Tag: Articles-Opinions

Modern Inflation

By M.C. Linthoingambee

If we are asked to mention a period or phase of time when we took everything for granted, a majority of us would point out the time when we were children and when our parents and older family members looked after our needs and we just took things for granted. The same goes for me but now, living independently in another city has made me realize just how much the rates of modern inflation is hitting me.

The grocery rates keep on increasing at a pace far beyond our social strata in an unexpected rate while one cannot forget the monopoly of the *sabjiwala* presiding in a particular residential era. While the rate of tomatoes go far exceedingly to the context of Rs.100/kg, there were those times when we wouldn’t even bother if tomatoes laid exceedingly in our own households back home. But if asked of the rates back home in Manipur, I wouldn’t know. When we narrate these stories they are not to be taken lightly since a large portion of the economy are deeply affected by it. Looking into the perceptive lens, more than 60% of the population is mainly comprised of those who are still unable to afford the basic necessities of life. Doesn’t this general price expectancy every now and then affect these people more? While we sit in our homes lax about the concerns of inflation, there are many, who suffer from the cause of malnutrition while not having the capacity to afford the required amount of calorie intake they are need to be taking. While the Japanese investments ties recently with India acquired by our new Prime Minister continue to make headlines, things are the same back home. The temperamental stand of filling up foe cooking gas is also a huge issue in everyday life, while some are more inclined to use the pipeline system of receiving gas into their homes, there are also those who stand in long queues to acquire a tank of gas. Remembering how our family elders use to stand in those lines to acquire their gas slip at MM Gas, Hirangchal Gas Agency and so on. I recently learnt that we need to book gas cylinders days before they are actually delivered.

When many of these daily requirements are going on price rise, shouldn’t we be looking at the production rather than cutting down on un-acquired land? When a promise of development springs up there are always those talks of certain lands being acquired by government. And when the right to property has been exclusively removed from our fundamental rights, it becomes explicitly easier for authorities to strip away people of their homes. The meager amount of compensation is not enough to meet the new house hunt considering the price rise in acquiring a new land or a new home. While the deal of houses are valued not anywhere less than 60 lacs and above in the capital of India itself, where can we expect those people who are considered ‘poor’ to go for that matter if they are driven out of their homes. There are still villages existing, surviving even in the small corner of Delhi, “The New-Delhi” and while the government fail to look their way, we bear witness to corporate ambitions to acquire that land in the hope of building new corporations where they claim youths will have a further chance of employment. Seeing how both are needed, we are talking about life and job both being necessarily pickled and sandwiched to choose from. The public trust doctrine is something we often come across in spite of our ignorance. While the Ambani brothers very often wage law suits on many matters currently being that of natural gas, the judiciary has awarded them with the ratio of determining that natural gas is a naturally occurring substance, and it should not be the cause of feud between brothers. Those notably MBA degrees only seem to let them see only profits (money) over people. The social justice principles in our parent legislation of the Constitution seem to be taking fewer tolls on these heavily armed increases. As a matter of which, using gas or electricity for the purpose of cooking have not taken affect. A large number of families are forced to use *chullahs and firewood *which are naturally available. These uses produces a large amount of smoke which causes air pollution that result in producing a harmful effect to our environment whilst causing a large amount of carbon monoxide compounds to be released in air that further adds to the green-house effect and cause respiratory problems and other ill diseases to its end users. As a matter of which a large affect is cause on our public health which is in gross violation of fundamental right to live and exist in personal liberty.

And these are not the only fixated problems that need solving; there is also the issue of sanitation being a primary concern. A recent article on *Civic Sense* in The Times of India written by Jug Suraiya pointed out that in spite of the new government’s promises to build new sanitation systems for women who do not have the necessary input of disposing of their natural business at night, shouldn’t we be focusing more on correcting those men who seem to enjoy taking a dump in a busy street in view of the public. While certain public restrooms may charge a price for the purpose, perhaps building more public houses of sanitary needs without a price might change the outlook of these men, who believe that paying for natural relieve is an evil into their wallets.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2014/09/inflation-has-been-defined-as-the-general-issue-of-price-rise-in-our-economy-and-the-modern-developments-often-add-on-to-these-worry/

Malangba Bangormayum

Sometimes, thereare gaps between intent and action. This gap, for me, is most visible in the arts. We have ample exemplars of this phenomenon.A devout faithful can sing the glory of the Lord, but to the effect that the auditor runs away for her dear life. On the other hand, a sinner can sing the same glory, and you are transported, while your feet are firmly rooted to the ground you stand. I have been puzzled by this observation. Thinking about this reminds me of a story once told to me. It involves a cow.

There are some localities with a wee-bit more enthusiasm when it comes to the arts and performances, entertainmentand festivities. In one such locality, and knowing its tradition of patronage of the arts, a newly constituted theatre company, made up mostly of inexperienced artists approached the local club to have a premiere of their new production. A day and place for performance was fixed, the microphones and the mikes were put in place and the performance started. It was clear that the performance was a bad one from the first act, and there was a general apprehension that it might turn worse. The audience bore the performance with fortitude. Bad performances can make you weep. It can be a real torture. A youth, who could not take it anymore, released a cow tethered nearby, and made it charge towards the performance. The audience ran amok.The‘male actresses’ also ran with shouts of “mother”, I was told. When the melee settled, there was a real drama to follow. The owner of the cow, greatly peeved and humiliated, and in defense of the honour of his cow that has been blamed for the mischief, the abortion of the performance, challenged whoever released the cow to come forward and make himself known. He challenged the unknown miscreant to a manly fight. Though everyone had the fright of their lives, they must have secretly blessed the cow.

There are moments when one feels that there is more than what meets the eye. There are times when one feelsthat what we see may not be all to what there is.There could be a realm that is beyond us. This ‘transportation’happens. The first time I felt, if for just a moment, that there must be more than what meets the eye, was during the performance of a famous Requiem by a choir with a splendid orchestra, in a cathedral. It was magical. Closer home the feeling of an extraordinary dimension came at a performance of RasLeela many years ago. I had gone there to call someone, not to witness the performance, not to prostrate in devotion. But that single minute of watching it unfold, from a respectable distance, has had an impact which has outlasted the distance of time. No wonder then that art has been used to win over those who do not believe. Faith has been expressed, propagated, instilled by the ‘instrumentality’ of art. No wonder, it has also been used to make money.

Is art just an artifice? Is it something that befools you; throws dust upon your eyes? Is art an instrument to making profit to a point of vulgarity?Yet,this vulgaritypales in comparison to the vulgarity that is there in trying to hide the intention of profiting with pretension of authenticity. I would prefer works of art that says, I am here to make money and entertain you rather than art that says, I am not here to make money but to tell a story that has to be told, when the fact is writ large that it does not care anything but the money in your pocket.If money is the end for an art work, then it has to pander to popular taste. Then there has to be some sacrifice on art’s seeking its own end – the end to transport us perhaps; the end to say the unsayable; the end of speaking unspeakable silence.

Flies know what is good for them. There must be more flies than human beings. If worth is decided by number, then flies must be right. There can be nothing more worthy than rotten things.

There is this song called “Ave Maria”, a song in praise, in prayer to Mary, mother of god. A very popular song considering the genre to which it belongs. This is one of those songs, which can be cherished if performed well. It has a quality that seems to say “this is the real deal”.This song proves that you can have your art and your money too. But here money follows arts’ walk. And I believe that something is wrong if it is the other way round. It is just a feeling that I have. To those who think that this feeling cannot be entertained since I do not have justifications forit, I simply say -“Ave Maria”.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2014/09/ave-maria/

