Let me begin by saying that I’m not a fluent speaker. Please cut me some slack if you hear me fumble in my talk. Donna Barman, on the other hand, is a polymath: she writes, podcasts, speaks brilliantly, is well-read, and is a SCIENTIST! The list could simply be a reason for you to have a look at her profiles (substack, Apple podcast, Instagram) that are spread out on the internet like an expensive buffet: you're indecisive about where to begin because everything laid out in front of you is so good.
A month ago, I was talking to Donna about her Sunday Heritage walks around Hyderabad. It was then she popped this question if we could do a similar walk or session in Guwahati. Donna is currently settled in Hyderabad. I did a session—a heritage walk around the Cotton University, the Assam Museum, and the Assam Textile Institute, doing observation of old colonial structures (we don’t have many!)—in Guwahati with the help of Sahapedia, in 2019. The walk was followed up by a piece on one of Assam’s key tangible heritage sites: Surya Pahar in the Goalpara district. You can read my piece here. Apart from this, I’ve been constantly trying to put up Guwahati’s daily life on photo-sharing sites. But there aren’t many conversations about the city that I’m a part of. I wanted to talk to someone with whom I could share my knowledge of this city, particularly its history. Most importantly, the person should adore Guwahati; otherwise, the conversation will be pointless. So, when Donna asked if I’d like to be in a one-to-one discussion with her in her video podcast, “Donuts With Donna,” I was elated. I mean, who wouldn’t! This was an opportunity to reach out to more people and share whatever little we know about this amazing metropolis. We finally did it on Saturday, 18th June 2022.
Before we sat for our long discussion, I shared a little piece about Guwahati I wrote many months ago. There were two reasons for writing this: one, people who are visiting the Heritage centre have little or no idea about the land they are stepping on; secondly, this article could help in initiating an interest among the public as well as the audience we were targeting in our podcast.
So, here it is. We talked about changes, from infrastructure to tourism, and from food habits to the music scene. We also talked about ‘translations,’ and the video has some great book recommendations, not just on Guwahati, but overall.
This isn’t an all-encompassing discussion; the idea behind doing this is to initiate more dialogue regarding the city’s ever-changing cultural landscape. More to follow! If you're reading this, please leave a comment with your favourite memories of this city.
A conversation about Guwahati and for Guwahati