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.....
Diaspora Speak
By : Dr Irengbam Mohendra Singh
What is love
“I love you” is three very powerful words in any language. It can be very peasant as well as hurtful. Let’s look at the following Meitei love song.
Nungshi kari oirasige
nuja wakhan thenmaline?
Nungshi nasunglangidamak
kaikharene aigee thamoi.
Nungshi napao tadringei
pammu koloi sengdringei
Nungshibana hallure
wakhan ishang tharure
Nuja wakhan thenmaline!
Nungshi ipakta langtharamlaga
khambi meibu chubiramlaga
Nura pukning honglagera
Nungshi samai leiragera?
Pakhang pukning longdringei
nungshi chenglou mutringei
Pakhang thawai kalamkho
Nungshi paomenakhisiko.
Nuuja wakhan thenmanline!
Translated in English: my love is unchartered, how thoughtless of you (to let me down)? For your love’s sake my heart was broken. Ere I heard your affectionate words and knew your adoring name, I was bewildered by the force of colourful romantic visions of your love. How thoughtless of you!
After throwing me into the ocean of love with an ignited heart, are you going to change your mind and turn your tender face from me? Before my youthful musing tempers and your rapturous face becomes a shadow, please come and save my life. Let’s have the lovers’ last ‘sweet nothings’. How thoughtless of you!
This song is my all time favourite from a drama at the Rupmahal Theatre in Imphal, which I saw when I was in class ix. The heroine was a beautiful actress Bimala Devi from Keismapat and the hero, Laisram Biren from Yaiskul.
I love this song that describes an ‘unrequited love’, not only because it has a touching melody but I can’t fathom the potent feelings that this character has, being in love. I have never had such an experience.
I know that a person in love can feel something in the left chest in front of the heart. That’s why the English phrase – ‘from the inmost recesses of my heart’.
In medicine, a person in extreme stress or a broken love affaire, can feel some oppressive discomfort in the left chest wall in front. It is called ‘Da Costa’s syndrome’ It has many other names. It is a psychiatric disorder from an anxiety state, mimicking a heart condition. I’m not saying that love is a psychiatric condition, but an emotive condition.
But what is love? From my young days I never believed there is such a thing as love. I have never been “in love” with any girl for whom I could jump off a cliff.
Love is an attraction for a face to begin with, and then followed by attachment with relationship. The culmination of love is to get together and live as wife and husband. Once that is done, ‘the feeling of love’ seems to ebb. It may end up with negative feelings of love, described in Meiteilon: louramdaida kang manbi, khainaramdaida yong manbi ie while courting, as smooth and charming as ‘Kang’ seed of a creeper and while divorcing, as nasty as a monkey. This is the comedy of love.
Boys usually boys fall in love with any good-looking girl they see, but girls are emotional and fall in love with what they hear. Usually they model the men they fall in love with, after their own father if they had a caring and nurturing father.
During my school days I had my share. I had my window shopping of pretty girls but I could not afford them. At the end of my schooling I met one I could afford at a discount. Our romance was mostly through love letters, saying things parrot-like, I love you, and meeting about once a year. Both were students, thousands of miles apart. I was in Darjeeling, Bombay or somewhere else and she was in Delhi.
In the years to come we parted our ways. She got married to someone else, but I did not end up like Sharukh Khan in Dev Das. I don’t know my relationship with her was love but I was quite attached to her. I am now very happy married with children and more emotionally attached to my wife.
I still do not know what love is. I rarely say to my wife I love her, or to my children. I have a deep feeling of attachment for them. This may be what is known as love.
I have heard about Mainu Pemcha, Usman Thambal (Manipuri), Romeo and Julie (Genoa Italy), Laila Majnu (Arabia), Sohni Mahiwal (Punjabi). They all seem to be a bit psychiatric.
Poets, philosophers and authors have tried to define love for centuries. The Urdu poets are extremely good in describing love as the language is very rich.
The old Hindi (Urdu) song from the movie “Chaudvi ka Chaand” – a Lucknow-based Shia Muslim social with Waheeda Rehman, which I saw while in the medical college, is such a classic:
Cahudvi ka chand ho, ya aaftaab ho, jo bhi ho tum khuda ki kasam, lajawab ho.
Zulfein hain jaise kaandhe pe badal jhuke hue, aankhen hai jaise maey ke pyaale bhare hue; Masti hai jisme pyaar ki tum, woh sharaab ho; Chehra hai jaise jheel mein khilta hua kamal, ya zindagi ke saaz pe chhedi hui ghazal; Janne bahaar tum kisi shaayar ka khwaab ho. Translated in English:
Whether it is the moon on the fourteen days (full moon) or the sun, whatever you are, upon God’s oath, you are without an answer. Your hair is such that it looks like clouds bent over your shoulders. Your eyes are as attractive as the containers full of liquor; you are that alcohol that is filled with a zest for love. Your face is like a blooming lotus in the lake, or like an ode that has been plucked on the instrument of life. O soul of spring, you are the dream of a poet.