By Dr Khushboo Shah Sawant

Last week in this column, we discussed in detail about the most common form of cancer see in women which is ‘breast cancer’, and today as we continue to go a little further in detail of our current subject of cancer, we shall look at a few more forms of cancers seen in the field of gynaecology or commonly seen cancers in the female reproductive tract. As described earlier, cancer is the uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells in a body, which may be triggered due to various reasons. Such forms of growth can sometimes be the cancer in the various parts of the female reproductive tract. While there are various forms and types of cancers seen in many parts like the vagina, cervix, the exterior organs etc, the most commonly seen types of cancers in gynaecology are the cancer of the cervix, the endometrial and the ovaries. We will look at some basic info about each of these types today.
We start with cancer of the cervix. This is by far, one of the most common forms of gynaecological cancers. We first begin with the basic question, what is the cervix? The cervix is a part of a woman’s reproductive system. It is located inside the pelvis. It is the lower narrow part of the uterus (which is also known as the womb) and connects the exterior reproductive parts to the uterus which is in the interior part of the body. The cervix remains tightly closed during pregnancy so as to protect the foetal growth and keep the baby safely inside the womb.  During childbirth, the cervix opens up to allow the baby to pass through the vagina. Similar to other forms of cancer, even the exact cause for the cancer of cervix is not known, however some causes and risk factors have been identified as an infection of the human papilloma virus (also known as HPV), smoking, engaging in sexual activity very early in life, having multiple sex partners, taking birth control pills etc. It is still not known as to why a woman with certain risk factors is more likely to suffer as compared to another woman with same or similar risk factors. A risk factor is something that can increase the chances of developing the disease. It has been seen and noted that an infection of the virus HPV is cause of almost all the cervical cancers. However a HPV infection is a self clearing infection, meaning the infection can clear out on its own. So basically an HPV infection when affects a susceptible person with other positive risk factors, the probability of affection of the cancer of the cervix increases greatly. The most common symptoms and signs of cervical cancer are abnormal vaginal bleeding, increased vaginal discharge, bleeding in the middle of the menstrual cycle, bleeding in a post menopausal female, pain during sexual intercourse, and pain in the pelvic area. One of the most common and simplest methods of diagnosing cervical cancer is by performing a pap smear. Other methods of diagnosing may be by performing and MRI scan or a PET scan. Treatment options include radiation therapy, surgery and chemotherapy etc. while some pre-cancerous changes in the cervix may be treated by non invasive methods.
We now move on to the next form of cancer known as the endometrial cancer, a type of cancer, which begins in the uterus or the womb. The uterus is a pear shaped hollow structure inside the female reproductive tract where the development of the baby occurs during pregnancy. The endometrium is the lining which covers the walls of the uterus, which sheds during menstruation. Endometrial cancer begins as an abnormal growth in the lining around the uterus (endometrium). There are also some other forms of cancer in the uterus, though the cancer of the endometrium is most common. The exact cause of endometrial cancer is not known but there are certain risk factors like fluctuation in the hormonal balance of the body, due to any illness, medication etc. which may prove to be risky, increased years of menstruation due to early puberty and delayed menopause. Also, women who have never been pregnant have a higher risk when compared to women who have been pregnant. Increasing age is also a risk factor while excessive weight or obesity that alters the body’s hormonal balance can be a risk too. This type of cancer is often detected in the initial stages as it produces abnormal vaginal bleeding, which most often alarms women to seek the help of a doctor. The commonly seen symptoms are vaginal bleeding after menopause, bleeding between periods, an abnormal watery blood tinged vaginal bleeding, pain during intercourse and pelvic pain. If detected well in time, surgically removing the uterus often cures the patient.
Ovarian cancer, as the name suggests is the cancer of the ovaries. The causes of this are not known but a genetic predisposition towards ovarian cancer or breast cancer seems to play a vital role as a causative factor, age also plays a role. While this type of cancer can rear its head any age, it is most commonly seen between ages 50-60 years. Ovarian cancer often goes undetected until it has spread within the pelvis and abdomen. Early stages of ovarian cancer rarely causes any symptoms and even as the disease progresses, it produces many non specific symptoms which may be wrongly diagnosed as a irritable bowel syndrome. Signs and symptoms of ovarian cancer include abdominal bloating or swelling, easy satiety or feeling of fullness even after eating very small quantities of food, weight loss, discomfort in the pelvic area, changes in the bowel habits, frequent constipation, increased frequency of urination etc. Early stage ovarian cancer in which the disease may be confined to only one ovary are more likely to be treated successfully. Surgery and chemotherapy are other options used to treat ovarian cancer.
As we have discussed earlier, while most risk factors may not be in our control, the avoidable risks must be kept at bay. Also it is advisable for women over the age of 40 years or those who have attained menopause to go for an annual ‘pap smear’ test. This simple test can prevent dire consequences. Another way is to consult a doctor in case any of the signs and symptoms mentioned above makes its presence felt. It may not necessarily be cancer, but it is best to be on the safer side.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2014/09/common-gynaecological-cancers-in-women/

By T. Vunglallian

It is 8:30 AM GMT and that means back home, in Lamka, it is just past 1:00 AM IST, with everyone fast asleep while, here, in the recently converted dining room, now fitted out with a complex bed-and-hoists system (provided free by the National Health Service) lies my brother-in-law, half-paralysed … but full of smiles and humour, whenever he has the strength. It is pleasantly warm inside as he rests listening to BBC News between tiny sips of milk, tea or apple juice and a half-spoon of porridge that my sister lovingly coaxes him to try to consume.

Just 5 metres away, beyond the walls of this cosy 200-year old brick & mortar home runs Lacey Green’s smooth black ‘alcatara’ road … a road that crosses the busier Manchester airport road. Though a very important road it is broad enough for two vehicles, one up the other down and divided by a white continuous line. Interestingly there is only a single red, orange and green traffic-lights post on the airport road. All day, and late into the night, i can hear and see all the cars and SUVs of my Autocar and Overdrive fantasies, swiftly powering their busy and swift ways. Yet i can bring the speeding Audis, Beemers, Fords, Mercs … all to a halt by pressing the “pelican crossing’s” button. When my light turns green – there’s will be red – all vehicles will stop for all walkers, or i alone, to cross! [Ahh … this is the kind of power, freedom and respect for, of and by the individual that i’d like us in Manipur to have.]

There is another kind of crossing, simply called “pedestrian’s crossing”, where a box of white lines is marked across a road (often onto an island on bigger roads) if the “pelican” system is not installed or integrated. In this type of crossing all one has to do is step onto the boxed section and traffic will come to a halt! The pedestrian is king … and no one will honk or give a ‘gali’. So so unlike … you know where!

But very significantly, if a cyclist or a pedestrian is seen to be wishing to cross a road, the beauty and wonder is that it is the duty of the motorist to stop and wave them on! Believe me for much to my embarrassment – or ‘kisuanglahna’/‘inthlahrungna’ – it has happened to me 3-4 times. Not only that, the other day i walked ahead of an old lady who signalled she did not need my assistance at a small depression. i enjoyed some window-shopping before coming to a busy road whose designated crossings were 40-50 metres away to my left and right. As i had time to stop, stare and admire the cars and bikes zooming by i waited for traffic to thin. Then someone shuffled by … and the old granny of 20 minutes ago passed me and coolly stepped onto the important road in the middle of Wilmslow town! But lo and behold, the motorists stopped! No one honked! No one said anything! She was the queen of the road! I was so surprised i couldn’t follow to cross!

Now, most significantly, in my week so far, in England, i have yet to hear a horn sounded! In fact, i can put my hand on the Bible and say … motorists here never – yes NEVER – sound their horn! That one ‘never’, believe me, makes all the difference!

[Methinks: ‘no sounding of horns’ is one absolutely no cost habit we can and have to adopt back home, the sooner the better].

2

From an hour ago when i came downstairs for tea and biscuits in the cosy drawing room, it has been – like every other day – a truly lovely English summer morning with birds chirping and twittering from tall leaf-laden trees all around. In this pleasant setting – though personally a sad one – i am trying to put my impressions of the past week into an article or two.

Right now U Richard is being groomed for the day by two efficient and cheerful ‘carers’ – not nurses – who come in every morning for an hour. I must say the infectious smiles and light-heartedness of Emma and Katie would make anyone’s day … especially for anyone critically ill!

[Methinks: the inculcation of good manners, politeness, cheer in thought, word and everyday deed is a very vital habit, again at absolutely no cost, whatsoever, that we need to adopt in Manipur … and India.]

So i cannot help wishing that back home … our carers, nurses and doctors; our teachers, professors and principals; our clerical staff, our suited-booted bureaucrats and our ‘netas’ turning our corridors of power into their playgrounds and backyards; our general duty policemen, traffic cops, commandos to high security officials; our church-goers, choirs and reverends and including our very own dear mothers and fathers … i truly and wholeheartedly wish they could simply smile a little more. Smile to one and all, not only our typical hints of a smile reserved for family, friends and bosses.

Please note i am not suggesting or asking for the impossible. Everyone does it here to everybody, including – very importantly – to strangers! In fact, it is so well ingrained in their culture that it is second nature among the old and young, women and men, but not so much the children! (This i hope to take up in a later article).

So believe me when i say … everyone i’ve met, walked by or sat near in a coffee shop in England – so far, everywhere and every time – have shared a smile, plus a cheerful word or two, even if it were a Mr. Bean-like intelligible warble. I recall the other day’s old man hobbling his way towards me step off the pavement to give me way while i was debating ‘should i or should i not?!’ As i smiled a thank you he added: “My dear man, isn’t it a lovely day?”

Or the persons – young or old – responding warmly from behind the bank, post office or sales counter appearing so helpful and friendly as if willing to give you a loan without any collateral; from the extremely rare cop cruising by in his patrol car (i hope to write something on the police, later), or standing hesitantly at the road’s edge, and then a pony-tailed blonde halts her Porsche, smiles and waves you on, as if saying: “Please cross…i will hold up the traffic for you!”

[Methinks: If, back home, each one of us could insert a daily total of 2 minutes of smiles and a cheerful word or two … i promise you … it’d definitely change Manipur and India forever! At no cost!]

3

On the 7th of August i left my village, Pearsonmun and Lamka town, around 10 AM to fly Indigo to Kolkota. There the call to collect my visa led to hectic ticketing and at 4:50 AM of 8th i was aboard a Qatar Airbus 320 flying Kolkota-Doha, en-route Manchester. This flight was made most memorable and champagne-heady-like, not because the plane rose into glorious sunlight, but because the In-flight Supervisor (of an international airline) was none other than my student of 12 years ago … Jennifer! My flight and day were made. The crew, from Captain to the youngest flight attendent whom she proudly introduced me to as her teacher-second-father, and many passengers around me, must have fondly recollected their own happy school-days, their class-mates and their teachers.

[This i can now claim … to be able to walk down memory lane joyfully is a sum total of the smiles, cheer and kindness spread long long ago … without ever thinking that there would be immeasurable rewards of pride and joy many many years in future!]

The Kolkota-Doha flight had taken off 40 minutes behind schedule and that led to a mis-connection as my connecting Doha- Manchester flight left per schedule. I was stranded in foreign soil! Worse, i carried only Indian rupees, having been dissuaded by the long queue at Kolkota’s lone exchange counter. But worst and most-national-pride hurting of all was that, in Doha, no one wanted our rupees … even the bellboy of the luxurious hotel i was put up in was reluctant to accept the tip of Rs.100/- i proffered. He’d been, i’m certain, anticipating dollars when i pulled out my wallet to signal him i was going to give a tip.

