State | Assam
smart, handsome and attractive boy’s
gesture. By the way, Rupam and Kala
are both Brahmins, though the boy
an Assamese and Kala from a Nepali
family living in Guwahati for centu-
ries. Assam was in the threshold of
anti-foreigner stir during the peak of
Kala-Rupam romance and Rupam was
proud that he would marry someone,
who is accused of being a foreigner!
Rupam and Kala are now proud
parents of a school going male child
who would join college in a year or
two.
There are exactly two grounds of
my reverence for Rupam and Kala as
an ideal pair of lovers. First, he refused
to join hands with an extremist group
just for the sake of his love. In his own
words, “I love my people, but I am not
the one to sacrifice my life for it.” Ru-
pam’s romance and rise of terrorism
in Assam coincided. Rupam, as I have
already said, was romantic as well as
heroic to valiantly take on group of
hooligans. Rupam’s muscles were at-
tractions for girls along with extremist
mentors, but love for Kala made Ru-
pam turn down the terror invitation.
The other sound justification of
Rupam-Kala romance is their lovely
son who I am sure will live upto their
parent’s expectations. However, it
pains me to find a few envious cynics
who disparage Rupam for his female
popularity and Kala for her powerful
beauty with family loyalty. Their son
is the fitting reply to the bunch of love
haters.
Parimal’s wife Majoni has joined
the Guwahati High and Sessions
Court bars in Guwahati recently. She
was college student and an aspiring
singer when Parimal, the tough young
man in her neighbourhood lured her to
marriage. Parimal is a Bodo- Majoni a
Brahmin, Parimal a college drop out,
Majoni a college student from an edu-
cated family, Parimal is a muscle man
with the tough guy repute while Ma-
joni is petite and humble. They eloped,
the girl’s father lodged complains with
police; but later they won over the an-
42 April 08
gry guardians.
Parimal’s forefathers were the
owner of huge plot of land in Guwa-
hati but he did not have a sound edu-
cational background. After tying the
knot with Majoni, Parimal decided
to forgo his conventional head of the
family role but instead reverted to the
kitchen. He would be cooking food for
wife and daughter who are preparing
for their exams. Yes, Parimal eloped
with a college going girl but never dis-
rupted her academic career.
With Parimal’s help and support
Majoni completed her BA and LL.B,
after their private wedding Majoni has
worked with schools, nursing homes
and also became mother of a girl baby.
And all along Parimal has played the
role of Majoni’s father and husband.
Of course the caste bitterness in their
family life has been wiped out. Majoni
now goes to the Court in Parimal’s pil-
lion.
Asha and Rintu are a medico cou-
ple. They met in school and fell in love.
But obstacles were to be overcome.
First- Asha a Marwari and Rintu an
Assamese.
The Assam movement and its cor-
ollary Assamese versus non-Assamese
hostility, the enormous economic gap
between a traditional business family
and a public sector official, all these
disparities played havoc with the in-
nocent lovers, but they remained un-
moved. Asha patiently allowed her
younger sisters to get married until her
father relented for her marriage with
this Assamese fellow.
And that too provided for a dra-
matic episode. Assam rebels demand-
ed money from Asha’s affluent father
and Rintu sneaked into their hideout
to settle the issue. It was not first time
that Rintu encountered those rebels for
Asha. He dared them when they had
come to stop Asha from singing Sare
Jahan se Acha in a college function
and Rintu pushed them back.
Love has been a peak experience
for all of them. American psychologist
Abraham Maslow’s discovery ‘peak
experience’ relates to the fact that ex-
tremely healthy people frequently ex-
perience moods of intense affirmation
and certainty; Maslow called them
peak experiences.
A peak experience seems to be a
denial of man’s contingency.
H
Madhuparna Bhattacharjee
ow cold did you feel the last winter? Extreme
or killing is the word, isn’t it? Being in Shil-
long, I had been shivering in the month of
February. It was same in Guwahati and ask
your friends, who are staying elsewhere in
the country or abroad, they too have similar experience to
share with you. In fact this was a global phenomenon this
time. Over the past year, temperatures have dropped
throughout the world. Evidence of a cooling planet has ex-
ploded. As reported, China had its coldest winter in 100
years. Baghdad saw first snow in all recorded history,
North America having the most snow cover in 50 years,
and various parts of India, ranging from north to south or
east to west feeling the extreme chill. The list goes on and
on. Are these symptoms of global warming as environ-
mentalists throughout the world have been reiterating?
What exactly do we know about global warming? The
so-called mass believes that following the Tsunami that
hit Sumatra islands on December 26, 2004, the weather
Science column
around the world has been changing. Be it extremely warm
on a summer afternoon or bone-shattering cold on a ter-
rible winter day, they blame it all on Tsunami. What is sur-
prising is that we tend to accept things from our friends
and foes, hearing what they say without raising a single
question, hearing from our friends and foes. Some say that
these changes in climatic conditions are a result of Tsu-
nami, and all in the line blindly nod.
According to Oceanographer Dr Simon Boxall, ‘the
Tsunami has no effect on climate or weather. The total sur-
face area, which was inundated with water, is still very,
very small on a local area and virtually un-measurable on
a global scale.’
Tsunami (a Japanese term) can be generated when the
sea floor abruptly deforms and vertically displaces the over-
lying water. When tectonic earthquakes, a particular kind
of earthquakes that are associated with the deformations in
the earth’s crust occur beneath the sea, the water above the
deformed area is displaced from its equilibrium position
resulting in Tsunami. Readers must have now understood
that it has nothing to do with the changing climate.
Scientists in 1970s claimed that the world is threatened
April 08 43