Shillong Fashion Week Boon For Northeast Designers

Shillong, Oct 22 : The first edition of Shillong Fashion Week (SFW) has turned out to be a boon for local talents who were looking for a chance to showcase their creative skills to the fashion enthusiasts across the globe.

Approving the two-day event that ended Saturday, Senti Nongrum, a designer from Meghalaya, told IANS: "SFW is a very good base for young designers like me who will take time to get their first break into major fashion weeks. SFW has given me an opportunity to showcase my designs to the world."

"There is a lot of talent in the northeast and we just need a platform," added the designer who used handloom from her region to create modern apparels, inspired by a traveller's suitcase.

From maxi dresses to formal wear to accessories, her collection had everything for those who love travelling.

Elizabeth Marbaniang, another designer, presented their traditional attire Khassi on the ramp with a little modern twist.

"My collection has got a very traditional theme as we tried to showcase the Khassi attire in a modern way by adding bling and sequin work on the 'poshak' (garment). Our culture is known for many things, so it's always good to promote it though SFW," said Marbaniang.

She thanked organisers of the event for giving preference to northeast designers over established names.

This was Marbaniang's first ever participation in a fashion show.

"Before this I was doing individual shows and I am thankful to SFW for bringing in this initiative here and giving all the local designers chance to prove themselves to the world," added the youngster who is also from Meghalaya.

Initiated under the leadership of state Chief Minister Mukul Sangma, SFW, kick-started here Friday at the North Eastern Hills University (NEHU) convention centre.

From established designers like Nachiket Barve, Raakesh Agravwal, Anand Bhushan to local talents like Bung Keisham, Senti Nongrum, Heritage Mizoram, Magic N and Sophia M Sangma, the fashion gala had the mix of both the world.

Rapborlang, a local designer, is overwhelmed with the experience.

"I think this is the biggest platform for me and now I can move aheadit's amazing," said the designer who presented a collection inspired by 1960s look of Audrey Hepburn.

In terms of business, there were hardly any buyer, but it didn't disappoint the established names as the felt it was time to explore "new territory".

"We haven't really done any stall and I haven't met any buyer as yet, so business is not something that I am thinking of. For me, this edition was basically to introduce the idea of fashion week in the northeast area. I think slowly other things will work when people will start looking around for designer stalls and retail possibilities," Urvashi Kaur, one of the participating designers, told IANS.

Anand Bhushan agreed and said: "I have not come here for business. Not many people know my label here, so for me, it was start off to introduce myself to the people here. SFW was more about exploring new territories."

Discrimination Can Kill A Sportsperson's Soul: Mary Kom

Olympic bronze-medallist MC Mary Kom feels "discrimination and partiality can kill a sportperson's soul".

Aizawl, Oct 22 : Olympic bronze-medallist MC Mary Kom feels "discrimination and partiality can kill a sportperson's soul".

Speaking at a press conference after a felicitation by the Delhi-based Eternal Partners on Saturday night in the presence of Mizoram chief minister Lal Thanhawla, Mary Kom spoke elaborately on the discrimination faced by sportspersons.

"The key to winning Olympic medals is to treat sportspeople equally focusing on honing their talents by providing full facilities and support," she said.

The chief minister handed over a demand draft of Rs six lakh to her.

Fifty-three other Mizo sportspersons, who excelled in their own disciplines, were also felicitated at the function.

Replying to questions, Mary Kom rued being virtually blacked-out by the press in her home state, Manipur, almost throughout her career and being totally ignored even after winning the Olympic bronze medal.

"Even after I won the bronze while every national media representatives spoke to me, wrote about my feat, but I failed to get a single call from the press in my own state," she said.

"I expected my home state press to share my greatest moment with me, but sadly they did not come forward," she regretted.

At the time other states were felicitating their winners with crores, the chief minister of Manipur offered her a cash award of Rs 50 lakh just after she won the medal, which later on was raised to Rs. 75 lakh, she said.

She was also critical of the role played by community favoritism which almost took away her chance of entering the Olympic games when another boxer, L Sarita Devi, was chosen despite not making the mark.

"I sought a re-trial which clinched it for me," she said. "I had no one to support me as I was the only tribal in a basket full of others of the majority community," she said.

Calling Mizoram her 'second home', Mary Kom conducted the press conference in Mizo language.

