15th August 1985 – The Historic Assam Accord was signed. What jubilation, what joy, what hopes!
15th August 1985 – Parasmoni Bordoloi was also born … in Jorhat … in Assam … a state that, from now on, is likely to progress just like any other state of India … peacefully.
And after 23 years, he takes part in a silent candle peace march in Bangalore protesting against the recent bomb blasts of Asssam in particular … and terrorism across the country in general. Where have all the hopes of progress gone? From bad to worse? As I saw a grim faced Parasmoni walking on the streets of Bangalore … a lit candle in his hand, wrath written all over his face … reminded me of the axom andolan … when we use to shout in the streets at the top of our voice … ei jui jolise … jolise, joliboi! … thousands of people, thousands of live flames and the roar … all these thoughts flew back from 23 years ago … bringing in vivid memories of the past … and along with it some unanswered questions into my mind … have we become complacent after that? Have we developed the ‘It’s not my job’ attitude after so many years? Has time curbed down our adrenaline and changed that into more passive flow in our veins? Or is it that we think that there’s somebody much more capable of handling this? Above all, what went wrong?
2nd November 2008, evening 5 pm, Bangalore’s Mahatma Gandhi Circle: there are close to 400 Assamese folks … men, women and children alike … who turned out to voice their feelings silently. Silence was just symbolic because all the minds were aggravated … furious … enraged … and yes, frustrated. As if all of them were saying “it’s enough, we cannot take this anymore.” The whole team took part in the symbolic 1 km march with lit candles in everyone’s hands, placards displaying their thoughts blatantly. The attached pictures speak of it all. This is the first time that I have witnessed such a gathering in this city … so far we have been meeting to celebrate Bihu … so far we have been meeting to organize Moina-r mel … so far we have been meeting to organize training programs and mock interview sessions for newcomers to help them secure a job … but today was different. And for some reason, I got the feeling that this was not the end but just the beginning. And its about time, isn’t it?. It’s about time for the stupid common man to raise a din yet once again … Ei jui jolise … jolise … joliboi! It’s about time we come out of our complacency and raise our voices once again … Aah oi aah … olai aah! and fight it out together. Its also probably … ya, probably about time to let them know …
Tej dim axom nidiu!
Xuoni axomi aai
Ture-maan kunu je nai … ei dhoroni-t
Hiya mon ujari …
punor ahim aami ghuri … ei aaxare…
Aal-fule gorhim morom aru enajori
Toi-e hobi aai … dekh-or xirkhottom jiyori.
Utha jaaga axomiya tumi
Buji luwa aai-re binoni!
Rituraj Sharma, Bangalore
PS : The thoughts expressed in this write-up are purely personal and not influenced by anybody, what-so-ever. Request pass this to every assamese who are not a part of the above yahoogroups.
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