2015 - the unusual year

I thought of trying a new format while analyzing the last year. It turned out to be super tedious job though. Anyway, I would divide this in two parts

Part-I

1st January: Spent the day in Arup’s bike travelling around 100 KM. It was a refreshing start of the new year, which offered me so much (including tension) without giving any hint on this very day. Met Mahananda, who was an incredible friend during childhood, suddenly at Sri Surya pahar.
	7th January (and 24th July): MNM library organized two big programs this year- first the Oxford pocket dictionary distribution with help from FASS and the second was the 6th anniversary by inviting the  president of AASU. In the whole year, the library acted as the source of positive energy for me. There were days I spent the entire day inside the library and I gained happiness. I re-organized, re-cataloged, brought new almirah & table, got binding of year-wise magazines, audited with Anupama baideu, gave scholarship to Nibhadita Rabha and what not !
11th January: Fist time I visited a riot-hit place. The communal clash between the Bodos and Adivasis left thousands homeless. Mostly the Adivasis were the sufferers. We took a ‘Chota Haati’ full of materials (some collected at Agia, some leftover from relief) and went to Chirang district. We visited around 3 relief camps- the plight of the people made me speechless. It’s the common people that suffer the most in these kinds of clashes. The fear of insecurity in the eyes of the villagers ! Bless them God!
	13th January: Though I had always been appreciative of the presence of Urpad Beel near our locality, I didn’t really utilize that resource. Today, along with Manash, Rahul Bhini and Sukrya Da, I did punting, caught fishes by ‘Asara jaal’, ate in the nature and did many more. Even in the later part of this year, I spent significant amount of time on the banks of Urpad- with Arup, Achyut, Jitu, Dip, Mausam, sometimes alone or searching for the Kathmistri. Fishing also continued throughout the year- at Baguan and Jongpara.
17th January: Riding Omi bai to Baguan. This deserves a special mention since Omi bai was an essential component during our childhood. I undertook my first outside-Assam trip with her to Shillong. She was a witness of my crazy attempt to save every paisa/chocolate to buy a car. It was her wish that I should ride her once I buy a car. Though I haven’t officially bought a car yet, I drove her to Baguan today with the home car, where I contributed. I felt great.
	24th January: Today was significant since I spent the evening with bonfire, at Badungduppa, chatting with Mr. Adil Hussain (who played my father) and screened the movie ‘One Last Question’ for the first time. I found him humble, and his life journey from the Viamama days very inspiring. Badungduppa remained a place for frequent visits at several occasions- Children's theatre festival on 29th July, making the budget for international theatre festival on 28th Sept and numerous other 'just like that' trips
27th January: I was interviewed face-to-face by Colin Crowell, the Vice President of Twitter Public Policy, sitting in Taj Hotel in Delhi. This was my first experience of being interviewed by such a renowned personality and also for such a high ranked post. Unfortunately I didn’t get selected and that is another significant setback of this year. On this same Delhi trip, I paid a visit to CFBI Noida office. I didn’t accept the CFBI offer and that came to haunt me in the later part of 2015.
	1st February: The distribution ceremony of the second phase of the livelihood project happened today. The background work from overnight, the distribution of hundreds of livestocks, 2-hour long post-mortem analysis, the FB album uploaded photos with Smiling Faces, the team spirit- ohh, I had an awesome time with PSC members and this project. Only PSC witnessed a portion of my 'professional' work whether it was the two project-audits at Bhini and Jitu's place, the work of the MBA intern, Nischal's visit, rubber project or the organizational audit I forced. PSC is the group that bade me farewell in December. Not to forget how Agia's people perceived my association with PSC ( a way to make money through NGOs- oh God!)
6th February: Eventful day which also initiated one of my failed attempts of the year. It was the school establishment day cum alumni meet. I was introduced to the DC by Jaychandra khura and the DC openly praised me by calling to the open dias. There we decided we should form an alumni committee and I had to lead. Later, I organized three meetings (last was on 28th June with only 3 attendees), wrote the constitution and tried the best to form an active committee. But the enthusiasm was worst, effort to gain consensus resulted in 'Manjit is too much' opinion; finally, I failed and gave up. This is one big failure of the year.
Youtube Video  Title: Chester Zoo Assam expedition Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1wW8u-n-MY	10th February: One the day when AAP won Delhi election with huge margin, I started volunteering as translator to Joy da’s funding group from UK Chester zoo. The three days with them were amazing-I learnt a lot, visited many interior places in Assam-Meghalaya border, met Birubala Rabha at her house. I was also featured on a documentary on human-elephant conflict as a ‘native sufferer’.
19th February: Finally met Mr. Homen Borgohain at his resident today and was gifted around 216 valuable books for our library. Since the inception of the library, this was due and both I and Bhini were immensely happy. In fact, the genesis of the library concept has much to owe to Mr. Borgohain. We brought Joha rice and banana for him, and that worked really well.
