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Chador-mekhela, drums, keyboard, guitar, cultural activists, bihu and Being Assamese

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Courtesy: Raul de la Nuez Recently, in one of the Bihu functions (April, 2015), one of the leading female singers of Assam was not allowed to sing for not wearing Chador Mekhela by the committee members. (Chador-mekhela is the traditional Assamese dress worn by women.) What I feel personally in that case, even the male singers, including Papon, Zubben, should be asked to wear Dhoti-Kurta or ban them too. Why this unfairly prejudiced view? And all the committee members also should be wearing Dhoti-Kurta or Chador-Mekhela all the time. Do they? Embarrassing moment for Assam and Assamese culture. This is not culture, This is not Bihu. I understand that cloths are integral part of any culture; but cloths alone can't defy culture. If one has to follow one of the cultural aspects with full devotion, he has to follow everything with complete honesty and sincerity. That means, if one has to wear mekhela-chador to defy bihu, she can't actually use keyboard, guitar or drums in bih...

News on Assamese music video 'Xaare Aasu'

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Xaare Aasu is An Assamese music video featuring singer Queen Hazarika and composer Jim Ankan Deka. It is the first of ChaiTunes series of music videos. Powered by Music Malt, a Bangalore based music house, the song is based on poems by Assamese writer duo Prof. Bhabananda Deka and Nalini Prava Deka. The video is directed by Parmita Borah and produced by Eastern Fare Foundation, Bangalore. Read more at ReviewNE and Merinews . | Watch the video Here . | Download Xaare Aasu Here News Clippings Eastern Chronicle, May 12, 2015 .

Bharti Airtel CEO's e-mail on Net Neutrality and response from the people

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Few days back I posted Mahesh Murthy's take on anti #net neutrality and Airtel's 'Airtel Zero' plan . After a huge outcry (over 800,000 emails to the Government) and Flipkart's final decision of backing out of Airtel Zero, Bharti Airtel's CEO Gopal Vittal wrote to customers on April 19, 2015, explaining why they love net neutrality and why Airtel Zero is benign and just some "technology platform". Below is the email. Dear Customer Over the last few days you may have seen a lot of conversation on our toll free platform Airtel Zero. It has been painted as a move that violates net neutrality and we have been very concerned at the incorrect information that has been carried by some quarters in the media as well as in social media. I wanted to take this opportunity to clear the air and reiterate that we are completely committed to net neutrality. Let me clarify. Our vision is to have every Indian on the internet. There are millions of Indians wh...

Niyoror Xur - an Assamese song by Jim Ankan Deka and Mayukh Hazarika

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Niyoror Xur (নিয়ৰৰ সুৰ) - is Jim Ankan Deka's fourth Assamese music video. Sung by Mayukh Hazarika, the song is based on poems by Assamese writer duo Late Bhabananda Deka and Late Nalini Prava Deka and edited by Ankur Deka. The video is directed by Parmita Borah. The song will be released online in June, 2015. Presented by ChaiTunes, the song is produced by Eastern Fare Music Foundation, Bangalore and powered by Music Malt, a music house based in Bangalore.

Indian telcos killed VAS business. Now they're out to kill your business. - Mahesh Murthy

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Some of you may remember the huge hype around VAS (Value Added Services) startups in India less than a decade years ago - remember SMSing to get your horoscope for the day, or a cricket score update? The story was all about how they'd create great content for distribution on the telcos' networks and how we'd see new giant companies being formed. Fast forward to today - the telcos' user base is ten times larger - but do you see any of those VAS companiess around? They're all virtually dead - and the telcos killed them. And they did so with a simple weapon - they charged a toll tax of 80% or more on all revenues generated by the VAS startups on their networks. VAS companies are long gone - the telcos killed and ate the golden geese, and golden eggs are now hard to come by. But rather than learn from this debacle - they're out there to find and kill the next golden egg. And that's you, dear Indian internet entrepreneur. You're going to be the next ...

Xaare Aasu - an Assamese music video by Jim Ankan Deka featuring Queen Hazarika

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Xaare Aasu - Jim Ankan Deka ft. Queen Hazarika Xaare Aasu (সাৰে আ্ছো) - is Jim Ankan Deka's third Assamese music video. The song features Assamese singer Queen Hazarika. The video is directed by Parmita Borah. The song will be released online in May, 2015. The song is produced by Eastern Fare Music Foundation , Bangalore. The lyrics of the single is penned together by writer Bhabananda Deka, poet Nalini Prava Deka and Jim. Xaare Aasu is powered by Music Malt and presented by Chai Tunes . Jim Ankan Deka and Queen Hazarika

Music, a deep dive

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Jim Ankan Deka and Rittique Phukan at BFlat, Bangalore (Nov, 2014) In over a decade of experience in music instruction, often have I come across people with diverse outlooks towards music - for most, music is a form of entertainment, for some it is an art to be passionately pursued and mastered, for some it is ‘dope’ and for some its nirvana. What strikes me odd is that a very small percentage of music enthusiasts try to explore the concept “MUSIC” in itself. What is music, why does it exist, how did it evolve and what good does it do us anyway? Well to begin with the history of music dates back to times beyond the days of yore, right from the inception of civilization. Music, or rhythmic sound, stood at the cradle of all religions. The rhythmic articulation of time by means of an instrument conflating with melody can be considered as Music. Listening to music is a psychosomatic (A descriptive term for the relationship between the mind and body) experience that, apart from crea...