[Methinks: India … we’ve a long long way to go before becoming a superpower! Because i am going to include one vital criteria to judge our real-time world status, achievements and claims … by seeing if every coffee counter in an international airport, or a bell-boy in a hotel ; by every Thomas Cook office advertising cruise holidays … or every bank in a foreign country … are they happy to touch our rupees … ready to exchange my still brand new 1000/- rupees notes for the currency of my choice!? Till that happens, i think we should not talk …]

I was very upset with there being no other flights to Manchester from Doha that day because of a critically ill brother-in-law. However, once i was resigned to my fate, i had to call up hidden energy-cum-enthusiasm reserves to deal with a rarest of rare opportunities viz. an international airline putting me up in luxury at their expenses and sealing it with gastronomic international delights. So there i was, an afternoon and night in a luxury hotel topped up with three chances to stuff myself recklessly (without my wife’s stern eyes) and shamelessly (i’d never come by again! Luxurious hotel in Doha? Kahan se!) with three international buffets – breakfast, lunch and dinner. Each meal was beautifully and lavishly displayed … cuisines from east, west, north, south and middle-east ; vegetarian and non-vegetarian; breads, meats, both hot and cold and ice-creams and sweets to delight a child … all on three long fully laden tables, with a Chef to talk to and praise! A gourmet’s and greedy person’s delight!

And so the bonus was spending a little over 19 hours at a truly colossal ultra-modern air-connectivity hub called Doha, the capital of Qatar. True, my body clock was completely topsy-turvy, no doubt helped by starting one’s dawn with champagne, and now desperately fighting sleep as one wanted to take in every sight and sound of a 21stC version of an exotic and dreamy land of the Arabian Nights of lore! And so i slept little as i prowled about among soaring buildings not too far from my hotel – my passport half-sticking out of my breast-pocket – and enjoyed the gently warm yet almost strong breeze till almost midnight.

Doha is an engineering marvel in the middle of harsh, hot desert sands. It is, no doubt, funded by for-now-endless-oil-money. But let’s leave that, because the more important thing is, when you see first-hand a desert developed and blooming here and there through sheer money-power that is proof of a wealth of clear vision, wealth of ideas and wealth of deep love for an otherwise inhospitable homeland … with gleaming and glaring – almost white – punishing sands. From horizon to horizon.

[In sharp contrast my still-green Manipur is proof of lack of vision, lack of ideas and abundance of lip-service love … in an otherwise fertile watered land whose landscape is gentle on the eyes and could so easily be so in our minds too!]

I requested and was welcomed by the driver to sit in the cab for the 20 minutes drive to our hotel. As the Mercedes mini-bus sped, in 5 minutes i was overwhelmed by the lovely leisurely sweep of gently curving, rising and falling roads that joined long straight stretches … stretches that were like black rivers cutting through a desert landscape, interspersed every now and then by clusters of orderly, low marble mini-Taj Mahals … inhabited by residents who were indoors under an already searing hot 10AM sun.

[I could not help thinking … if the world could ever be one, Qatarians and Manipurians , for instance, could all live in natural greenery in Manipur, and workers from both communities – in shifts – could fly to work the oil-fields in the desert. Oh…Manipur would surpass Switzerland by far, and Qatar would not have to spend untold billions to manufacture water and create conditions to live, work, sleep, and even park their SUVs in air-conditioned halls … or spend tens of thousands to keep a tree green and leafy! By making the natural green greener and cleaner, and leaving deserts as deserts, just think … the world would never have to worry about global warming and climate change. My mind’s eye swam in Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ and Jackson’s “Heal the World”& “We are the World”. … i know … i know, but it is a lovely thought! And the dreamer that i am … i am just waiting for this idea’s time to come!]

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2014/08/thoughts-and-ideas-from-england/

By Oken Jeet Sandham

After frantic pleadings to the Center by two helpless chief ministers of Assam and Nagaland for its immediate intervention to the unfortunate border clashes that broke out on August 12, the Center’s lackluster response dashed hopes of people of the two states. The Center says it cannot intervene for resolving the issue, saying that the “Assam-Nagaland” border issue is pending in the Supreme Court.

I have few fundamental questions:-

Q. 1. What will be the role of the Center if Assam and Nagaland fail to contain their border clashes, killings, arson, etc.?

Q. 2. Will the Center just remain as a mute spectator on such highly sensitive and fragile border issues threatening the lives of thousands of innocent people on both sides, just because the issue is pending in Supreme Court?

Q. 3. At the same time, there is no time-frame that when the Supreme Court will deliver its judgment?

Q. 4. The most interesting part is: There is still no guarantee that any judgment to be passed by the Supreme Court on the Assam-Nagaland border case will end the border row? Because, Nagaland does not favor the Supreme Court judgment from day one. They only said they preferred “Out-of-Court” settlement.

The bottom-line:

The Center cannot remain a mute spectator when the lives of the innocent citizens are put at risk with no false of theirs. And the Center should immediately swing into action when the chief ministers of the respective states – Assam and Nagaland – frantically pleaded to for its immediate intervention to contain the issues. The two chief ministers were helpless and therefore sought the Center’s intervention to contain the border violence.

We have seen how Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi’s convoy was attacked on August 18 by protesters when he was leaving after visiting a relief camp at Uriamghat in Assam’s border district, Golaghat. He escaped unhurt and the attack forced him to cut his scheduled visit short.

I don’t see there is any logic for the Center to shy away from intervening just because the border issue is pending in the Supreme Court. Because the two chief ministers have not asked for settlement of the border issue between them but only pleaded to intervene in containing raging violence. Process for settlement of the border row should come afterwards. The first step is to contain the fragile and threatening situation before it spreads.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2014/08/centers-response-on-the-assam-nagaland-border-row-questionable/

By Pradip Phanjoubam

In letter and spirit’ must be one of the most used and indeed misused phrases, especially in a place like Manipur, with deeply riven social faultlines, where sinister communal motives are read into practically every policy of the government as well as mutually amongst the numerous different ethnic groups, in any demand made by any one of them. This is a sad predicament by any standard, one which has remained a challenge for governments as well as conscientious citizens to overcome through the decades. Unfortunately, the tendency has also been for these so called conscientious citizens to choose to remain unheard and marginalised, leaving the field open for the endless shades of vested interests with a stake in keeping the fires of confrontation burning.

Under the circumstance, one is reminded of Irish poet W.B. Yeat’s sketch of a similar scenario in his beloved conflict torn Ireland of his time where: “The best lack all conviction; and the worst are full of passionate intensity.” Reminded of by the absence of its spirit is also the line from Christ’s Beatitude sermon: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God”.

Nobody will argue blunder has often been the second name of Manipur government policies, but it cannot also be said that the State’s civil society have also always civil either, or that they have not been partisan to boot. The tussle at the Manipur University, where various reserved category students, STs, OBCs and SCs, are at loggerheads over a new reservation norm, is just one example. The scene seems to be dominated by confrontationists, and yet again the pacifists are conspicuous by their absence.

In Ukhrul, another kind of unfortunate friction is developing over the government’s imposition of restrictive orders under CrPC 144 of the Indian Penal Code, after the daylight assassination of the sitting Ukhrul ADC member, Ngalangzar Malue, and subsequent raids and arrests of NSCN(IM) functionaries from Ukhrul in connection with the murder. The CrPC144 we know is a precautionary measure of the establishment against possible rioting, and it prohibits assembling of five or more people at any public place. If in the immediate wake of the despicable murder of the unarmed ADC member, and the subsequent raids of NSCN(IM) offices, such a measure was deemed necessary, we wonder why the district administration has still not thought of lifting the ban order, now that the tension has subsided with the passage of time.

From the news reports and pictures emanating from the Ukhrul district headquarters however, it does seem the CrPC144 is no longer enforced strictly. Quite ironically indeed, there were even pictures in the media of peaceful rallies held in Ukhrul against the imposition of this order which in its essence is supposed to prevent such rallies. Two wrongs do not make a right, but it does seem the government is allowing an undeclared norm which has become the standard in Imphal to take its course in Ukhrul too.

Those of us in the news business will remember that in Imphal the imposition of the CrPC144 is too frequent to keep count. Also again, the administration has seldom bothered to lift the ban orders even after the tensions which prompted it to impose the orders in the first place subsided. However, the bans lapsed invariably, not because of any official declaration of their lifting, but because they gradually fell into oblivion, both of the officialdom as well as the public, and life returned to normal. Come to think of it, if a close scrutiny were to be done today, it is quite likely, much, if not most of Imphal East and Imphal West, would be officially still under CrPC144, imposed once but forgotten without lifting them. Nonetheless, if the administration’s apprehension of riots in Ukhrul has subsided, what is keeping if from lifting the CrPC144 officially, even if it is only to please and pacify the public outrage over it?

RESERVATION NORMS

The reservation question is sensitive. Nobody wants to give up privileges, and this has always been a huge hurdle in making amendments pertaining to this issue. Very broadly, reservation in India is two tiered. One is the Central reservation norms to be followed during recruiting and admission to Central government institutions. The other are the State reservation norms, worked out in accordance to the demographic spreads in the different States. This makes sense, for on the larger Indian canvas, the percentage of Scheduled Castes population is far higher than Scheduled Tribes population. The percentage of Other Backward Classes, too is much higher than the previous two. The population spread of India not being homogenous, and the population breakup along these lines in each of the States is different from the all India average as well as from each other, therefore, each State also has its own reservation norm best suited to its demographic pattern.

The problem is, as we are discovering now, what happens when a Central university comes to be located in a State.

If the university in question was an IIT or an IIM, or for that matter a nationally sought after institute like the Delhi University, Benares Hindu University or Jawaharlal Nehru University, it would only be fair to stick to the national reservation norms regardless of which State these institutes were located in. But in the nascent Central universities in Northeast States, where it is yet unimaginable students from all over India would be rushing to get admission, and therefore those seeking admission would be essentially and largely exclusive to the respective States, there would be a need to alter the reservation norms from the Central pattern. It should be closer to the respective State’s norms though not exactly. As Central universities, they cannot but also think of the rights of students from outside their States if fairness is the objective. After all, they are run on the tax payers’ money of not just their respective States but the entire country.

