of NRI sincerity and genuine love to their motherland.
Your attempt to portray all NRA as a grumbling group is highly objectionable, unethical and unfortunate. I wish that you will do research, verify the facts and amend with the right perspective.
Sincerely,
Ankur Bora
Dallas , Texas
Response from Mofid Rahman , Hyderabad
Ushering Positivism to a pessimistic world
A community is called a progressive one when there is continuous activity of its constituent individuals on an individual basis or through the formation of groups towards works which are beneficial for the communities’ advancement. To make it a continuous process and sustain it, individuals as well as groups need all possible support and cooperation from the other members of the community.
In this globalized world, the community specific feelings are slowly on the downward trend as people are getting busier day by day with their work and family and children specific responsibilities. To keep the spirit of community welfare aspects in mind so that individual or group level activities for the betterment of the community is also on a progressive trend, all possible support (moral or financial),help and cooperation is a very necessary pre-requisite from all included in the community.
With access to higher education and subsequent availability of opportunities, the Assamese community along with it’s other Northeastern brotherhood is making a global presence. The good part has been the gesture of the people to form some group on their ethnicity to keep their customs, festivals, literary and cultural creativity alive even in foreign shores. Another resulting good avenue has been the willingness to work towards the betterment of their brotherhood in Assam or on a broader scale, the North East India so that the Old unique “Assamese” lineage continues.
The whole Assamese community had faced some turbulent days in the decades of 1970’s, 1980’s and 1990’s. Lots of youth had given and lost their lives during that phase. The subsequent effect of those days can be felt if we analyze the psychology of anger, shock, hatred that could be found in the generations that suffered during that period. Even the younger generations of the whole world took some time to come out of the depression due to the two World Wars, specially the Holocaust during second World War.
The sooner we try to come out of it, the better it will be for the society and the whole community. To do so, we need to analyze what exactly are the symptoms of that bitterness and how to come out of it with remedial actions.
Some pointers to the symptoms are:
1. Media specially Newspapers full of reports with details of murder, crime, corruption etc and providing negative twists and headers to any news item.
2. People happy blaming the central or state governments for all the mess.
3. People happy blaming some individual or groups of the community on any pretext.
4. Low youth morale to initiate constructive activities forward.
5. Low youth morale to start entrepreneurship due to fear of failure.
6. Lower self esteem among youth due to the gap between the poor and the prosperous one, which should have been a motivating factor to work harder and become prosperous, instead crime rate among youth on an ever rising trend.
7. Trying to locate faults in success stories and discussions on other’s failures with a sarcastic tone
8. People becoming lazy to start work or go through normal procedures which in turn have given rise to corruption spreading its tentacles through all walks of life in the society.
9. Bandh culture as a mean to avoid work.
This list can drag on and on.
If we carefully look at all these symptoms, the one aspect that will come to the fore is, absolute pessimism. If not taken care of, it can affect the advancement of the community by the seeds of this pessimism being passed from one generation to the other.
So what could be the antidote to these: and how could we start positivism among the constituents of the community and pass this on to the next generations?
Positivism can be associated with the matter of mind where we think and talk of success. How could we share positivism then to the whole community? Is it possible to infect people’s mind with positivism?
In a way, it could be possible. Possible by the use of the following:
1. More focus on spreading good news, achievements, awards, accolades won by the members to the whole community. Newspapers being fourth estate have their responsibilities, but it should not be at the cost of infecting a whole generation with anger, shock, hatred and enmity.
2. Sharing those good news among the members in groups through oral or e-mails,
3. Encouraging the achievers so that they do feel a belonging to the community and wants to help in promoting the others to attain some position.
4. Providing support, help and cooperation to the youth of the community who is trying hard to start entrepreneurship or higher studies.
5. Promoting good work ethics in community by the way of saying no to bandh culture.
6. Spreading mass awareness about consumer and legal rights specially the right to information laws so that corruption is lessened.
As with pessimism, this list can also go on and on…..
We all have this in us – to make some change.
Change from pessimism to positivism.
Change for our own communities’ sake.
Celebrating the Bihu’s on a single platform on two days make us feel united. Add to it, our eagerness to provide help, support and cooperation to our fellow community members will surely help us actually become a united progressive Assamese community. As the community progresses, we also become proud constituents of that progressing community and we all stand to gain from it in the long run.
Reader’s comments are welcome.
Compiled by Ankur Bora
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