New Delhi: Amid violent clashes that took place over the past week on the Assam-Mizoram border, one group has been quietly working to provide food to stranded truck drivers and their helpers.
Volunteers of the Young Mizo Association (YMA), an NGO, have been offering food to the truckers and their helpers, many of whom are from Assam, at Kolasib town and Kawnpui village in Mizoram.
Clashes had erupted last week near Vairengte village in Mizoram’s Kolasib district and Lailapur in Assam’s Cachar district. Over 50 people were injured and several houses were burnt in the incident. The Assam-Mizoram border dispute has been festering for more than 50 years now and has seen high-level engagements in the past few days.
More than 200 Mizoram-bound goods vehicles, mostly trucks, have now been stranded on National Highway 306 that links the two states due to the clashes.
Kolasib district deputy commissioner Dr H. Lalthlangliana was quoted as saying, “The Mizos are a peace loving community. They can’t hate their fellow human beings despite scuffle over boundary issues, which is entirely a matter between two governments.”
Mizoram Chief Minister Zoramthanga took to Twitter to praise the actions of YMA which is the largest philanthropic organisation in the state with more than 4.5 lakh members.
With illegitimate miscreants threatening to intensify their economic blockade over #Mizoram , this is what the #Peace loving Mizos are doing right now; feeding innocent and stranded non-mizos in addition to protecting whats rightfully ours.#SpreadLove@narendramodi @AmitShah pic.twitter.com/Ue6Vpri4h6
— Zoramthanga (@ZoramthangaCM) October 18, 2020
Assam’s erstwhile royal family to hold 400-year-old Durga Puja under Covid protocols
Members of the erstwhile Koch Dynasty in Assam are all set to observe a 400-year-old royal Durga Puja amid Covid-19 restrictions. The festival will be celebrated from Thursday at the three ‘Raja Howlis’ (palaces) — namely Gakhirkhowa Howly, Dangar Howly and Mohanpur Howly — in the state.
Following traditional rituals, idols of goddess Durga in her ‘Ranachandi’ (warrior) form, with a face painted red, will be installed in the three Howlis.
Kumar Dharmendra Narayan Deb, a member of the royal family, has been quoted as saying, “We will observe the puja following all Covid-19 protocols set by the administration. Initially we were planning to observe it with a ‘ghot’ (small pot worshipped as deity) instead of idols of the deities. But later we decided to bring in readymade idols smaller in size from Kalaigaon.”
“This time buffalo sacrifice will not be performed,” Deb added.
Naga YouTuber’s vlog about catching and cooking snails gets over 2.3 million views
Apollos Kent, a YouTuber from Nagaland, had posted a vlog titled ‘Catch snail, cook with maize and eat in Naga style’ around three months ago on his channel called Kents Vlog. It has garnered over 2.3 million views so far.
A self-taught vlogger, Kent, in an interview to The Morung Express, said, “In the village, we normally cook snails with pumpkin but it turned out great with maize and other ingredients including mustard sauce, which my mom used to ferment and I love it so much.”
Kent’s channel was registered in 2018 but it was hacked soon after its launch. He began another one in June this year with the sole aim of showing Naga lifestyles and the food they eat.
“I want it all to be authentic and natural. All my videos are shot in my village (Sendenyu). We are farmers and I love hanging out in the fields. I find it peaceful here, it’s natural, and I love my natural background,” he added.
Arunachal disappears from Xiaomi’s weather app, firm later ‘fixes’ technical glitch
Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi landed in a controversy earlier this week after some Indian cities and states, including Arunachal Pradesh, went missing on its weather app.
Social media users soon blamed the company for supporting the Chinese Communist Party’s agenda that Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh aren’t recognised as parts of India.
The disappearance of Arunachal Pradesh from the weather app was reportedly highlighted in a YouTube channel after it was brought to notice by a user from Itanagar in Arunachal Pradesh.
A spokesperson from the company later confirmed that it was a technical error which had been fixed.
“We would like to clarify that the weather app on our devices uses data from multiple third-party data sources and we understand that for many locations, the weather-related data is not available on the current app. This is a technical error on our application,” the company said.
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