India’s First Glass Mosque Opens

Shillong, Oct 22 : India has opened its first glass mosque and the biggest in the northeast Meghalaya state that is expected to draw hundreds of tourists to the marvelous worshipping house.

“The mosque will mark the unity of all religions,” Union Minister of State for Minority Affairs Vincent H Pala told The Times of India.

Pala also highlighted the “uniqueness” of the mosque and its “spirit”.Built in Shillong city, the capital of Meghalaya state, Madina Masjid is the first glass mosque in India.

The four-storey building - 120 feet high and 61 feet wide — stands inside an Idgah Complex in the city’s Lahan area and is close to the garrison grounds along the Umshyrpi River.

At night, the mosque’s glasswork glows and glitters.

Being the biggest mosque in the area, the 120-feet Medina Mosque will allow women to offer prayers and also house an orphanage.

It also includes a new theological institute that would host Islamic teachings and a library that would have books on comparative religious studies.

Attending the inauguration event, legislator Syeedullah Nongrong, who is also president of the Shillong Muslim Union, praised the new mosque role in attracting new tourists to the city.

“The mosque will also be a tourist attraction,” Nongrong said.

Muslims account for 160 million of India's 1.1 billion people, the world's third-largest Muslim population after those of Indonesia and Pakistan.

Indian Muslims have long suffered decades of social and economic neglect and oppression.

They are under-represented in public sector jobs, register lower educational levels and hit by higher unemployment rates.

Mizoram Plans To Setup Village Advisors

Aizawl, Oct 19 : The Mizoram government is toying with a proposal to set up advisory bodies in each of the 15 village councils in northeast Mizoram along its borders with Manipur as the stalemate on holding elections to these councils continues.

The state election commission has announced three dates for elections to the village councils — 13 in Aizawl district and two in Kolosib district — since February 23, the last one being scheduled for October 25. Home minister R. Lalzirliana had yesterday said the polling had to be kept in abeyance repeatedly as the militant Hmar People’s Convention (Democratic), which is opposed to the polls, was threatening voters.

State election commissioner C. Ropianga said not a single nomination paper had been filed for the October 25 polling — the last date for submitting the papers was on Monday — because of the threat posed by the Hmar People’s Convention (Democratic) to political parties and voters of the 15 villages.

The HPC (D) was set up in 2002 after cadres of the HPC surrendered in 1994. The HPC had accepted a development council in the Hmar-inhabited areas instead of the district council it had demanded. The HPC (D) is insisting on a district council and is opposing the polls in a bid to drive home its demand.

Official sources today said the process of conducting elections to these village councils “had been stopped” and the matter would be referred to the cabinet of the Congress-ruled state government, led by chief minister Lalthanhawla for a decision on how to break the impasse.

A senior official of the state home department said the final decision to end this stalemate was likely to be taken by Lalthanhawla soon.

Mizoram Bans Gutkha

Aizawl, Oct 19 : Mizoram government has imposed a blanket ban on sale of gutka, paan masala and zarda paan in the state.

All shops in the state have been ordered to stop selling these products within a month after which those keeping or selling gutka and other tobacco products would be punished, an official statement said.


The government imposed the ban by invoking Food Safety and Standards (Prohibition and Restrictions on Sales) Regulations, 2011.

"The prohibition of gutka products is expected to make Mizoram healthier and cleaner," a health department official said.

Micro-ATM using Aadhaar Data Delivers Cash To Tripura Villagers

Burakha (Tripura), Oct 19 : Rampati Debbarma, a 71-year-old tribal woman of Burakha village in West Tripura district on Thursday pressed her finger on an Aadhaar-enabled micro-ATM to get her old-age pension in cash.

Rampati is not alone, but hundreds of old-age pensioners of this village collected their pensions in the same way with the help of Aadhaar-enabled payment system introduced here on Thursday.

“Earlier, I used to walk about 10 km from my village to Mandwi Block headquarters for withdrawal of my pension from Gramin Bank, but today I got it at my doorstep,” she said.

The Unique ID Authority of India in collaboration with United Bank of India and Tripura Grameen Bank on Thursday undertook the field trial of Aadhaar-enabled payment system with online authentication of biometric of the beneficiaries in Mandwi Block.

“Our endeavour was successful today,” Dinesh Mushahary, Chairman of Gramin Bank Tripura, who was present during cash transfer, said.

