Month: August 2014

By M.C. Linthoingambee

One can say without any doubt that with the progress of time, human civilization has seen a varied number of stages. During the time of our forefathers, development of a road or a street led to building friendship, trade etc. This tradition is still on but the new added version of this event are the unwanted amount of pollution gathered on roads which in parts is also partly our own doing. We could still say that the literacy rate has been increasing and still increasing, and we have more and more number of people buying and owning cars but all these changes have not taught our race not to pollute. A person driving an Audi car or some such expensive car model will still throw out his finished pack of cigarette on the road by pulling down his window. Now, just who does he expect to pick up his discarded trash?

I recently watched a movie called “Lucy” where this girl Lucy had consumed a certain drug thus making her brain’s cerebral capacities to reach an optimum 100 percent. What would happen in real life if such a person who throws out garbage without realizing its effect were to function with such an amount of cerebral capacity although it is a mere hypothesis? This is currently the growing evolution of a human being. There are many places in the world where civic sense is often taught from a young age but in our country we are still novices just fighting to get the perfect parking spot, the last seat on the metro, and the clothes on sale and so on. But this joke of owning up to a better social strata is merely smeared by a person of the village whose lives still depends on the ecology of nature where they are taught to preserve what is given to them. But, we cannot negate the factor that there are also people who pick up after the causes and parents teaching their children to pick up a wrapper of a lollypop or some such packed stuff, which they were on the verge of littering.

The Environmental Laws of this country has been a safeguard to these mishaps but what was termed small scale pollution has reached a wider area with the increasing and growing number of industries and their own industrial wastes. Various legislations have been set into motion for control of our main requirements of air, water, forests, etc.. and some have seen effective implementation. There are people like MC Mehta in the field of legal profession who makes it their work to file for Public Interest Litigation (PIL) thereby affirming the rights of a large number of the public at large. And it is not easy to forget of the large number of people and organizations springing up to awaken the larger mass of the ill-effects we are putting ourselves in. A major effect of pollution to air was seen in the events of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy which released a large amount of intoxicated chemicals in the air, thus killing and severely injuring a number of people and their recuperating generations who are still handicapped as an evil of this accident. Where is the Right to Life of a common man? It is often the large corporations who win a battle at progress most of the time and there are still people with a less amount of compensation at hand who are still unable to make a day’s living. Can we really pay of a person’s life with money? Human beings have no valuation we are still at the mercy of our own kind where we do not know the account of somebody’s mistake would do to us. The Laws put in place are never enough to quantify a life and if such events are to recur we are partly to blame.

We could learn from Sri Lanka where the sole line of pollution control is solely dependent on the defense i,e, their military personnel who themselves sees to the effective utilization of pollution control in and out of their surroundings. This principle is also currently practiced in Imphal with the police working alongside the Imphal Municipal Council to arrest people who litter and contribute to pollutions and giving them a handsome fine for their actions. But how successful has this step been? Who is going to be weary of the many who still throws out their garbage in the Naga and Nambul turel (river) which now runs a stream of polluted garbage with a black stream? It is often said to know we are often the causes of our own miseries. My grandfather often told stories of how he and his friends and many others used to catch fish from these rivers. Those stories have remained as sad stories in our generation, telling us of a long ago time that have since disappeared.

There is a principle of Inter Generational Equity in law which states that what is once ours will become our children’s, so it is critical to ask whether we are really willing to leave our destruction for corrections to the future generations that is soon to come. A common generation of civic sense would teach us how to be polite to our environment. In the years to come, we can hopefully pray that the existence of trees and oxygen does not merely become a myth for the future

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2014/08/a-quote-from-the-streets/

By Malangba Bangormayum

Heard that his mother passed away. I called him to express my condolences. “She didn’t suffer. It all came to pass in a matter of a few minutes”, he told me. She was mother to six children. My friend was her youngest son, the fifth of six. Last time when I visited my friend, six months ago, I met her. She prepared me tea as I was about to leave. She had been through a minor heart attack. She was on medication for a skin condition for a very long – as long as my friend could remember. Though very fragile, not because of age but because of the drugs, one could still see that she must have been an extraordinary beauty at one point of time. That tea, I felt, had to be cherished considering the situation and the health condition of the one who was making and offering it. “Black-tea without sugar” brings amusement to many. She too was amused this time, as she was before. That tea became the last, a brief one, over which we had a conversation. I had to run somewhere.

