POWERLESS: Northern Grid Fails Again in India

India's northern and eastern power grids fails, leaving about half the country without power.





For a second day running the Northern power grid collapsed today leaving the national capital in the dark but this time the Eastern power grid also buckled.

The national capital went black today with passengers aboard the Metro services having to patiently wait in the trains until electricity supply resumed. Train services across states in the north and east were badly hit.

Yesterday seven states stopped receiving electricity early in the morning as the Northern power grid collapsed and was restored only after a few hours. Today the Northern power grid collapsed around 1.07 pm and the Eastern power grid collapsed soon after.

CNN-IBN reported that the fault could take five to six hours to resolve.

2.09pm: It has now been confirmed that 12 states have been affected by the grid collapses. Meanwhile a statement from the power ministry has said that essential services be restored in the next two hours. This would translate to power for hospitals, VVIP areas, trains etc. There is still no word on when power to homes and offices will be restored.

As many as 300 trains in North India alone have been affected by the collapse of the Northern and Eastern grids, with many more trains likely to have been impacted in the Eastern states.


The CPRO Northern Railways, Neeraj Sharma, speaking to CNN-IBN, said they will try to run some trains and make alternative arrangements like diesel power. The Delhi and Kolkata Metros are also not running.

The reason for the grid failures in the North and East have reportedly been caused because frequency has dipped below the optimal level. However officials have been unable to identify exactly where the fault has occurred., so it will take more time for them to get the grids back up and running. Meanwhile officials have said that Delhi’s VVIP areas will receive 100 MW of emergency power.

The World’s First 3D-Printed Gun

Hobbyist builds working assault rifle using 3D printer

It hasn't blown to pieces yet

Hobbyists have used 3D printers to make guitars, copy house keys, and bring robot dinosaurs to life, but a firearms enthusiast who goes by the handle "Have Blue" has taken this emerging technology into a new realm by assembling a working rifle from 3D-printed parts.

Specifically, ExtremeTech reports, Have Blue used 3D CAD files to print the lower receiver part of an AR-15 class assault rifle – the style of gun the US military has called an M16. The lower receiver is sometimes referred to as the "body" of the weapon, which houses the trigger assembly, the magazine, and the safety selector.

The lower receiver of a factory-produced AR-15 is usually made of metal, typically stamped aluminum. Have Blue made his out of the standard ABS plastic used by low-end 3D printers. He then combined it with off-the-shelf, metal AR-15 parts to complete the weapon.

The next step was to actually fire it. Have Blue started by chambering the gun for .22 caliber pistol rounds, a relatively low-powered ammunition. After firing 200 rounds, he announced to an online AR-15 forum that it "runs great!"

He then re-assembled the weapon to use .223 caliber rifle ammunition and tried again. "No, it did not blow up into a bazillion tiny plastic shards and maim me for life," he said, but the combination of the homemade and off-the-shelf parts wasn't working all that well, causing the gun to jam. Try, try again.

It's 3D-printed plastic, but it works, and it has no license or serial number. (Source: Haveblue.org)

Where this all gets interesting is in the potential legal ramifications of what Have Blue has done. It is legal in most US states to purchase AR-15 style rifles, provided the purchaser is licensed, which involves a background check.

It is difficult to get around the license requirements by purchasing the gun in pieces and assembling it yourself, because at least one piece – the lower receiver – carries a serial number and must always be purchased from a federally licensed arms dealer.

Without the lower receiver, the gun can't fire, so under US law the lower receiver essentially is the gun. The other components are less closely regulated and can be purchased online or from unlicensed dealers.
But Have Blue didn't buy his lower receiver from anyone. He made it himself. Using his method, potentially anyone could assemble a completed rifle from mail-order parts without any government licensing or registration at all.

It may not look like much, but the gun won't fire without it. (Source: Thingiverse.com)

It's not entirely as simple as that, though. First, although Have Blue says he used between $30 and $50 worth of plastic to print the gun, 3D printers that can output items the size of the AR-15 lower receiver are still expensive. But their cost is declining.

Second, a 3D printer cannot print ammunition. But given that accused Aurora, Colorado shooter James Holmes was found to have stockpiled some 6,000 rounds of ammo that he purchased online, the prospect of individuals being able to assemble working, unlicensed weapons using 3D printing technology should give regulators in the US and abroad some pause.

Saudi Woman Will Wear Hijab in Judo Competition

Olympics gives go-ahead after judo teen's dad insists

Saudi officials have won the go-ahead from the International Olympic Committee allowing a female athlete to wear a hijab in the judo competition.

Wojdan Ali Seraj Abdulrahim Shaherkani, 16, had signed an agreement with Saudi officials that she would only compete if she could wear "correct and approved" clothing that adheres to "Islamic principals," said a spokesman.

Her father told a Saudi newspaper that he would not let his daughter compete without a hijab, reports CNN.

It's not entirely clear how the teen feels about wearing the scarf.

A spokesman for Judo International said just last week that she would "fight according to the principle and spirit of judo, so without a hijab."

Olympics officials decided to allow Shaherkani to wear the scarf after Saudi managers threatened to withdraw their female athletes, the first to ever compete at the Games for the nation.

CBI Names 9 in Tuirial Project Chargesheet

Aizawl, Jul 31 : The CBI has named nine people in its chargesheet in the alleged compensation scam in Tuirial hydel project in Mizoram.

Sources said the premier investigation agency filed a chargesheet against nine people, including relatives of former Chief Minister Zoramthanga and officials, a few months back and the court has conducted a hearing in this regard.

Following a PIL filed by anti-corruption watchdog SOSA (Society for Social Action), Gauhati High Court in April 2010 ordered into the alleged compensation scam. The CBI investigation revealed that compensation to the tune of Rs 20,046,475 was paid to fictitious landowners.

There were 352 compensation claimants including the fictitious landowners. As many as 241 witnesses were interviewed during the investigation and about 110 documents were submitted to the court.

The Japanese government-funded 60 Tuirial hydropower project at Bilkhawtlir village in north Mizoram was abandoned in 2003 after a group of landowners in Bilkhawtlir claimed high rates of compensation for the land that the state government wished to acquire for the power plant.

The North Eastern Electric Power Corporation (Neepco) and the Japanese Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund Bank, which was funding the project, objected to this.

The controversy over the payment of an "inflated amount of money" compelled Neepco to suspend the construction of the plant.

The then Mizo National Front ministry had been branded as the main culprit behind the compensation row that suspended the project as former chief minister Zoramthanga's relatives figured prominently among those who received compensations.

When Lal Thanhawla, who had laid the foundation stone during his previous tenure on September 12, 2007, came back in power, he took initiatives to revive the abandoned project.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) had last year revised the project cost of the 60 MW Tuirial Hydro Electric Project (THEP) to Rs 913 crore due to delay in resumption of work.

The hydel project, designed to generate 60 MW of power 12 per cent of which would be shared by the state, is expected to be completed by 2014. The project envisaged the construction of a 77-metre-high earthen dam across Tuirial, a tributary of the Barak.

A surface power station on the left bank of the river at the toe of this dam would be constructed at Bilkhawthlir for generation of 60MW of power at 45 per cent load factor.

Nzanbeni Kithan is Miss Dimapur 2012

Dimapur, July 31 : Displaying an apt blend of beauty and brains, Nzanbeni Kithan was crowned Miss Dimapur 2012 here recently, prevailing over twelve other models who were vying for the top spot.

"I believe in myself. I am a very confident girl and one day I will be very successful," Kithan said after bagging the title.

Kithan wants to encourage youth to achieve their dreams.

Asenle, who finished as the first runners up, too shared her future plans.

"I see myself as a successful fashion designer and a model one day," she said.

In the inaugural session, models introduced themselves to the audience and talked about their interests and reasons for choosing to make their careers in the fashion industry.

