He leaves behind his wife, three sons and two daughters. Dr Das took his PhD degree from London School of Economics in 1953. He authored several books and was involved with various socio-cultural and sports activities. He was a former treasurer of Assam Sports Association and founder secretary of GU Sports Association. He was cremated at Bhutnath crematorium on June 4, 2003.

We are in the process of bringing out the yearly magazine Asomi, published by Assam Society of America. This year, the magazine will be distributed in Assam 2003 to be held on July 4 and 5.

Discover the research and deveopment process of classical xattriya (sattriya) dance during last 4 decades by internationally reputed dance artist and pioneer of classical sattriya dance Indira P.P. Bora. It traces the process of revival of sattriya dance from the sattras (monasteries) to global platforms and includes unique information regarding female adaptation from male oriented traditional dance form. Find out how Indira develops the ritualistic dance form of Assam to a sophisticated classical dance form of India within the framework of Assamese culture and tradition.

While the Centre, after prolonged consideration, recently gave its nod to the North Eastern Electric Power Corporation’s (NEEPCO) 500 MW mega power project to be set up at the cost of Rs 1,800 crore in Monarchak in the Sonamura sub-division of West Tripura, the project itself presents a diagonally opposite set of possibilities.

The charging rhino painted on the sides of ASTC buses had just about died: the corporation had outstandings amounting to Rs 120 crore, and was bogged down with a workforce that translated to 74 employees per bus. That was on May 21, 2001, when Anjan Dutta took over as state transport minister, as part of the newly installed Tarun Gogoi government. Hardly two years down the line, Assam has a success story that is the envy of many. "Satisfactory," is how Dutta describes ASTC?s turnaround.

Even as students all over the country fill up their forms to enter university, students from Assam present all too familiar a sight, forced as they are, year after year, to beg universities to allow them to fill forms and attend classes till their teachers back home have decided to check their papers, and declare their Class 12 state board results. It’s the same this year, with the delay in results of the Assam higher secondary examination dashing the hopes of thousands of students aspiring to pursue higher academics outside the region.

The incident occurred last month in the Harendranagar Tea Estate in the Sadar subdivision of the West Tripura district. However, while persons such as Sudhamaya Majumdar, leader of the Durgabari Tea Estate Co-operative Union and vice-chairman of the Tripura Tea Development Corporation, confirm the selling of the baby, the police at the Sidhai police station, which would have had to look into the matter, are yet to receive a complaint.

The lives of these sailors, some as young as 17 could have been saved had the US radar control based at Oahu intercepted the huge plot on their screen correctly.

What they took as a fleet of American bombers expected that morning from the mainland and as two formations from their own aircraft carriers Lexington and Enterprise then at sea was actually a Kamikaze strike force under Commander Mitsuo Fuchida.

The North East region of the nation, a ‘bio-diversity hotspot’ is also home to a lineage of people whose cultural affinity is more with the people across the Patkais then mainland India. Though years of separation and interaction with people of a different origin have affected the livelihood of these people basically they are more like the Chinese than Indian in many ways.

“These aren’t the Alps,” says Suraj Prakash, chief engineer of the General Reserve Engineers Force (GREF), which looks after roads in Sikkim, including most of the well-maintained 130 km National Highway 31A between Siliguri and Gangtok, and the 55 km “all-weather, trafficable” JN (Jawarhalal Nehru) Marg to the Nathu La, that together would form the trade route between China and India. “The Himalayas are young, geologically speaking.

After the initial attention and media fanfare in 1995, perhaps not to the degree as the re-opening of the silk route between Sikkim and China-occupied Tibet, it has taken almost a decade for the government of Manipur to get Myanmar to provide letter of credit (LOC) facilities to traders operating across the international border between Moreh in India and Tamu on the other side. "It was difficult convincing the military junta but they finally agreed last month," says Raj Kumar Nimai, special secretary, department of commerce and industry, Manipur.

For the villagers of Bhogdanga along the Indo-Bangladesh border in the Golakganj sector in Assam’s Dhubri district, their Indian citizenship lasts about six hours a day, in three two-hour stretches.

Distrustful of the Chinese, the Tibetan community here views the developments with suspicion, and are working hard to bring about a complete ban on Chinese goods. That hasn’t, however, dampened the spirits of Chief Minister Pawan Chamling who had petitioned for the re-opening of the trade route ever since he first came to power in 1994. In an official statement made shortly after the announcement, Chamling thanked the Centre and the prime minister in particular for delivering on his government’s “long-pending” demand.

Rajeev Mishra of Rajeev Electronics, whose family entered the Tibet trade in 1917, recalls that in the ‘50s his family warehouse in Kalimpong would at any given time have some 22 rooms full of watches, their specialty. For the old traders of Gangtok, the decision to reopen the trade-route at Gangtok has come as a windfall.