. . . And so I went to Dar. For an Asia-Africa conference. It wasn’t just any conference, but something quite different altogether. I would like to say that it wasn’t a field of presentations that only spoke and ignored one another, like the tower of Babel. In reality, everything came from all the senses, but nothing was disharmonic, solitary, or monologic. Even if it’s true that international Africa-Asia relations are currently facing a wall, there is another story of Asia and Africa which seemed, at Dar, to indicate the desire for connection and knowledge, to and for another world.

Abdourahmane Seck writes a beautiful note on his impressions of Dar es Salaam and the Asia-Africa: A New Axis of Knowledge Conference that took place in September this year.   

Trilokpuri is a resettlement colony in Delhi that came up during the Emergency years (1975-76). We chose it as one of the neighbourhoods to explore and engage with for a Neighbourhood Museum for multiple reasons. The neighbourhood is infamous for being notorious. It has been the centre of attention due to its constant brush with communal violence in the past, the worst of which was the 1984 Sikh riots and 2014 Hindu-Muslim riots. But one of the main reasons Trilokpuri caught our fancy is the fact that it houses people who form a major chunk of the service class in the city. From maids, gol-gappa walas and rickshaw-pullers to IAS officers and government employees, the neighbourhood is home to people in all kinds of formal and informal service sector professions, hence making an indispensible part of the city.

On January 29th 2018, Aarti Kawlra, the Academic Director of the HaB project and Chiang Mai University team of Dr. Chayan, Dr. Malee, Dr. Siya and Ms. Orraya had a meeting with community research team from the village of Hin Lad Nai. The community research team comprises of a group of youth and community’s elders.

Tiajungla Soyah of Longkhum Village, Mokokchung, Nagaland was born in 1936. She is the second of the 10 children (7 sons and 3 daughters). She is 81 years of age at present. The interview was done at Tiajungla’s home in Dimapur dated 15/9/2017.