The event was aimed at promoting the fashion industry in Nagaland and attracting youth to take it up as a profession.

All the participants said they wanted to be successful models and represent the country at international events.

India & Bangladesh To Meet On Tipaimukh Dam

Silchar, July 31 : India has told Bangladesh that it is now ready for a bilateral meeting of experts from both the countries on Tipaimukh dam for two days in New Delhi from August 27.

According to a senior official of the Central Water Commission in Shillong, the members of this expert group, to be drawn from both the nations, have already been constituted.

He said the group members are experts in hydrology and river engineering.

A few officials of the flood control and water resources departments will also figure as delegates.

The discussion will focus on arriving at a consensus on the construction of the 162-foot dam on the Barak.

The Rs 7,600-crore Tipai-mukh dam project, meant to control the recurring floods in the Barak Valley districts under south Assam and to generate 1,500MW hydel power, has run into various problems.

A number of the NGOs and scientists of the Northeast, particularly in Manipur and Assam’s Cachar district, and Bangladesh are opposing the project.

The Opposition party in Bangladesh, the BNP, headed by the former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, organised a big motor rally in Sylhet district on December 1 last year in protest against the proposed construction of this project.

The Angikar Bangladesh Foundation, spearheaded by some leading civil engineers in that country, has also opposed this project.

The chief director of the NGO, Muhammad Hilaluddin, recently called upon like-minded environmentalists and river specialists of both the countries to join their hands in opposing the project.

The meeting is aimed at dispelling doubts on the project, the CWC official added.

The opposition of a large number of Bangladeshis against the Tipaimukh project is mainly based on the “wrong and ill-conceived ideas emanating from the fears of the desertification of the Meghna valley under Sylhet division”.

Hence, the experts of both the nations should clarify the benefits to accrue from this project, he added.

Official sources here said the National Hydro Power Corporation (NHPC), a public sector undertaking, has bagged the contract in a joint venture with its subsidiary named Sutlej Jal Vidyut Nigam, to commission the Tipaimukh project in seven years after its construction gets off the ground. An agreement in this connection was inked in Imphal on October 22 last year.

Assam CM Gogoi Ignored Warnings On Impending Riots

By Kaushik Deka

Tarun Gogoi, Chief Minister of Assam 

Sinlung is in possession of an exclusive document which shows that Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi ignored warning of a possible riot in Bodoland Territorial Areas District (BTAD) areas in the state.

On July 7, the president of the Kokrajhar unit of Congress had sent an urgent fax to Gogoi, requesting him to send CRPF forces to the region as he feared that riots could break out any moment in the state. But the chief minister did not respond to the mail.

Assam Pradesh Congress Committee vice-president Y.L. Karna had also submitted a report to Gogoi warning him of an impending riot after he visited Kokrajhar on July 7 to inquire into the incident of killing of minority students in the district a day before.

Interestingly, on July 27, the chief minister had put the blame on the central government for the delay in sending army to the riot-affected areas.

The very next day when reporters asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for his reaction to Gogoi's allegation, the CM grabbed the microphone and said he hadn't said this.

Meanwhile, the death toll in the Bodo-Muslim violence has reached 71. Meanwhile, home minister P. Chidambaram is set to visit the violence-hit areas of the state for two days beginning today (Monday) and review the security situation and relief and rehabilitation measures.

Chidambaram, who has been monitoring the Assam situation ever since clashes between Bodos and immigrant minorities broke out, will hold meetings with top civil and police officers and take stock of the law and order situation in the four riot-hit districts Kokrajhar, Chirang, Dhubri and Bongaigaon.

The home minister is expected to visit a few relief camps and review the relief and rehabilitation steps taken for those who lost their kin and suffered losses during the violence. Chidambaram is likely to hold separate meetings with state governor J.B. Patnaik, the chief minister and his council of ministers.

source: dailymail

Finally, A Bronze For India

Sinlung Says: Its a shame that whole of India is waiting for a bronze, a country with more than a billion in population. It says a lot about the people, let alone sports.

Boxers Vijender Singh and his childhood friend Jai Bhagwan made their way to round 16 with convincing victories at the London Olympics.

Photo by Lars Baron/Getty Images

Bronze medallist Gagan Narang of India poses with the bronze medal won in the Men's 10m Air Rifle Shooting final final on Day 3 of the London 2012 Olympic Games at The Royal Artillery Barracks on July 30, 2012 in London, England.

London, July 30 — India's rifle shooter Gagan Narang clinched the bronze medal in the men's 10-metre air rifle event of the 2012 London Olympics while his illustrious compatriot and defending champion Abhinav Bindra failed to qualify for the final round at Royal Artillery Barracks here Monday.
The gold went to Romanian Alin George Moldoveanu with a total score of 702.1 (599 qualifying, 103.1 final) and Italian Niccolo Campriani bagged the silver with 701.5 (599 qualifying, 102.5 final).
Narang, who is participating in his third Games, had a total score of 701.1 (598 qualifying, 103.1 final). Going into the final round, Narang was third.
In the final round, Narang had a series of 10.7, 9.7, 10.6, 10.7, 10.4, 10.6, 9.9, 9.5, 10.3 and 10.7 to give India its first medal from the London Games.
It was the third time in row that Indian shooters had won medals at the Olympics. Double trap shooter Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore won the silver in 2004, Bindra gave India a historic gold in Beijing, and now Narang has bagged a bronze in London.
Bindra, India's only individual Olympic gold medallist, failed to qualify as he shot 594 to finish 16th out of 47 contestants.
In the qualifying round, Narang, who missed the final round in Beijing Games on a countback, was in his elements. The 29-year-old Hyderabadi shot perfect series of 100 in all the rounds except the third when he scored 98. He also shot 53 inner 10s.
Bindra had just two series of perfect 100 in the third and the fourth round. He shot 99s in the first, second and fifth and faltered in the sixth, when he shot 97. The top eight shooters qualified for the final round. Former Olympic champion and Beijing Games silver medallist Zhu Qinan of China also failed to qualify for the final round.

Extended Vacation For Schools in Riot-Hit Assam Districts

By K Anurag

Guwahati, Jul 30 : Educational institutions in Assam's violence-ravaged districts of Kokrajhar, Chirang, Baksa and Dhubri are likely to have an extended summer vacation.

Over four lakhs riot-hit are lodged in 278 relief camps in the violence-affected areas and out of those over 200 relief camps have been set up in educational institutions.

According to an official source, out of the 64 relief camps in Chirang district, 54 are located in educational institutions.

Similarly, over 150 educational institutions in Kokrajhar and Dhubri districts are now housing the riot-hit.

With there is hardly any chance of the riot-hit going back home within the next few days, the re-opening of these educational institutions on schedule on August 1 seems highly unlikely.

State Education Minister Dr Himanta Bishwa Sarma informed that in view of the prevailing situation summer vacation has been extended by another seven days.

In case, the relief camps in educational institutions still remain operational beyond the extended summer vacation, the education department will take further steps to make these institutions functional.

Most relief-camp inmates, whose houses have been burnt down, will not be able leave camps till their houses are rebuilt by the authorities and that will not be possible within seven days, an official in Kokrajhar said.

On the other hand, some of the panic-stricken relief camp inmates, whose houses have not been damaged, maintain that they would return home provided they are given adequate security over.

A statement issued by Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi's [ Images ] office said that the situation was becoming normal in the violence-hit districts where 20 columns of army personnel along with 65 companies of central paramilitary forces are keeping vigil round the clock.

Too Late: 11,000 Security Personnel for Assam

Sinlung: Indian Govt is but a reactive force, the cauldron of ethnic fire will keep boiling every now and again.

No government has ever taken steps till date for a preemptive approach.



Northeast will face similar situation again. In another state, in another district.

New Delhi: The Centre has authorised the Assam government to deploy more than 11,000 paramilitary personnel in the state's violence-hit districts and dispatched a C-135 heavy lift aircraft with medical teams and supplies.

