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THE MAKING OF WINGED HORSE Words mattered for Bhupen Hazarika. Today they matter to us in new ways, as the public language of many nations deteriorates, along with shared notions of what it means to be civilized. The Winged Horse carries the words of a man who used language to show his soul to the world, who believed in the common humanity of all, so we wanted this volume to serve as a generational bridge from his time to now and into the future. Even though aspects of his meaning may become hidden obscured in translation, his original work holds such great value that it begs to be translated, allowing as many people as possible to enjoy of the feast for the soul he created to celebrate our shared humanity. We were so very fortunate enough to find such a one who made this project possible. Syed Ahmed Shah's English translations of Bhupen Hazarika's songs came to my notice before my father took his last breath on November 5th, 2011. At the time I had long identified myself as Assamese, yet I lived a parallel life at a distance, with little spoken Assamese in my life except when I visited Assam. The other occassions when I 'spoke' it were when I sang my dad's songs in Assamese, so understandably I was hungry to find yet more meaning in his work. Then appeared before my eyes, quite literally, some of Syed Ahmed Shah's translations, yet un-published, on social media. In less than a year after, he expired so I considered this connection a most fortunate gift from my father posthumously, which could not have come at a better time in my life. Because he wrote these songs in Assamese, we included the Assamese script to remind readers of the original language of the songs. We believe that the preservation and exploration of Bhupen Hazarika's songs is akin to the preservation and exploration of Assamese culture as well as a manual to discover and cultivate our Humanity. It is common practice to refer to Bhupen Hazarika's songs as 'Bhupendra Sangeet'. Every year around the time of his birth and death anniversaries (Sept 8 and November 5th), to the delight of young and old across the many communities, singing contests of Bhupenda's 'evergreens' come alive all over Assam. It should be known that those popular songs, sung by so many, are but a small fraction of his work-we believe that he wrote more than 600 songs! Mr. Shah's selection of 76 is more than a handful and casts a wide net over many subjects. Some of them can be found online to sing along with, adding another dimension of pleasure from this slender tome. I sincerely hope that Winged Horse will inspire new generations in many ways as they experience Bhupen Hazarika's depth and eloquence: some will pick up a few tips on how to live life, some will be inspired to learn Assamese, many may be emboldened to validate their own experiences; and most importantly some readers, when adrift or lost, will find the polestar needed to attain the promise of freedom, comfort and dignity. -Tej Hazarika, publisher

Two Magic Rupees and a Space Chillum are writer Neil Rock's (1936 - 2018) 48lucid essays that bring us closer to a world and it's populations in transition after WWII and the collapse of the European Colonial age. The subtitle, Post Colonial Travels of a Seminal British Rocker alludes to his childhood growing up in England when the rapid shrinkage of the British Raj also coincided with another invasion on it's shores-that of Black American music, into the very soul streams of white British youth. Deeply inspired by the Blues, Jazz, Rhythm & Blues and Rock n Roll, the black men and women who made this music suddenly become subjects of admiration and emulation. Fully affected by this code switch in behavior, our author affords us a fresh look at the aftermath of the Empire as witnessed by an English native who describes his childhood background as follows, "Yorkshire is England's largest county, an area of industrial cities and large open countryside with quiet valleys dotted with small agricultural villages. Most settlements are old and full of tradition. My playgrounds were places that have names of early English historic provenance: Oakwood, Roundhay, Temple Newsham, Seacroft, Harewood and Cross Gates. In the county there are towns and villages with names such as Streoneshlh (Whitby), Ulaskelf, Thriebergh, Jervaux and Rievaulx, which reveal Yorkshires' Saxon, Viking and Norman French history. The Shire of York is Hobbit country, the Real Hobbit Country, which having been born in I came to love by exploring it since I was a child of eight years old."But in the 50's, once he heard music from America, this is what he remembers, "My mission in life was to get up and dance, but I'm looking and I'm talking and can't find any kids who know this jivin', swing, boogie stuff." He steeped himself in the music, jamming and busking with other musicians, adding a component to the music that became the unifying soundtrack of the social revolution brought on by the civil rights movement, hand in hand with the anti-war movement- major social factors not lost on the post-war British youth. Neil Rock did not wind up playing in a British rock band, but being a literati, he continued writing about things as he saw them and his calling took him overseas to experience the world without the usual cultural and racial biases towards the 'other' people of the world, attitudes enforced and maintained during the colonial age. Through Mr. Rock's eyes we get to see what else was going on out.