[Assam] Kanaklata and Assam.org

Thu Jul 5 09:00:35 PDT 2007

My apologies Chitta. I was merely thrown off by your hope :-)

>Hope you will take some initiative to fill the gap on biographies front too.

No I am not a or the list owner of assam.org. I 
have however helped defray the cost of 
maintaining this
site and hope to as long as I can.   It would be 
nice if others participated too. For all these 
years Jugal Kalita has been spending his own hard 
earned money to maintain the site. I doubt they 
get any advertising revenue worth the mention.

I am not exactly sure who owns the site. But 
Assam Company with Jugal Kalita as a principal 
most likely owns it. Babul Gogoi seems to do most 
of the maintenance work.

I am sure one or the other or both would love to 
accept anything you or others wish to contribute.

Babul Gogoi's e-mail address is: <bgogoi at gmail.com>

Jugal Kalita's is:  <jugalkalita at yahoo.com>

m-da

PS: FYI, another illustrious Assamese amongst us, 
perhaps with collusion with someone in Assam
attempted to destroy assam.org by claiming it sponsors terrorism  :-).

At 8:42 AM -0700 7/5/07, chittaranjan pathak wrote:
>Mahanta da
>All I wanted to know was whether you are one of 
>the custodians of the Assam.org list. And if you 
>do not want to get into this biography business 
>because of some past bad experiences, your 
>abhorance for hero worshipping, you could have 
>said it in one line.
>By the way I am not sure how knowing about our 
>own people is hero worshipping. I was amazed 
>reading about Kashinath Saikia in the list as I 
>did not hear the name before. Similarly, may be 
>I would have liked to read about Pilik Chaudhury 
>or Parvati Prasad Baruva or Ganesh Gogoi. For 
>people like you and me-busy in our own 
>materialistic pursuits-it ends at that. Where is 
>the hero worshipping part ?
>
>Regards
>
>Chitta
>
>that Its not clear to me whether you are one of 
>the custodian but not into biography writing or 
>you have nothing to do with assam.org and dont 
>want to add the biographies
>
>Chan Mahanta <cmahanta at charter.net> wrote:
>
>Hi Chitta:
>
>While I admire and respect achievers and 
>do-gooders, I am not into hero-worshipping. More 
>so because our people have degenerated the 
>hero-worshipping to a substitute for emulating 
>what their heroes exemplified.  In an extreme 
>example of it, one illustrious NRA  ( I am being 
>extremely generous here) , who fancies himself 
>to be the defender of Xonkordev's legacy, even 
>threatened to shut down an exhibit honoring 
>Xonkordev, if the organizers used the X letter 
>in transliterating the departed hero's name in 
>English.  With such examples of 
>hero-worshippers, who needs hero-trashers :-)?
>
>So, I will pass on writing biographies.  But  I 
>hope to set  examples thru MY actions, shaped by 
>learning from and emulating those who came 
>before me, whom I admire.
>
>I also am not the kind of person who go about 
>waving my pride in this or that, person or 
>action or achievement.  Pride waving is 
>something that becomes necessary only when there 
>really is scant amounts for it to be found. 
>Again, not to suggest I don't admire others' 
>contributions or achievements. But that is not 
>something I  build my self-worth upon. And if 
>ALL or many individuals take that approach, we 
>will become much better people.
>
>
>Finally, there are many individuals who did many 
>fine and admirable things, and many are doing it 
>now,  unrecognized and unsung; as many will do 
>in times to come. In this era of information 
>overload, I do not even think of attempting to 
>know all that is worthy of knowing, people, 
>actions or things. We will, of necessity, have 
>to focus on issues, people, things--that are of 
>interest to us, individually or collectively.
>
>
>So, biographies should be written by those who have an interest in it.
>
>Finally, the piece below, is definitely NOT one 
>to emulate to document someone's life, with such 
>banalities like:
>
>  >The doctor told her he could cure her in a 
>day. And cure he did. A clinical diagnosis by 
>the gifted >doctor established that a purgative 
>would heal her. She had the pill and as if by 
>magic, she was cured >instantly.
>
>
>
>OR
>
>with such poor understanding of a language, like:
>
>  > He miraculously survived inspite of drowning 
>in the Brahmaputra at one pont of his career.
>
>c-da
>
>
>PS:
>
>
>  >Alright-what you are saying may be true for 
>some Indians, but is equally true for most of 
>the Assamese.
>
>*** Yes, and that is precisely because Assam's 
>establishment is little more than a bad copy of 
>India's.
>And I recognized the 'some' aspect of it, when I 
>qualified my statement with 'by-and-large'. 
>Question would be what you imply with 'some'? 
>Hope it is not an attempt to portray it as a 
>minuscule, aberrant  segment and thus  a 
>rebuttal , on the sly, of what obviously is an 
>uncomfortable truth to you and others . If that 
>is what you are trying to do, that would be 
>dissembling :-).
>
>  >How many Nolboriya Assamese know about Samson 
>Sing Ingty or Kalicharan Brahma
>
