State lad youngest Indian to conquer Mt Everest
IMPHAL, May 18: Even though it was nearly five-decades back when New Zealander Edmund Hillary and his Nepali companion Tenzing Norgay scaled Mount Everest, the world's highest peak, on May 29, 1953, Nameirakpam Chingkheinganba became the youngest Indian .....
CM for decorum in Palace compound
IMPHAL, May 18: Strongly emphasising on protection, maintenance and renovation of historical monuments and sites to uphold Manipur's glorious past, chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh has called upon private land owners in Palace Compound to relinquish land .....
Burmese Language Studies programme
A resource persons speaks during the Burmese Language Studies programme organised by Meetei Council Moreh at the border town on May 18. The programme was conducted under the sponsorship of Bhuban Gems, whose propreitor Naorem Nabachandra is also the presi.....
Anti-AFSPA rally in Ukl
Ukhrul, May 18: The District social organizations and NGOs of Ukhrul today jointly organized a silent protest rally demanding repeal of AFSPA (Armed forces special powers) act 1958 from the region. Addressing the participants, president of Tangkhul you.....
Govt okays MoU with UPPK
IMPHAL, May 18: The State Cabinet has given its approval for the State Government to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with UPPK which has given up arms and returned to the mainstream. In this regard, Ministry of Home Affairs, North East in-char.....
BJP alleges project anomalies, demands CBI probe
IMPHAL, May 18: Referring to comment in a local daily about the Chief Minister O Ibobi Singh charging some of his ministerial colleagues of depleting the State exchequer crores of rupees, the BJP Ma-nipur Pradesh today demanded a CBI inquiry on the matter.....
Leakages waste 60 Kls
IMPHAL, May 18: Around 60 Kls of SK Oil are wasted due to leakages every month out of 2080 Kls allocated to Manipur by the Government of India for a month. With the State Government accepting that 60 Kls of SK Oil are wasted every month due to leakages.....
Shija's Cleft Project goes on
IMPHAL, May 18: With the objective of faciliting formal education of all children with deformed lips and palates, Smile Train Shija SSA Cleft Project is going on in Shija Hospital as a joint project of the hospital and Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. After 10 c.....
TNAL protests
IMPHAL, May 18: The Tang-khul Naga Aze Longphang (Southern Tangkhul Naga Union) strongly denounced the Cabinet decision which prohibited entry of both Sailent and Saijang villagers to the ‘disputed site.’ An emergency general bo-dy meeting of TNAL .....
UGs clash
IMPHAL, May 18: A suspected NSCN (IM) cadre died in a gunfight with ZUF rebels at Lunghshai Chiru, located at the border of Bishnupur and Chu-rachandpur districts at around 2 pm today. The gunbattle broke out at the bank of Thongjaorok riv-er under Upp.....
NPF, ATSUM flay vacate order
IMPHAL, May 18: An order from the state government was issued today (Saturday) asking the residents of Naga River Colony in Imphal to vacate by May 19 (Sunday). The government of Manipur is planning to construct a five-star hotel in the area. Registeri.....
Gym inaugurated
IMPHAL, May 18: Khurai AC MLA Dr Ng Bijoy inaugurated AL-UMMAH gym at Khabeisoi today. The MLA was the chief guest of the function while Mohtamin Principal MV Abdul Kareem Dasmi was the president. Animal Gym founder and Real Heroes 2012 awardee RK Vish.....
Dr NT Kom felicitated
IMPHAL, May 18: Civil Services Examination 2012 successful candidate Dr Neilenthang Telien Kom was feted in a reception function organised in his honour at Lower Kom Keirap Baptist Church today. Taking part at the function, IFCD Minister Ngamthang Haokip .....
Mayek Chatpa Numit
IMPHAL, May 18: Marking the 7th anniversary of State Government’s declaration to replace Bengali script with Meetei Mayek in the school syllabus of Manipuri subject, Meetei Erol Eyek Loinasillon Apunba Lup (MEELAL) today observed Mayek Chatpa Numit at .....
High tension electric wire falls on Ukhrul school
Ukhrul, May 18: A High Tension (HT) wire fitted across the campus of Sacred Heart Higher Secondary School, Hungpung Ukhrul, fell on the school today. The incident occurred at around 11 am while the cadets of Scouts and Guides were performing drill exe.....
Veterinary directorate
IMPHAL, May 18: The Directorate of Veterinary and Animal Husbandry Services has invited candidates for undergoing one year Vety Field Assistant Training course for the academic session 2013-14. Intending applicants could have the detailed information from.....
Fishermen refute charges
IMPHAL, May 18: Refuting the charge that fishermen of Loktak Lake had used chemical to clear phumdis (floating biomass) on the lake, the All Loktak Lake Area Fishermen’s Union, Manipur has urged the Govt of India to institute prompt, independent, impart.....
Introduction of Hindi in DU NEFIS urges, cautions
IMPHAL, May 18: Urging the Prime Minister Office to effect scrapping of the set of 'reforms' introduced by Delhi University in its four-year undergraduate courses, the North East Forum for International Solidarity has cautioned of launching democratic agi.....
