[Assam] [asom] To introduce myself,... and then some

[Buljit Buragohain]

          Dear Friends,

First, I thank the moderators of Assamonline for
accepting me into membership of the group.

To introduce myself, I am Shankar Barua, the
51-years-old third son of late Sri Jyotirmoy Barua
(IFS) and Sjt. Savitri Barua (48 Rukimini Path,
Guwahati-06).

I am personally based primarily between New Delhi and
the lower-Himalayan area called Sattal (near
Nainital), and I have sadly almost never really lived
in Assam itself. However, I long for Assam quite
often, and my heart always beats warmly at first sight
whenever I (rarely) fly in. And of course, I
thoroughly enjoy immersing myself as fully as possible
as long as I am there.

The main reason why I have taken up this membership of
the group is to possibly carry forward into Assam some
of my primary preoccupations in service of general
public benefit.

Most of this is essentially now embodied in a 3-year
old public-benefit trust that I have established under
the name “The Academy of Electronic Arts? See:
http://www.theaea.org/

And, whereas most of our ongoing activities under this
head are largely “invisible? on a person-to-person
basis, you can get a reasonable idea of the primary
public initiative that we have launched thus far at
http://www.theaea.org/cec_cac/ceccac08/

This last is something that I have thought to extend,
or possibly even migrate entirely, into Assam for the
past few years, but I have had mixed signals in this
regard.

In the same way, I am also getting mixed signals in
regard to possibly locating in Assam the first
“prototype?of a new initiative that we are looking to
possibly start driving sometime soon,?somewhere in
India.

We call this a “Research & Innovation Ashram? and
yes, we are in a position to draw in fantastic global
associations on it, and we also warmly welcome more
(such as yourselves). See:
http://www.theaea.org/prog/aea_ria.pdf

As with most “new?ideas throughout history however
(e.g. the telephone, flying, photography, etc.), this
is certainly not to say that we are alone or unique in
regard to such thinking.

But of course, as always, there are subtle
differences.

For example, the central government’s Ministry for
Science & Technology has just recently begun due
diligence on setting up an “Exclusive Institution of
Creativity?in Hyderabad,?in which regard I have
already put on record with them that what India
actually needs is *many* institutions of creativity in
*many* locations around the country, so that such an
initiative would be more Inclusive rather than
Exclusive.

In turn, this may seem to be the approach that is
being taken up by the Assam Government, which just
last week announced that it intends to set up about 43
“Skills Development Training Centres?around the state
for a total outlay of about Rs. 8.5 crore.

But, in that case, I put on record here that, (a) an
investment of just about Rs. 20 lakhs *each* is
inadequate to establish anything really meaningful
along such lines, because, (b) our target should not
be to drag folks up to the present, but rather to
empower them to leapfrog themselves into the future.

And so, I’d like to know your thoughts on the matter,
and possibly also have some of you join me on this and
other such initiatives in Assam and the North-East.

Please however forgive me if I am sometimes slow with
my own responses, as this yahoo address of mine is not
a primary email ID for me, and also, I’m sometimes in
odd situations with poor connectivity (e.g. off to
Spain without my laptop next week, and then off to
Sattal for a few months after that, where winds often
take down my telephone line).

If you’d like to communicate with me directly, outside
this group, please send mail to shankarbabaa [at]
gmail.com (yes, the name ends with a double-a).

And, if you'd like to check out some of the other
associated works that I’ve been up to over the past
few years, follow the links appended under my name
below.

Keep well all ~ Shankar

Shankar Barua
Managing Trustee, The Academy of Electronic Arts
Editor ~ Publisher, The IDEA CD-gazettes
Producer ~ Director, Imadjinn (New Delhi, India)
Special Advisor, Public Affairs Management (New Delhi,
India)
Special Advisor, Electronic Music Foundation &
EMF-Institute (Albany, USA)

address 1: D-3/3492 Vasant Kunj,. New Delhi -
110070,. INDIA 
vox & fax: (91-11) 2689 9930

address 2: The 2nd Last Resort, Bhaktura Village,
Jones Estate, Bhimtal, Uttarakhand - 236136
vox: (91-5942) 247598

http://www.TheAeA.org/ (one of my primary
preoccupations these days)
http://retiary.org/idea/ (what The AeA grew out of)
http://www.geocities.com/shankarb.geo/idea.htm
(largely very old pages, but most of them still
relevant)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/shankarbaba/ (just for
fun)
http://www.youtube.com/ShankarBabaa (a few byproducts
of my mainstream work)
http://www.myspace.com/shankarbabaa (a few byproducts
of my mainstream work)


__._,_.___   Messages in this topic (1) Reply (via web post) | Start a new topic 
  Messages | Files | Photos | Links | Database | Polls 
  
   
Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required) 
Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch format to Traditional 
Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe 

    
    Recent Activity
    
      2
  New Members

Visit Your Group 
      Y! Messenger
  Instant smiles
  Share photos while
  you IM friends.

    John McEnroe
  on Yahoo! Groups
  Join him for the
  10 Day Challenge.

    How-To Zone
  on Yahoo! Groups
  Discuss home and
  garden projects.



  .

 
__,_._,___                           



 between 2007-09-19 and 9999-99-99       <!--7--><hr size=1></hr> Messenger blocked? Want to chat? <a href="http://in.rd.yahoo.com/tagline_webmessenger_7/*http://in.messenger.yahoo.com/webmessengerpromo.php">Here is the solution.</a>