Commotion at a Durga Puja!

 

The Durga Puja pandal was quiet in the morning hours, except for the occasional bursts of incantations from the priests, amplified by the mics. Suddenly, there was a commotion. Two street urchins, probably around 7-8 years of age, entered and marched ahead confidently and occupied two empty plastic chairs in the front row. Their tiny skinny bodies black as coal and clad in rags. Somehow, they were in possession of two toy pistols that they were firing continuously. The decent devotees at the adjacent chairs looked askance at them, horrified in some unnamed way. They immediately asked them to silence their pistols, and the kids gestured they wanted food. A senior organizer looked around annoyed, perhaps not finding the volunteers assigned with the duties of crowd control. Even as the firing continued unabated, a seemingly resourceful lady devotee consulted the priests on the altar and eventually managed to collect some particles of food--of sweets and fruits--that she gave away to the urchins. Although not apparently pacified, the kids took those and left the pandal, firing and chatting louder. However, all those in the pandal were back to their undisturbed devotion. 

Changes in Speed Post Services and Tariff!

The Department of Posts has recently announced changes in its Inland Speed Post services and tariff, adding new features to move ahead with the changing times. The revised tariff will be effective from 1st October 2025. The tariff of Inland Speed Post was last revised in October 2012. Under the rationally revised tariff structure the new rates are not substantially but only marginally higher, taking into account the host of safe, fast and smarter new features added. Additionally, to enhance accessibility of Speed Post services for students, a 10% discount on Speed Post tariff has been introduced.  Besides, a special discount of 5% discount has been introduced for new bulk customers. 

In order to further strengthen its position as the preferred delivery service in the country, it has now been upgraded with the following new features aimed at enhancing reliability, security, and customer convenience:

● OTP-based secure delivery

● Online payment facility

● SMS-based delivery notifications

● Convenient online booking services

● Real-time delivery updates

● Registration facility for users

Registration is available as a value-added service under speed post for both documents and parcels; customers can have addressee-specific secured delivery specifically designed to bring trust and speed together.

The Department of Posts introduced Speed Post on 1st August 1986 to provide fast and reliable delivery of letters and parcels across the country. Launched as part of India Post’s modernization efforts, the service was designed to ensure time-bound, efficient, and secure mail delivery. Over the years, Speed Post has emerged as one of the most popular and trusted mail services in India, standing strong against private courier companies.

Since its inception, Speed Post has continued to evolve to meet changing customer needs.

The initiatives are part of India Post’s ongoing journey of evolving into a more secure, transparent, and technology-enabled service provider. By introducing sustainable innovations and trust-enhancing features, Speed Post continues to adapt to the changing needs of customers while reaffirming its position as the nation’s most reliable and affordable delivery partner.    

Courtesy: ADPSR, Maharashtra Postal Circle, Mumbai.        

Zubeen Garg: A Loving Tribute!

 

The fair bright-faced boy with curly black hair, the sweet smile that never ceases to linger on his face and his eyes, his carefree ways and a great sense of humour, his brutal honesty and equally brutally outspoken, and yet the simplicity of his magnetic personality is overwhelming. These are the images that come to my mind whenever I think of him or his songs; even more now when his sudden untimely tragic accidental demise has shattered millions and millions across Assam, across India and across the world. These images are of the late 90s and early 2000s (unfortunately, I don’t have personal photographs as personal cameras or mobiles were conspicuously absent those days.). He is Zubeen Garg. He has been  a living legend of Assam, second only to Bhupen Hazarika, till destiny took him away just when the people of Assam have started celebrating the birth centenary of Sudhakantha Bhupen Hazarika. Zubeen, possibly the greatest singer-artiste ever produced in Assam, in terms of his mind-blowing following—covering/influencing/entertaining almost all of Gen X, Gen Y or the Millennials, Gen Z and even the Gen Alpha. And this is not just for his singing, but more for his sterling qualities that make him a dear friend of all the classes of Assam.