So far 7,300 personnel of paramilitary forces have been deployed in strife-torn Kokrajhar, Chirang and Dhubri districts after moving them from other states in the wake of clashes between Bodos and minority immigrants there.
In addition, the state has been authorised to use 11,600 men of paramilitary forces to bring back normalcy in the worst affected areas.
Home Secretary R K Singh said teams of National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF) along with experts in drinking water and sanitation issues have been rushed to the affected areas in the same aircraft.
Cabinet Secretary Ajit Seth reviewed with Assam Chief Secretary Naba Kumar Das during a video conference last evening the relief and medical arrangements for the victims of one of the worst ethnic violence witnessed in recent times in lower Assam districts.
The meeting was attended by senior officers of the all concerned Ministries and Departments.
"Two teams comprising physician, gynaecologist, paediatrician, public health specialists, resident doctors and nurses have been airlifted from Delhi at 5.15 PM yesterday," an official spokesperson said.

Anna Hazare Is Our National Tragedy

If there were an Olympic medal for persisting with a grand folly, Anna Hazare would not have missed the target like Deepika Kumari and struck pure gold.

New Delhi: If there were an Olympic medal for persisting with a grand folly, Anna Hazare would not have missed the target like Deepika Kumari and struck pure gold. There's no Indian who'll disagree with Anna's determination to root out corruption with the Jan Lokpal Bill, but to inflict yet another fast-unto-death on an unsuspecting nation on a weekend is a ritual that exposes yet again the true colours of the 'Gandhian.'

Like his supporters mainly drawn from the RSS, Anna is a fascist with the vision of a village sarpanch. He cannot keep arrogating to himself the powers of the sole spokesperson of India's collective conscience without playing his political cards with the honesty that is expected of a man occupying the pedestal he does.

We have a political system that has worked largely to our advantage despite its many flaws. Why should we let it be hijacked by a man who has fought no election and has little to offer beyond a one-point agenda devoid of any overarching political vision? And how can Anna have any credibility in the eyes of the people when he's aligned with a Rolls Royce-loving yoga contortionist whose business empire is under investigation?

Baba Ramdev is the last person an anti-corruption movement should be seen with, till he comes clean about the sources of his funds. Yet, he's the man who has emerged as Anna's other crowd provider. The sales agents of his magical cures are ever ready to congregate at his call at the Ramlila Grounds, or wherever their bread-provider directs them to go.

The yoga teacher has never hidden his political agenda, which clearly is backed by his immensely, and ungodly, deep pockets.

But what about Anna? Whose side is he batting on? Why doesn't he take on the politicians he so loves to berate, in electoral contests? If Anna were a democrat with a vision, he would have led a political movement against the present political order, but his politics is that of a village bully.

Listen to him, or else he'll put on display, for one more time, his incredible ability to go on a long protest fast. That may be a salve for the conscience of the South Delhi-South Mumbai middle class, which when it's not expressing its solidarity for Anna, feeds the venality of politicians and bureaucrats, but that's not the political solution to a deep-rooted malaise that's been singularly responsible for bursting India's success-story soap bubble.

As our economic miracle resting on one-sided growth turns out to be as bad a joke as Rahul Gandhi's hunt for gainful employment, the country's piling problems require a multi-pronged attack powered by a new vision, a new force. Anna with his tunnel vision and limited arsenal of political weaponry, is certainly not that force. He's more of a caricature of his cause than a credible alternative. And that is our national tragedy.

How To Survive A Shooting Massacre (Hint: Carry A Torch)

It's the TV "how-to" segment that's a sorry sign of the times.

In the aftermath of the Colorado Batman movie massacre, in which 12 people were shot dead and 58 wounded, Americans are worried about street safety and the local media cycle is moving on to reassuring practical themes.

"How to survive a shooting", is the name of an interview running on Fox News, in which presenter Megyn Kelly speaks with a former US Navy SEAL and sniper Brandon Webb about the survival tips he suggests for ordinary people.

His first tip? That  people carry a small high-powered torch capable of temporarily blinding an assailant, for long enough to get away.

He also recommends people run - "a moving target is hard to hit" - and have a plan. "Don't just close your eyes and hope," he says.

Before she introduces him, Kelly notes that guns are not allowed in movie theatres. “So what could you do to protect yourself if, God forbid, you find yourself in a similar situation?”

Webb is author of The Red Circle, My Life in the Navy SEAL Sniper Corps and How I trained America’s Deadliest Marksmen. He has made several TV appearances and writes a self-titled blog on Guns, Gear, Planes, & Politics.

“It’s the frequency of these active shooter scenarios. I just didn’t want to let these people die in vain… ” Webb tells Kelly. “Let’s learn from this for the future”.

In the Fox News segment Webb notes that it can take a long time for authorities and help to arrive.

50 Inspirational Quotes For Writers

Plenty of advice has been written regarding how to beat writers block, but writing is far more than just filling the blank page. From living the creative life to where to find inspiration, Cheryl Craigie of Write to Done has collected a wonderful variety of quotes to keep you inspired

How to live the creative life

1. To live a creative life we must first lose the fear of being wrong. ~ Joseph Chilton Pearce
2. Keep on beginning and failing. Each time you fail, start all over again, and you will grow stronger until you have accomplished a purpose…not the one you began with perhaps, but one you’ll be glad to remember.
~Anne Sullivan Macy
3. You get ideas from daydreaming. You get ideas from being bored. You get ideas all the time. The only difference between writers and other people is we notice when we’re doing it. ~ Neil Gaiman
4. Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. Great works are performed not by strength, but perseverance. ~ Samuel Johnson

How to be a writer

5. The role of a writer is not to say what we all can say, but what we are unable to says ~Anais Nin
6. Start before you’re ready. ~Steven Pressfield
7. Do the work. ~Steven Pressfield
8. If you want to be a writer, you must do two things about all others:  read a lot and write a lot…reading is the creative center of a writer’s life…you cannot hope to sweep someone else away by the force of your writing until it has been done to you. ~Stephen King
9. There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed. ~Ernest Hemingway
10. Writing is like sex; you don’t have to wait until you’re an expert to begin doing it. ~ Anonymous
11. Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere ~Anne Lamott
12. A professional writer is an amateur who didn’t quit. ~Richard Bach
13. The desire to write grows with writing. ~Desiderius Erasmus
14. The great advantage of being a writer is that you can spy on people. You’re there, listening to every word, but part of you is observing. Everything is useful to a writer, you see—every scrap, even the longest and most boring of luncheon parties. ~Graham Greene
15. Being a writer means taking the leap from listening to saying, “Listen to me”. ~Jhumpa Lahiri
16.  Don’t wait for moods. You accomplish nothing if you do that. Your mind must know it has got to get down to work ~Pearl S. Buck
17. The one ironclad rule is that I have to try. I have to walk into my writing room and pick up my pen every weekday morning. ~Anne Tyler
18. Planning to write is not writing. Outlining, researching, talking to people about what you’re doing, none of that is writing. Writing is writing. ~E. L. Doctorow

Where to find inspiration

19. Inspiration is wonderful when it happens, but the writer must develop an approach for the rest of the time. ~ Leonard Bernstein
20. Inspiration is a guest that does not willingly visit the lazy. ~ Pyotr Tchaikovsky
21. Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work. ~ Stephen King
22. I write when I’m inspired, and I see to it that I’m inspired at nine o’clock every morning. ~P eter De Vries
23. If you wait for inspiration to write; you’re not a writer, you’re a waiter. ~ Dan Poynter