Tea-drinking in some cultures have been taken to a different order. One can find the phenomenon of ritualised tea-drinking in these cultures where tea-drinking becomes a symbol of the value of everydayness and the significance of the moment. The acts of serving and receiving tea are done in the background of the realization that, that particular moment of togetherness might be the last. This could be a deeply unnerving realisation. The inevitability of death is unsettling. It can overpower, it can terrorize. The spectre of death, one’s own death could be frightening. But, it could be taken, and has been taken, as a launch-pad towards unimaginable freedom, wisdom and compassion: compassion towards oneself to start with. Death as the inevitable could give a perspective, perhaps the only anchorable perspective to life. Death can impregnate life with meaning, which otherwise could be an absurdity. If this makes sense then death becomes the reason for celebrating life, celebrating the moment. Death as an inevitable eventuality can make us realise eternity in the moment. To have lived a moment well is to have experienced eternity.

In some religions, the monks keep human skulls in their chambers. These relics of the transient nature of life are known as memento mori: a memento of the potentiality of one’s own death; the inevitable event, the inescapable horizon of the momentary ‘blip’ of one’s consciousness in the un-hemmed and infinite unknown. There is this church father. He was born in Tamil Nadu. In terms of age there is a big difference but circumstances have brought us together as friends. He told me, in one of our conversations over tea, that when he dies he shall be buried in a cemetery in Dimapur. It is part of their way of life to prepare their own grave while living. And he has prepared his there. They also have silent evening prayers, which are in preparation for the moment of death. They prepare to be ready to have a ‘happy’ death, with the grace of God. If one comes to think of it, there is an aspect of this attitude of acceptance of death in our community. We have a kind of tithing towards the wood for one’s own funeral pyre. This everydayness of death has to come with a certain maturity of consciousness.

I have always marvelled at courage in the face of death. When you don’t have something; it could happen that you marvel at it all the more. I have in mind the collected courage of the samurai warrior while crossing swords or religiously disembowelling oneself; the tranquillity of the one who said, “Tell them I had a good life” when breathing his last. I have marvelled how they could face death with such equanimity. The answer seems to lie in the preparation for, and acceptance of death.

When I was a school-going boy, I used to wait for the school bus in front of the crematorium. There was not much choice because that was the designated stop. Sometimes, the thought used to come that one day I too shall be going through those gates – horizontally.

An event of birth could be a plurality of events depending on how many different calendars you commit to. Though the event of one’s birth is the same for both the moon and the sun, the event’s return would be different according to different ways of marking days and seasons. It surprises many of my friends from other communities when I tell them that I have two birthdays. One, my mother celebrates by offering prayers to the Lord. One I celebrate with friends. The first one my mother celebrates with a preparation of kheer. The latter, I, were I a bit younger or a bit more trendy, would have celebrated with cakes and candles, things which my son associates with birthdays.

I was born on the day of a festival. And lovingly, this student of my father called me by the name of that festival. According to the tale that my mother tells me, he got the milk for the preparation of the kheer that is customary. He knew that my family was hard-pressed for money, so he got it. He passed away three years ago. I still owe him something for that milk that he got for my first ‘birthday celebration’. Or, is it my petty mind doing a mental transaction of what is owed and what is due? My birthday is round the corner. The festival on which I was born is coming. Let me celebrate it, and with it let me repay some part of the debts that I have incurred.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2014/08/memento-mori/

By Dr Khushboo Shah Sawant

When the climate keeps changing, children become the first casualty as they often fall ill, with the most common illness being fever. The first fever of a baby is often an extremely scary experience for the parents, who often begin to think of the worst possible consequences in the given scenario. However, most fever outbreaks are harmless and are caused usually by some mild infections, which invade the baby’s vulnerable body. These outbreaks are commonly self limiting in nature and get settled without any dire consequences. However, fevers can be a cause of concern for the parents especially in the first few months of life, as at that time the little one’s immune system is yet not as well developed to fight infections very well. It is of vital importance to check the temperature of your baby whenever you suspect he is having a fever. Any temperature recorded more than 100.4’F should be brought to the notice of the child’s doctor. This brings us to the question of how one can ascertain that the baby is having a fever for sure? The simplest way to check for fever is by placing your palm on the forehead and heels of the baby. If they feel hotter than usual then he probably may be having fever. A thermometer will help in accurately checking the temperature of the baby, and hence it is of great importance for parents to have a well functioning thermometer in the house at all times. Having said that, another most common cause of increased temperatures in babies is overdressing. Parents often go overboard in protecting the baby by dressing him up in multiple layers of clothing socks, caps etc. not realizing that the outside temperature may not need so much of dressing. This also leads to an increased temperature of the body, leading to incorrect assumptions.

