Hmars in Delhi to Celebrate Sikpuiruoi

By Lalremlien Neitham

New Delhi, Dec 8 : The Hmar tribals residing in India's capital city will be celebrating the community's post harvest winter festival "Sikpuiruoi" today at Grih Kalyan Kendra Open Lawns, RK Puram-I, New Delhi.

The festival is organised by the Delhi Hmar Sikpui Organising Committee (DHSOC) .

The programme will start from 1:00pm in the afternoon.

Former chairman of Delhi Hmar Welfare Association (DHWA) Darsiemlien Ruolngul will grace the festival as Sikpui Pa (Sikpui Father).

In the first session, which will be co-hosted by Zacharia Varte and Grace Lalthlawnpek, an opening prayer will be graced by Rev.Neilaia Darlong.

Prizes distribution for this year's Sikpui Sports will be handed over to the players who participated in the sports that was held in November.

Pastor Lalsiesang Joute will then release VL Renga Hriler's second romance novel "Chantawk Part 2" .

DHWA Nghak Upa will crown the Sikpui Pa with the traditionally coveted head gear "Tawnlairang" .

The Sikpui Pa will then also formally open the Sikpuiruoi festival and give a Sikpui speech.

Hmar historian and writer Pu L.Keivom, IFS (Retd) will speak on the history and significance of Sikpuiruoi festival celebrated by the Hmar kindred people, followed by the singing of the sacred Sikpui Song led by the youth leaders - Val Upa and Nghak Upa.

A Sikpui dance will be performed by the participants of the festival.

A Sikpui dance can not begin until the Sikpui song is sung.

DHWA cultural troupe will also perform Hmar cultural dances - Sikpui Lam (Sikpui Dance) and Hrang Lam (Victory Dance) .

After the end of the session, there will be a traditionally prepared Sikpui feast - bawngsa chartang le vawksa hmepawk.

The second session, which will start from 5pm will be co-hosted by Henry Haulienkung and Elizabeth L.Sungte.

Beautiful models will be showcasing the unique and colorful Hmar traditional handlooms during the fashion show.

Various Hmar artistes in Delhi will also be performing with a live band.

Lal Pan Liani, popular Mizo artiste from Myanmar (Burma) who came all the way to participate at the Delhi Sikpuiruoi 2012 will also perform during the singing festival.

In the past, the Hmars do not celebrate every year.

It is celebrated only in the year of abundant harvest at a convenient time during December and January and would extend to several days and sometimes even a month.

But usually, the celebration lasts for seven days.

Memorabilia of Sikpui festival - Sikpui stones - can still be seen in Mizoram, Manipur and Assam.

The NC Hills and Karbi Anglong districts of Assam have declared 5th December as a Sikpui Festival Holiday.

Killer Joke: Indian-origin Nurse in Kate Hoax Call Dies

An ambulance and police officers outside the block of flats in London where nurse Jacintha Saldanha lived. Saldanha, who was of Indian origin, was found dead two days after she was duped into transferring a hoax call to Kate Middleton’s room at the hospital where she worked. Reuters

An Indian-origin nurse in London’s famed King Edward VII Hospital who was duped into transferring a hoax call that gave away information on pregnant Kate Middleton’s medical condition to Australian radio presenters was found dead on Friday in a case of suspected suicide.

The body of Jacintha Saldanha, 46, was found on Friday morning at an address yards away from King Edward VII Hospital. The cause of death remained unclear, but the British  indicated that Saldanha appeared to have killed herself. Her family, husband and two children have been informed. Scotland Yard said the death was not being treated as suspicious.

The hoax call was made by two presenters – Mel Grieg and Michael Christian – on the Australian radio channel 2DayFM. Grieg pretended to be the Queen, and Christian played the part of Prince Charles and at one point even simulated the barking of the Queen’s corgi dogs.

Jacintha, who was helping out on reception at the time of the prank, answered the hoax call at 5.30 am on Wednesday morning.

After dialling the hospital, Greig asks if she could please speak to Kate, “my grand-daughter”.
Jacintha responds calmly  and requests the caller  - in an easily distinguishable Indian accent – to hold on while she transfers the call.

Greig then gets through to Kate’s hospital room, where a second nurse answers the call.
The early part of the conversation goes thus:

Greig, pretending to be the Queen: “Kate my darling, are you there?”
Nurse: “Good morning ma’am, this is a nurse speaking. How may I help you?”
Greig: “Hello, I’m just after my granddaughter Kate, I wanted to see how her little tummy bug is going.”

