Letters to the Editor: Magh Bihu marks the end of the harvesting season

Magh Bihu marks the end of the harvesting season

The Magh Bihu festival of Assam is celebrated in mid-January with the great joy of merry-making and feasting. This is when the hard-working farmers of the state reap the benefits of their labour. The Magh Bihu, also known as Bhogali Bihu, comes from the word Bhog meaning eating and enjoying. Magh Bihu also denotes the celebration of Sankranti dedicated to Agni, the lord of Fire. However, in the rest of India, it is celebrated as Sankranti dedicated to Surya, the Sun God. People mark this with a holy dip in the river or doing ceremonial bathing. Several people also light bonfires and have social gatherings marking the celebrations of Magh Bihu.

The first day of Bhogali Bihu is called the Uruka (Bihu eve) and is marked by a grand feast (Bhog). Bhog is organized on the Uruka night where men actively participate in the celebrations. The next day, in the morning, young men build a temporary cottage called Bhela-ghar and Meji with hay. During the night, villagers gather at Bhelaghar and cook different kinds of delicacies. A community feast then follows and is attended by all the people in the village. People visiting the Bhelaghar exchange greetings and different kinds of sweets. Villagers spend the whole night singing and dancing. Men and women sing Bihu songs and play music beating the Dhol. Dhol is a traditional Assamese musical instrument and makes a soothing sound. Men also play different kinds of conventional games all through the night. People leave the Bhelaghar early in the morning and head for home to make preparations for the next day.

The next day, early morning, people take bath and gather around the Meji. They offer their prayers to the god of fire by throwing a mixture of grains into the flames and marking the end of the harvesting year. The day is followed by community celebrations all across the state. People make Bihu delicacies like chira, pitha, laru, curd etc. Rice cakes are the main food items and are distributed among others. There are several types of rice cakes like till pitha, narikol pitha, tekeli pitha, sunga pitha and ghila pitha. People visit their near and dear ones and exchange Bihu greetings. Like all other Bihu, Magh Bihu also has the ritual of showing respect to the elder one with gamosa. People eat various traditional delicacies and spend the entire night singing and dancing around the bonfire.

But the celebration doesn't end here. In some parts of the state, the celebration also features traditional Assamese games such as Buffalo fight, tekeli bhonga and various sports like Egg-fight, cock-fight, nightingale-fight etc. are held throughout the day where everyone participates.

Pooja Maibangsa,

Department of Communication & Journalism Gauhati University

Need for

streetlights

The primary duty of an institution is to ensure the safety of its students. We can see that there are not enough street lights in Gauhati University to light up the route between various departments and the girls' hostels. So, it becomes difficult for students to move alone in and around the campus and also from the class to the hostels after sunset. The roads also need proper street lights so that there can be immediate help if something goes wrong. I, thus request the authority to come up with a solution and install street lights along the route to girls' hostels.

Bhagyashree Basumatary,

Department of Communication and Journalism, Gauhati University.

Wild animals foraying into human habitations

In recent times, there have been numerous reports of wild elephants, rhinos and leopards foraying into human habitations causing huge losses to crops and even residences. Both electronic and print media blame it on the Forest Department for not taking any concrete steps to tackle the menace. This type of animal depredation was not seen in the past few decades. We naturalists do feel that it is not the Forest Department who is to be blamed, but the human intervention into the lives of these animals in their natural habitat has made the wild animals encroach upon human habitation. The loss of their habitat is the prime reason for the man-animal conflict.

The recent drive by the government to evict illegal encroachers from the forest reserve and government lands is fully justified. The previous governments should be held responsible for this human-animal conflict which in fact has also changed the demographic pattern of the state for their vote bank politics. We have also noticed in 2022 there have been no such cases of rhino poaching which was almost a regular affair during the Congress regime.

Lanu Dutta Chowdhury,

Guwahati.

Plight of Karimganj and Hailakandi roads

When we're driving, we expect the road to be in good condition so that we don't have any unexpected problems. But roads aren't always properly maintained, or sometimes other factors have caused poor conditions, like bad weather. This leads to serious accidents.

The roads are full of potholes and are very congested. These potholes get filled with water during the rainy season causing them to become the breeding ground for mosquitoes. Every other day, one or the other accident takes place due to these potholes. One such bad road condition that I want to highlight is the roads of the Barak Valley. The pathetic condition of the road is making life miserable for the people passing by.

Central and State governments are working in synergy to improve the road connectivity in Barak valley but improvement is yet to be seen. The government should complete and execute the work on a priority basis to dedicate it to the people as per their expectations.

Sasankar Das,

Gauhati University