Advice on writing

24. Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass. ~ Anton Chekhov
25. Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader—not the fact that it is raining, but the feeling of being rained upon. ~ E.L. Doctorow
26. Write with the complete palette of emotions. ~ Cindy Lambert
27. Write your first draft with your heart. Rewrite with your head. ~ Mike Rich
28. The difference between the almost right word and the right work is really a large matter—it’s the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning. ~ Mark Twain
29. I try to leave out the parts that people skip. ~ Elmore Leonard
30. Don’t use words too big for the subject. Don’t say “infinitely” when you mean “very;” otherwise you’ll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. ~ C.S. Lewis
31. First, find out what your hero wants. Then just follow him. ~ Ray Bradbury
32. Write freely and as rapidly as possible and throw the whole thing on paper. Never correct or rewrite until the whole thing is down. Rewrite in process is usually found to be an excuse for not going on. It also interferes with flow and rhythm which can only come from a kind of unconscious association with the material…..John Steinbeck
33. When in doubt, have a man come through the door with a gun in his hand. ~ Raymond Chandler
34. The objective of fiction isn’t grammatical correctness but to make the reader welcome and then tell a story …to make him/her forget, whenever possible, that he/she is reading a story at all. Stephen King
35. Close the door. Write with no one looking over your shoulder. Don’t try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say. It’s the one and only thing you have to offer. ~ Barbara Kingsolver
36. Fiction does not spring into the world fully grown, like Athena. It is the process of writing and rewriting that makes a fiction original, if not profound. ~ John Gardner

37. It begins with a character, usually, and once he stands up on his feet and begins to move, all I can do is trot along behind him with a paper and pencil trying to keep up long enough to put down what he says and does. ~ William Faulkner

38. Writing a novel is like heading out over the open sea in a small boat. It helps if you have a plan and a course laid out. ~ John Garner
39. Suit the action to the word, the word to the action. ~ William Shakespeare

What to write

40. Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart. ~William Wordsworth
41. Write what you know. Write what you want to know more about. Write what you’re afraid to write about. ~ Cec Murphy
42. Write about what makes you different. ~ Sandra Cisneros
43. Your intuition knows what to write, so get out of the way. ~ Ray Bradbury
44. Never tell a story because it is true:  tell it because it is a good story. ~ John Penland Mahaffy

Writer’s Block

45. You can’t think yourself out of a writing block; you have to write yourself out of a thinking block. ~ John Rogers
46. I’ve often said that there’s no such thing as writer’s block; the problem is idea block. When I find myself frozen–whether I’m working on a brief passage in a novel or brainstorming about an entire book–it’s usually because I’m trying to shoehorn an idea into the passage or story where it has no place. ~ Jeffery Deaver
47. I think writer’s block is simply the dread that you are going to write something horrible. But as a writer, I believe that if you sit down at the keys long enough,  sooner or later something will come out. ~ Roy Blount, Jr.

Failure

48. Mistakes are the portals of discovery. ~ James Joyce
49. Failure? I never encountered it. All I ever met were temporary setbacks. ~ Dottie Walters
50. You fail only if you stop writing. ~ Ray Bradbury

So don’t keep dreaming  - keep writing.
We’re  busy working with our DreamTeam to collect awesome quotes for a new e-book of quotes on writing and the writer’s life, but we didn’t want to wait to share at least some of the “good stuff.”
Our sincere thanks to the DreamTeam members who generously contributed quotes.  As a token of our appreciation, each will be listed in the upcoming e-book and will receive a free copy when it becomes available.
Submissions for the e-book are now closed, but we’d love you to share some of your favorite quotes in the comments section.
We’ll let you know when the book is available for purchase.
So, what are your favorite quotes for writers?

By Cheryl Craigie, Contributing Editor at Write to Done. Cheryl also blogs at The Manageable Life. Please check it out if you’re interested in making changes in your life.

 Source: writetodone.com

Google Nexus 7 Tablet on Sale for Rs 15,884

New Delhi: The recently launched Google Nexus 7 tablet is now available on HomeShop18.com for Rs 15,884. The company is selling imported units of the Nexus 7 tablet at an additional discount of Rs 2,000.

On visiting the website, you will find that the company is selling the tablet for Rs 17884, but consumers can avail a huge discount of Rs 2,000 and grab the much-awaited Nexus 7 tablet for Rs 15,884.

"Use GC No. 'GC39P4UA81PE' and get Rs 2000 off during check out when you pay online," as mentioned on the HomeShop18 website.

It means that consumers can get this huge discount of Rs 2,000 during the check out process while paying online and can get the unit for Rs 15,884.

According to the company, the unit will be delivered in 17-18 working days.

The Nexus 7 tablet has an internal memory of 8GB and 1GB RAM. It features a 7-inch HD Back-lit IPS display with a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels. It comes engineered with a Quad-core Tegra 3 processor.
Weighing 340g, it is the first tablet to run the Google Android Jelly Bean operating system. The device has a 1.2 megapixel front-facing camera.

The tablet is powered by a 4325 mAh battery that is touted to offer up to 9.5 hours of HD video playback and 300 hours of standby.

Assam Riots: Curfew Relaxed in Kokrajhar, No New Violence

Kokrajhar, Jul 30 : The situation in the strife-torn districts of Western Assam is limping back to normal with authorities relaxing curfew in the worst-hit Kokrajhar district today.

The indefinite curfew has been relaxed for the day while night curfew between 6 PM to 6 AM will continue in the other affected districts, official sources said.

The official death toll remained at 53 and there was no report of any fresh incident of violence.

Kokrajhar, Chirang and Dhubri districts are the worst hit among five affected districts, the two others being Bongaigaon and Baksa.

More than three lakh people have been affected in the violence that went on for eight days and most of them are sheltered in relief camps.

With the law and order situation improving, the district administrations are now taking measures to persuade victims to return to their homes.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh yesterday visited Kokrajhar and announced a Rs 300-crore rehabilitation package and declared that a probe would be held to ascertain the cause of the clashes.

Massive power failure in North India: Delhi metro services hit

New Delhi, Jul 30 : Seven states in North India have been facing a long power cut since late Sunday night. Due to a massive breakdown in the northern grid, the main power source for the affected states, there has been a massive power outage.

The affected states are Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir.

There is no power in Delhi and its neighbouring states since 2 am reports IBN-Live. According to the report, Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said that it’ll take another one and a half hour’s time to restore power. “My officers are on the spot. The fault is found near Agra. It will be corrected in one and a half hour time,” he said.

Thousands of commuters in the Delhi Metro will face a harrowing time on Monday morning as services of all the lines of the Metro have been disrupted due to tripping of power supply.

Train services on the 190-km Metro network connecting length and breath of the national capital were affected due to The Northern Grid failure also caused power cuts in large parts of Delhi.

“Metro service will not be available today (Monday) till the supply is restored as it is a major Northern Grid power failure,” a Delhi Metro official said.

The Delhi Metro normally operates over 2,700 trips a day, covering about 70,000 km and carrying around 1.8 million passengers on week days.

The Secret Online Arms Store That Will Sell Anyone, Anything

By Sam Biddle

The Bushmaster M4 is a 3-foot rifle capable of firing thirty 5.56×45mm NATO rounds, and used by spec ops forces throughout Afghanistan. It's a serious weapon. But in the Internet's darkest black market, it's all yours. Who needs a background check? Nobody.

The Armory began as an offshoot of The Silk Road, notable as the Internet's foremost open drug bazaar, where anything from heroin and meth to Vicodin and pot can be picked out and purchased like a criminal Amazon.com. It's virtually impossible to trace, and entirely anonymous. But apparently guns were a little too hot for The Silk Road's admins, who broke the site off from the main narcotics carnival. Now guns, ammo, explosives, and more have their own shadowy home online, far from the piles of Dutch coke and American meth. But the same rules apply: with nothing more than money and a little online savoir faire, you can buy extremely powerful, deadly weapons—Glocks, Berettas, PPKs, AK-47s, Bushmaster rifles, even a grenade—in secret, shipped anywhere in the world.