	22nd February & 29th March: Bapupara Xatra was kind of new discovery for me. Today we (from PSC side) gifted them a tube well.  Then on 29th March, I brought a team of “National Manuscript Mission” from Gauhati University to identify and recover the damaged ‘Xaasipaat’ available in the Xatra. The local people were so happy that they made me a member of the Xatra for the next session. One of the GU team members turned out to be the chief librarian of GU and Maa’s relative; I called him on later at GU  as well.
23rd February: My effort to connect back to Agia LP School was long due. After visiting on Saraswati puja (only Navadeep sir is there now) I promised to replace the photo taken during the retirement of Harmohan Sir, heavily damaged during last flood. I took much pain to enlarge that photo into A3 size from Guwahati and finally gifted the photo to Navadeep Sir today. It was a small gesture, but for me it has significant value.
	26th February: When Rahul Bhini and Sukrya Da asked me to join for Assam-Meghalaya border festival, I never thought I would discover an unknown side of Meghalaya today. We travelled from Khardung into the bastion of GNLA, hilly roads that are dangerous than Aizawl roads, where kidnapping is just another event. My companions kept me free from this worry, only later I realized the danger we could have faced today. This event later inspired me to talk to many Mongol bazaar traders to listen to their kidnapping stories.
6th March: Two big things happened on this Holi festival day. First, I started a new blog called ‘For an Autobiography’ after much thought since  the closure of my MBA voyage blog. Second, we demarcated the khaas land (we suddenly discovered) bought my Deuta long back with concrete pillars. On 17th March, I also land filled the area near Jaychandra Khura’s house. Later I also planted four trees in that land (26th May). I also finalized the land agreements of the Samaguri land while applying for Rubber subsidy- managing home real estate -huh!!
	25th March: My career-talk at AASU 16th annual meeting. From Xomidhan side, it was our first association with AASU at such a large stage. Manash , Chandana and Rahul Bhini were also present. I also observed AASU from very close this time and tried to visualize the emotion that might have occurred during Assam Agitation. I was present almost every day and felt happy that Dipanka da emerged as the president of AASU. I also participated in several Xomidhan sessions in the year at Ajagar Velly Academy, Dudhnoi College (with help from Dipanka Da only), JB College (cc-Nabanita Borah), e-Assam summit (10th April), Bakaitari Sankardeva Sishu Niketan (cc- Achyut). Even got remuneration after Dudhnoi college session, a part I donated to Xomidhan.
31st March: This is worth mentioning because I usually don’t do such things. GORIYOSHI got the opportunity to be part of our library after Sukrya Da’s film-maker friend Sanjeev Hazarika gifted an annual subscription. While reading the editorial today, I found the thoughts of Lakhinandan Borah very offensive. I took pen and paper and wrote a strong letter daring him to publish the letter (which he didn't). In the later part of the year, after observing the super arrogance of that person at several occasions, I believed to have made a right decision by writing that letter.
	6th April: The whole evening I sat with Nayan’s parents; yes, the same Nayan who got featured in One Last Question. I tried to bring as much information as possible about Nayan’s whereabouts; but they were perfectly and consistently tight lipped. That however raised suspicion and I brought this topic in my first ever visit to an ULFA designated camp on 25th May while helping Munmi. First time I met a few persons whose names had been terrorizing our district since my childhood. It was so hierarchical – I never expected.They also confirmed there was none from Agia joined ULFA in between 2000-2005. The mystery just got deeper.
11th April: One of things I experimented during last year- how to make common citizens like us avail public services easily. LPG, DC office, customer care were some examples. Today I decided to take the LPG issue head-on after their crude behavior at Goalpara office. PAHAL was a great discovery (am a PAHAL- fan now) and through that I took the matter to the OIL office and made them give us home delivery. I understood the subsidy game too. I acted similarly while submitting the NRC documents online. There is joy when you get service delivery with ease and comfort.
	1st May: I always wanted to visit Assam-Bangladesh border and finally I made it today. It was a fantastic and long trip in Bhini’s car. My perspective has changed; the influx is almost impossible to control with the current situation in the border. You have to travel via B’desh land and there is no wall;, in fact, not possible to construct walls at many places. Only by physical visit, you can understand exact picture- now, I pity on all the politicians who just say stuff for the sake of saying.
5th May: Prodyut Bora called me suddenly and requested to start the LDP policy think tank. Later, on his insistence, I visited his residence on 10th June. I kept pushing the point that I want to act as professional only, barring any party ideology and I have to get paid. Later I met Shantikam Hazarika Sir at his residence and after that slowly this chapter died down. Bhini kept it open, but I refrained myself. I wrote a blog in Auto-Bio why I was not associating with LDP at that point of time.
