Guwahati shoot

Outside the city SP office.

Floods for TV

This is a photograph, taken near the Bramhaputra. Had to do a flood story. Delhi pressed the panic button, after reading a Press Trust of India copy "1.5 lakh people displaced due to floods". Displacement due to floods is a term that is often misinterpreted . People often shift from one place to another during this time of the year, in this part of the world. "They wait for floods"--says Kishalay from NDTV. Anyways, I needed to go to the districts (Upper Assam--Dhemaji, Tinsukia, Dibrugarh, Golaghat), but we had no time. So we went to the place near the river, where they measure the rising water level. The story was done finally but we had huge, huge trouble getting footage from districts. It was madness. When we were on the shoot, some pictures were taken by Gobindo, our driver, who is learning camera from Mukut. Gobindo is 24. Without Mukut and Gobindo, it's impossible to work here. (both in photograph). There is also Rupam, more on him later.

Also, well, I am staying in another Hotel. It's called Landmark. More on it later. And yes, I met Indira Goswami. Lots to write on the interview.

Also, I don't think an elaborate thank you will happen. So first, I would like to thank three people--Sudipta Bhattacharjee of The Telegraph, Nitin Gokhale, NDTV and Samudra Gupta Kashyap of Indian Express and of course V K Shashikumar of CNN-IBN. (you can ask them anything about North-east)

My room, now

This is 104, Hotel Bramhaputra Ashok.

Mukut

Hopefully, I will learn to write in a more organised manner soon. Before that meet Mukut, my cameraman. He is a Sundance Festival Award winner. He was part of a documentary on "Unemployed Elephants", that got the prize. Am supposed to get the VCD. Mukut has a sense of humor, that's a mix of everything--Yes Minister, Different Strokes. It's not reading okay. He's got a great sense of humor. This is an unnatural picture. Am asking him to smile. But he is funny. Today ( My second day in Assam), both of us managed to escape security ( in a sense) and get a story on the Assam Flying Club. This picture is just before we got in. Tomorrow, I script. Also a random thought---All my thank yous, to people, I must mention, will come later. For those who are clueless about North East, try writing down the names of the 7 states, that make North east. Quickly.

Death

The hottest chilli in the world, "bhut jolokia"

Hotel, hotel

Been raining from Day one. Am in a sense carrying the rain with me from the runway. There was no room booked for me. The dawaat has been interesting but not exactly the way I wanted it to be. More, much more later. I am back again in the North East reporting for CNN-IBN. It's raining, it's lush green. More, more later. I need to organise things.

Searching Sushila Sundari

Sushila Sundari was India's first woman circus star. She was part of the Great Bengal Circus. Sushila would open the mouths of lions and tigers with barehands and put her head inside. This was 1890s. So that makes it more than 120 years back. Am trying to find out if there is some photograph of hers. Hence this blog. There is an interesting article in JSTOR called, The Self-Image of Effeteness: Physical Education and Nationalism in Nineteenth Century Bengal. That has a mention of the Great Bengal Circus, where she would perform. Anyone with any links/pictures/articles, please write back.

Actually, Sushila Sundari, also came to mind while reading the Barn Owl's Wondrous Capers. (Sarnath Banerjee's clever second graphic novel). I was surprised why Sarnath did not mention/use Sushila Sundari in his novel.