So I wondered, just how easy is it to get a gun? A semi-auto, 9mm Beretta 92FS with "No scratches or dents, very slight wear from extremely light usage" would hit me for 338.69 bitcoins. At the current Bitcoin/Dollar exchange of roughly 9-to-1, that's a little over $3,000. A stiff markup. But that got me thinking: what if you wanted to go beyond arming yourself? What if you wanted something more powerful, or more plentiful? What if you weren't just interested in self-defense or hunting? What if you wanted to, say, arm a 20-person paramilitary group to overthrow a West African government in a Internet-armed coup d'état? Could a band of anonymous weapon mongers prepare me and 19 imaginary compatriots for illegal warfare? If you've got a spare million or so, looks like the answer is yes.
——
The Amazon comparison might not be fair—The Armory wants to make itself hard to access (for obvious reasons that have to do with not going to prison), so it's not as easy as just firing up any old website. In fact, it's not really on the web in any traditional sense. To get to The Armory, you need to deploy a free piece of software called TOR. Originally (and ironically) developed by the Navy, it's become the anonymizing software par excellence among criminals, hackers, schemers, and the otherwise paranoid. TOR routes and reroutes your connection to the Internet through a sprawling maze of encrypted nodes around the world, making it a herculean feat to find out who's who. The Armory's URL—ayjkg6ombrsahbx2.onion—reflects that, a garbled string of letters and numbers deliberately impossible to memorize. Once you're actually signed in, you then have to turn to Bitcoins as mandatory currency, a further exercise in computer secrecy and complexity in itself. This ain't exactly walking into a gun show and walking out with a pistol.
Still, the site prides itself on being about as easy to use as an illegal underground weapons dealership can be:

The Armory is an anonymous marketplace where you can buy and sell without revealing who you are. We protect your identity through every step of the process, from connecting to this site, to purchasing your items, to finally receiving them.

That receiving part is almost as tricky as the labyrinthine purchasing process. How exactly do you illegally ship illegal guns to potential criminals? In pieces. Small pieces. The crafty gun dealers of The Armory aren't going to just stick an assault rifle into a manilla envelope and drop it into a local mailbox. Rather, buyers get each gun component shipped in shielded packages—disguised to look like other products—that then require self-assembly. You get your gun, the dealer gets his money, The Armory retains its secrecy, and the mail carrier doesn't realize it's part of an international weapons smuggling operation.

But who are these anonymous online gunslingers? Nobody can know for sure. Nary a single one will mention where they source their wares, or provide even the slightest shred of locational information. You're lucky if you know what continent they're on. Some won't even talk to you unless you use an added layer of super-tough PGP encryption in all of your messages, gilding the lily with layer upon layer of software scrambling.
There's dave00, a European who'll ship you a bazooka:

Hello
I'm dave00 a new firearms and explosive supplier. I have plenty of contacts all over EU
that can provide me a large variety of weapons,ammunitions and explosives.
usually all orders have to be considered shipping included .
I can ship in various ways postal systems for small orders
and dead drops with gps location .
I can create custom listings on request
I can ship in all EU and also to the USA
I'm able to get handguns, full auto weapons, machineguns, grenade and rpg launcher and ammunitions

There's Steinberg, "Just a gun seller trying to expand his business."
And then there are the steely super-pros like "bohica," whose profile is written like it should be read in a thick, generically Soviet accent:

Greetings Armory Members,
We are Bohica and Associates and new to the Armory, but not new to the business. We are professionals that understand the needs of real shooters. We only locate and carry small arms, tactical equipment and munitions. If you need cheap shit guns, you can try IcePick and T-Dog on the corner, but you won't find any of that here. Our offerings initially will be a sample of our regular inventory. We will slowly release our inventory line as transactions progress. We want to be clear upfront we do not locate "exotic or collectible" small arms.

Luckily, as this is all online, you don't have to worry about bohica cutting your throat if your business goes awry. Which is good news, because I intended to do some serious fake business.

I started asking around for guns, contacting sellers directly. But what was the point? They list their stuff directly on the site. With pictures, specs, and price tags. There's no fun in window shopping—I wanted a special order. I wanted to equip a private army and overthrow a 3rd world government, combining faint fantasies of that time rich British guys conspired to take over Equatorial Guinea and various scenes from Clear and Present Danger. I'd need guns. Powerful guns. Lots of them. Could The Armory handle more than a pistol order—could it help me become a dictator?
I started asking around via private message—"Do you have what it would take to arm a small paramilitary group? Say, 20 people?" I made it clear that I needed something "more powerful" than what was displayed on the site.

The answers poured in:

I can provide: tec9, scorpion, ak47 and one single vietnam war "thumper", but its ammo costs.
Smgs are much less expensive, and satisfy your self protection or combat needs very well: the sound of a easy-to-conceal soviet scorpion can scary the most badass motherfucker will stand in front of you...
I'm telling this for you: one single grenade of a thumper costs 50 btcs to me: the GL itself will be around 100, to me. Take your time to choose, there's no rush: but be sure your purchase is worth :)

My sources aren't object of discussion, sorry.
The cost depends from what do you need, obviously.
I will provide good quality items:

what about something full auto easy to conceal?
-H&K MP5K-PDW, i will get 16 pieces in two weeks.
Something less "lady style"?
-H&K G3A3, 15 pieces in 2 week.
Something cheaper?
-AK47, 28 pieces in 10 days.
Something sharper?
-H&K PSG1 civilian model, 5 pieces in 2 weeks.
Something sharp but cheaper?
-Dragunov SVD, 12 pieces in 10 days
Take your time and make your choice Sir, we're here to serve you.

I can provide a Accuracy International AW50 included optics and accessories
But the power has always a big cost
For this weapon i can provide also API, AP , Incendiary , tracer and explosive rounds

I would recommend ak47 or m4 , for sidearm mp5 or handguns like glock or beretta 92
The body armor will be NIJ IV level, it can stop also an ak47 rounds
This kind of material is easily to obtain especially for body armor

But it was my supervillain friend bohica who seemed most willing to help me with my imaginary coup:

Absolutely, we can accommodate your request, but we need more parameters such as your exact arms needs and destination country. We only deal with small arms and equipment, but if you need artillery, MANPADS [Man-portable air-defense systems], ordinance, APCs, Helos we do have resources and can make certain introductions for a fee. Please send your next message through PGP encryption, our public key is on our profile page.
Regards,
Bohica

Bohica seemed ready to deliver me enough weapons to take on the US government, to say nothing of some West African backwater.
I told each seller I was ready to do ASAP, and they went off to get me pricing information and begin the long process of sourcing enough weaponry to arm twenty men through jungle and urban combat. Of course, I didn't buy anything—I don't have the tens of thousands of dollars to buy crates of rifles, or perhaps millions to buy helicopters and armored troop carriers. But there's every reason to believe that, with a little patience, a lot of money, and uneasy trust, these things could have been in my hands—or the hands of anyone else. Say, someone who wanted to go on a domestic shooting spree, assassinate a world leader, or any infinite number of other nefarious things you can do with guns and armored vests.

There's a mantle of skepticism here, of course: the huge and necessary question here is Are these people real? Is an entity like Bohica just an elaborate scam—an untraceable means of parting a fool (or warlord) with his money? I didn't find out, of course, as I don't have a giant cache of war money or the desire to topple Equatorial Guinea, but you're bound to wonder, are these "dealers" just putting together a federal sting operation? Sure, maybe—but there's plenty of reason to believe this is just as terrifyingly real as it looks. The sellers have feedback ratings, and reports in the Armory message boards of successful shipments. There's a whole thread dedicated to listing scammers, and none of my contacts were flagged.
And then there's the spooky case of "mrpman888," who instead of listing guns for sale, listed his seller's account. He'd had enough, he said, and wanted to offload the account to someone else—no questions asked. I asked a question, and he replied, curtly, "i just dont want it anymore. its never been used." Could he elaborate a little? "No."

