Manipur Bir Tikendrajit House in total disarray
NEW DELHI, May 19 : A rudderless ship, that is what Manipur Bir Tikendraji House at Chanakyapuri, South Delhi has been reduced to with the staff running around trying to keep the House in order. When The Sangai Express visited the State house, there .....
Incentives for Everesters
IMPHAL, May 19: The State Government will consider incentives that may be given to the five Manipuri mountaineers who have successfully scaled the world’s highest peak Mt Everest, informed the Chief Minister while talking with The Sangai Express. The.....
Governor, CM, Dy CM congratulate So far, six from State have scaled Everest
IMPHAL, May 19: Governor Gurbachan Jagat, Chief Minister O Ibobi and Deputy Chief Minister Gaikhangam have congratulated the team of the 1st North East Mt Everest Expedition 2013 on summiting the highest peak of the world. Gurbachan Jagat said that the.....
Cleanliness drive at Ima Keithel
IMPHAL, May 18: With an objective to keep Ima Keithel neat and clean, Blooming Manipur, Kangla (Facebook Group), Manipur Times, Manipur Photography Club, European Manipuri Asso-ciation (EMA) and Manipur Cycle Club jointly organised a cleanliness drive at .....
KNF celebrates raising day
IMPHAL, May 19: The Kuki National Front (KNF) celebrated its 26th raising day at Camp Ebenezer, Sadar Hills yesterday with more than 200 cadres and leaders. The raising day celebration started with a mass fasting prayer. Addressing the gathering KNF p.....
AIDS Candle Light Memorial Day Observed Solemnly NGOs urge for amended AIDS policy
IMPHAL, May 19 : While observing the International AIDS Candle Light Memorial Day at JN Dance Academy today, 16 NGOs have urged the authorities to implement an amended Manipur State AIDS policy within three months. Generally, International AIDS Candle.....
Rongali Bihu
IMPHAL, May 19:The Asom Samaj Manipur hosted Rongali Bihu celebration at Devalaya Mandir, Kalibari (Thangal bazar) today with Education Minister M Okendro Singh gracing the celebration as the chief guest. While Okendro conveyed warm wishes to the Assam.....
To check frauds and money swindling Economic offence wing set up
IMPHAL, May 19: With the primary objective of checking the practice of swindling money from the public by non-banking financial companies (NBFC), an Economic Offence Wing has been set up in Manipur Police Department. The Economic Offence Wing was set .....
Guardians' body takes up street vendors' cause
IMPHAL, May 19: Noting that upper floors of the three market complexes at Khwairamband keithel are yet to be occupied, All Manipur Students' Guardians' Organisation has proposed that the Government of Manipur provide trading slots to women street vendors .....
DU admissions
IMPHAL, May 18 : Delhi University has announced the dates for undergraduate admissions for the academic session 2013-2014. It will commence on June 5 and continue till June 19, said a press release issued by Naga Students’ Union, Delhi. Unlike las.....
Ex-rebels are not untouchables : Dy CM
IMPHAL, May 19: Stating that the State Government has initiated several measures to bring insurgents on the path of peace, Deputy Chief Minister Gaikhangam has called upon all the people not to view or treat former rebels who have laid down arms and retu.....
UG cadres surrender
IMPHAL, May 19: Security forces of Red Shield Division recovered a huge cache of arms and ammunition buried under ground in 2007 by a cadre of UPPK at the foothills of Thangjing ridge, said a PIB (DW) release that identified the UG cadre as SS Capt Moiran.....
ZU concerned
IMPHAL, May 19:Zeliangrong Union (Assam, Manipur, Nagaland) has expressed concern over the death of an NSCN (IM) cadre in a reported gunfight with ZUF cadres yesterday. In a press release, ZU (AMN) said that it has always been working for maintaining p.....
Tousem body
IMPHAL, May 19:Development Committee Tousem Block 52-Tamei AC has drawn the attention of Chief Minister O Ibobi regarding bad road conditions of the Sub-Division. In a press release, the committee said that the Chief Minister had promised during his vi.....
Hurt in mishap
IMPHAL, May 19:Three youngsters, who were riding a brand new Yamaha FZ motorcycle, met with an accident in front of Mantripukhri headquarters of 69 Bn CRPF this evening. According to an informed source, the biker trio hit the road median and rolled sev.....
MLA inspects
IMPHAL, May 19:Ahead of the monsoon season, Yaiskul AC MLA E Chand today conducted a field inspection of the vulnerable sections of Imphal river bank within Yaiskul Assembly segment together with IFC officials. Observing that many excavations dug up fo.....
Hate the person who breaks traffic rules
If you think no one is watching then you are mistaken! But unfortunately, I am not a traffic cop who will jump in front and enforce you fine for breaking the traffic rule. It is the general Indian nature of carelessness and interpretation of pampered free.....