Manipur University, for instance has some unique and innovative departments such as that of Myanmar Studies which can in the future attract students from outside the State. It would therefore be far sightedness to not exclude such future possibilities, therefore the need for some deviances from the State’s reservation norms and incorporation of some of the Central norms. If it is any consolation, the problem Manipur University is facing currently is not exclusive to it. In Nagaland University, even though a Central university, there have been crippling problems even in the choice of Vice Chancellors on the issue of following Central norms or local wishes.

As an extension of this same logic, while the OBC reservation for Meiteis is meaningful for Central government institutions, where the competition would be with other advanced communities with far longer exposures to modern education, I would say it is quite redundant in State government institutions. Here, the segregation is between candidates who have studied in the same schools and colleges, grew up in the same social milieu, living more or less in the same social and economic strata. The results of various State level competitive entrance examinations where OBC candidates consistently garner large chunks of unreserved seats would bear testimony. The sense of injustice in this will do the society no good in the future. In its letter and spirit, I also do not think there is anything as Scheduled Caste in Manipur, at least nothing to compare with those in continental India, condemned as communities to clean shit at public places such as the railway stations, and live isolated as sub-humans, pursued and killed for no other reason than the hatred of their ‘polluting’ existence.

In its letter and spirit, the reservation system of the Indian constitution was also essentially meant to level out the playing fields so that the underprivileged in the society can hope for fair competition. But once this playing field has been levelled out, by the same letter and spirit of the reservation policy, the reservation system should begin to be eased out. In the OBC reservation this issue is somewhat addressed. There is a clause for the creamy layer to be absorbed into the general category so that those actually underprivileged amongst the backward classes can have the benefit of reservation. I think it is time for this clause to be applied to the reservation for STs and SCs too.

This will not only ensure a sense of justice to general candidates, but more importantly, guarantee the original spirit of the reservation system is preserved. With the creamy layer consisting of children of ministers, MLAs, Class-1 government officers, and super rich business people who had afforded the best education and exposure to the world out of the way, the competition would be fairer for ST and SC candidates who are truly underprivileged. Here too, in State level competitions, it will be again noticed that there has been a rise in the number of ST and SC candidates making it to the general lists, indicating happily the playing fields are beginning to be levelled out. New reservation norms of the near future must also in all fairness, take this trend into consideration.

Lest I am misunderstood, being struck out from the reserved category does not mean tribal elite would lose their ethnicity. They would continue to be what they were, but not in the reserved category. The two should not be confused. I mention this because in countries like Canada and the USA, there are allegations of systematic depletion of population of indigenous Native populations because they were made to give up their tribal identities on such considerations as their moving out of their Reservations, marrying a non Native, professions, economic status etc. I would still call such policy genocide. What I am suggesting here is for a clear and separate treatment of ethnic identity from economic categories in any consideration of the reservation policy. There can be a rich tribal and a poor tribal, and they are not equal.

One more thing needs to be said on the reservation issue for there is often a rather mischievous statement made either out of ignorance or else with mala fide intent, that the general seats are reserved, in the case of Manipur, for the Meiteis. This is an untruth which by the consistence of its repetition has come to acquire the facade of being factual. Under the Indian dispensation, there are the general seats and the reserved seats. The general seats are open for competition to all candidates, including those in the reserved categories. The reserved seats are exclusively for those included in the reserved categories. True it would be unfair to say competition is fair if the a child who grew up in a village with no school and therefore had to travel 10 kilometres each day on foot to another village to attend school were to compete with another from capital Imphal who had been literally spoilt for choices as to which elite school to attend. To leave the two to compete for the same seat would be discrimination, therefore reservation is necessary. However, when parity begins to be struck in the social and economic backgrounds of the candidates, it would be absolute dishonestly to still make statements that the general seats are reserved for the so called privileged classes.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2014/08/between-the-letter-and-the-spirit/

By Tinky Ningombam

One of the most common nightmares that people have is one where they get late for school. Having personally heard many a tale, I reminisce even my own nightmares where I get ready for school but couldn’t reach there on time. Highly frustrating, that. To make things worse, there will the high-school passing exam and an angry teacher trying to humiliate me in front of my many many mocking school mates.

It is common knowledge that for a child, the worst and best things in life have mostly happened in school, whether it is the first public humiliation, the first cat fight or the first victory over evil. How can we forget the horrors of adolescence – the teenage years, ones that passed like a storm – dark, angry and wrecking everything possible on the way. Combine that with school, with authority, with rules. We get the best ingredients for a prime time reality show.

Because it was a time for secrets. Of adventure. Of friendship. Also of fear. Of lies. Of betrayal.

They say that a person’s first chapter in their auto-biography is always one of their school days. After all, it is our childhood memories and our past that give shape to much of our insecurities or in better circumstances, our strengths.

My friends were the anchors in my own complicated teenage years in school. Years later when one of my oldest friends, Yai, told me that she used to be scared of me in school because she was a tiny frail girl who was soft spoken, I told her that I was just as scared as she was, that I would not even tell the teacher that I was right and take a punishment for fear of being asked to explain myself.

When we finally did leave high school, I changed from a scrawny kid who was always scared to speak up to being someone who would and could not be stopped from speaking, not because of a miracle but because I had friends to push me into being outgoing. Every enjoyable school activity that I was in, it was because of my friends.

School can be a pretty scary place sometimes, even the senior kid who is a big winner, the one with the trophies, the one with the highest scores, the one who the teacher loves more, even the over-achievers can seldom ask for help for fear of ridicule. It’s not called “crying for help” for fun, is it?

Everyone has a different past. But every kid will hate three things and that’s universal – contempt, confrontation and counsel.

But seriously, bring me a teenager who loves advice and I will move the world. When I was a teen, I remember I would do just the opposite of what I was told to do, just to drive people around me crazy. It was not even rebellion if I see it now, it was just trying to annoy people. Just pure evil.

You, on the other hand, dear reader, might have been an angel. But no one likes free advice, especially from parents. Well, for one, they are free and hence deemed cheaper than advice that you pay for, like sending a cross-country speed post letter to your favorite rock star to ask about your goal in life or running after an older senior to give you beauty tips. Those, seemed more genuine, cooler!

However, to the people who turned out okay, despite all the psychological hardships and childhood traumas, we celebrate today in solidarity. The storm has passed. But sometimes, we think that maybe we should have taken some of the old advice we discarded because we didn’t know better.

Today, if I could somehow go back in a time-machine and became my teen-age self I will definitely take those golden counsel. So I end with a few super tips that I wish a “teen-ME” could have known, I hope the teenagers today have enough brains to know them sooner than later:

· That I should tell my friends I love them for I may not be spending as much time with them again.

· That even bad pictures of loved ones becomes treasures.

· That I should never pretend to be something that I am not.

· That I should talk more to people who care.

· And lastly, that it is okay to apologize when I am wrong

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2014/08/notes-for-the-teenager/

By Nongthongbam Kunjamohon Singh

Translated by Chitra Ahanthem

Badarpur Junction. Looking around to check for any familiar faces was proving futile. It was better to get hold of a seat, so I got into a second class compartment. No one else had entered. I spread the hold-all on the long bench and sat down. Bored after looking at the melee of passengers milling around, I opened the copy of ‘Hindustan Standard’ that I had bought from ‘Wheeler’. Just as I was about to read the main headline, I heard the loud cries of ‘chai garam, chai garam’ intruding upon my ears. A head thrust inside from the open window continued, ‘Cha lage Babu, garam samosa’ (Need tea Babu, hot samosa?). My tempers frayed but there was nothing I could do about it, except to turn away my face after saying ‘Na’.

Turning my face to the newspaper, I saw the headline in bold, ‘China attacks India yet again, troops converge near the Mac Mohan line’. I hardly got beyond the first line before it started again, ‘Paan, cigarette. Babu, paan cigarette lage’ (Paan, cigarette. Babu, do you need paan, cigarette?). This time, I said ‘na’ with just a hint of anger.

I decided that this time, I would not bother at all. I would not turn up my face from the newspaper. Even without looking up, I was aware of people getting up and down around me. It was none of my business. Let them do what they had to. After all, I did not have to worry about my seat. The news was getting interesting: ‘China ignores Colombo proposal’.

‘Oh! It’s our Oja!’ I was startled. It was the voice of a woman that I had not heard in my ears for a long time. I turned my face from the newspaper and saw her face that had the hint of a smile. The features had changed a bit but I could recognize her well. She kept the child she had in her lap on to the bench and bent down to pay her obeisance. The handsome bespectacled man by her side folded his hands to greet me. Though I did not know him, I assumed him to be her husband. But he could be some other relative too! To clear my doubt, I asked, “Bina, he is…”. Bina kept smiling shyly.

So, they were indeed a couple. They made a good match. After all, Bina did not lack in beauty. Her husband spread the hold-all on the long bench before me. They sat down, keeping their child between them. The child was beautiful too and one never tired of looking. If only my Jiten had been alive…

I must have been lost in my thoughts while looking at the child intently when Bina treaded upon the world I was in, “Oja, it has been a long time. Where are you headed?”

True, it had been a long time. It would be about five years now. We had not met since the year I married and she passed her matriculation examinations.

“I am going to Shillong. What about you?”

“Digboi. We had gone home for the holidays.”

Then it struck me. Bina’s father had mentioned one day that her husband had a job at Digboi.

The train started. The child remained transfixed on the world he saw unfolding around him. People who had come to see off or receive their loved ones remained behind waving their hands as the train moved on. If some had tears while bidding good-bye, a few did so with a smile. The junction slowly faded away from sight. In the sky above, the stars twinkled brightly. The child turned his face towards us; perhaps he was afraid of darkness.