Unless dozens of anonymous figures are all collaborating on one of the Internet's most bizarre forms of performance art meets con art, the whole thing is just too complicated to be wholly fraudulent. Some of these guys are selling guns. And if you're someone who doesn't want to be indiscriminately shot at, that's a problem.

Shouldn't the government be standing between us and a swarm of people who will send war weapons to anyone with the necessary cash? Say, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives? Surely, if the DEA is creeping up on The Silk Road's infinite drug stash, the feds must be up on The Armory? Right? Or have any idea of what it is? Not really. A call to the ATF didn't bring much reassurance: After trying to explain The Armory to a confused spokesperson, she replied only, after a long pause, her hair likely vibrating, tensely, from the dry air conditioning somewhere inside the federal sprawl, "It does seem like a problem." That was as much as she could give me. She put an ATF agent on speakerphone, who after another pause said only that he'd check into any ongoing investigation of The Armory, but that if there were such an investigation, he wouldn't be able to tell me. The ATF later called back to say they'd located The Armory in Virginia Beach, and that it was a fully licensed, legitimate operation. This, despite the fact that I'd explained again and again that it existed only within a marsh of online encryption, with the explicit mission of illegally selling illegal guns, illegally. I explained how a storefront in Virginia was sort of the opposite of The Armory, but it wasn't much good—the ATF said it'd have to dig around itself again and get back to me. It hasn't.
The Armory shouldn't scare you, really. There are plenty of ways for a crook to buy guns, and there have been since both crooks and guns existed. The site doesn't represent some new influx of bullets into murderous hands, so much as it's a harbinger of things to come—and a klaxon for what's already here. The Armory is a tiny community, but the network that hides it is immense and near impossible to dismantle. We should find solace knowing that there are tools like TOR to keep our emails away from, say, the prying eyes of an oppressive regime. But this tool is powerful far beyond privacy. If even a single gun is shipped to a single person, we're living in a society in which things that kill people can be moved around the world with zero accountability. And then there might be the guy whose dream of a heavily armed third world coup d'état is more than just an experiment.

Serchhip DC Made Excess Payments To Landowners: CAG

Aizawl, Jul 30 : The district collector of Serchhip in central Mizoram made excess payments to the tune of Rs 164.17 lakh to two landowners for compensation on acquisition of land during 2010, according to the latest report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India presented at the state assembly.

The report said the state government acquired 85 acre of land at Dawngzawl area in Serchhip district for the Border Security Force (BSF) after payment of compensation amounting to Rs 1,960.49 lakh to four landowners. The four landowners claimed compensation for value of land, crops, interest and 30% solatium. While the total value of land, crop and interest was placed at Rs 1,525.48 lakh, the supplementary award in the form of the solatium was to the tune of Rs 435.01 lakh.

On receipt of the awarded value of Rs 1,960.49 lakh from the BSF, the district collector duly disbursed the same to the four interested persons and handed over the land to the BSF on October 19, 2010, the CAG report said.

Scrutiny of the records of the collector's office revealed that of the four interested persons, two - B Vanlalhruaia and C Lalhmangaihsanga - had submitted their claims in response to the notice under section 9 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, for payment of Rs 480 lakh and Rs 450 lakh respectively towards the value of land and standing crops. Against their claims, the district collector (deputy commissioner) of Serchhip district irregularly pronounced compensation of Rs 768.41 lakh and Rs 653.12 lakh to B Vanlalhruaia and C Lalhmangaihsanga respectively. "Accordingly, based on the value of compensation (compensation of land and damage of crops) so determined in access of their claims, the collector calculated the interest and solatium in excess of actual payable amount," the CAG report says.

The report adds that as per the claims of the two land-owners under Section 9 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, a total compensation of Rs 1,257.36 lakh was payable to them, against which the collector had irregularly awarded a compensation of Rs 1,421.53 lakh which resulted in an excess compensation payment of Rs 164.17 lakh.

The reported scam of the compensation on the acquisition of land for the BSF which rocked the state during 2010-11 almost fizzled out but the CAG report revived the controversy giving a salvo for the opposition of the state as Mizoram goes to assembly polls by the later part of next year.

The Rage Of Ages

By Prabin Kalita

Guwahati, Jul 30 : With a large number of tribal groups and sub-groups, India's North-East has always been regarded by many as an ethnic tinderbox of sorts. The current ethnic mayhem in Assam, which has lasted six days so far, and claimed 41 lives and displaced 1.7 lakh people, is also being viewed by several experts from this perspective: that it was, sadly, just waiting to happen.

There's a long history of such violent clashes, say experts. Tribals have not just clashed among themselves but also with the state and with other non-tribal groups. And in each clash, the bone of contention has almost always been land.

Bhagat Oinam, associate professor at Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University, firmly subscribes to the ethnic tinderbox scenario and also points to how ethnic conflicts over land are difficult to erase from memory.

"We all have been playing the ethnic card but what is deeply rooted, which is also very realistic, is that all these conflicts, be it in Assam or in Manipur, are based on land. Land doesn't multiply, but population does and when it comes to sharing a fixed amount of land, conflicts are bound to happen," says Oinam.

He adds that these conflicts will continue as long as identity politics is an important part of life in the North-East. "It is very difficult to contain or put an end to these conflicts. An alternative could be to play counter politics - the politics of development. Can we think of Assam, or for that matter Manipur, as a larger development project beyond ethnic lines? It is easier said than done but there is no other alternative."

tribal troubles

A cursory listing of such clashes makes for grim reading. The Bodos, who form the largest tribal group in Assam, have clashed thrice with non-tribal Muslims and twice with tribal Adivasis over the last 60 years. In Assam alone, the Dimasas have clashed with Kukis and Karbis, and so have the Karbis with Kukis in the two 'hill districts' of Karbi Anglong and Dima Hasao, while the Rabhas in Assam's Goalpara have clashed with Garos in Meghalaya. Elsewhere in the region, in Manipur, Nagas have clashed with Kukis and Kukis have fought Paiteis.

Nagas from Nagaland have violently fought with non-tribal Assamese in Assam while Tripura, which has seen itself transformed from a predominantly tribal state to a predominantly non-tribal one, has seen the birth of insurgents groups based on demography, and such tribal grouping have clashed with the state. Similarly, fierce inter-tribal rivalry in Meghalaya has also made it home to many militant groups, each fighting its own tribe's cause.

The two exceptions to this sordid pattern, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram, both predominantly tribal states, may also face the threat of ethnic conflict in the near future.

In many cases, conflicts may have died out but the mistrust lingers, which may sow the seeds of future violence. In Assam, the genesis of the mistrust is seen to lie in the Bodos seeking a separate political identity. Their demands have ranged from autonomy to sovereignty. Their struggle dates back to the 1960s and their struggle for the recognition of Bodo as Assam's official language bore fruit in 1976.

But the Bodos' hard stance, to attain a separate identity, made other communities in Assam very apprehensive - especially of losing their lands. As the accord of 1993 failed, Bodos resumed their armed struggle for identity and great violence erupted. The merciless killing of Santhals in two back-to-back clashes in 1996 and 1998 saw over 300 people being killed and more than three lakh rendered homeless.

clash over land

The last time Bodos clashed with Muslims was in 2008, but that was far from the state's heartland - in Udalaguri district, where the dominant Bodos are surrounded by areas mostly peopled by Muslims. The two major non-Bodo sections of the population that own land in the Bodo heartland are adivasis and Bengali-speaking Muslims. While the adivasis occupy the forest areas, the Bengali-speaking Muslims mainly live on the chars (riverine areas) and on nearby lands.

Bodo leaders have often voiced anger over "the pressure" on land in the heartland from Muslims, who they say have mostly come from neighbouring Dhubri district. Dhubri borders Bangladesh and, in the 2011 census, registered the highest decadal growth of population in the entire state.