	6th May: I wrote the title of today’s diary post as ‘how I humiliated my merit and hardwork’. After suggestion from the World Bank team, I went to meet Siddharth Singh, IAS at Assam Secretariat. He made me wait for around 4 hours before saying he won't come back to office. I felt like the Singh or Dilip of Agia who were also waiting for their favors. Was this the reason I went to Oxford? From this day, I completely left thinking about working in the Assam Government for now. I could see clearly why strong politicians are essential. Otherwise, bureaucrats will eat up this country; thank God I didn't try to be in civil service.
13 July: Dada bought his first car and I was there to witness this. In fact, both Moina and I went to Jorhat just for this. Buying a car is surely a big event for persons of lower middle class family. I also made a trip to Majuli and spent time with Pegu and his family. The return journey is also interesting with our family spending night at Bokakhat hotel after the new car broke down.
	7th Aug: On a family level, there is an addition today as Trishna, daughter of Dugdha da came to live with us. Dugdha da (and Apurva Da) presented me the first ever Jeans pant, took me outside Assam first time to Shillong where he worked as carpenter, Dangor pehi was fabulous to Maa & our family; I believe the decision to have Trishna with us is awesome. She also helped me a lot in library work. Helping a needy person is the happiest moment in anyone's life.
19th August: It gets a mention because of the nostalgia bit. I remember opening my first bank account in Pragjyotish Gaolia Bank (later name changed to AGV Bank) with Deuta while at school. Today I decided to close that account as it was serving no purpose and penalizing me for not doing transaction in every three months.  I also made Maa close her AGV account. On finance side, I transferred my SBI from Aizawl to Mornai, opened Modi accounts on life, accidental insurance, Atal Pension and also a PPF account this year.
	24th August: Closely witnessed how police lathi charge happens. There was a road block demanding the repair of Agia- Lakhipur road. I went to observe the situation (ref- Akhil Gogoi gave a feeling that movement in Assam involves protest and police atrocity). I was speaking to the SP; and suddenly, the lathi charge order —the screams, people jumping on ponds, I was at a loss and fled. Two thoughts- 1) it is not easy to stand in front of lathi, 2) to organize a fruitful protest, the placing of people is the most important factor. Ready for future, Zing?
4th September:  I applied for the NISG position today after much deliberation. Pranjal Da did not paint a good picture of NeGD knowing my Oxford background and aspiration; but Jahid da was positive. However my current scene was worst.  On the same day, I re-wrote the PRARTHANA. Then first interview with Nitin Saluja. I had to continuously convince myself that I was applying for a good role, even Rahul is working on that organization etc. I was awesomely calm for the main interview happened on 28th Oct. The uncertainty for NISG final offer loomed large, the interview with the CEO was quite new for me. I also remember the intense negotiation on my way back to Agia from Jorhat via Bus. I was scared since I had no backup, but I carried on the negotiation for Deepak Malhotra with a brave face. BSG’s lesson on negotiation is working, for sure.
	12 November: My first visit to Char area in Barpeta district near Kalgachia. I and Rahul Bhini went to meet Abdul Kalam Azad in his endeavour to educate the villagers living in Char area. It is a different world altogether. There are no roads & electricity; without boats, life is unimaginable. There are Assamese medium schools that are set up before independence. Who says Char areas are only Bangladeshi immigrants’ place? Maintaining law & order, providing electricity, building roads are daunting tasks there.
23rd November: Along-with Sukrya Da and Rahul Bhini I visited Keshab Dham today, the HQ of RSS in North East India. Talked to a couple of persons there. I tried to understand what made senior Assam BJP leaders rush to these people after every little issues. What I found is -utter humbleness and the ‘pro Hindu’ agenda of the sevaks. This visit does not have much significance as of now, but maybe in some point of my life, this visit would prove fruitful (investment on yourself). Today’s night was well spent at Jiten’s marriage. Accompanied the groom to bride's house after a long long time.
	27th November: The NITI Aayog YP interview happened today. This was in Delhi, without TA/DA, and also with the possibility of avoiding since NISG almost gave confirmation. Nevertheless, I considered NITI Aayog OSD would have been an ideal opportunity and this trip would give a glimpse. It did and also convinced me why I should not work as YP. I also attended the NISG CEO interview and visited Chandigarh to meet my sister. The homeward journey is another story where IRCTC and my corrupt brain made me stay unnecessarily for 3 days in Delhi and cost hell lot of money, whereas my objective was to save some money.
12th December:  Suddenly got a call from Assam BJP IT head that my submission for #IT4Parivartan has been chosen for felicitation. I took multiple buses and reached Machkhow auditorium just on time. In presence of Ram Madhab, Himanta, Bijoya Baideu and others, Sarbananda Sonowal felicitated me with gamocha and a ganesha idol. I again hope, this will help writing an interesting chapter later .
	28th December: Set out on the voyage of a new chapter in life. I am glad  this happened in 2015 itself. The starting was good as I met Dr. Nagen Saikia in the airport and thanked him for offering a wishing letter in our library inauguration. Also, watched the Digital India program via live streaming from hotel- Amar Inn. Maa’s tears made me feel emotional. But, I have to march ahead. All the best, Manjit.

