Red Chillies:Oinitom- The Inaugural Day Performance

Guwahati, 12 February 2012

Today, in the opening ceremony of the Restaurant “Majulir Esanj” Kankhowa displays an installation-cum-performance naming “Red Chilies: Oinitom”.

Red Chilies: Oinitom is a take on Majuli, boats, clouds, fears, hopes, floods, rituals and the Oinitom. Oinitom, the famous folk singing tradition of the Mishing community is used as a media for sending messages. Among youth, sending personal messages through Oinitom have been going on since time immemorial. 

Samudra Kajal Saikia conceptualized and did a performance inside the restaurant in the presence of a number of a closed audience. A boat was proceeding ahead from a wall that had red chilies planted on the tip of broom sticks. There was a cloud structure above containing plastic water bottles on a fishing net. Traditional Oinitom singer, Mrs. Doley, started singing. Samudra started gathering bricks in front of the singer. After a while there was a brick wall constructed in front of the singer and finally the singer became invisible to the audience.

In Assam, people put a red chili on a stick (pulled out from a broom stick) and place it vertically on the courtyard on the hope of preventing the dark cloud. It is common folk practice in the rain prone zone of eastern India. And Maajuli, the greatest river Island on earth has an inevitable relation with water, river, rain and yes, oinitom, the highly melodious folklore of the Mishing community. 

The building of the brick wall tried to convey the fear of dams and its effect on the island. Majuli is highly effected by regular floods, the dangerous erosions and recently by the fear from the BIG BIG DAM ISSUES. The International Council on Monuments and Sites (Icomos) had raised its concern on the possible impact of dams in Arunachal Pradesh and the higher reaches of Brahmaputra in Tibet on Majuli river island. With apprehensions over the environmental and ecological impact in downstream Assam due to large-scale dam construction in Arunachal Pradesh, experts believe that Majuli's existence would be greatly threatened by the projects.

Renowned actor and artist Dilip Tamuly along with Nila Saikia hosted the event and initiated a dialogue with the audience about the performance and about the relevance of such attempts. The evening witnessed the presence of noted personalities from the cultural arena, including Kirti Kamal Bhuyan, Kapil Thakur, Zubeen Garg and many more.