Oinam points out that migration is the one key factor that has been pushing up the pressure on land. Bodo leaders have gone one better though. They've gone beyond Dhubri and point to the unabated stream of illegal migrants from Bangladesh, and finger this as the root cause of all trouble.

The state government, however, refuses to believe that the recent attacks by Bodos target illegal migrants. "The clash is plainly between two communities and not between citizens of two countries. The illegal migrant angle can be probed after the situation calms down," a source said.

Others disagree, rather vehemently, like the All Assam Students Union, a prominent student organisation that has fought the influx from Bangladesh for more than three decades. Samujjal Bhattacharyya, AASU advisor, is rather blunt in his summation of the cause of this current crisis,

"The international border should have been sealed long back. It is because it is still open that we are facing such a situation today."

Mizoram, Nagaland Top Tobacco Abuse Chart in Northeast

Kohima, Jul 30 : Mizoram and Nagaland have earned the dubious distinction of becoming the highest tobacco consuming states in the northeast. The overall data on prevalence of tobacco use in northeastern states show that next to Mizoram, which has tobacco consumption of 67% - including 40% in the smoking category and 41% in the smokeless category -Nagaland has a prevalence rate of 57 percent with 32% in the smoking category and 45% in the smokeless category.

It has been observed that every second man and every third woman in the state is addicted to tobacco, and as per the Global Tobacco Survey (GTS), MOHFW, 69% men and 43% women are using tobacco. The figures were revealed during a press briefing on Saturday by a high power delegation of ministry of health and family welfare (MHFW), who were in Kohima on a one-day visit.

The delegation included Pankaj Chaturvedi, Tata Memorial Hospital; Amal Pusp, director, National Tobacco Control Program; L Swasti Charan, chief medical officer, General Health Services; and Dr L Ashananda, regional director, health & family eelfare, Imphal.

The ministry of health and family welfare delegation also expressed serious concerns over the tobacco consumption, particularly gutka, which has been noted as "very, very high" in Nagaland. They also pointed out that Nagaland is among states with the highest burden of tobacco-related illness in the entire country and also among those with the highest incidence of lung cancer in the entire world, especially among women. The visiting team underlined that 57% of the population means that an estimated 2.5 lakh people in Nagaland are tobacco users.

It was also highlighted that Nagaland is losing thousands of young and middle aged people due to the habit of tobacco use, while billions of rupees are being wasted on the health care of these largely preventable illnesses. The state government was urged to understand the epidemic while concerned departments and= communities were called to join hands in ensuring awareness of tobacco hazards.

Govt To Hold Peace Talks With Manipur Rebel Outfit

The Joint Secretary (North East), Ministry of Home Affairs, Shambhu Singh is scheduled to visit Manipur for two days to "read the mind and start the initial process of peace talks" with the recently released Kangleipak Communist Party (MC) underground outfit's self-styled military secretary Lanheiba Meitei.

Singh will leave for Imphal early morning on Friday and return to the national capital on Saturday night.

Singh had visited Imphal on June 9 and did the groundwork for the release of Lanheiba from jail and start the process of peace talks. After a long gap, a valley based insurgent outfit has finally agreed to start peace talks with the government.

KCP-MC leader Lanheiba was released from the Sajiwa central jail on July 13 and sent to Assam Rifle camp to initiate the peace dialogue. He was responsible for planting an abortive car bomb inside the governor's house in Imphal on September 19, 2007, and also Ragailong bomb explosion on October 21, 2008, which claimed 17 lives besides many other crimes.

Lanheiba was nabbed on June 28 last year from Bishnu Rabha Path of Basistha area in Guwahati. Although he was granted bail on July 9 by the National Investigation Agency he failed to furnish the requisite bail surety and as a result his release from jail was delayed for a few days.  

Talking to the media after his release, Lanheiba said that he has decided to hold peace talks with the Centre and the state governments considering the peace and stability in Manipur. He further added that peaces talks with the government would continue depending on the "honesty and sincerity of the government".

Photograph: Kangleipak Communist Party (MC) Military Secretary Lanheiba Meitei with his father soon after he was released from Sajiwa central jail in Imphal.

Manipur To See Oil Rush

By Esha Roy

Imphal, Jul 19 : Massive oil exploration activities are set to begin in Manipur within the next few months.

The Manipur government has signed a Petroleum Exploration Licence (PEL) with Noida-based firm Jubilant Energy and has given permission for the drilling of oil exploratory wells in as many as 30 sites across the state.

These oil exploratory sites primarily fall in the two hill districts of Churachandpur and Tamenglong and the valley district of East Imphal, that have dense forest cover.

The Production Sharing Contract and the PEL was signed between the company, the Centre and the Manipur government in 2010 respectively.

In February, Jubilant Energy submitted its environment impact assessment report to the state government. Public hearings would be held in Jiribam, Churachandpur and Tamenglong districts.

Currently 30 locations have been identified. Nearly 5 hectares of land for each drilling site, and 7 hectares for two-three locations would be needed for each well.

PA Sangma: A Chair too far?

Sangma is pinning his hopes on the support of his fellow tribal members of Parliament, state lawmakers, “conscience votes” and even miracles to become President

By Liz Mathew

New Delhi: When P.A. Sangma was demitting office as labour minister in 1995, his office staff wanted to give him a going-away present. Asked what he wanted, Sangma replied he would like to take away his office chair.

The staff duly completed the formalities and presented Sangma the cane and wooden chair—a gift he has preserved until now.

Sangma as chief minister of Meghalaya in 1988 .(India Today images)

The anecdote may illustrate Sangma’s love for positions of power, which the chair, known as kursi in Hindi, has come to symbolize in Indian politics.Like the Congress’ Pranab Mukherjee, the United Progressive Alliance’s (UPA’s) candidate in Thursday’s presidential election, Purno Agitok Sangma rapidly climbed up the power ladder after he entered national politics in his 30s.

Born in the village of Chapathi in West Garo Hills, Meghalaya, a fortnight after India won independence, Sangma was politically savvy enough to grab the opportunities that came his way in the Congress party, which was eager to project him as a symbol of its pan-India presence.

Always directly elected to Parliament (he has been elected to the Lok Sabha for eight terms), Sangma was minister of state for industry, commerce, home and labour before becoming chief minister of his state in 1988.Re-elected to Parliament in 1991, he served as minister for coal, labour, and information and broadcasting before becoming speaker in 1996. Interestingly, Sangma was unanimously elected speaker at a time when his party, the Congress, was in the opposition. He was expelled from the party in 1999 for raising the issue of Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s foreign origins, and went on to found the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) with Sharad Pawar and Tariq Anwar, who were expelled from the Congress for the same reason.

As an MP in 1998 (Hindustan Times)

But now, at 64, Sangma is no party’s candidate in the presidential election he is fighting as an independent, winning the support of some opposition parties with sheer political enterprise.With his daughter Agatha Sangma, a Lok Sabha member and minister of state in the Congress-led coalition government, and a few close aides lending him support, Sangma began his campaign from Bhubaneswar, where he secured the support of Orissa CM Naveen Patnaik’s Biju Janata Dal.

As an independent presidential candidate drumming up support in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh .(Rajeev Gupta/AP)

His next stop was Chennai, where he won the backing of Tamil Nadu CM and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief J. Jayalalithaa. Neither Patnaik nor Jayalalithaa are part of a broad alliance at the national level.The main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which was clueless about its strategy in the presidential election, had no option but to back Sangma after it failed to persuade former president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam to join the race.
In his pursuit of the president’s office, Sangma hasn’t hesitated to play the tribal and Christian cards. At his meeting with Patnaik, he presented his credentials as a tribal with aspirations to become India’s first citizen, aiming to strike a chord with Patnaik’s main support base of tribals.