Vitiligo Day observed
IMPHAL, May 18: Vitiligo, a common pigmentary disorder of the skin also widely known as Leucoderma, is neither infectious nor has any similarity whatever with Leprosy, according to Dr Karam Lokendro, Manipur State Branch President of Indian Association of.....
Victim, sister called to Court of Inquiry
IMPHAL, May 18: Even as the warrant of arrest issued by Court in connection with the rape attempt on a sweeper by a CRPF personnel has been accepted by CRPF authority, they have asked police to send the victim and her elder sister to assist in their court.....
Live Life
By : Usham Tomba
“Lucy in the Bus without Diamonds”
One cold foggy wintry night not long ago, I came across a girl of our look in a Delhi bus. It was around 10 PM and late even by Delhi standard as it was winter. I had never seen her anywhere else before. She must be of around 20, fair, frail, cute and looked like a Meitei at the first glance and a Kuki at the second glance; but was dressed like and bore the unmistakable air of a Manipuri Naga. She reminded me of Lucy, my erstwhile school friend; only that Lucy must, by then, be a mother of two and lives in her village in Manipur. This girl was in Delhi, waging war against her destiny, struggling to curve her way against all odds. What could be her name? Lucy?
I was late that night, coming back from visiting a friend’s place after work. By then, the roads were deserted in the dark wintry fogs. The bus was also dark inside and deserted except for a few occupants who were rough North Indian men in boisterous conversation and obviously very drunk. The young Jat wildly driving the bus, with a bidi in his mouth, sure might have considered of making it to a formula 1 race. The bus had stopped somewhere in a dark Mehrauli road; and that was from where the Lucy look-alike had alighted the bus. With my keenness and her appearance to help, it was not difficult to construe that she was a working girl on her way back home from work. It was kind of odd though: the late wintry night and the lone girl with a different look. She was vulnerable to the core.
She carried on seemingly oblivious of the lurching danger. The Lucy factor made me wish she got home safe that night; and not become another victim hitting the coming morning’s news headlines. She aroused the magnanimous knight in me which urged me to sit in the bus until she got down at her stop like a silent guardian-angel of sort. But the busy man in me reminded me of my next day’s super tight schedule. While I was indecisively half strung between the two, my stop was fast approaching. She suddenly got up and readies herself to get down. I thanked my stars for the delightful coincidence. We both got down.
While I was heading for my place we happened to share a common patch of the deserted road disturbed only by occasional dog barks. I blurted out a “Hello” to kill the uneasiness the coincidence had created. With a little hesitation she responded. We soon delved into a mighty short but succinctly absorbing conversation on the way before our ways forked apart and bid each other, “Mang faro”. I found out that she was from Senapati and was working in a mall nearby. She was late coming back that night as it was a closing day. To confess myself, my “Mang faro” was more than a mere formality that night. It carried my feeling of relief. I am not sure whether it was a relief for her safety or my saved time. It might be both. I have never seen her again since then. May she be happy and safe wherever she be.
The lone girl I met that night stands as a picture of many of our girls in Delhi: qualified, brave and raring to go but highly vulnerable at the same time. I am sure you must have come across similar people and situation. Interestingly, there is no dearth of working girls from our state in Delhi though. While many fare well, there still are many who are imprisoned in their daily routine of work which pays just a little more than enough for their house rents and foods with occasional new clothes to cheer up. Crimes against them abound. Who is to blame - their vulnerability or the offenders’ aggression? But, what brought them here in the first place? The answer lies not too far away. This is one aspect of a bigger picture of dismay that has resulted from many factors in our state including social agitation and ethnic conflicts if not cleansing. They have adversely affected the hills as much, if not more than the plains. The resultant turmoil has been holding back the pace of education and development and bundling up many natives to look for opportunity to survive elsewhere without much choice.
One can see that many a time looking through a narrow ethnic prism, we seem to have lost out on our focus on development and well being. It seems to have been lost in the politically whipped up passion of identity often turning into an obsession dividing some people of some hills and some other people from some other hills and some people from some hills and some other people from some plains. The schism has proved to be our Achille’s heel. Ironically, the central government seems to be encouraging the antagonistic demands from both sides, if recent reports are to be believed. There has also been trouble between different hill factions to compound the situation.
Besides the perpetual tug of war between differing interests, yet another development has crept up: the recent successful trial run of a part of Jiribam-Tupul-Imphal rail link. This made the hopefuls consider it as a solution to the perennial economic blockades. But how the blockaders will fail to block the rail when they have been so successfully, though notoriously, blocking the highways is a question only time can tell. But, will not the sea of desperate humans that the rail will bring in along, fighting for their share from the meagre state resources, sit on our head while the present issues are already neck-deep? What do we have in place to dam the devastating influx? Is it Inner Line Permit?
One may ask as to why Inner Line Permit for Manipur is justified when we Manipuris can go elsewhere and work in India. As far as I remember, preserving our culture is still very much constitutional, just like reservation policies to bring one and all on a common competing platform. Then, is not it fair to endorse Inner Line Permit for the smaller populations to protect themselves from cultural onslaught from desperate bigger populations? In another way, it is like categorizing wrestlers according to body weights to nullify the unfair advantage heavier body weights can give. It is a fair norm. While rails are good for economy, I have never seen a clean railway station sadly. They bring along their own wrath. They have generally been hubs of slums, crimes, prostitution, diseases and filthy human excreta. This makes Inner Line Permit all the more relevant.