“Come, sit with me,” I said leading him to where I was sitting. He had no inhibitions. Bending slightly, I hugged him close and asked him, “What is your name?”

“Master Dilip Singh.”

“Good! Good!” I hugged him just a bit more. “And what is your father’s name?”

“Shri Ranjit Singh”

“Oh! How nice!”

Just then, the noise of the train crossing a bridge made it impossible to hear anything else. When the bridge crossing got over, Dilip’s father got up and said, “My apologies but I am going up. Please continue. I am dying to sleep. I had not been able to sleep yesterday too.”

He promptly went up without paying any heed to my suggestion that we talk a bit more. With him gone, I did not continue with the conversation. Bina remained seated looking at something in the darkness outside without batting an eye. What was she looking at: Was it the course of bitter sweet memories that she was confronted with now? Along with her, I suddenly reached a long forgotten cornerstone of my life that I had long left behind.

I had no idea how long I remained brooding. Bina’s question made me wake up instantly, “How is Inamma doing?”

The child was no longer with me. He was sleeping next to his mother. I had no idea when his mother had taken him.

I answered as quickly as I could, “It’s been two years since she left me for another world.”

After a silent pause, she asked again, “What about the boy?”

“He followed his mother. It’s been a year now.”

I had not turned towards her all this while but I looked at her direction when I answered her questions. As I answered the last question, she made a sound. I looked at her and saw tears falling from her eyes. That was Bina. This was her true nature. She never could stay unaffected whenever she heard about other people’s woes. I knew it now: she was sorry for me. She could see clearly how I would be living my life without anyone to look out for me. She knew her teacher did not care much about the world around him.

I was a teacher then. Since the salary was not much, I took up tuitions. My classes were well appreciated and there was no dearth of students who came home for tuitions. Bina came for the classes along with her friend Ibemhal. They were to appear for their matriculation examinations and were diligent in their studies. The smile never left her face despite the distance of more than a mile that she took to come for her classes. She never missed her classes, even on the days that Ibemhal did not turn up. She always brought the pick of the Leihao flower along with her. Even if she had none to offer to my Indomcha, she always had a Leihao for me. My aunt often said in jest, “How caring she is of her Oja! She always ensures her Oja gets one!” Hearing this, Bina would lower her face shyly with a slight smile. Whenever I chided her for lagging behind in her studies, her tears would flow.

One day, my aunt started the topic of my marriage prospects to which I said, “How will I find a woman? I must be the most unfortunate man ever. No woman has come forth to say she loves me.”

My aunt retorted, “Why would women not love you? You do not lack in looks. But will a woman ever admit her feelings first? She would express it by gesture and attitude. It is you who has failed to recognize this. You are a simpleton, oblivious of what is around you.”

I did not realize the truth behind Indomcha’s words then. Six months later, when the fallen leaves of autumn were swept off in the frenzied cries of the spring cuckoo, it brought a new beginning to my life as well. All my students came over to share their happiness on the day. But for whatever reason, Bina was not present. It struck me then that there might have been some truth in my aunt’s words.

I did not realize when I fell asleep. I woke up with a start when the train jerked as it reached some station. When I opened my eyes, I found a shawl covering my body. It surprised me no end for I had not covered myself. The shawl was not mine, either. But I knew who would have covered me up. She would have surely have done this to ward off the cold from her Oja. She was awake. “Here, it’s no longer cold,” I said, handing back the shawl. Dilip’s father too climbed down.

In between small talk and freshening up, we did not notice the train having reached Lumding. Since we had to change trains we stepped down, taking our belongings. Keeping our things in the waiting room, all of us went to the railway restaurant. As I was about to pay for the food, Bina said with just a hint of anger, “Oja! How can you?” And just as suddenly as a flood drying up, she said gently with a smile, “I am no longer the student who could not stand up for herself. I run a household now. Will I not have this privilege of serving you during this chance meeting after a span of five years?

I had to give in quietly.

Soon, we reached the down train. Twenty minutes later, the whistle started to go off. All three of them walked me off till the platform. I took out a five rupee note and handed it to Bina’s son. When Bina animatedly tried to say something, she stopped when I said, “Silent! You cannot say anything.”

Once the salutations were over, I climbed on the train, which began to start off slowly. Soon, the distance grew and the three of them: mother, father and son remained behind waving at me. After a while, just as the train took a slight bend, I saw in a blur Bina’s hands which had been waving at me, wiping the tears away from her eyes with the ends of her innaphi.

(This translation of the short story written by the late Nongthongbam Kunjamohon in 1963 has been recently published in Tamna, a half yearly journal brought out by the Manipur Chapter of the North East Writers’ Forum)

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2014/08/the-stemmed-flow-chenkhidraba-eechel/

By M.C. Linthoingambee

There are so many stories in this world and a few of them are those that can outlive our lives and those of our children, thereby making a place in history. They are not just a display of written publication but stories of people who have made an extraordinary mark in the world. One such story lies deeply hidden in the north eastern bordered state of Manipur linking with Myanmar.

Manipur is a place that has been deeply encroached with gross violation of human rights. The state linked to the country with a self established democratically ruled governance with over a period of above 60 years of independence is yet to share its joy of freedom from control and be able to exercise even basic fundamental rights. When a certain authority fail to acknowledge the pretext of the basic rights of a person and goes out of control, all things do seem to go haywire. But, what justifies their character? The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 gives certain benefits to Central armed security personnel to justify their action of arrests or killings as an act of countering terrorism even if it puts innocent lives at stake. There have been many, who have fallen victim to this draconian legislation that has been passed as a probate to counter terrorism. But even after 56 years, this acct has failed the very purpose of its enactment and gone towards a more negative route to outcast brother from his sisters, sons from his parents, daughters from her parents, mothers from her family or a father from his family and so forth.

While Terrorism has been thought of to mean – the unlawful use or threatened use of force or violence by a person or an organized group against people or property with the intention of intimidating or coercing societies or governments, often for ideological or political reasons, there was no such purpose for the 10 civilians who were waiting for a bus at a bus stand at Malom in November 2000. Rather, they lost their lives at the hands of Ceantral armed forces who fired at them claiming their ‘mistake of recognizing them as a source of terror.’ This terrible incident compelled a woman to take it upon herself to take the misdeeds into correction and thus went on to take on unlimited or a never ending fast until the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act 1958. Her name is Irom Chanu Sharmila, a social activist who is constantly at the mercy of the government that releases and then recalls for her arrest on the charge of her attempted suicide. We as a nation, have seen the practice of “Ahimsa” in reality with the Mahatma, so adoringly call the Father of our Nation using it at crucial political standpoints. Such steps and actions were done then and there has been follow ups in certain circumstances like that of Anna Hazare. Even though all of them stood for different causes, they stood to give a voice for freedom for their people and bringing in prosperity.

With regard to Irom Sharmila Chanu’s stand against AFSPA, rewards and awards are not her main objective wherein she has refused to sway from the option of taking up a normal life thereby hanging on to the idea of a never ending fast until her cause is achieved. While she is continuously renamed as the “Iron Lady of Manipur”, are we really willing to ignore the Right to Life and Personal Liberty as given in Article 21 of our Constitution which seemingly provides for the most important right guaranteed to its citizen from a nation? Does the idea of being force fed and arrest and re – arrest even come under the categories of fundamental rights? She is a woman who has taken up a stand that is in need of a political solution. Even after being released from her makeshift prison following a sessions court decision up recently, she has been arrested again three days after her release following the decision of the authority holding that it is their duty to protect the citizen being more important. With a deteriorating health in issue, she still continues to battle the authority of a nation in exercising AFSPA and questions its misdeeds in the past, present and those that may happen in the years to come.

Fourteen (14) years down the line and we still continue to stand watch to a large number of human rights being violated. Where did the duty to protect go during those times? These small actions might become uncommon to ignore but a little thing can lead into other major human sufferings thus abiding that the guild of military forces killing innocent people are okay. When there are no corrections, it tends to give rise to more dictatorship. Democracy also states implicitly of its rule to protect the people through the people’s elect, are we correcting and shaping the very definition of democracy by establishing more authority to this controversial legislation, which was passed in several states of the north – east India and several parts of Jammu and Kashmir. Instead of building more authority into the draconian rule of the AFSPA, the Centre should focus more on constructing a statute that might make a women feel a little safer to travel alone, tackle health issues in the ignored villages of the capital. What should go away should go in due time? The question is – Is there even an end cause to the evils of the Act? And while everyone fumbles around not wanting to answer the question, a lone woman still continues her fight.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2014/08/the-hunger-strikers-story/

By Dr Khushboo Shah Sawant

Any mention of the word ‘tumour’ brings jitters and a feeling of fear but not many of us know much about it. This column will take a look at some basic information about tumours, the cancer it can lead to and the impact they have on human beings and the human body.

We start first with the definition of a tumour, which refers to an abnormal swelling or growth usually without any inflammation, which may be benign or malignant in nature. To simplify is further, a tumour is a swelling in any part of the body, which may be caused due to an abnormal growth of cells in that part and can either be solid in nature or may be fluid filled. There may be a great variation in the shape and size of tumours but not many are aware that their presence does not always pose as a health threat.

A benign tumour most often is not harmful to human health. The word ‘benign’ literally means ‘non-progressive’. These type of tumours may not be cancerous in nature but their mere presence can hinder normal body function as they may press upon some nerves or blood vessels. But a benign tumour does not metastasize or to put it simply, it remains as it is. There are various types of benign tumours with some common examples being uterine fibroids, or the fibroids found in the breasts, or lipomas, which are simple soft tissue made up of fat, usually seen just under the surface of the skin.