>*** Let us not equate trivia collection with 
>learning about people or cultures, even though 
>that is exactly what the whole desi-education 
>system has degenerated into, where information 
>collection and regurgitation passes for learning 
>and measuring its worth.
>
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>At 8:42 PM -0700 7/4/07, chittaranjan pathak wrote:
>
>>Mahanta da
>>
>Thanks for your interest and contribution so 
>far. Hope you will take some initiative to fill 
>the gap on biographies front too. Others will 
>surely follow. I am not sure who the owner of 
>the list is as my earlier post elicited no 
>response. Are you one of the custodians? If so 
>,please let us know how we can all go about 
>filling this gap. May be we can have a time 
>frame and all of us can volunteer few 
>biographies of personalities we feel we are 
>familiar with. 
>
>
>
>Regards
>
>
>
>Chittaranjan
>
>
>
>By the way Mahanta da-these biographies are not 
>about educating Indians.  These will be useful 
>for every one and most useful for the Assamese 
>(including us and hopefully/wishfully our 
>children). You also know it Mahanta da-is not 
>it? The educating Indians bit was just out of 
>old habit. You said that Indians are not 
>interested about others, their culture, their 
>history, their language and by and large, 
>Indians are perfectly happy to suck-up to those 
>who they deem are superior and are ever ready to 
>push down on whom they deem inferior.
>
>Alright-what you are saying may be true for some 
>Indians, but is equally true for most of the 
>Assamese. How many Nolboriya Assamese know about 
>Samson Sing Ingty or Kalicharan Brahma. Bokul 
>Bonor Kavi does not ring a bell in Bijni 
>nowadays nor does Kamala Kanta in Karbi Anglong. 
>And now the situation is such that a Roy boy of 
>Goalpara will idolize as Jatiya Bir Chilarai 
>only leaving Lachit Borphukan to his Upper Assam 
>friends. I feel such a list with life sketches 
>with luminaries of Assam will be a learning, 
>relearning exercise for all of us and to some 
>extent make us all broadminded enough again to 
>feel proud of all these luminaries from Assam 
>forgetting the ethnic divides.
>
>
>
>Now tell me, should we not all feel proud this 
>octogenarian Assamese doctor who is still on his 
>mission at the ripe old age of 97. I have been 
>fortunate enough to drink the pink concoction 
>administered by this Good Samaritan during 
>those childhood fever bouts. Here is the life 
>sketch of Dr. Nalini Sarma published  in this 
>Saturdays Sentinel magazine.
>
>Atifa Deshamukhya in an interview with the venerated doctor.
>He is 97 years old and still practising as a 
>doctor, bringing succour to patients from far 
>and wide. It is interesting to note that is 
>these days of advanced medical tests and 
>treatment  people still flock to him for 
>clinical diagnoses based on the senses, and in 
>some cases samples of body fluids tested by 
>himself over a microscope. A stethescope and a 
>BP machine are the only adjuncts that 
>distinguish him as a doctor. Therein lies his 
>uniqueness.
>
>He puts his hand at the pulse point and 
>diagnoses the disease, said a loyal patient who 
>has been consulting him for over 50 years now. 
>She also recounted a mysterious case about a 
>lady of Uzanbazar who had been diagnosed with 
>cancer by a leading hospital in the city. Just 
>before leaving for Apollo Hospital, Chennai, she 
>visited Dr Nalini Sarma at the behest of some 
>relative. The doctor told her he could cure her 
>in a day. And cure he did. A clinical diagnosis 
>by the gifted doctor established that a 
>purgative would heal her. She had the pill and 
>as if by magic, she was cured instantly.
>When asked to comment on scores of such 
>incidents reported to me, Dr Sarma put it down 
>to originality of approach. In fact the late Dr 
>Bani Kanta Kakati had once defended his system 
>of diagnosis by saying that Nalini has 
>originality  during the early part of Sarma's 
>career. It acted as a spur  egging him on to 
>develop this god-gifted trait. Now, at ripe old 
>age he justifies his approach saying that 
>stalwarts in every field are divinely gifted. 
>If I have been able to do something significant 
>it is also a gift of god, says he.
>Not only education and professional experience, 
>but a host of co-curricular activities and a 
>childhood spent in the close proximity of nature 
>have helped to shape the man as he is today. He 
>learnt French and Korean, took lessons on the 
>piano, learnt martial arts and was actively 
>involved in games and sports. Perhaps thats why 
>he is healthy in body and mind till date. No 
>specks, no artificial teeth, and still very much 
>on his feet.
>Dr Sarma is effusive in his insistence that the 
>very medicines that heal can also kill. It is 
>necessary to exercise utmost caution that 
>medicine itself does not become posion.
>Douse the flame, dont hit against the smoke  
>is a precept followed by Dr Sarma. He is 
>saddened that most doctors treat the symptoms of 
>the disease, rather than address the root 
>problem. He cited many examples to corroborate 
