[Assam] Bideshat Apon Manuh (LETTERS TO THE EDITOR, The Sentinel, 18.01.2008)

[Buljit Buragohain]

        Bideshat Apon Manuh 
Bideshat Apon Manuh, meaning ‘‘one’s own people on foreign shores’’, which is a tourism-based serial telecast by Doordarshan Kendra, Guwahati, is indeed enjoyable as well as popular, being on air for about five years. But despite being entertaining, it is has certain negative effects. 
The serial portrays the lives of well-established Assamese families residing in different foreign countries, signifying only the glamorous and comfortable lives that they live, thus giving wrong ideas about life in such countries to the naive and aspiring local people. The serial does not emphasize the struggles that these people faced to achieve their position of dignity in the alien lands amidst alien people; the prejudices they had to encounter; the racial bridges they had to cross; and the problems of cultural identification of their children. The younger generation back home, ignorant of these facts, is thus encouraged to seek better fortunes on foreign shores, aided by equally vulnerable parents.
A large section of the Assamese people are settled in foreign countries, pursuing their own fortunes and visiting their home State occasionally, more as guests. Can they be called ‘‘apon manuh’’? It would be more apt to name the serial as “Bideshat Asomiya Manuh”. 
It is disheartening that television serials are rarely made on the lives of Assamese people in accomplished fields, who by dint of their hard work and labour are working with dedication in Assam and in other parts of India, making a difference to society by contributing to the development and progress of their own nation.
It is time to discourage brain drain to foreign lands. The serial in question should be presented in the right format and direction, with a strong message to the Assamese society that life in foreign countries is just as challenging as that in India, failing which its telecast should be stopped.
  
Malabika Mitra, 
Zoo Road, Guwahati. 
     (The Sentinel,18.01.2008)




       
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