Traditional healing methods with special reference to Manipur
By Dr K Paochunbou Every ethnic community in Manipur has well-established knowledge, skills, beliefs and practices relating to promotion of positive health and avoidance of sickness even before the hospital oriented system of medicine. In an old civiliza.....
Mis-selling Insurance
By Dipankar Jakharia Not a single week goes by when I am not asked by my readers about an ULIP policy they have invested and now feels as if they have been ripped-off by it. I have written many a times before and ready to write many a time in future abou.....
World Migratory Bird Day 2013
Large scale climatic changes, as have been experienced in the past, are expected to have an effect on the timing of migration. Studies have shown a variety of effects including timing changes in migration, breeding as well as population variations due to .....
My Turn
By : Ranjan Yumnam
Is the Imphal City liveable ?
The only thing I like about Imphal is its weather. Other than its pleasant weather, there is nothing great or extraordinary about this city. My favourite city would be Delhi had it not been for its scorching heat. It is the political bastion of the country where the movers and shakers of India and Bharat rub shoulders—the suave sophisticated elites and the uncouth nouveau rich from the hinterlands. Delhi also occupies a special place in my heart because it is where I studied and worked for years. Compared to it, Imphal is a non-entity, a nondescript Lilliputian village.
On the same note, Imphal is like a God forsaken city. I can’t find any compelling reason for it to be described as even remotely phenomenal. It doesn’t even have a claim to 15-minute fame. Buddha was not born here. Dalai Lama doesn’t live here. Osama bin Laden didn’t hide in a cheap hotel in Imphal. It’s not a coastal city endowed with sea beaches with foreign tourists clad in bikini enjoying sunbath. It’s not a business centre like Mumbai, or a regional hub like Guwahati. It’s not a cultural city like Rome famous for its architecture and arts. Imphal is not Mecca. Neither is Imphal the Silicon Valley, nor is it Sicily ruled by Mafia dons. It is a Zero. It’s a sleepy place punctuated by crude bomb blasts, which are orchestrated in the most cowardly and clumsy manner that smacks of amateurism.
My idea of a liveable city is very elementary. For a city to be tolerable, it should not be boring. It should have a thriving cultural scene and be stirring with activities that appeal to different tastes and types of people. If you ask me what I would want from a city on a weekend, I would say I would fancy visiting a restaurant that has a live band playing my favourite songs on request. I would like to go to a decent theatre that screens the “Fast and Furious” movie. I wish to visit a lively art gallery where new and upcoming artistes showcase their works and interact with the patrons over high tea. I want to visit a library that stocks the latest titles of Paulo Coelho and poetry of W.H Auden. These and such many other simple pleasures of life which are taken for granted and deemed rudimentary elsewhere simply don’t exist in Imphal.
Size of a city also matter. What I hate about Imphal is its lack of anonymity. If you sneeze, half the denizens of the city would know about it, and by corollary, if you are caught on the wrong side of a rumour, it will be hard to untangle from it. The city is so small and its density of population so modest, living in Imphal is like turning off your privacy settings of your Facebook account. Anything we blurted out off guard to an acquaintance will be a public knowledge tomorrow addled with some interesting twists and asides. Because of this dreadful prospect, you are forced to live like a monk or atleast start pretending to be one.
Imphal city in its present form looks hideous. It resembles a devastated site of war. The eviction of houses and businesses to widen roads has led to the “aesthetic breakdown” of the city. Even when she is not molested by such violence, the Imphal city is in need of a radical makeover. The Paona Bazar and the Thangal Bazar, arguably the Connaught Place of Manipur, are a living specimen of what markets should not look and feel like. The sheer congestion, lack of compliance to fire safety norms, the utter lack of style and proportion, absence of parking space, etc has made going to these markets an ordeal, not a pleasurable experience to look forward to.
Forget the chaotic public spaces, look at the scene of private property in the residential zones. It totally baffles me why private residences of the affluent Imphalites look so drab and dull. There are so many big houses in Imphal with interior designing done exquisitely with the most expensive paints, furniture and trendy accessories. Inside they may look like a 5-star hotel, but from outside they look like deserted warehouse of rotten potatoes—grey and indistinguishable from the dust and grime that characterise much of the landscape of the city. Why don’t we paint the exterior of our houses with lively colours and transform the greyish outlook of the city to one of vivid youthfulness? If you can build a multi-storey building, I am sure you can also buy some decent weather paint to give your house a lustre. I seriously wish there was a law to make people paint the facade of their houses and be a little more happening.Consider this irony. Though Imphal does not inspire a modicum of an impression of being a thriving city, it is sad that it is grappling with all the problems that a typical full-fledged city faces: traffic snarls, water clogging, pollution, high crime rate, power cuts, inflation and urban decadence, if not debauchery. Come to think of it: in terms of access to modern amenities, I suspect people living in Dharavi slums in Mumbai are more fortunate than the city slickers of Imphal!