We shall now have a look at the other form of tumour also known as ‘malignant tumours’. Malignant tumours are cancerous in nature and tend to progress rapidly and even have the potential of causing death. The cells of these kinds of tumours tend to multiply rapidly and cause increasing damage while they also have a dangerous tendency of seeking new territory for their growth, which invariably means the spread of the cancer or metastasis to other parts of the body. The rate of growth of these cancerous cells is much faster as compared to the growth of normal cells in the body, which makes them far more harmful.

To understand the growth of cancer further, we need to understand how metastasis happens. Metastasis is the process by which the cancer cells spread from their primary site to other locations of the human body. The malignant cells spread to the nearby area of the body and spread further on, which causes a localized spread of the cancer. Some cancer cells break off from the original site and spread via the blood stream or the lymphatic system and lodge themselves anywhere else in the body and cause new tumours in the new location. The cancer cells that spread are the same as the original ones. For example, a cell from the cancer of the lungs may metastasize to the liver and cause a new cancer in the liver.

The next area that needs to be understood is how to differentiate a benign tumour from a malignant one if a person has an abnormal growth or swelling in the body. To decide whether a tumour is malignant or benign, a sample of the abnormal growth may have to be taken out by a qualified doctor and sent to a laboratory to be checked by a pathologist. The sample of the abnormal growth taken for examination is called as ‘biopsy’. By performing a biopsy, the exact nature of the cell can be known which will give a confirmation whether the growth is a cancerous one or not.

In case a cancer is malignant and if it remains undiagnosed or untreated, it may invariably cause death. This brings us to the question, how can a mass of cells cause the death of a person? The cancer cells are known to multiply in number rapidly and as the number of abnormal cells grows; it causes an increasing pressure on the normal cells to perform their normal functions. Sometimes the mere location of a tumour in a vital organ like the brain or heart can cause death. But what really causes death in cancer is the metastasis. When the cancer starts to spread to various parts of the body, the normal function in all those parts is affected which affects the overall functioning of the body. The cancer puts additional load on the body and due to its rapid spread it often becomes beyond what the body can accommodate, gradually leading to the collapse of one system of the body after another, eventually leading to death. However, chemotherapy that is a treatment option in cancer kills the rapidly growing cells, which stop their growth.

Cancer is basically caused due to changes in the DNA of the cells, it may be caused as a genetic predisposition which means the tendency may be in the family heredity and can be inherited from parents. Other factors contributing to cancer can be environmental the form of tobacco consumption, naturally occurring exposures like of ultraviolet rays, infectious agents, workplace exposures or household exposures.

While various cancer-causing factors are beyond our control, there are factors like tobacco consumption and cigarette smoking etc which are very much avoidable. The treatment of various types of cancer is not only an expensive process but one that entails a long spell of trauma for the patient and family. But a little care and a great mindfulness to go for medical check ups well in time can help matters to a great extent as early detection is a significant factor in addressing cancer growth.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2014/08/some-basics-about-tumours/

Author: Robert Nickelsberg

Review By : Anil Bhat

A photograph of Arab Al Qaeda members and Afghan Mujahideen jogging at a training camp located in a dry riverbed in Afghanistan, taken at a distance just outside the training camp, “is extremely rare,” says Nickelsberg. “I didn’t go down on one knee and take a light reading…I took the picture quickly, and then turned around and hoped I had it in focus.” Training camps, like these, were filled with Arabs from a variety of countries. Elizabeth Ralph quoted Nickelsberg in Politico magazine, saying “It was sort of like the United Nations of jihad.”

A lone Afghan with a stick in his hand held high, next to a bombed wall with a vast stretch of bare, tree-less desert-like land, on the cover of this weighty book is but a glimpse of how ravaged a once beautiful land has become. Over hundred photographs in the book, with perceptive comments by the author and complementary articles by some journalists bring out the tragedy that Afghanistan further became following the exit of Soviet Russian troops. The relatively stable period of 1933-1973 under King Zaher Shah, seems an old distant dream.

Based in New Delhi from 1988 to 2000 as the TIME magazine photographer, Robert Nickelsberg’s first foray into Afgnanistan was in 1988, when he accompanied a group of Mujahideen across the border from Pakistan.

Interacting with this writer, Nickelsberg said that getting access into Afghanistan during the Soviet occupation was tough as the Soviets didn’t grant any visas to journalists hoping to enter the country, except occasionally, which is how Nickelsberg came to be in Kabul on the first day of the Soviet army’s withdrawal from Afghanistan and captured the photo of an Afghan government soldier handing a flag in solidarity to a departing Soviet tank commander.

With the only route for foreign journalists to Afghanistan being “through the keyhole of Pakistan” and thence across mountains, backpacks and good boots were minimum requirements. Since the killing of Osama bin Laden in May 2011, entering Pakistan or through it to Afghanistan, became much more difficult and by 2014, it became like never before. Forget about overnight access in Peshawar, even daylight access is not worth the risk. He stressed the need to be very cautious and not make any — “mistakes”. For those journalists who reach Afghanistan, being escorted by Afghan Army is also very dicey. Largely responsible for spreading terror in Afghanistan and India — which has also severely affected Pakistan — is the Pak Army and its infamous adjunct, the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI). However, criticising or reporting its misdeeds can be very dangerous.

According to Amnesty International, at least 34 journalists have been killed because of what they reported since restoration of democratic rule in Pakistan in 2008, but the culprits have been brought to justice in only one of those cases.

Authorities have “almost completely failed” to stem attacks on the media or hold those responsible like intelligence agencies, armed groups/Taliban and even political parties. Reporters have been threatened, abducted or tortured for their work. “Over 25per cent of Karachi is jihadi controlled — too dangerous for journalists,” said Nickelsberg. While this writer elaborated on the brutal murder of Pakistani journalist Saleem Shehzad in his book, After Abbottabad: Terror to Turmoil in Pakistan (Pentagon Press), Nickelsberg mentioned how Hamid Mir stopped six bullets for reporting on the ISI. Nickelsberg’s hour- -and-a-half long narration about this book at New Delhi’s Foreign Correspondents Club of South Asia in March this year, had everyone spellbound. His in-depth knowledge accumulated over umpteen trips to Afghanistan and recorded in many hundreds of photographs, covers all — the Taliban/other jihadi groups’ barbaric brutality, people’s despair, oppression of women, power play of the warlords, the plight of the US Army/coalition forces etc — in the backdrop of some fascinating landscape.

Another photo worth mentioning is of Jalaluddin Haqqani scowling at Nickelsberg’s lens. Ironically, reported to be a friend of the CIA, the Saudis and Osama bin Laden, Haqqani, not originally a Taliban, in 1995, just prior to Taliban’s occupation of Kabul, switched his allegiance to them. In 1996-97, he was also a minister in the Taliban government and governor of Paktia Province. If he had a role in aiding/abetting Osama Bin Laden’s escape, as believed, it obviously means he was close to the ISI. As one of the most important Taliban military commanders fighting against the Afghan government, and US forces in Afghanistan, He is still reportedly secretly aligned with the ISI. While the Pakistani government denies this relationship evidence clearly shows that the ISI is secretly working with various Taliban leaders to weaken and eventually destroy the US backed government in Kabul. Haqqani has also been accused by the US of involvement in the 2008 Indian embassy bombing in Kabul and the February 2009 Kabul raids.

The last two photos in the book are of Ahmed Shah Masood and Masood Khalili, with his son, Mahmud. Khalili, a close a friend and adviser of, Masood, were together when attacked by terrorists posing as a media team.

With the drawdown of US and other troops in Afghanistan scheduled for completion by end of 2014, after 13 years of conflict without much success and the security situation deteriorating again, the book’s release is timely. On May 27, 2014, President Obama reportedly announced his long-awaited plan for Afghanistan that a residual force of 9,800 US troops will remain there for one year following the end of combat operations in December 2014. That number will be cut in half at the end of 2015, and reduced at the end of 2016 to a small military presence at the US Embassy. This plan, despite warnings early this year by White House of a possible “zero option,” is largely in line with what the US military had requested. It also is in line with what Nato and other international partners said was necessary for them to retain a presence in Afghanistan.

The book is an informative reference piece for Afghanistan-Pakistan watchers.

 

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2014/08/book-review-afghanistan-a-distant-war/

Last week brought the news of the death in a case of suicide of ace comedian and actor Robin Williams. The immediate outpouring of grief over the death of the much loved and critically acclaimed artiste was later followed by news and revelations of run in with depression. It was irony at its most tragic twist for the man who had kept the laughs coming was battling a lonely fight that ultimately led him to take his life. The latest in the Robin Williams death is the actor being earlier diagnosed with Parkinson’s, a degenerative disease that attacks nerve cells in the brain, eventually leading to severe movement problems and restricting mobility, speech etc which has no cure. The actor did have earlier bouts of cocaine abuse and alcohol and his battles to stay sober were not only successful but became the gist of his various stand up comic acts and programs. But with Parkinson’s came the weight of depression, which as per the Amerian National Parkinson Foundation study is ‘part of the disease process itself’. It goes on to say that more than half of those with Parkinson’s suffer from clinical depression, which affects the quality of life more than the motor impairments of the disease.

Depression, a state of mind characterized by low self esteem, long spells or continuous bouts of low mood and loss of interest in life can be episodic i.e. based on certain incidences like meeting a failure in career or personal lives but when one cannot cope through the episodes and it becomes a pattern, it ends up affecting the physiological health of a person and becomes dangerous. For many who have to face the aspect of a life long affliction that does not have a cure yet but brings with it prolonged battles, as in the case of Parkinson’s, HIV and AIDS amongst others, suicide is almost like a side effect. Apart from chronic depression, there are various factors that contribute to suicide. We can see around us all too clearly that when major examination results are announced, there are instances of young students committing suicide or when young people are faced with the failure of a relationship. Often, people no matter what their age take the drastic step of taking their own lives at the thought of facing prejudice or social stigma but what probably makes it difficult to recognize suicidal tendencies is very often that we are all uncomfortable to talk about failures and the person is left all the more alone.