Part II: 

1.  Read quite a few interesting books this year - আলফা, ১৯৬২ ( kept planning a trip for many days), Freedom at Midnight (wrote a blog too), ৰিপুঞ্জয়, A House of Thousand Stories, নতুন অসম গঢ়িম, মোৰ হৃদয় এখন যুদ্ধক্ষেত্র, TRP etc. But I managed to write very few- only one article titled স্বাধীনতা নামৰ উদ্যোগটো.   

2. Frustration from job-hunting was an integral part of last year. If you look at my Auto-Bio blog that emotion is predominantly reflected. It didn't stop even for a month. From CFBI during Bhoali bihu time, waiting for reply from Emily (Twitter), writing to Hazela in March, which was a waiting month; condition deteriorated after AASU program got over, applied for ADB-YPP, Twitter dinged on 3^rd April after I met Siddharth Singh on 2^nd April with assurances, but Vikram demolishes all hopes during Rongali bihu. Then the Skype call with OPML country director with negative output on 30^th April, left the Assam CCSD idea on 6^th May, Bent (SBS, Oxford)chapter started and died in May; The most expected and ‘certain’ Jindal University email that I sent on 15^th May didn’t even get a response; the frustrated mind wanted to followup with CFBI, but dropped the idea after wiewing worst feedback from Glassdoor (this happened on 21^st May, I should have checked what Prashant Kishore was up to that time). FHI360 happened in between where all positions were fixed; also wrote to Modi apart from emailing and myGov; Rahul betrayed unexpectedly for the NASSCOM position (until today he didn't get the courage to contact me in Delhi) and the BIG SAARC application in June for which I even prepared a fake experience certificate from Chintu da; forgive me God, how desperate I were! In between, the UNDP application and conversation with Kamakhya Tasa after... I don't know how many followups; still remember how I had to explain Maa by GMAT example that I am doing fine. How happy I was seeing NITI Aayog YP application in July! On 17^th August, I found Mahima Kaul as the new Twitter recruit and I sent the NITI aayog OSD application, World Bank YPP result came in 25^th Aug when I was preparing Chicago University thingi; On 6^th October, I spent the day with the World Bank people after the sudden call from  Vikram and how I myself put a lid on the World Bank dream. I believe, by September last, I stopped thinking about getting a job, and that made me relaxed, The library supported me like a shield from bad thoughts; also the evening chat with Arup. Meanwhile Karuna da started trying for the IITG CEO position. After the Bihar election results were out, I completely stopped doing everything, however, got the NITI Aayog YP interview notice on 18^th Nov.   

3. Apart from Maa, the year witnessed heavy association with Rahul bhini and the girl whom I met in Sukrya da's theatre festival. Bhini was like all-time, all-purpose companion. I also must mention the influence of that female. I had been living a 'strictly single' life. She really made an entry, even though, I officially did not want to get associated. I think that is the beauty and understanding , and that's why I say all the ladies that had/have been in my life have been super awesome.

