Far from being an exercise in updating democracy, the proposed delimitation of Manipur’s 60 assembly constituencies is beginning to show the effect that was expected of it in the first place: that of further dividing the state’s two main communities, the Manipuris and the Nagas, who have for long been ethnically polarised.

It’s hot as hell and it’s called bhoot jolokia to boot, jolokia being chilly in Assamese. And she not just eats it but rubs it, quite liberally, in her eyes as well. Anandita Dutta of the Titabor sub-division in Jorhat district in Upper Assam is all set to become news, the 21-year-old being invited by Guiness Records Ltd to set what could be a record in the consumption of the ‘highest number of chillies in a minute’. ”I can eat a 100 chillies in 60 seconds,” says Anandita.

St. Louis, MO, USA: Amid great enthusiasm, festivity and delicious cuisine of Assam, the Assamese community of North America held their annual get-together, the Assam 2003, to celebrate their heritage of Assamese language and culture, in St. Louis, coinciding with the US Independence Day celebrations as well as the bicentennial commemoration of the expedition by Lewis & Clark into America's Midwest over the Missouri-Mississippi river.

Essentially a philanthropic project, this school is the first of its kind in the North East. All group schools throughout the country are controlled by a trust.

The state-of-the-art school, a Rs.10 crore project, is likely to be completed in phases over the next 3 years.

As part of its efforts in helping the student community of North-East Society for Careeer Orientation & Promotion of Education (SCOPE) organized a career counseling session for students seeking admission in Delhi University. The session was conducted by professors Dr Ratnadeb Sarma (Rajdhani college) and Debashree Goswami (Hindu College) on 22nd June, 2003 at the centrally located Assam Bhavan, New Delhi. The session began with an introductory note by the Secretary, spelling out the aims and objectives of the NGO.

The ruling Democratic Alliance of Nagaland (DAN) has support of 39 MLAs in the House. With reports of the newly formed party offering its support to the DAN, the figure could increase to 46 MLAs. There are 34 ministers in the DAN government.

This time we have rechristened it as "Amerikar Oxomi" to reflect that it is published from the Americas. The magazine will be distributed during
Assam 2003 in St. Louis. It is 62 pages long and has writings by youngsters and adults from around the US, and some from Assam.

There are essays, poems and fiction writings by young Assamese Americans on the pages of Oxomi. There are articles on linguisics, environmental issues related to Assam, Xatriya dance, public service topics, Assamese publications on the Internet and on preserving Assamese hand-written and illustrated manuscripts.

With the Hindustan Times launching in Guwahati in March this year, the city now publishes seven English dailies, that, along with 13 Assamese, three Bengali and two Hindi papers add up to a total of 25 papers that hit the stands every morning. Waiting in the wings: the Times of India (TOI), that has begun publishing a ‘national edition’ from Calcutta, in what could well be a dry run for a satellite edition of the paper from Guwahati. TOI, it is learnt, is aggressively looking for a business associate in the city.

Even as the Manik Sarkar-led Left Front government manoeuvres to broadbase the responsibility for getting militants back to the mainstream, the opposition Congress and the Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura (INPT) seem to have pre-empted what may well be the intentions behind Sarkar’s latest move to convince the ultras, this time through statewide all-party peace rallies: a basic game of political one-upmanship.

The Administrator of the Gauhati Municipal Corporation, Phani Sarma, has a strange way of describing the non-functioning of his department: “the lack of administrative and implementing authority”. Any question that begins “Why is this …” is met with “Sorry I have no information. If you do please tell me …” One does, actually have some: that out of the 800 meat shops in the city, only 150 have licences. Mercifully, that is the only piece of information that Sarma says he has, as well, but, obviously can do nothing about.