New Delhi: Jason Lendi Sanglir, a Naga who grew up in Thailand, plans to return to Dimapur for a grassroots football project. Sanglir, who belongs to the Ao tribe, was educated in Thailand and the US. His parents are missionaries who left Nagaland 30 years ago. The 31-year-old played football in his primary and high school teams in Thailand before moving to California for college, where he was a goalkeeper in the school football team.
He had also been part of a Coca-Cola advertisement and promotional campaign for the 2012 London Olympics. In 2018, he was involved in a promotional video for an athletics tournament that was hosted under the patronage of the princess of Thailand.
Sanglir said he was invited by his friend in Nagaland, Yongsen Jamir, for help with a football training project. Called the Dimapur Football Club, the project aims to work with young talent at the grassroots level.
“I also see it as an opportunity to connect with my roots as I have never previously lived in Nagaland. With all that I have experienced and gained through sports, I do feel an obligation to share it with those who may not have the same opportunities that I have had…,” Sanglir said.
Assam village, established in 1970, gets a road 50 years later
The village of Dithur Kachari in Assam’s Dima Hasao district has finally got an approach road, 50 years after the village was established in 1970.
Earlier, people from Dithur Kachari would have to travel two hours on foot to reach the nearest market to collect essentials and sell their produce. In case of a medical emergency, they’d have to be physically carried all the way to the nearest hospital.
Constructed under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, the new road was built at a cost of Rs 338.73 lakh. Along with the road, solar lights have also been installed in the village.
Landslide debris in Mizoram throw up human skulls, ornaments, pottery shards
Twelve human skulls, ornaments resembling earrings, a smoking pipe and pottery shards were found by locals at a road construction site near the Mizoram-Tripura border while clearing debris from a landslide.
Similar skeletal remains and earthen pots — believed to be of urn burials — have been discovered in and near Mizoram over the past year.
Dr Sujeet Nayan, deputy superintending archaeologist of Archaeological Survey of India, Aizawl circle, said, “We found such a site in Jampui hills, located in Tripura, close to the Mizoram border, a few months ago as well as in two places about 20 km from Aizawl last year … they could date back to the 8th to 14th centuries AD.”
Nayan said the ones found recently could be of similar antiquity. “The pot shards imply that they could be part of a pot burial too.”
Architect Julia Watson hails Meghalaya’s living root bridges as ‘solution’ during floods
Landscape architect and environmentalist Julia Watson has lauded the Khasi community of Meghalaya for the state’s living root bridges, which she hailed as an effective defence against floods. Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma tweeted about Watson’s comment.
In her global exploration of Indigenous design systems, architect Julia Watson mentions about the #LivingRootBridges of #Meghalaya and how the 1500-year-old tradition of the Khasis is an #indigenous technology & a resilient solution for floods.@prahladspatel @DrJitendraSingh pic.twitter.com/MYyC2e7Ga0
— Conrad Sangma (@SangmaConrad) August 12, 2020
Sangma’s tweet also contained a video in which Watson explains the mechanism behind the living root bridges, which can take up to 50 years to grow but last for several centuries.
“This hill tribe has evolved living root bridges that are created by guiding and growing tree roots you can barely wrap your arms around through a carefully woven scaffolding,” Watson says in the video.
She also details how cultures have been living with floods for thousands of years by “evolving these ancient technologies that allow them to work with the water”.
Also read: Sikkim could finally be added to India’s rail map by 2022, 13 years after project began