What can Prabaxi Oxomiyas (Assam expatriates) do for
Assam?
It has been a question that has been going around
amongst us ex-patriates for a long time. There is
definitely a great deal of desire amongst this group
of people to be able to participate in some
meaningful, achievable, measurable and sustainable
ways, to give back.
The upcoming " Prabasi Asomiya Sanmilan" to be held in
Guwahati in January next year brings the subject to
the forefront once more. However, many of us who might
have had interest in participating are asking: In what
ways can I be of assistance? What can I contribute?
There has been talk of expectations from the Assam
political establishment, time-to-time, about NRA
(Non-resident Assamese) INVESTMENTS in Assam, like the
Andhra expatriates, or Gujarat expatriates and so
forth. This particular expectation however, has been a
definite discouragement. The handful of Assam
expatriates, mostly wage-earners in private industry,
or in academia, and a few professionals who have done
relatively well, are hardly in a position to go become
investors and entrepreneurs in Assam. The environment
of non-accountability that pervades every sphere of
life, not merely in Assam but throughout India, is
hardly going to entice anyone to risk the hard earned
nest eggs. It is an unrealistic expectation. Had there
been huge entrepreneurial successes amongst us, like
those from elsewhere in India that made it big, like
in the Silicon Valley gold-rush of the ninety's, or
those with a legacy of business involvement that have
done well in other arenas and thus had the luxury of
taking risks; it could be different.
But in spite of these, we can do a lot of little but
extremely valuable things for Assam. In fact I am
partial to taking on only little undertakings, those
that are achievable without much capital, those that
utilize the huge knowledge and experience pool, those
that produce visible results and start producing
benefits immediately, those that could be sustained
without major efforts or undertakings, those that
could be embarked upon without continuous ongoing
involvement, those that can give a helping hand to
locally generated efforts.
There are many different arenas that we can
participate in the above manner. A database of
possible areas could be generated through an ongoing
dialogue between Assam society and the expatriates. A
good forum for examining them could be the Assam Net
(assam@pikespeak.uccs.edu). We can set up a
facilitator in Assam who would receive ideas and
suggestions from those who do not have ready access to
the Internet and then post it in Assam Net. A website
could be the repository of such an information bank.
This article is not the right place to examine the
many possible areas of our involvement. But for
starters, I take the opportunity to suggest one:
Start a Reading Room, or a dedicated special interest
section in a public library, such as the District
Library at Guwahati, or at the Cotton College Library.
Ex-pats can provide books, periodicals, professional
journals and pay for the services of a
custodian/librarian who would be responsible for
managing the operation. The ex-pats could obtain
further assistance from American and British
universities, the US Information Services, the British
Council and the like. The sponsors could pay for a few
computers, Internet hook-ups, public copying
facilities and link-up with libraries and reference
sources in the US and Britain and so forth.
Such an undertaking can immediately begin to be
extremely beneficial for students, researchers,
educators and even business and industry, while
accessible for all segments of society.
We can provide expertise in refurbishing a section of
such a library, air-condition it, and provide other
physical amenities including security.
It can become a model for improving other such
facilities elsewhere in the region and show a way for
its ongoing management and upkeep, breaking the cycle
of a pervasive and steady degradation that has been
the tragic hallmark of our public institutions.
I hope readers would build upon the concept and will
come up with other achievable undertakings. And even
if we cannot participate in the upcoming "Prabasi
Asomiya Sanmilan" in Guwahati, we still will be able
to offer a tiny bit towards making it meaningful.
- Chandan Mahanta, St. Louis, Missouri
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