The unsuspecting nurse says that Kate is asleep, and goes on to give intimate details of Kate’s medical condition, including the fact that she had been dehydrated and was recovering.

At one point, Christian, pretending to be Prince Charles, too comes on the line and asks when it might be a good time to come by the hospital. The nurse says that perhaps after 9 may be a good time.

When the nurse reveals that Kate was having difficulty sleeping in a strange hospital bed, Christian jokes: “Yes, of course. It’s hardly the palace, is it!” Cackling and hooting, Greig and Christian then disconnected the call and gloated over their prank and their fake British accents. (Full transcripts of the conversation here.)
It may have been just a joke, but it was clearly a joke that went too far.
Even before the tragedy involving Saldanha became known, there had been an outpouring of outrage that the radio hosts had resorted to this sort of a prank, and that the channel continued to promote its prank call on air. The station called it “the prank call the world is talking about” before playing clips of news programmes reporting on the original call.

After the tragic news of Saldanha surfaced, there were growing calls for the presenters to be dismissed. Hundreds of angry comments were posted on 2Day FM’s Facebook page (here); an online petition (here) asking for Greig and Christian to be sacked for “gross misconduct” has secured the support of more than 3,600 signatories (as of 5.30 am IST on Saturday).

Late on Friday, the station issued a statement (here) saying it was “deeply saddened” by the news of the death of Saldanha and extended its “deepest sympathies” to her family and others who had been affected “by this situation”.

Chief executive officer Rhys Holleran said he had spoken to the presenters, who were both “deeply shocked”, and that the station and the hosts had decided that  the two presenters would not return to their radio show until further notice “out of respect for what can only be described as a tragedy.”

Greig and Christian also deleted their accounts on Twitter, where they had received stinging criticism for their “royal prank”, which they had been promoting. Christian’s last few tweets had promoted their hoax call under the hashtag #royalprank. Greig too retweeted messages with the same hashtag to her 9,000 followers hours before her account was shut down.

In a statement, St James’s Palace said: “The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are deeply saddened to learn of the death of Jacintha Saldanha. Their Royal Highnesses were looked after so wonderfully well at all times by everybody at King Edward VII Hospital, and their thoughts and prayers are with Jacintha Saldanha’s family, friends and colleagues at this very sad time.”

The hospital said in a separate statement: “We can confirm the tragic death of a member of our nursing staff, Jacintha Saldanha. Jacintha has worked at the King Edward VII’s Hospital for more than four years. She was an excellent nurse and a well-respected and popular member of staff with all her colleagues.”

“We can confirm that Jacintha was recently the victim of a hoax call to the hospital. The hospital has been supporting her at this difficult time.”

Hospital chief executive John Lofthouse said: “Our thoughts and deepest sympathies at this time are with her family and friends. Everyone is shocked by the loss of a much-loved and valued colleague.”
A St James’s Palace spokesman said: “At no point did the Palace complain to the hospital about the incident. On the contrary, we offered our full and heartfelt support to the nurses involved and hospital staff at all times.”

Stephen's Honours Alumnus For Building 100km Road in Manipur

New Delhi, Dec 8 : St. Stephen's College on Friday recognised the efforts of one of its students whose initiative has spelt development for hundreds of villagers in the hills of Manipur.

For Armstrong Pame -who joined St. Stephen's College in 2005 with Physics (Hons)-the felicitation by his alma mater after all these years, was a proud moment.

The foremost initiative for this Young Turk after joining the Indian Administrative Services (IAS) in 2009 was to work for the betterment of Impa village, where he hailed from and spent most of his childhood.

"This village had no roads or electricity and it was my dream to provide a basic road so that in times of emergency at least a four-wheeler vehicle can pass through," said Pame.

After Pame joined the IAS, plans were under way for infrastructure development in the deep recesses of the North East.

As the sub division officer of the Tousem sub division (Manipur), Pame pulled out all stops to pool in resources for the construction of a 100-kilometre stretch of road in this district. While 60 kilometres required intensive repair work, Pame said that a 40-kilometre stretch had to be constructed afresh.

"I got in touch with the villagers and we did a lot of brainstorming, after which we decided that we would work to build roads in the area. So about 150 villagers agreed to provide firewood, manpower and other resources that they could. I requested some of my friends who provided bulldozers and other equipment for very nominal rates," he added.

Even though financing the project was a constraint, it did not prove to be a deterrent.

"I told the villagers that I would pay them a basic salary from what I had saved over the months. My mother pooled in money from my father's pension and my brother and his wife also joined in. But we got a major boost when we put up this initiative on Facebook. Now we have generated almost R16 lakh. In future, I will request the government to help us," he said.