From evolutionary and anthropological points of view, I believe love is essential for living together and surviving. Without love we cannot survive as a species. There will be no reproduction and if parents do not look after the newborns we will all become extinct.
That goes for the animal kingdom where they do seem to have love, call it “instinct”- a word I am not fond of. They have brain that functions. Animals have feelings of love.
Philosophy and religion have done many speculations on the phenomenon of love. Psychiatry, biology and the neuroscience have also dissected it. Psychology portrays love as a cognitive phenomenon with a social cause. There are no ways of measuring love.
Scientists have recently begun to look into it. Arthur Aron, a social psychologist at Stony Brook University in New York, has done some research (2005) on ten women and seven men who had fallen in love within the last one to seventeen months.
The participants were put in MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) machines, and shown pictures of their beloved, interspersed with pictures of neutral acquaintances. When the participants viewed images of their partners, the ‘ventral tegmental area’ of their brain (mid brain), which houses reward and motivation systems as well as love and psychiatric disorders, was flooded with the chemical dopamine – (released at the nerve ending for the transmission of messages) when you are doing something highly pleasurable, like eating chocolate.
Larry Young, a psychiatric professor at the Yerkes National Primate (highly developed apes with large brain including man) Research Centre at Atlanta, Georgia, showed that the activation of this part of the brain is linked to motivation and achieving goals, excessive energy, losing sleep, euphoric feelings and occasionally, anxiety and obsession.
Dr Helen Fisher, an anthropologist, of Rutgers University, New Jersey, who has been studying the subject for 32 years, has divided love into three entities: lust, romance and attachment. These three brain systems can operate in any order and in any combination.
Attachment is bonding. According to Fisher, after the dopamine surge, two key hormones – oxytocin and vasopressin (released by the Pituitary gland in the brain) enter the picture, encouraging couples to form emotional bonds. Oxytocin is released in humans during intimate moments such as prolonged eye contact, hugging, holding hands etc. It’s also causes mothers to bond with infants.
Vasopressin is also linked to bonding. The study also showed that a variant of vasopressin receptor was correlated with infidelity and fear of commitment.
All these chemical and hormones released in ‘new love’ help ensure that we mate and stay together long enough to reproduce offspring. But once they have subsided, you know what happens. They become like monkeys (yong manba).
When the secretion of dopamine is excessive it overrides the region of the brain that governs logic. It then becomes ‘infatuation’. It becomes almost like an addiction to be together and an odd one is likely to jump off a cliff when given a cold shoulder.
In conclusion, whatever love is, there can be no doubt, even from a scientific point of view, there is a potent feeling that ‘being in love’ elicits. Fortunately or unfortunately I will never know it. Not that I am sorry about it as I have biologically fulfilled what love is supposed to mean.
The writer is based in the UK
Email: imsingh@onetel.com
Website: www.drimsingh.co.uk
NAMELESS WARRIOR..
To know love is like knowing the very essence of this life or in a simple words knowing the God himself. If we lay down in the biological line evrything can be simplify in the chemical cordination in our body that is very true & it is also very true that we lost the essence of love & life in that quest or process also bcoz love & life is not wat we cud be able to study or manipulate in lab but it is kinda thing that we only understand when we only live with it until & unless we do so we wont never experience it. It is simply exactly like as we look at a lifeless painting of beatiful sunset & trying to understand wat actually we mean a beautiful sunset, so untill & unless we dare to go out see by ourself it beauty or live with it we wont never get that glims of beautiful sunset. One more eg, it is like as if we are trying to quench the real thirst of water simply chewing a piece of paper with a written note of H2O in that peice of paper, but we all know it wont kill our thirst but we human expect to be so & this is wat all our so called intellectual & knowlegible people does with few reality of life even after knowing that we cant get nearby of it untill & unless we live with it or drown ourself in it. Philosophy & science wont never ever be able to reach to that realm of certain truth of life that cant no be answer or at the most they will conclude at the ends such thing never exist at all, it were happen to be so & it were happen to be failed bcoz they were trying to corner down the infinite i.e Love or God through our mere knowledge we gather from here & there. Do we ever try to understand why every relationship lost it glory as the time passes by ???? Answer never leis to do Love but to ourself , bcoz it similar as if we were trying to filled the void inside us with another void , that is exactly wat we all are trying to do when we get involve with someone in a relationship, a void or emptiness inside us trying to filled with another emptiness or void. It wont never happen at the first place bcoz no one can satisfy our emptiness other than ourself & trying to filled that emptiness through other will be always like chasing our own shadows in a dark room, that is why every marriage ends as soon as the honeymoon get over. To understand it the only thing we got in our hand is we gotta to accept its mystery & awe, simply trying to understand & just living with it. I do hope by doing so & simply surrendering ourself to the very source of life without any resistance from ourself, someday who knows we might stumble upon the reality itself as knowing the love itself is like knowing the God himself. LET IT BE....