Coming back on the track where I was, as if to cheer us up that all is not lost, ample instances point to the persisting eternal bond between the hills and the plains in spite of being strained time and again by the different whims of political diktats played on ethnic grounds by some section of the people while the common citizens silently bear the bloody brunt in submission irrespective of whether born in the hills or the plain. In spite of the ethnically diverted sections, there still are many, probably a majority, who still stick to how things were. The recent NPF poll verdict can be remembered. Or one can name the example of the plain dwellers protesting alongside the hill dwellers against a recent alleged rape. Better still, take the pictoral records of hill dwellers protesting with women folks dressed vividly resembling the plain dwellers’ way suggestive of a cultural bridge between the two. In fact, all are aggrieved partners to the same sufferings. The common man earning a daily living in Imphal or the old lady in the hill gathering vegetables to buy her salt and medicines, or the helpless young man in the hill who once aspired to become an engineer or the patient on his dying Imphal bed devoid of the much needed medicines; can anyone be spared? Everybody is in the same house. When one half of the house gets burnt down the other half cannot remain standing, everything will fall. This makes it a fair leveler at the best.
Instead, we need development and well being. We truly deserve it as any sincere hard working citizens anywhere on the surface of the Earth do. We need that fast and in top priority, so as to bring back many a vulnerable Lucy to their brothers’ protection from national news headlines. Moreover, may be one day, with development and well being, the ideas on which the present ethnic divide is based may just cease to make any sense. All the while, whenever I think of that girl I met that night, the optimist in me says that there must be a John or Angam coming forward and wishing well for a Tampha in dire strait somewhere some moment of time.
Liklainu
Enjoyed going through this piece....LIVE LIFE is getting better and better
meh
very sensible...
Tangkhul
Appreciate ur thought.. Enjoyd readin thru
Tangkhul
Appreciate ur thought.. Enjoyd readin thru
diya
nice and thoughtful article. Keep it up.
haokip
You should take that gurl's mobile no.
tampha
Let the light spread. Keep it up.
Mr J
It is a good writing without any malice to any body.Keep it up.
crusader
we need to concentrate on things that matter. you are right.
tom
I convey my acknowledgement and gratitude for your kind words. Thank you friends.
codename_apang
You have got good writing skills. It was delightful to read the whole write-up sans the seeming wake-up call starting from paragraph 5 to a line less than the last paragraph, not that or because it is wrong or that we don't need it. But because much (the turmoil) of IT has been penned, shared and highlighted time and again by many a dreamers i believe. Most or all of us ends up appraising how pitiful is the situation we live in instead of chalking out a solution and the means/way to go about that. It has become a song (Song of Manipur) of sort! that too pretty sell-able. And a bigger question (the answer to which I don't want to hear) is that who is Listening? I am really glad that you did your part and I hope your Lucy (on the bus) will soon be a happy mother in time to come. btw what's with the title?
tom
Hi apang (nice codename), thank you for reading my article. I love writing and I have huge respect for writers and even more respect for my readers. Well, I totally agree with your view on the importance of efforts on chalking out solutions to the issues dogging our society. In fact, I had written one article called "Share a Solution" some times back in www.e-pao.net. Inability to do that is a weakness to me. In my opinion, the basic goal of any writer should be to make the reader (hooked and) actually read from the beginning to the last word. When I sensed that you actually did that, I felt elated. Thank you again. But, there is a small detail I did hopefully wish somebody pointed out: it was the "alighted" in the 2nd para which should have been "boarded". Finally, the title comes from a song John Lenon wrote about half a century ago- a real psychedelic work I got hooked to those days. Alas! the Lucy I met that night looked too poor to afford diamonds unlike the controversial Beatles song. Have a good day/night.
Laishram Macha
Very motivating and positive. Thank you for sharing your thoughts. It's beautiful, serene and calm. More beautiful are the positive comments...it's like a transcend of a voyage from a treacherous sea to that of a mild and smooth one after being so used to reading comments with Indian railway filths. Finally coming to my point, there is no dearth of people with such a view, minus your chaste writing skills, especially in this generation but where it fails always is when it comes to practical delivery, i.e., converting such thoughts into action, and I am no exception. We need a person who have noble thoughts like you do with a bit of Bal Thackeray, Raj Thackeray or a Hitler!! no..no..not all their political views but their oratoring skills, their convincing skill, their courage to stand up and command the masses. Thanks for reading.
fd
It feels really good to see people appreciate such thoughts.
Pr
Ur article is like a hot tea on cloudy-chilly winter days...it is really soothing. U hv a flair for writing. I'll b looking forward to reading more of ur articles...keep it up!!!
L Meitei
thanks Tomba for your positive thoughts and energy. we need people like you who can be the ray of hope in these dark and gloomy days of manipur.... keep it up..
