Editorial of NE Quest  Volume 1, Issue 1 April 2007

It’s a great honour and proud privilege  for me to present the first editorial of NE QUEST- the online news letter of North East India Research Forum. I would like to take the opportunity to share with you some of my experience, thoughts and feelings through this editorial.

If I look back, when the first thought of formation of the forum came to my mind, I was almost at a fix whether it would really work. My mind was saturated with diverse questions like whether I will be able to bring the N.E. researchers together, whether people would cooperate with me etc etc. The list of questions was endless. Again I thought of great people’s works, outcome of all great works did not reach smoothly, success did not come to them overnight, there were lots of hurdles. Could anybody imagine simple observation by Newton- the falling of apple from a tree would lead to so many revolutionary scientific theories? But it took time for him to prove himself, sometimes things are understood to the world even after a person’s death. All these things moved me most, I thought of doing something atleast in a small level. I concluded thinking’’ it does not matter how many times we win or lose, what matters is how many times we bounce back.’’.

The forum was started on 13th of November 2004. Fortunately the first member I approached joined the group with out any hesitation which gave me abundant inspiration. He was none other than our beloved Dr. Prodeep Phukan. Now I feel it is the right time for me to thank him. Since last two and half years we havebeen trying to build a network of researchers belonging to the most beautiful part of our Nation…the North East part, the Seven Sister States. The web is being formed through the science’s one of most valuable gift to the modern day life..Internet. It was formed aiming at bringing all the science researchers of the North East part of India under one umbrella, no matter which field of science he or she belongs to.

Our region is one of the richest in India, if we look at its natural resources, fertile land, climate, etc, yet it is one of the most undeveloped parts. In this regard, if we consider one of the states of seven sisters, Assam, it has literacy rate of 65%, out of which 70% goes to arts, 6% Commerce, 1.5% Technical education and only 12 % goes to science education which is a very gloomy picture indeed. So we have a long way to move. Through this forum, I dream of science to reach every nook and corner of the north east India, whose limitations does not lie only to the intellectual class. I dream of using science for social cause which is not limited to the chapters of science book and experiments in the laboratory. I dream a movement of science of its own through this forum which happened never before. But again I firmly believe dreaming without proper thinking will not achieve the goal, for success begins with a fellows will. Its all in a state of mind. Well, the group has already started to form and we need to maintain the spirit and we can win only if we think we can. If we properly utilize our knowledge we can transform our region and present a different outlook. Here, no one can deny the role of science and technology as a tool for development of a region.  The future, the health of NE QUESTour quest for excellence will depend more on the enthusiasm and excellence of younger participants. We strongly encourage younger members to publish their research articles in NE Quest and work hand in hand with the senior members. It can be considered as the platform for sharing our views, thoughts, dreams with fellow members.

At this point I would like to sincerely thank all the fellow members and moderators of the forum for helping in launching of the newsletter. This is the beginning and we have miles to go. Hope NE Quest reaches the point of zenith.

Thank you &

Wish you all a very very Happy Bihu and

Happy New Year.

Arindam Adhikari

(Volunteer Editor of this issue)

15th April 2007

Website : www.neindiaresearch.org
Yahoo group page: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Northeast_India_Research/