The Pursuit of Peace

We prove the Mayan myth wrong. The world did not end on 21st December. However, most of us were sickened by the unwanted curfews and general strikes in the form of protests over the molestation case of an artist from the film fraternity. The ending of this year has been a spoiler. The unwanted issues have dampened the festive spirit. Many of us had celebrated Christmas with a sober mood. Many of us, in fact, wished that the world had ended instead of going through the entire agitations and protests in the last few days.

Manipur has always been famous for the wrong reasons — insurgency, armed conflict, bomb blasts, blockades, curfews, extortions. We have formed many Joint Action Committees. We have protested endlessly in the streets and roads. We have formed enough mobs; we have burned tyres, blocked roads, destroyed vehicles. We have done everything in the name of protest. We have even lost many innocent victims like the unfortunate cameraman recently. Asibana maangjare has been the norm, whether we like it or not. I extend my heartfelt condolence to the bereaved family of the victim. I condemn the inhumane act of Manipur police personnel. They can shoot us anytime as if they are licensed to kill us. I must not forget to mention that AFSPA has been a memorable gift from India.

Next to the security personnel, I abhor those who mislead many of us with unnecessary rumours every now and then, during an ongoing ruckus. I know not the solution of any political or social unrest but I would never suggest or think about a violent protest by destroying properties, burning vehicles and pelting stones everywhere. We, the Manipuris, have proved it in the past and we did prove it recently how rebellious we are. I appreciate the rebellious spirit among us but it is intolerable on many occasions.

I am equally scared to know that most of have a shallow understanding of the issues that affect our society. A collective and logical sense of the right and the wrong is somehow missing in the context. We love our state. We can do anything to preserve and protect its territorial integrity. Alright, we know it and people in their right mind will appreciate the spirit. But the unanswered questions persist — Where is our stand? Why are we so desperate to wage a civil war, fighting for separate homelands? Why is there a deep mutual disrespect and mistrust?

The chingmi-tammi issue is an endless discussion. Have we ever noticed how many years we have brooded over this topic? How many opinions have we wasted? But the outcome has always been abysmal. With due regard to all the greedy (feudal and power-thirsty) people, I have a question for them. Why don’t you just stop molesting and raping the territorial integrity of the state? Just get a life. Enough is enough.

We just cannot add an unwanted communal colour to the chingmi-tammi issue. A criminal or a miscreant has no caste, creed or community. As for the recent molestation case, we must be aware of many Livingstones around us. We have to take up proper measures to make sure his tribe does not increase.

If we are ready for a revolution, let us revolutionize our mentality first. Let us gather not for the mob justice, but to discuss ideas that would offer a solution to our problems. No one can threaten our territorial integrity as long as we are together. United we stand, divided we fall. It is as simple as that.

Let us try to integrate what has been disintegrated over the years. Cowards find many reasons to spread hatred and turmoil everywhere. Brave people have their own conviction. Come what may, they stick to it. It is your choice whether you want to be addressed as a coward or a brave heart. Let us be ashamed of our moronic attitude, let us stop preparing ourselves for a civil war. Let us harmonize, let us spread the message of love and peace everywhere.

Are you with me as a Manipuri—not as a Chingmi, Tammi or Paangal—to reconstruct a Manipur where we can collectively work together for a social, political and economic growth? We know the state is in a rotten condition. Let us not get used to the stinks. Let us lend our hands to declutter the mess.

We do not have 24 hours power supply in our state, we do not have enough drinking water, we do not have good roads. Every sector in our state needs introspection. We must find out the problems, discuss the probable solutions and accordingly plan, discuss and act. Let us stop dyeing our minds with unwanted communal colours. Let us bid a formal adieu to 2012. Let us celebrate a new year, free of hatred and bitterness. Join me in the pursuit of peace. We badly need it.

This article was published on 6 Jan 2013

A Letter From Miss Peace

A few weeks back, I received a very special letter (in one of my dreams though) signed by someone called ‘Peace’. Here’s the letter that moved my heart:

Dear Eta,

My name is ‘Peace’. I hope I haven’t become alien to you or anyone in our lovely home State. If I have been long forgotten, I bear a deep pain in my heart. I was shooed away from the State some years back and have been taking refuge in a bizarre place where I am not much at home. Eta, do I need to tell you how much I miss my home and my people out there? I want to come back and be with the folks again but no one is calling me back there. I wish you could do something for me. Or are you also sailing in the same boat?
I think no one ever wants me back in the State, especially when people seem to be busy rebuking and detesting one another as if they are born with a loathsome obligation. Sometimes it’s quite a puzzle that dazzles them each and every time they look forward to finding the real problem to seeking the right solution. But yes, the valleys and the hills—they know it all. Though they can’t speak out anything, they all know who started what, when, why and how.
While the real perpetrators boisterously loiter around, our people have so far resorted to blame games all the way triggering the problem to a more elevated level instead of finding the means and measures to resolve it together. Well, it is quite shameful to admit but this hatred seems to be gradually killing them all before the real death that is ordained for each one of them. Meanwhile, the dogs keep barking though no one let them out. A funny revelation is that the dogs were innocently imported, trained and tasked to hoarsely and rowdily bark and scare the hell out of them. Oh! Dear, it’s better to forsake the poor dogs that are at least loyal to their owners. God Bless Them At Least For Their Dutifulness.

By and by, amidst all the mayhems, more than my absence, I feel terribly sorry for the ‘Once upon a time happy valleys and tranquil hills’ that are unknowingly compelled to involve in all these sickening messes. Of late, people have created many despicable ghosts on their minds and these ghosts haunt them every time they want to dream of me. Smokes keep flaring up from the valleys all the way making the hills tearful and the same valleys are but flooded by the tears from the hills. The times, they are indeed changing from bad to worse. From cheerful to tearful days, everyone has seen it all. And what’s more saddening is that the seasons have even changed their colours so far. The wind of erroneous animosity sweeps to and fro the valleys and the hills and vice versa. It seems like things are not going to stop for a long time or is it something like some mongers never want these unwanted things coming to a death-end? I am not sure, Eta, if I should ask or discuss this but why don’t they just adjourn the court forever and let these mongers rest peacefully somewhere in a mental asylum? Maybe they need a ‘Judge’ to suspend the case, but this judge in question seems to be nowhere in sight.

Eta, I am really sorry to relate you all these woeful accounts. I just want to share my grief with you dear that it simply doesn’t make any sense why I have been shooed away from home like this as if I am so unwanted. However, I blame none but my fate and I am still hopeful no matter what, why and how. I will eagerly wait for that day when I would be called back home and be with you all again.
Till the D Day, please pray for me.

Missing you all badly
Peace

Duh! That was quite a dream, quite a letter too and I got a little confused about the dream letter from Miss Peace. She just mentioned her name as Peace without any surname, without any insinuation of a clan or a community. Maybe she was trying to be politically correct using just a name, maybe she belongs to none of the communities in Manipur. Lucky Peace as for us it is a different case. A Hindu or Paangan name is as much different from a Meitei name. Like wise, a Naga name is as much different from a Kuki name. Thenceforth, we can easily figure it out whom to befriend with and who to ignore just from a mere name or surname, right?

Forget it all, we should instead try to launch a ‘Call Peace Home’ crusade. After all, the valleys and hills do have hearts and they will wholeheartedly support the cause. Let us wipe away the tears and hold festoons in our hands to call Peace home and give her a chance to breathe in the Shirui breeze or just let her relax beside the Kangla Fort, what say?

This article was published on 3 Sep 2011