New Delhi: Ningmaso Awungshi is one of the few people from the Tangkhul Naga tribe in Manipur who knows how to play the Tingteila, a traditional musical instrument of the tribe, and he is doing his best to preserve the one-stringed fiddle.
Awungshi, who is a self-taught musician and a Tingteila crafter, lives in the state’s Shangching village. He also makes the traditional instrument and encourages younger generations to learn it.
“Back in the old days, our grandparents used to leisurely play the Tingteila in their free time and the music was something else,” he was quoted as saying.
A Tingteila is made of a gourd covered with a pig’s bladder or a bit of goatskin fastened to it by pegs of wood. The string is made of horse-tail hair. Usually played by men, it is considered a taboo to play the Tingteila after the Tangkhul Naga festival Manei phanit, also called the festival of tools and equipment.
Assam photographer wins prestigious international award
Himadri Bhuyan from Guwahati recently bagged the top spot in the ‘The Night Sky Award’ category of the prestigious International Landscape Photographer of the Year. His image, from Sohra in Meghalaya, was selected from among 3,000 entries from across the world.
Titled ‘Spinning Time’, the award-winning photograph of star-trails captures two different elements in motion. “I took the same image in the same location first in 2017, then in 2018 and finally in 2019 till I was able to get my satisfactory shot,” Bhuyan told EastMojo.
Bhuyan is the first Indian to have won this award for a photo taken in India. A wedding photographer by profession, he is also the Northeast mentor for Nikon and tutors aspiring shutterbugs.
His photos have been featured in the 2014 Your Shot Daily Dozen — National Geographic’s photo community. He was also the assignment winner in the Nat Geo Your Shot that year.
122 unexploded World War II bombs found in Manipur
In the Indo-Myanmar border town of Moreh in Manipur, as many as 122 unexploded World War II bombs have been unearthed. The bombs and artillery shells were discovered while levelling a plot of land that belongs to Thangkhotinlal Gangte, a resident.
This is not the first time remnants of World War II have been found in the state. In July, 27 unexploded bombs, 43 empty cases of bombs and 15 empty boxes were dug up by an excavator while levelling another plot of land for a house construction at Lhangnom Veng in Moreh.
In July again, another six unexploded bombs were found near the Indian Army War Cemetery in Imphal. Experts have said that these bombs can cause a fatal impact in a 50-meter radius if detonated.
Man on 1,000 km bicycle ride to create awareness on social security of journalists
Snehankar Chakraborty, a resident of Biswanath in Assam, is on a 1,000 km bicycle ride across the state to create awareness on safety and social security of journalists. A former journalist himself, Chakraborty began his ride Tuesday morning from Biswanath and has covered Dibrugarh, Tinsukia, Jorhat, and Kaliabor areas in Assam.
His initiative comes in the backdrop of the death of Assam journalist Parag Bhuyan who was killed in an accident recently. Journalists, various organisations and political parties in Assam have called for a probe into Bhuyan’s death, stating that it happened just days after he reported on the coal and timber mafia in the state.
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