How Climate Change Affected Livelihood Options in Assam

Guwahati, Dec 8 : Climate change leading to natural disasters, particularly flood and erosion, has affected the livelihood options of thousands of people across Assam, a study has found out.

The impact of the climate change is most pronounced among marginalised women, but it has also pushed people from prosperous families into taking up work of domestic assistance and daily wage labour, the study revealed.

In many cases, young women of less developed and remote areas have even been pushed into flesh trade after natural disasters wiped out their options of making an honest livelihood.

The study was conducted by the Centre for Environment, Social and Policy Research (CESPR) in collaboration with the Indian Network on Ethics and Climate Change.


It has been observed that during the last few years there has been a significant change in the livelihood options of people due to climate distortions, CESPR spokesperson Sabita Devi says.

The study was undertaken in the six severely disaster-affected districts of Lakhimpur, Majuli in Jorhat.

Morigaon, Sonitpur, Baksa and Dibrugarh. Devi said many people, who were earlier dependent on agriculture, had been forced to take up other avenues of employment due to change in climatic pattern.

“Climate change is generally perceived by the people interviewed during the course of the study as the presence of more diseases, more rainfall, change in climatic conditions and loss of agricultural output,” she said.

It was also an acute necessity that forced people to uproot themselves from their original homes and workplaces to seek livelihood somewhere, Devi said.

Devi pointed out that senior environmental scientists, who have worked extensively on environment and climate change in the Northeast, had noted rapid climatic change in Assam.

According to meteorological scientists who have been associated with studies related to climate in Assam, a change over the past three or four decades and a steady rise in temperature have been observed.

“Due to excessive floods, communication is disrupted for long periods of time and this has particularly affected the girls who are often forced to drop out of schools and colleges,” she said.

Besides, the adverse impact of the flood on the income of the family often forces the women of the house to step out and seek work elsewhere and when this happens, the children, too, suffer, Devi pointed out.

Assam’s devastating floods have had a major impact on the economic conditions of several households, Siddharth D’Souza of the Indian Network on Ethic and Climate Change pointed out.
“This has also made young girls from the tea garden areas vulnerable as they are lured with the promise of jobs but are instead pushed into into flesh trade,” D’Souza said.

“We have come across several instances when some anti social elements had tried to lure away young women outside the state with promises of good job,” social activist Krishna Sundas said.

In Majuli, the world’s largest river island, women who were earlier home-makers are now forced to take up weaving, daily wage labour and other related activities to make ends meet, while in Morigaon several households are taking up fishing to make up for lost agricultural produce, he said.

23 Best Music Videos Of 2012

The most innovative, clever, beautiful, and bonkers clips of the year.

23. Sigur Rós, "Fjögur Píanó"

 

22. Odd Future, "Oldie"

21. Jack White, "I'm Shakin'"

 

20. Flying Lotus, "Tiny Tortures"

19. Grizzly Bear, "Yet Again"

18. Lana Del Rey, "Ride"

17. G-Dragon, "Crayon"

16. Killer Mike, "Big Beast"

15. Father John Misty, "Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings"

14. Fiona Apple, "Every Single Night"

13. BigBang, "Fantastic Baby"

12. El-P, "The Full Retard"

11. Skrillex, "Bangarang"

10. Perfume Genius, "Hood"

9. Drake featuring Lil Wayne, "HYFR (Hell Ya Fucking Right)"

8. Hot Chip, "Don't Deny Your Heart"

7. Taylor Swift, "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together"

6. Grimes, "Genesis"

5. St. Vincent, "Cheerleader"

 

4. Aimee Mann, "Labrador"

 

3. Psy, "Gangnam Style"

2. Danny Brown, "Grown Up"

1. Chairlift, "Met Before"

Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 Price Dopped by 20pc

Samsung today dropped price of its 10.1-inch Android tablet, the Tab 2 10.1, by approximately 20 percent, according to online retailer Saholic. The tablet, which was earlier priced at Rs 31,990, is now available for Rs 25,900. The timing of the price drop indicates that tomorrow’s impending iPad Mini and iPad 4 launch in India could have something to do with it.

The iPad mini will be priced in India from Rs 21,900 onwards while the iPad 4 will start from Rs 31,900 upwards. Industry insiders and retailers are expecting the iPad mini to be a runaway success in India, where Apple products typically have been expensive and out of reach of most people who aspire to own an Apple product.