>this. In most cases, it appeared that some 
>primary cause as gas or malfunctioning of the 
>liver was giving rise to complications in people 
>which the front-ranking doctors and hospitals 
>could not handle satisfactorily. But when Dr 
>Sarma targetted the source of the disease, 
>people recovered all too soon. And this is how 
>his fame spread.
>He is happy to be practising at this ripe old 
>age. Its a learning experience listening to the 
>accounts of the many experiences he has had. 
>Grimacing at one moment, heartily laughing at 
>the other  speaking animatedly in a smattering 
>of Bengali and English intertwined with chaste 
>Assamese, he made me wonder at this vitality 
>and zest of a nonagenarian.
>
>Born to Harikanta Sarma and Dharmeswar Debi, he 
>suffered various ailments and accidents in the 
>early part of his life. He was sent to the 
>medical college of Bengal, Calcutta to pursue 
>medicine as a career. It was a premier medical 
>college in those days,  drawing patients from 
>eastern Asia, middle-east countries as well as 
>Europe. While a student, he used to frequent the 
>Tropical school of medicine at Calcutta where he 
>acquainted himself with the research work being 
>conducted on various tropical diseases. The 
>neigbouring pathological museum was also a 
>treasure - trove for the young, inquisitive Dr 
>Sarma  who engrossed himself in multi-pronged 
>studies to equip himself for a fritful career. 
>He was a bright student and the professors would 
>often single him out to assist in operations 
>being performed by them. This practical 
>grounding has been so succussful that at this 
>date, when he has long forgotten the theory 
>inscribed in voluminous tomes, he recalls 
>crystal clear the hands-on experience which has, 
>as it were, formed an intuitive basis for his 
>diagnosis till today. In those days, a course in 
>medicine know as Bachelor of Medicine included 
>Medical Surgery, Midwifery, Gynaecology, Ear, 
>Nose & Throat, Eye, Skin and Teeth also. It was 
>quite a comprehensive course, which is why Dr 
>Sarmas patients can consult him on anything and 
>get results. At present he does not practise 
>surgery, which is one of the fall-outs of 
>advancing age.
>The masters under whom he received training were 
>also men of considerable stature. Lt col Green 
>Armytase, professor of midwifery and gynaecology 
>was later made honorary gynaecologist to Her 
>Majesty the Queen of Great Britain. Another 
>illustrious professor was Sunil Bose, elder 
>brother of Subhash Chandra Bose, who was the 
>most well-known cardiologist in East India at 
>that time. And Nalini remembers how the former 
>would humbly admit to knowing nothing much about 
>the heart! A precept learnt of Lt col Vere 
>Hodge, profesor of medicine, has remained the 
>buzzword for Dr Sarma  patient is the best 
>book. Thus, he has kept up the learning process 
>over the decades, learning from his patients 
>even as he tried to help them with his stock of 
>acquired knowledge.
>Dr Nalini Sarma first set up practice at 
>Barpeta. Those were days of conflicting claims 
>of local doctors, homeopaths, Kabiraj, spiritual 
>and indigenous healers. It took time to carve 
>out a niche for himself. But in time he did so  
>incorporating the best aspects of compettitive 
>fields of medicine, while weeding out peoples 
>superstitious dependance on quack healers of all 
>kinds.
>Next followed a stint as in-charge, Assam Civil 
>Hospital. He because known as a strict 
>administrator who would give the British Sahibs 
>a run for their worth. Besides attending to 
>patients and endless post mortems, the load of 
>the World War-II which was then raging  he 
>managed to usher in qualitative changes in the 
>isolation ward of the hospital, lying hitherto 
>neglected.
>He helped set up the Indian Medical Association, 
>and involved himself in relief activities and 
>disaster management. He strictly imposed hygiene 
>habits among the abors and was known to resort 
>to spanking of people and patients to get them 
>to behave!
>He was also associated as in-charge of the 
>Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi TB Hospital and 
>visiting professor at Ayurvedic College.
>Owing to some conflict with the powers that be, 
>he resigned from his government job and set up 
>private practice. Patients queue up in unending 
>lines to this day.
>He advises a good diet concentrating on milk, 
>butter, fruits, egg and fish, followed by free 
>hand exercises and long walks as the secret of a 
>healthy life. He says that sleeping more than 
>eight hours a day can make the body a hotbed of 
>disease. One should eat in moderation, have 
>regular habits  and be occupied with 
>constructive activity to be of sound health and 
>spirit.
>
>Going by the nonagenarians good health, his 
>advice is surely worth taking. He miraculously 
>survived inspite of drowning in the Brahmaputra 
>at one pont of his career. Here's hoping that he 
>remains with us for many many years more in good 
>health and spirits.
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