Mushahary appealed to the people to register their Aadhaar numbers with the banks so that people could get their money directly.

Biodiversity Boon For Arunachal Tribes

By G. Ananthakrishnan

Villagers from Arunachal Pradesh sport Hor4nbill beak headgear during a side event at the Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in Hyderabad on Thursday. Photo: Mohammed Yousuf

At a presentation on the sidelines of COP 11 they reveal the result of their efforts

Arunachal Pradesh is helping tribal residents use ‘globally significant medicinal plants’ for livelihood security through community management of forests. The State has a staggering 500 medicinal plant species, and more than half the forests come under the control of the indigenous people.

At a presentation on indigenous and new approaches to natural resource management in the State, held on the sidelines of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity here on Thursday, tribal practitioners said they had set up seven Medicinal Plant Conservation Areas (MPCAs).

According to tribal beliefs in Arunachal Pradesh, dense forests and big trees are looked upon as ancestral souls, and hornbill hunting is banned during the breeding season. The tiger is sacred as it is the ‘brother of Tani, the first humans on earth’.

However, as a presentation by the INSPIRE Network for Environment made clear, large tracts of forest had been lost in Arunachal due to development of pastoral lands, agriculture expansion, shifting cultivation and demand for firewood and timber. INSPIRE is helping residents in Western Arunachal’s Tawang-Kameng area form a large arboretum for Rhododendron arboreum, an evergreen tree with bright red or pink flowers that holds the soil against landslips. Its flowers are used to produce squash under a plan partnered by the Indo-Tibetan Border Police and the Sir Ratan Tata Trust.

Medicinal plants have come to the rescue of communities, and hence they vigorously guard against the removal of plant and animal species by outsiders. Hake-Tari, Salari, Laa and Wannu are examples of community forests, said Tapu Gapak, member-secretary of the Medicinal Plants Board of Arunachal Pradesh.

Arunachal Pradesh is attempting to show that community ownership can help produce incomes from biodiversity sustainably. There is strong support for conservation of fauna, too.

The Nature Conservation Foundation has been working in the area around the Pakke Tiger Reserve with the Nyishi tribal people, successfully persuading them against hunting hornbills for casques, which form part of headgear. Fibreglass substitutes are accepted. Tribal residents have participated in nest protection schemes, and local councils have seized guns from villages.

An adoption scheme launched by NCF for the hornbills has attracted 49 urban patrons, who paid between Rs. 1,000 and Rs. 1-lakh to protect the birds in nesting sites. A dozen birds have fledged through this scheme. NCF researcher Amruta Rane said that in the next phase an assessment of abundance of nesting sites and availability of some 45 fruit tree species favoured by hornbills would be carried out.

A pictorial guide to significant medicinal plants of Arunachal Pradesh authored by D. Yonggam, with information about their use, was released here by MLA Bamang Felix.

Several tribal participants were present at the discussion wearing wood casque headgear, demonstrating how hornbills could be spared.

ZUF Rebels 'Rape' 4 School girls in Manipur

Imphal, Oct 19 : Four tribal schoolgirls were allegedly raped by two cadres of the underground Zeliangrong United Front (ZUF) who had defected in Manipur's Tamenglong district on October 5.

The rapes were known after the girls came to Imphal and spoke to reporters at a conference on Wednesday. A senior ZUF leader said both the cadres had defected from the party and there was a price on their heads.

One of the culprits shot himself with his gun in front of one of the victims inside the quarters of a chowkidar of the Manipur irrigation and flood control department office at Khoupum village in Tamenglong.

The four Zeliangrong girls are students of classes VI-X. They were returning from school when they heard gunshots. They were afraid of being hit by stray bullets and took shelter in a nearby house, the girls told reporters.

"Minutes after the firing stopped, we came out of the house. Just then, the two cadres carrying guns shot at the ground near us. They dragged us inside the chowkidar's quarters," one of the girls said.

The cadres locked two of the schoolgirls in the toilet and raped the other two, said a girl. Later, they dragged out the two girls from the toilet and raped them, too.

After raping the girls, one of the cadres pointed his gun to his head and threatened to kill himself along with one of the victims. He then shot himself and the terrified girl managed to run out of the room.

On hearing the gunshot, the other cadre rushed out and fled, the victims said.