Bihu is Assam’s main festival. And what I like best about it is that unlike most festivals, it is non-religious and associated with agriculture – observed to celebrate the harvesting season. We celebrate Bihu, three times during the year. In January, it is called Maagh Bihu, and usually held on the 14th and 15th of the month (1st and 2nd Maagh, the tenth month of Assamese calendar). My best memories of celebrating Bihu are during my school days. We would come down to Guwahati in those days because it used to be school holidays (and much to cold to stay in Shillong!). The whole family (from my father’s side) would get together in my granny’s place. It used to be a special time when all of us cousins would get together. It was a time of building mejis (conical structures built out of bamboo that are burnt early in the morning), late nights, kon aloos (small potatoes roasted in the fire, really yummy!), feasts (fish, chicken is a must during this festival) and of course, …

My sister called from the UK today saying she had received a packet I sent containing some photos, letters and documents in a really sorry state. I had sent it about a week ago by registered post from the Borivli post office. I was shocked when she said that from the state of the package, it was obvious that it had been opened and someone had actually rummaged through its content. The envelope had been torn out. I used to hear about packages sent by Indian post suffering this fate, but I thought things would have improved by now. It’s perhaps no wonder that people prefer to send parcels by courier services, even at exorbitant costs. I can’t imagine what they thought they would find inside it. It’s not only shocking, it’s more disappointing that these incidents continue to happen. All I know is that the next time I need to send a parcel, I am definitely not using the Indian postal service.

Finally connecting from home. Phew! After a month long wait for the phone connection. And then another 2-3 days figuring out ‘modem’ problems! Today, I make a ‘save me, I’m desperate’ call to ‘customer support’ where a helpful guy says I have to clear the ‘wait for dial tone before calling’ option from two places in the modem properties. And to think I wasted the last few days wondering why I wasn’t getting a dial tone! And they don’t write these things in user manuals. Aargggh! Though the rather slow pace of the TATA Indicom VSNL dial-up pack I’m currently using compared to the zippy i-way connection is something that I will definitely take time to get used to… **** I’ve noticed a marked change in the way we prefer to spend the 31st of December, over the years. Earlier, we had to have a plan, we had to be somewhere crowded, filled with people and lots of noise. These days, we prefer to sit around sipping wine and listening to good music, discussing how …