What makes a city great then? First, it should have a balanced mix of nature’s greenery and manmade structures which are environment-friendly. Second, diversity is important for a city to imbue cosmopolitan values with a culture of tolerance. Third, stability is another factor, but a mild feeling of looming danger is welcome to make your adrenaline gushing and make a city exciting. Fourth, the city should be eccentric and eclectic; it should promise something for all sorts of people of varied taste and temperament. The yoga centre should have a piano school as its neigbour, for example. Healthcare should be easily accessible to different classes of clientele ranging from the fussy foreigners to the village yokels. Fifth, there should be no dearth of recreation centres, which have doubly become necessary in the present times to wean the youths away from drugs and other undesirable activities induced by an epidemic called idleness. Sixth, a great city should never sleep—a city that slumbers away during night is a dead city. I am not talking about late night discos or partying hotspots. It could be petrol pumps, ATM machines, airport, drugs store, etc. which can remain open 24X7. Seventh, infrastructure and public utilities/services like good roads, uninterrupted power supply, drinking water, communication facilities, transportation etc should not be missing in a city; devoid of these obvious necessities, can a place be called a city? (By this yardstick, is Imphal a city?). Eighth, a city’s citizenry should have civic sense and altruistic attitude, which can foster cleanliness and culture of discouraging crimes, theft and assault against women. Tenth, traffic in a city should be managed smartly so that commuting to work is painless and smooth. There should be no two sets of rules for ordinary people and so called VIPs.
Sadly, Imphal does not meet many of these criteria and the verdict is that it is one of the worst cities without even the basic amenities of minimum standards. But Imphal, nonetheless is a great city, not because of what it doesn’t have but because of the wonderful people inhabiting this strip of territory. Despite the depressing level of standards of living in Imphal, it is home to many brilliant people of outstanding talent who go on blazing trails and achieving recognition and accolades, not only in India but at the international stage. Our players trained in the modest facilities of Imphal have vanquished opponents of much advanced countries. Our cultural exponents are being feted by the world in the sphere of theatre, drama and films—even winning prestigious national and international awards.
If Imphal is poor, dirty and decrepit, it also has taught its people the indomitable spirit of dreaming BIG and proving to the world that we can do it against all odds.
It is that spirit of Imphal—of never giving up against insurmountable handicaps—which I salute. Our umbilical cord is irrevocably tied to Imphal, and we can never sever it. Whatever Imphal is—a pathetic city with all its shortcomings—this place is our own.
So what? Imphal may not be liveable, but it’s lovable. I am proud of this city!
jyotishman
You, see, i can fully uunderstand your frustration stemming from a stay in Imphal. In Delhi, you could get an eyeful of the beautiful Manipuri woman (a handful if you were a 'proper' Delhiite). In Imphal, you cannot dare to get beyond an eyeful althoug
Simon Laishram
Like most fortunate's who've been educated outside the state and country, it is not difficult to condemn or criticize the state of affairs in Imphal or Manipur in general. We, however need to know that it is only us who can make the required difference
Ngamkhohao Hangsing
First, kudos to simon for the wonderful comment. And Mr.respected ranjan, please read his comment if u have time.
K Darwin
It is difficult to believe, that any man can be so spiritually dead as to have no love for his fatherland, and to feel no pride and pleasure when he returns to his native country after travelling in foreign lands. But if such an unpatriotic person does exist, take careful note of his career; and you will find that he will never inspire poets to celebrate him in deathless song. He may be a man of high rank, of noble family and of riches beyond the dreams of avarice; but these great advantages will not save him from oblivion. In spite of them all, he will win no fame during his lifetime and when he dies, he will die in a double sense. His body will return to the dust whence it came, and his name will be forgotten. None will weep for him, none will honour him, and no poet will keep his name alive in immortal poetry ------> Taken from “The Lay of the Last Minstrel" by Sir Walter Scott.
NAMELESS WARRIOR...
Nice one indeed i think those who have readed only few lines or has not understood fully have taken ur butifuly ctafted satire as in other wat. Sometime truth is so bitter & cruel that people fight with thier bone &marrow to deny d reality, so they ptetend in outside everything is okay even though they are already half buried.
Truth is truth
It needs a lot of courage to speak the truth. It is true that one walks in Imphal city in fear and wants to run home b4 d sun sets. Then where is our peace n freedom in this city of Manipur?
Reality Speaks itself
In metros like Delhi,Mumbai,Benglore etc, people specially NE lives in panic stricken type lifestyle.There is widespread fears looming large of target by HUJI,Indian Mujahideen,etc. People fears their daughter will be gaged, Kidnaped & raped, even in moving cars etc. There are also afraid of being fallen into trafficker hand which could land them in brothels. The dictact of Khap Panchayat & honour killing plague some of these metros resulting in female foetus being killed. Like Nithiari killings, 1984 Sikh Riots, frequent serial blast, Upahaar Cinema hall intentional fire incidents just to claim insurance etc, sents negative impression to all. So, where is the freedom in metro, where rumour mongering morons, rapist, terrorist, girl-trafficker roams every day & now?