Unfortunately, mental health is not an area that is easily understood or accepted by the public at large and the stigma associated with talking of coping with them is such that consulting with mental health experts in itself is laughed upon and judged. The lack of studies notwithstanding, women who face domestic violence or constant verbal abuses in their marital relationships are easy prey to depression and suicide. But the societal pressure on women alone to cope with the demands of marital life mean that they continue to either face domestic abuse or fall prey to suicidal tendencies. Dowry harassment is also another huge factor contributing to suicides amongst married women going by reported cases. Huge financial losses and economic pressure in terms of major debts is another factor that contributes to a substantial number of suicides amongst poor farmers. But in India, the law is not too kind on people who have been driven to suicide as the existing Section 309 of the Indian Penal Code in fact awards a maximum punishment of imprisonment for one year for attempted suicide, thereby adding further on to the amount of baggage that led the person towards suicide. Thankfully, efforts are on to address this bit of Section 309 following recommendations from the Law Commission. But along with the laws, mindsets will have to change to prevent suicides and the first step would be to address depression in its advent.

Leader Writer: Chitra Ahanthem

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2014/08/talking-about-suicide-and-depression/

By Dr. Khomdon Lisam

Now all sections of people except the hill people are demanding the implementation of Inner Line Permit System ( Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation -1873 ) in Manipur. One such permit system was implemented in Manipur during 1901 to 1950 to control entry of Non-Manipuris from outside the state. This Permit system was brought under the Foreigners Department on 1 November, 1931. Such a permit system ensures identification, detection, registration and control of illegal immigration in Manipur. In 1948, the Government of India had officially approved retention of the permit system in Manipur vide Mr. G.E.D Walker, Advisor to the Governor of Assam letter no .120/47/C- 26-27 dated 17th January, 1948. This Permit system was abolished by Mr. Himmat Singh , the then Chief Commissioner of Manipur on 18 November, 1950 allowing free entry, unchecked influx of outsiders from other states leading to unprecedented increase of migrant population in Manipur.

Magnitude of the problem : One strategy of the Government of India is to prevent the people of North East states from being united by inciting one ethnic gtoup with another through ethnicity, religion, political parties and corruption. Another strategy is population invasion – a population war without arms. This will replace the indigenous population of North East India with Mongoloid features with the mainland Indians of Aryan blood in the name of secularism and democracy over a period of 60 -65 years and reduce the indigenous population to a microscopic minority and build an united India of the same Aryan blood .There is already demographic Imbalance and threat to Manipur’s identity. The uncontrolled and unchecked immigration posed a great threat to the national security, .demographic balance with the prospect of the outsiders becoming a majority community reducing the majority indigenous communities like the Meities and Tribals to minority in our own home land. According to 2001 Census, the population of outside migrants in Manipur was 707,488 as against the Meitei population of 751822 tribal population of 670,782 as per Census-2001 report (UCM) There is a sense of helplessness, anxiety and tension among the Manipuris fearing that the Meitei identity or tribal identity or Muslim identity are under threat. The situation after arrival of Train connection will be alarming. The incidence of local girls marrying to outside migrants is increasing every year. The migrants particularly the Muslims are not using family planning methods for birth control although the indigenous population are practicing family planning methods leading to population imbalance. The migrants are indulging in illegal drug trafficking or any other crime for earning quick money .

Why is the population of Immigrants increasing by leaves and bound in Manipur

1. Political Support and Vote Banks: The political leaders are entirely responsible for fast increase of migrant population in Manipur . Many of our Political Leaders in Manipur use the immigrants as vote banks. I have personally seen some ministers dancing with lean and thin ugly looking immigrants in their own constituencies. They supported and facilitate the immigrants in getting ration cards, BPL cards, driving licence, Voter ID, Birth certificate etc. They even help them in purchasing land or shops. The Jiribam subdivision under Shri Devendra Singh’s constituency is an excellent example. He must be given the title “ Father of Foreigners of Manipur”. There are many MLAs and Ex-MLAs ( both Hills and Valley) whom people want to give this title. They must be boycotted by the people declaring them as the “ Enemy of the state” .. They have lost the love, trust and respect of the people.

2. Many Bangladeshis / Nepalese came to Manipur with ration cards, driving licence, birth certificates issued by the Government of Assam. Assam is now called : the “Exporter of Foreigners”. So our security system can not identify them as foreigners. It is also reported that the same practice is being carried in Manipur also.

3. Support by the Manipur Police. Manipur Police is overprotective to the migrants. If there is a quarrel or violence involving outsiders at the Khwairamband Bazar, our Manipur Police immediately appeared out of nowhere and arrested the Manipuris whether right or wrong. They allowed themselves to be used by outsiders, which is one lesson the Delhi Police should learnt from Manipur Police.

4. Manipuris’ aversion to manual work . In general, Manipuris especially Meiteis do not want to work as domestic helpers, rickshaw pullers, Thella pullers , cobblers, barbers, garbage collectors, mason. Plumbers etc. Jobs that are generally unattractive to the natives were being taken up by the immigrants. So there is always a vacuum , which can be filled by migrant workers at cheaper rate. When the BRO or any outside contractors come to work in Manipur, they bring hundreds of labourers . These labourers never return to their home states even after completion of the specific task.

5. Easy availability of jobs and better economic prospects are the key factors which attract immigrants to Manipur . Migrants are more hard working . They do not enjoy Sundays and Holidays where our local workers are enjoying not only Sundays and Holidays but also all festivals, Utsop, Marriages, Swaradhas making themselves undependable and unreliable. Since the migrants also charge less, local contractors also prefer to employ them. Such scenarios pave the way for large-scale immigration. Moreover, the Manipuris are becoming increasingly dependent on the immigrants.

6. Absence of any law for regulation of internal migrants in Manipur

7. In-effective implementation of Foreigners Act -1946

8. Faulty Manipur Land Revenue Act-1960 – putting no bar on purchasing land by outsiders or immigrants What Manipur requires today is the Uniform Land Laws for all ethnic groups. The immigrants should not be allowed to purchase land without Government permission.

9. No system of work permit. A special Temporary Work permit for the specific trade should be issued on payment of certain fees in addition to the registration fees. This should be renewed every year on payment of certain fees.

10. No bar on outsiders marrying local girls. The number of women marrying outsiders is increasing nowadays. The immigrants come with an intension to marry local girls to secure social sanction and establish himself by buying land , constructing houses and getting white colour jobs. We should debate on whether the Manipur Government should discourage Manipuri women marrying outsiders. These women shall not be allowed to inherit ancestral land property or buy land properties in their names .

11. Absence of Family Planning among the Immigrants resulting to rapid increase of migrant population. Two child norm should be strictly enforced . The State Government should move the Government of India to amend the National Family Planning Policy to impose certain taxes for violating the two child norm to prevent population balance.

Where is it implemented: -The ILP is required for Indian citizens to enter Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Mizoram. It is issued under the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation, 1873. But this is not meant only for tribal. It was implemented in many non -tribal areas like Darrang, Nowgong , Cachar, Sibsagar.

Lessons from Nagaland :

Nagaland is one state where the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation, 1873 ( Inner Line Permit System is implemented from the days of Naga Hills. We can ask “ Is Nagaland facing the problem of illegal migration. Thuingaleng Muivah, the general secretary of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland-(NSCN-IM), estimated two lakh Bangladeshis in the Dimapur area alone. On July 10, 2009, Nagaland Home Minister Imkong Inchen stated on the floor of the State Assembly in Kohima that a total of 75,807 ILPs were issued in 2008-09, and the total amount collected was Rs 2,024,690. In 2007-08, the number of permits issued was 76,268, with the total amount collected being Rs. 2,157,345. However, he admitted that the state did not have any mechanism to check if people coming in through this permit ever left the state or not. An overwhelming majority of the intelligentsia (94.28 per cent) in Nagaland felt that the ILP had not been effective at all.

In 2003, the Nagaland Government estimated approximately one lakh illegal immigrants who had settled in the foothills of the state bordering Assam. Based on this estimates, we can assume there are at least 1 lakh illegal immigrants in the state.

In 2003, the Nagaland Chief Minister, Neiphiu Rio, publicly acknowledged Assam as being the ‘exporter’ of illegal immigrants to Nagaland. The Telegraph, a Kolkata-based daily newspaper, also reported that certain officials of the Guwahati Municipal Corporation were issuing birth certificates for a paltry sum of Rs 200. Terming the report an ‘eye opener’, Rio alleged that such rackets were endangering the entire North-East.

The Immigrants come with an intention to marry local girls to settle himself . A new generation of Sumias has appeared in Nagaland : “The children of the immigrants, who marry local girls, are often referred to as ‘Sumias’ … These children are also confused about the religion they should adopt. In most cases, they are given Naga names. So, they cannot be detected by the authorities concerned. When they apply for opportunities like jobs, which are meant only for the indigenous people of Nagaland , they are facing problems. Unfortunately, the emergence of ‘Sumias’ is a sensitive and hotly debated issue across the state.

Dimapur had the largest non-Naga workforce of 32,700 persons followed by Kohima (10,900) and Mokokchung (2,215). The survey covered 78 different trades ranging from agriculture, trading and manufacturing to the service sector. The annual income of non-Nagas in Dimapur was the highest at Rs 351.85 crore followed by Kohima at Rs 89.98 crore and Mokokchung at Rs 8.77 crore. The construction sector had the highest. More than 50% of this income goes to their own states

Now all sections of the Manipur people are increasingly getting worried that unabated immigration will become a major economic, demographic and political problem. Their apprehension is that this may lead to loss of land and damage to Meiteis and tribal cultural identity.

Experience of other states and other countries.