Having said that, the Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 has better specs with a 10.1-inch WXGA display, 3G connectivity, microSD card slot among others. However, when it comes to tablets, consumers have chosen the iPad over Android tablets even though they offer better specifications and are available at lower price points than comparable iPad variant. We doubt that this price drop would dent the sales of the iPad mini but it is well worth a try.

Read

HTC Butterfly Global Version Announced

HTC today quietly announced the international variant of the Droid DNA, which it is calling HTC Butterfly for the global audience. The device was first announced as the HTC Butterfly J in Japan and was rumored to be called HTC Deluxe. The Butterfly’s calling card is its 5-inch 1080p display, which we believe will have the highest pixel density on any smartphone in the world. Read on for more details.

Apart from the display, the Butterfly features a 8-megapixel camera with a 28mm lens, F2.0 aperture and a backside illuminated sensor, which should give it better low-light performance. Then there is the 2.1-megapixel front camera that can shoot videos in 1080p resolution. As will most top-end HTC smartphones, it comes with a dedicated ImageChip for zero shutter lag and faster image processing. HTC has also added five levels of flashlight that is automatically set depending on the distance from the subject.

The HTC Butterfly runs on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S4 Pro quad-core processor clocked at 1.5GHz and comes with 2GB RAM and 16GB of internal storage with a microSD card for good measure. HTC has not revealed what version of Android it runs but we are assuming it would be running Android Jelly Bean 4.1. No word on pricing or availability either.

HTC Butterfly key specifications

• Dimension: 143 x 75 x 9.08 mm
• Weight: 140 gram
• Display: 5-inch 1920 x 1080 pixels LCD 3 with Corning Gorilla Glass 2
• Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro quad-core processor clocked at 1.5GHz
• Memory: 2GB RAM, 16GB internal storage with microSD card slot
• Camera: 8-megapixel rear, 2.1-megapixel front cameras
• Battery: 2020 mAh

Indian Boxing Federation Suspended By AIBA

Lausanne/New Delhi, Dec 7 : In a massive jolt to boxing in India, the International Boxing Association has suspended the IABF alleging "possible manipulation" in its recent elections but the body has denied the charge, insisting that the process was "transparent".

The development which has left the Indian Amateur Boxing Federation (IABF) "stunned" comes within a few days of the International Olympic Committee suspending the Indian Olympic Association.

"Further to the International Olympic Committee's suspension imposed on the Indian Olympic Association, the International Boxing Association (AIBA) Executive Committee Bureau has decided today December 6 to provisionally suspend the Indian Amateur Boxing Federation (IABF)," the AIBA said in a statement.

"This provisional suspension is also due to the fact that AIBA had learned about possible manipulation of the recent IABF's election.

"AIBA will now investigate this election and especially a potential political link between IOA President, as former Chairman of the IABF, and the IABF election," it added.

During the September elections, outgoing President Abhay Singh Chautala, who was elected IOA President despite IOC's suspension, was retained in the body as nominated Chairman of the body.

The development now also puts a question mark over Chautala's election as IOA President since he came into the fray as an IABF representative. Interestingly, his brother-in-law and BJP MLA from Rajasthan, Abhishek Matoria, was elected as the new IABF President.

Stunned by the suspension, Matoria said that the world body had been apprised of the election process in detail.

"AIBA had specific queries about the election process and we had explained to them that there was no manipulation. Those who got elected were unanimous choices and just because there was unanimity, the AIBA cannot allege manipulation," Matoria said.


"This is a provisional suspension and I am sure it would be lifted soon after we explain our stand to AIBA. If need be, I will personally go and speak to AIBA officials in Lausanne," Matoria said.

"Our boxers are not threatened by any repercussions for the time being because the next major AIBA event is quite far and the matter will be resolved by then," he added.

The next AIBA event is the Junior World Championships in August next year, followed by the senior World Championships in October.

A senior IABF functionary told PTI that there might be a re-election.

"Let's wait and see. Maybe there would have to be a re-election in a proper manner with AIBA Observer being present," he said.

In the September IABF elections, the body had been left in a fix after the Sports Ministry barred it from making constitutional changes that could have facilitated continuation of the incumbent set of office-bearers.

Meanwhile, the AIBA's decision came as a bolt from the blue for the boxers, many of whom are in the national camp in Patiala.

"It is a sad day for Indian boxing and I can't understand how such a development can take place. I don't understand why the matter was not explained to AIBA," India's first Olympic medallist in the sport, Vijender Singh, said.

The Beijing Olympics bronze-medallist was, however, hopeful that the issue would be resolved soon.

"The next AIBA event is quite far but hopefully we would not sit on it for too long and get the suspension revoked as soon as possible," he said.