4. Technology woes:

a.      Tough time from this DELL Vostro laptop- problem with sudden shutdown when Skype is opened. Slowly the shutdown frequency increases and became impossible to work. Sameer da first diagnosed as RAM issue in January. I probably made 4-5 trips to Sameer da’s house only for this. Multiple trips to Datamation as well. Then the three keys –Q,W,E, stopped functioning. How crap? One more thing, the adapter also needed to be replaced.

b.      The modem story is even more interesting: As the modem got busted after lightening, I submitted for warranty replacement. That guy took more than 1.5 months. I wrote a very strong email to iBall customer care, and then got the modem replaced in a week. Now the problem shifted as BSNL people couldn’t bring internet to the new modem. Just to figure out whether the issue is with iBall or BSNL took couple of days; multiple trips to Agia and Goalpara BSNL office, multiple visits from both the offices to our home. The inconsistency in the issues left every stakeholders super confused. I wrote diary on 5^th Aug-- “These events are just not normal; it might be trying to tell a trend or story”. At last, after a non-internet dark period of several months, I got connected on 6^th Aug. 

c.       The home inverter- it took couple of months to figure out whether the problem is with battery or the inverter. We changed the circuit 3 times I guess, still it is in non-working stage. So, the solar lights really helped.

d.      Oh yes, the car broke down too couple of times, once at Deohati with Maa. And, not only our Wagon car, Dada’s new car too; yeas, the damn 3-day old car.

5.  Meeting various people who once played/will play a great role in my life was a highlight of last year. Some examples- Sattar Sir (with Mausam), Biren Jetha and Jethi ( with Maa), Pankaj Da’s father (with Maa), Manash da (Dudhnoi College), Khitish Da (at Jongpara with Arup), Dipanka Nath (with Chintu da), Durlov Barua (over phone, LDP co-founder), Jyotiprasad (suddenly at IIT G), Lhendup (over phone), Obuna (from Mongolia), Rashmi rekha Rahman ( sudden visit at her home), Herambo bhini, Nijara, Deepika and Akita(via library), Parag(marriage), Gyanashri (@Jorhat in her marriage), Shamim (@Siliguri in his marriage), Jiten (via his marriage), Jyotirmoy Sharma (the RSS guy), Digbijoy(during Puja time), Bhaiti Da ( his move to BJP and subsequent political discussion), Dhiramoni and so on.

6.  You know what is happiness- happiness is in regularly going to Mongol bazaar, watching '24' and 'House of Cards' without breaks, regularly accompanying maa to the army canteen, sitting on the library, visiting Samaguri, listening to BD's stories and Junma's laughter. Happiness is also when you have a free period with a certainty (after NISG joining date got fixed)- Maa’s naam, her writing printout, farewell by PSC , taking dinner & lunches at relative's houses, shopping household stuff for setting up new home. I always long for these kind of days in life. Amamzing moments and multiple voluntary works- 2015 was hell of a year.

(Note: The position of the below mentions are awkward because of the stupid editor of Blogger)

	I discovered Yoga this year, mainly via Karuna Da at IIT G. In fact, IITG played a big role during last year. In September, I stayed for around a week at IIT G and each day started with yoga. Then I tried to keep the momentum by vising the block field with Jitu da every morning, then shifted to terrest once winter came, but eventually we had to stop. Even the Rabja- Hasong gifted football did not ignite the josh much.
'One Last Question' won couple of national and international awards last year. But somehow, I was lost and didn’t really get excited by all those. Maybe I was ashamed of my current situation; I don't know. I wanted to do screening in Assam, but Prathamesh could not manage. I also didn't like his post movie management. After following up for 5 months, I have not still made him send a followup email to the contributors. Well, we did a screening to the Goalpara SP on 20th Aug at his office though.
	My endeavors with astrology: I developed a new perspective to look at astrology, although I never believed astrology and still, I don't. However, I think astrology can give a new pointer in your decision making in case you are 50:50 position while taking any decision. I showed my kundali twice this year and they said the decision to come back home was wrong. Until May-2016 , I am in such a phase where being at home will add to bad omens. But the exciting thing is that post May-2016, my 'Brihaspati' phase will start which will last for around 19 years and can take me to the stars. Can you believe- this assurance acted as optimism pill in the low times during last year. Although I didn't go to any temple or wore any ring, mere understanding the logic of astrology gave me a logical decision point. I will explore this topic more in coming days.
There was lot of house construction work this year as well. The noteworthy ones are completing Moina’s room before her visit, new tubewell after changing the position of the old, modification of the back sotal, construction of the new temple and inaugurating on 21st July on BD’s birthday. The construction work is going to be a companion in the coming year too.