When the baby has fever, it is hard for the parents to not feel worried, but the key is not to panic. But how does a person tell the difference if a fever is a mild infection or anything serious to be concerned about? Age is a vital factor; a fever in a baby under 3- 6 months of age is more serious than when it happens among babies who are older. Also if the baby is active and playful along with a high temperature then probably there is not much to be worried about, but ensure you keep a check for any other symptoms develop. Look out for symptoms like difficulty in breathing, loss of appetite etc. It is important to remember that a fever rises late in the afternoon and early evening and drops around midnight and early morning. Fever is often caused by various reasons, commonly due to common flu, the cough cold and fever trio, ear infections, respiratory illness, urinary tract infections, viral illnesses, mosquito borne diseases also fever can be caused due to teething troubles, vaccinations etc.

Fever may often be accompanied by irritability, the baby being extremely fussy, refusing to leave the mother, lethargic, not feeding well, crankiness, stuffy nose, changes in sleep patterns, or maybe convulsions in case the temperature is high.

At your level, if you suspect that the child has fever, get the body temperature checked and confirm the fever then, you can soothe your baby by ensuring he is well hydrated, by offering plenty of fluids to drink, and breast feed the child well if he is being breast fed, or you can even offer the child cooled boiled water if he has started outside feeds. If he wishes to rest, do not force him to move around, if he eats lesser than normal do not force feed the child. You can use cold fomentations on the baby like a sponge bath or cold cloth over his forehead to cool the body a little. If the child has developed a fever during the mosquito borne disease season especially during monsoons, then the child’s doctor should be consulted. If you wish to give the child paracetamol to help cope with the fever, a doctor must be consulted for the correct dosage as for babies, the exact dosage depends upon the weight of the child. One must remember to never try to self medicate the child and parents definitely should be more cautious if the child is under 6 months of age.

In case of any doubt, it is always advisable to consult the doctor rather than try assumptions at home. If your child has fever along with other symptoms which probably may be of serious nature, then immediate action should be taken: if the child is very drowsy or is sleeping for longer, has not had any drink of fluids for over 6-8 hours even in case of breast fed babies. If the baby has sunken eyes, dry lips or dark yellow urine, these could be sign of dehydration. Or if the baby has developed some kind of rash or skin eruptions. In case of high temperatures, some babies also get convulsions known as ‘febrile convulsions’. Febrile convulsions are a very frightening scene especially for parents to see their baby in the state, but are rarely harmful. They usually last under 20 seconds. While the baby is having a convulsion do not restrain the child but loosen any tight clothing and if the child has anything in her mouth try to remove it out. If the child gets a convulsion, take the child to the nearest hospital immediately or emergency care. More serious illnesses like meningitis may also cause a fever without any other significant symptoms, and so a regular check of the baby’s body temperature must be done. If the child’s temperature is rising then the child’s doctor must be called for immediate attention.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2014/08/young-ones-and-the-battle-against-fever/

By RK Lakhi Kant

Kingly authority, and ruling
without war equipments, is better;
Non-dependence on the ministers,
with no disrespect to their wisdom.

Voting is altogether different;
Can’t ask a layman to vote
on matters beyond his
capacity to understand.

Politicians do not have the
substance to explain
most or all things; political
propaganda is a hoarse call.

Intellectualism should take risks;
True intellectuals are beyond
the concern of politics;
Never within its ambit.

Intellectuals, comment on
social inequality; is it unavoidable?
Give free instructions
on any matter, importantly subjugation.

Non-political, non-profit
ideals can solve
the problem of pseudo ruling,
as is prevalent nowadays.

Kinship is important in monarchy
but no to dynastic rule,
seen as in India for long;
Nothing to do with the kinship of yore.

Righteous and liberal kings
like Raja Harishchandra are examples
in affairs of the state and community
in India; revive such sentiments.

We are wasting our time on
nuclear options and high-end
retail trade, even in foodstuffs,
just because everyone else is doing it.

How can nationalism grow
where one half works to
hurt as much as possible
the other half; voting leads to this.

Is this the intellect
the lawmakers uphold?
Cut throat competition not required;
More compassion, kindness, and service attitude.

Brotherhood is not seen – so much
is the overriding concern with ourselves;
In a city of millions
there is an undercurrent of
savage competition.

We want a free country, freshly
awakened and wisened from
the past ages of sufferings: a new morning,
a new daytime, and a new evening.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2014/08/one-voice-for-peace/