The crowds paying their last tributes all over Assam have been unprecedented with millions of them refusing to leave the streets or the grounds where his mortal remains are kept or awaited earlier for public darshan. Chief Minister of Assam, Himanta Biswa Sarma, initially announced a three-day state mourning from 20-22^nd September, 2025, but had to extend it to 23^rd bowing to the incredible surge of admirers. The state funeral thus is going to be held tomorrow, the 23^rd September, in the outskirts of the city of Guwahati—a decision made on the request of Zubeen’s devastated wife Garima Saikia Garg and his family while there have been demands for being given the same honour from other cities.  His millions of devout admirers are also very angry because of some element of suspicion over his accidental death in Singapore on 19^th September, 2025, and amid mourning their hearts are crying out for the truth and the action that has to follow.

After the huge successes of his first few albums of Assamese songs, folk mixed with modern music for the first time, he landed in Mumbai around 1995 trying to find a place in Bollywood. We too came to know him that time. There was a relative’s son who was an inseparable childhood friend from the Jorhat years of Zubeen, Gautam Chakravarty, and who came to Mumbai for a course in sound recording, and through him we came to acquaint ourselves personally with Zubeen. He brought Zubeen once to our home in Mumbai for lunch and then onward we continued to meet him in the studios and in the functions organized by the Assam Association, Mumbai during various festivals where he sang invariably. The boy with the golden voice soon found a footing in Bollywood music and started playback singing in various movies.

His song Ya Ali for the movie Gangster (2006) made him very famous earning him a nomination in the Filmfare Awards-2007. Thanks to his commitment to his home state and his own people, he couldn’t fully concentrate on Bollywood, and therefore, apart from the occasional Hindi and Bangla film songs he worked mostly for Assam—composing-writing-singing for albums and Assamese films, as music director for many of these films and also acting in a few of them, not to speak of his immensely popular performances on the Bihu stages all over the state. Very soon Zubeen had set up his own recording studios in Mumbai and Guwahati. As is natural for a legendary singer, awards and nominations kept coming his way. He won his first National Award in 2005, Rajat Kamal for Best Music Director from Assam for the movie Dinabandhu, and in 2007 he received another National Award for Best Music from the then President of India, Pratibha Patil, for the non-fiction film Echoes of Silence.

I rue the fact that for the last decade or so we haven’t had any personal contact with him; however, we always got the news about him, heard from his friends known to us and from the grapevine. Like most of superstars and legends, controversies surrounded him all the years—usually for his unconventional straightforward ways and words, and his outbursts in public places and on the music stages. Perhaps a family tragedy affected him beyond repair. His younger sister, Jonkey Borthakur, who had been emerging as a singer as well as a movie actor died in a road accident in Assam in 2002, at the tender age of 18. The trauma of losing a sibling is always unbearable—the trauma often leaving an inerasable impact on the other siblings, particularly the elder ones. Zubeen tried his best to relieve his trauma through music—releasing an album in her name, but perhaps the pain never left him, making him unpredictable, given to intoxication and created health issues in the recent years.

Zubeen Garg was totally apolitical—raising his voice against anything he found wrong with any political party or ruling parties. He wholeheartedly participated in the anti-CAA movement in Assam during 2021-22, apart from other protests where he took to the streets with his music. He is also known for his charity, never disappointing anybody in need. It’s said by his fans that nobody ever left his house in Assam empty handed. He also participated in setting up a supermarket where products were directly procured from the farmers and villagers.

Zubeen Garg was born and named after the legend Zubin Mehta to parents Mohini Mohan Borthakur and Ily Borthakur—his father a poet and lyricist apart from his civil service career and his mother also a singer who was Zubeen’s first guru. He changed his family surname ‘Borthakur’ to his gotra ‘Garg', perhaps to assume an Indian identity.  His father, around 85 years of age now, survives him along with Zubeen's youngest sister and wife Garima Garg. Today, we join the prayers of his family, friends and the millions of his admirers. May God bless his noble soul and rest him in eternal bliss. And his music is going to flow on unabated…more than 38 thousand songs in more than 40 languages and dialects keeping us tuned for ages to come. Salute the great artiste!