AANA - Presidents Corner

- Dr. Manoranjan Bezbaruah (outgoing AANA president)

One of the greatest acknowledged strengths of this country is the voluntary community associations. Anyone who has had the privilege of actively associating with or leading a community, school, or even a home-owners association knows what I mean. These organizations act as the élan vital of the country! Ideas are advanced, discussions are held, votes are taken when needed, and once the decisions are taken, they become the rules, and the rule- based machinery springs into attention to enforce them! Thus, once a rule is adopted, people tend to obey it – be it in the area of airport security, payment of an assessment, or on the roads while driving a car!
Rule-based organizations alone can exist in this age. Ours have existed for these three decades plus because it is rule-based, we follow procedures, a delineated process. AFNA -- our non-profit fund-raising wing, and ASSNA –our literary wing are leaders in their respective fields. Together, we look forward to more fruitful achievements.

- Dr. Monoranjan Bezboruah (Outgoing President)
The fact is worth repeating: Our ties to India are umbilical! Thus, things that cherish India cherish us, and vice versa. Assam, where India’s Sun rises – according to the famed, greater than life scholar, Dr. Bhupen Hazarika (our Bhupenda), is on the move. The recent Budget Speech from Assam’s Chief Minister is a joy to read – it heralds many more great educational, economic and social initiatives.Please read it to get a lift! There are constant coverage about the BRIC – Brazil, Russia, India and China – providing the locomotive for international economic growth. Take note of it. India’s race toward the completion of the Delhi Metro, a 118 mile modern day transport wonder on time and within the budget is a headline in major US newspapers. Although there are calibrated reports denigrating India’s advances
in making indigenous modern day big ticket defense and nuclear related weapons systems, we can feel safer with the certainty that India has acquired the critical mass to defend herself. In defending herself, India safeguards the vibrant growth of democracy in the world. Economic prosperity is securely anchored on the foundation of our age-old emphasis on human values. The write up on Tata’s treatment (copied on following page) of its employees and even others victimized by the deadly Jihadi terror of Mumbai during the last Thanksgiving is a solace and inspiration to all of us. While we do not sit on past laurels, it is worth noting that a few hundred years ago, India was the developed world.Even the City seal of Salem, MA, exhorted its inhabitants to go to the farthest shores of India in search of wealth! Two contemporary observations of India of 1800-1900: F. Max Muller observed –
If I were to look over the whole world to find out the country most richly endowed with all the
wealth, power and beauty that nature can bestow – in some part a very paradise on earth – I should point to India.

Lord Macaulay, in his address to the British Parliament on February 2, 1835, stated:
I have travelled across the length and breadth of India and I have not seen one person who is a beggar, who is a thief. Such wealth I have seen in this country, such high moral values, people of such caliber, that I do not think we would ever conquer this country, unless we break the very backbone of this nation, which is her spiritual and cultural heritage, and therefore, I propose that we replace her old and ancient education system, her culture. For if the Indians think that all that is foreign and English is good and greater than their own, they will lose their self-esteem, their native culture and they will become what we want them – a truly dominated nation.

Its economic splendor attracted vile interests. Machinations to carve out the country succeeded. Lack of unity, lack of the appreciation of force – physical force, military hardware, decisive thinking, merciless pursuit of traitors – did us in. Simply stated, we let down our guards! We lost our élan vital! We were put on our knees! We paid an enormous price!