With Congress MPs (from left) S. Krishna Kumar, Maharani Bibhu Kumari Devi and former governor of Meghalaya M.M. Jacob in 1991. (Hindustan Times)

Accused by some of being an opportunist in taking the Hindu nationalist BJP’s support for his presidential race while being a Christian, Sangma turned the argument on its head by stating that being Christian made it easy for him to forgive. “Forgiveness is the essence of Christianity... We don’t go by small incidents here and there,” he told reporters in New Delhi, in response to critics who pointed to the perceived anti-minorities stance of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the ideological parent of the BJP.Though he has always held positions of power and been popular in his constituency Tura—from where he won the first of his eight Lok Sabha terms in 1977—the one possible black mark against Sangma is that he abandoned leaders who trusted him and held him in high esteem.
Many Congress politicians still can’t forgive Sangma for what they see as his betrayal of Sonia Gandhi. “She had full trust in his ability to lead the Congress in the north-eastern region. She was deeply hurt by what he had done,” said a Congress general secretary, who did not want to be named.

Spinning a wheel at the Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, on 6 July.(Ajit Solanki/AP)

In pursuit of his presidential election, he has left the NCP and Pawar, who didn’t back his candidacy. “He can’t accept any leaders nor can be a disciplined leader. He gives too much importance to himself, which will not work in politics and when you have to work in a party framework. If you are in politics, you will have to learn to respect leaders,” said Kumar Gyanendra, general secretary of the NCP youth wing. The youth wing has launched an internal party campaign to put pressure on the party leadership to eject his daughter Agatha from the NCP.“It shows Sangma’s dual political stand. He lets his daughter campaign against the UPA candidate while she continues to be a minister,” Gyanendra said.

Another NCP leader, who has worked closely with Sangma for almost a decade, said he would be a better president than Mukherjee because he knows “the pulse of the people and he is thorough with the legislative process and the Constitution”. The leader declined to be named.

The BJP, which surprised everyone by throwing its weight behind the former Congress leader, has several reasons for supporting him.

“Sangma has got everything that makes a president virtuous and deserving enough to get our support. He is from the North-East and belongs to a minority community. He has...done a lot for the poor in his own state Meghalaya. Sangma has vast political experience and his acceptance is beyond the boundary of ideology,” BJP spokesperson Tarun Vijay said.

“We may admire the personal quality of Mukherjee, but it is our democratic dharma to support those fighting corruption and air their disapproval of UPA alliance of corrupt governance. Hence, Sangma stand(s) out as the tallest leader in the presidential election,” Vijay said.

His cherubic face, hearty laugh, quick wit, boundless enthusiasm and a spotless political career have won him many friends and admirers. A chain smoker until a few months ago, Sangma also loves his food and drink. The family home is open to all.

“I think people love his simplicity, his nature as an approachable person,” said James Sangma, one of his two sons. Although his father has been a disciplinarian, life at home is fun when he is around, James said. “I have always been impressed by his integrity, principles and sincerity,” added James, a legislator in the Meghalaya assembly.

The numbers in the electoral college do not favour Sangma; Mukherjee has already been assured of more than 60% of the votes.

Sangma is pinning his hopes on the support of his fellow tribal members of Parliament, state lawmakers, “conscience votes” and even miracles. “Yes, miracles can and do happen in this world,” Sangma said, when a suggestion was made that only divine intervention could help him win.

Elizabeth Roche and Sahil Makkar contributed to this story.

HPC-D Leader Sangbera Arrested in New Delhi

Aizawl, Jul 18 : H Sangbera, chairman of the Hmar People's Convention - Democrats (HPC-D) was arrested from Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi by a team of Mizoram Police and Delhi Police last night, a senior state police officer said today.

The official said that Sangbera was arrested at the airport soon after he landed from Imphal by a flight via Guwahati.

He was brought to Aizawl today.

"He was detained at the Aizawl Police Station for interrogation and was booked under relevant sections of the IPC and other laws," the official said.

Sangbera (65) joined the Hmar militant group in 2007 when there was a vacuum in the leadership of the HPC-D as the then President Lalhmingthanga Sanate was found to be losing interest in guerrilla warfare.

He became more powerful after misunderstanding between leaders of the outfit due to signing of agreement with the Kuki outfit in Manipur which Sangbera's faction rejected.

Earlier, on June 10, Lalropuia and Biaknunga, 'Army Chief' and 'Deputy Army Chief' respectively of the HPC-D were arrested in Silchar Airport in Assam's Cachar district by the Mizoram Police.

Mizoram Assembly Pays Tribute To First Woman MLA

Aizawl, Jul 18 : Mizoram Assembly today paid tribute to the first Mizo woman legislator L Thanmawii, who died on July 6 last, and also to former MLA Zalawma who passed away on June 28 this year.

House leader Lal Thanhawla made obituary references on the two pioneer legislators, and opposition Mizo National Front (MNF) leader R Lalthangliana, Zoram Nationalist Party (ZNP) leader Lalduhowma and Mizoram People's Conference (MPC) member Lalthansanga also gave short references on them.

Thanmawii, who died at the age of 92, became the first woman MLA in Mizoram when she got elected on People's Conference (now Mizoram People's Conference) from Aizawl East constituency in 1979 when Mizoram was a union territory.

Zalawma, who died at the age of 76, was an elected executive member in the Mizo district council under Assam and later elected on Congress ticket as MLA in the first assembly election in 1972 after Mizoram became a union territory.

He was again elected in 1984 assembly elections on Congress ticket from Kolasib constituency.

After Mizoram got statehood in 1987, he became a Congress MLA in mid-term elections in 1989 from Bilkhawthlir. The speakers said that both the leaders contributed a lot for the welfare of the people of Mizoram in many fields.

The assembly observed one-minute silence to pay last respects to the two leaders in second day of the budget session today.

Just 4 People Keeps A Language Alive

Sukurthang Saimar, the oldest of the Saimar-speaking four, being felicitated at the 44th Foundation Day of the Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore, by its Director S. N. Barman on Tuesday. Looking on (from right) are Sahitya Akademi Secretary Agrahara Krishnamurthy, and former CIIL Directors O. N. Koul, Rajesh Sachdeva and D. P. Patnayak. Photo: M.A. Sriram

Barely four people, the oldest among them a 70-year-old tribal, speak a language which is on the brink of extinction. Spoken in a tiny village in Tripura, ‘Saimar’ has been identified as a “severely” endangered language.

The old man, Sukurthang Saimar, who was the guest of honour at the 44th Foundation Day of the Central Institute of Indian Languages here, was overjoyed when he was honoured by eminent linguists on Tuesday.

Welcoming Mr. Saimar, CIIL Deputy Director, R. Subbukrishna, said: “This small group of Saimar-speaking people has sent Sukurthang to Mysore, as CIIL wanted to collect data from him [through a translator] on the language for its archive.”

According to CIIL, the four Saimar-speaking persons belong to an isolated tribe.

Nandakumar Deb Burman, president, Kokborok Sahitya Sabha, Tripura, who brought the septuagenarian, along with his grandson, to Mysore, said Mr. Saimar is one among the 18 groups of the Halam tribe.

Mr. Burman, who is involved in Bhasha Mandakini with CIIL, said he could understand the Saimar language, but couldn’t speak it. There is little dialectical difference in the languages spoken by the 18 Halam groups.

He said Saimar is spoken only at Gantachera village. The people speaking this language are agricultural labourers and farmers. “Saimar is hard to speak because some of the words are difficult to pronounce.”

In 2009, there were approximately 25 Saimar-speaking tribals, and today only four are remaining — Mr. Sukurthang Saimar, his wife, grandson and a senior lady.

Mr. Sukurthang Saimar became emotional when he was asked to address the gathering in his language. He came to the podium and spoke in a loud voice. Though he spoke a few words, the message (translated into English by Mr. Burman) was very strong.

“My language and community are in danger. I appeal to the people of this country to help protect and preserve my language,” he said.