The 1961 census estimated that approximately 750,000 East Pakistanis had migrated into Assam between 1951 and 1961. The biggest problem of Assam is now the foreigners issue thanks to the wisdom of Jawaharlal Nehru. In Tripura , the percentage of the indigenous population is 93 % of the entire population in 1947. By 2001, it has been reduced to 22%. The percentage of indigenous population of Andaman and Nicobar Islands declined from 100% at the time of arrival of British in 1867 to nearly extinct by 2011. They have lost their lands, language, custom, tradition. In India, there is policy and law to protect the tiger and other animal but there is no policy or law to save the vanishing tribes. The Government of India had forgotten the existence of indigenous population in Andaman and Nicobar Islands for along time. They used to conduct punitive expeditions to wipe out the indigenous population during 19th and early 20th century. USA is known as a Nation of Immigrants . When Christopher Columbus arrived in America on 12 Oct , 1492 , they were amazed to see the lives of native Americans who enjoy freedom with abundant nourishment without laws, without police and without religion . The percentage of native Americans had declined from 100% in 1492 to about 0.8% by 2006.The aboriginal population from the arrival of Christopher Columbus on 12 October, 1492 has declined from 100% to 0.8% by 2006. The aboriginal population of Australia from the time of arrival of the First Fleet of British ships in January 1788 A.D has declined from 100% to around 2.5% by 2008. There are many examples from different countries of the world.

Stand of the JCILP :

On 30th June, 2006, FREINDS had submitted a memorandum to the State Government for introduction of Inner Line Permit in Manipur. Later on. the Joint Committee on Inner Line Permit System (JCILP), Manipur had submitted a memorandum to the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India vide letter No1909/ILP/2012-FREINDS dated, the 19th October, 2012 . A delegation of the Joint Committee on Inner Line Permit System, Manipur met the Union Home Minister on 23rd November, 2012 and urged him to initiate action in this regard. According to JCILP, “We are welcoming tourists, students, labourers, businessmen to come to Manipur . But they will be required to have a pass by paying nominal fees for their identification, verification. They will not be allowed to purchase land without the concurrence of the state government. This is required for protecting the identity , culture, lands, language and script of the indigenous people of Manipur”.

Initiatives of the Manipur Government

The Manipur State Cabinet has taken a decision on 12th July, 2012 to adopt the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation , 1873 in Manipur . On 13th July, 2012, the Manipur State Assembly had also taken a resolution to implement the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation , 1873 ( Inner Line Permit System ) in Manipur . The copy of the resolution was submitted to the Union Home , Minister , Government of India on 3rd August, 2012. The Manipur State Assembly has taken the resolution to adopt the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation , 1873 two times .

On 16th January, 2013, a delegation of All Political Parties of Manipur under leadership of Shri O. Ibobi Singh, Hon’ble Chief Minister of Manipur met the Union Home Minister , New Delhi. The Union Home Minister has assured again to the delegates that the plan of implementing the Inner Line Permit System in Manipur will be translated into action very soon.

What the Manipur Government needs to do now

This is matter of great importance. and great consequences. The main objective of demanding the Inner Line Permit in Manipur is that the outsiders / migrants should not be allowed to purchase lands without the concurrence of the State Government .

The following suggestions / options maybe considered :-

1. The Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation , 1873 is not yet repealed and being implemented in three states . So the Government of India has the authority and competence to issue an administrative order that the same regulation is being implemented in Manipur.

2. If Government of India is not willing to do citing the Article 19 of the Indian Constitution , we can say that “the Manipuris are minority among minorities In India . The whole population of Manipur constitute hardly 0.2 % of the total population of India . We do not want to become minority in our home land , If you are not willing , the Chief Minister , his MLAs and the people of Manipur will sit in Dharna in front of Prime Minister’s office as done by Arvind Kejrwal when he was the Chief Minister of Delhi. The Indian Constitution does not forbid the Chief Minister sitting in Dharna. If they are reluctant , we will adopt what Br.R Ambedkar has said in Rajya Sabha one 2 September 1953

3. If the Government of India say that the said regulation is too old, we need a new law which is to be passed by the Indian Parliament, then we can mutually set a target date for considering amendment of Indian Constitution. During the last 65 years, we never ask for constitution amendment. No Manipuri took part in the Constitutional debate. The Indian Constitution was imposed on us after forceful merger to India. The Indian Constitution is found extremely discriminatory and harmful to Manipur. It becomes the source of all ethnic conflicts , disunity and disharmony among the ethnic groups of Manipur. The Inner Line permit system should not be the only reason for amendment of Indian Constitution. There are many pressing and burning issues which needs to be considered for amendment of Indian Constitution.. We want to propose for constitutional amendment in the following areas :-

3.1 The whole state of Manipur should be declared as a Hill State

3.2 All the ethnic groups in Manipur may be brought under one uniform Land Law

3.3 The Article 3 of Indian Constitution regarding alteration of state boundaries shall not apply to Manipur to protect the 2000 year old territorial integrity of Manipur

3.4. Inner Line Permit System should be introduced to protect the rights, identity, customs, culture, traditions, religion, land, language, script, mineral resources of indigenous people of Manipur .

3.5. The Representation of People Act-1951 should be amended to ensure equal representation of States in the Rajya Sabha as done in case of many democratic countries. The number of Rajya Sabha seats for Manipur should be increased to five.

3.6. The number of Lok Sabha seats should be made viable by increasing the number of seats to six since the Anglo Indians which has a population of hardly 350,000 were given two Lok Sabha seats. Even if Shri Krishna becomes Manipur MP, he will not be able to become Prime Minister of India under the existing system.

3.7. The Meiteis should be included in the list of Scheduled Tribes to restore the equality among all ethnic groups of Manipur.

4. If the Government of India is still reluctant, then the Manipur State Assembly under leadership of Hon’ble Chief Minister may consider amendment of the Manipur Land Revenue Act-1960 to bring an uniform land laws for all ethnic groups in Manipur. No migrant should be allowed to purchase land without permission of the State Government . No Manipuri women marrying outsiders should be allowed to inherit land properties and should not be allowed to purchase land in her name .

5. The Manipur State Government should implement the existing Foreigners Act-1946 vigorously .People encroaching in the reserved forest and other areas should be evicted .

6. The Manipur State Government should introduce a system of Work Permit according o the trade of the migrant worker with specific fees , renewable every year in addition to the registration.

7. The Manipur State Assembly under leadership of Hon’ble Chief Minister may consider enacting a new legislation for regularisation of entry of migrants from outside Manipur incorporating all the essential provisions cited above.
8. The Government of Manipur should verify the electoral rolls and cancel all the names of foreigners who enter Manipur after 1980 as per agreement with the All Manipur Students Union(AMSU)

9. All the departments responsible for issue of ration cads, BPL cards, Electoral roll or Voter ID, , driving licence should be trained and alerted.

10. The Government of Manipur should move the Government of India to amend the existing Family Planning Policy to enforce two child norm for all communities.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2014/08/what-should-the-state-government-do-for-implementation-of-the-inner-line-permit-system-in-manipur/

By Pradip Phanjoubam

In the wake of the continuing agitation for the implementation of the Inner Line Permit, ILP, system in Manipur in the belief that this would check the problem of immigration into the State, threatening to overturn the demographic balance in favour of settlers, here is an updated version of an article I had written earlier which may provide some more insight on this contentious issue. The Inner Line Permit system, as I had said in an earlier essay, was not an Act, but a Regulation. A Regulation unlike an Act is not a law made by the legislature, but a product of executive whip.

The original regulation which brought the ILP into life was called the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation 1873, precisely because after Assam was annexed into British India in 1826 after the Treaty of Yandaboo, it was made a province of the Bengal Presidency. Only in the next year, 1874, would Assam be severed from Bengal to be made a separate province, following an interesting and increasingly bitter clash of linguistic nationalisms between the Bengalis and Assamese. As expected, the Bengalis who were far advanced and exposed to the British system, came to dominate almost completely the Assam administration as well as its cultural spheres, and at one point influenced the British to even have Bengali declared the official language of Assam claiming Assamese was only a dialect of Bengali, understandably sowing the seeds of this linguistic hostility. In fact, there are many scholars who are of the opinion modern Assamese nationalism is a reaction to Bengali hegemony during the British days. We know this linguistic hostility, though much more nuanced and complex now, still exists, and that if not for this bitter antagonism, at the time of the Partition of India in 1947, the populous district of Sylhet in Bangladesh today, could have, and probably would have been awarded to India by the Radcliff Boundary Commission.

Without digressing too far, however, let me return to a more pointed discussion on the Inner Line Permit system.

The history of the Inner Line provides some rare insights into present frictions between hills and valley, an antagonism which is, as James C. Scott notes in his influential “The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchic History of Upland Southeast Asia”, a pattern throughout the South East Asia massif, a huge land mass beginning from Northeast India and running through the entire mountain regions of South East Asia and extending up to the south and south west regions of China, what he calls Zomia, a term coined by Dutch scholar Willem van Schendel in 2002 to refer to this region.

In a nutshell, unequal development was pre-destined by geography in these little theatres of hill-valley conflict. Because of the fertile river basins and easier communication, the valleys are where agricultural surpluses become a reality, and thereby the seeds of State formations germinate. The State after all, as Frederick Engels tells us in “The Origin of Family Private Property and State” (a classic which is now available for free download on the internet), can be interpreted as a bureaucratic mechanism to manage this surplus. This surplus was rare, if at all, in the Zomian hills, where subsistent agriculture, hunting and food gathering remained primarily the mode of economy. That is, till the advent of modern times, in the case of Northeast, when under the dispensation of the modern Indian State, a service economy (in particular of government services) came to be dominant – a blessing in many ways, for it has somewhat levelled out much of the existing inequalities in society determined by geography.

Scott’s treatment of the subject is often postured very provocatively. As for instance, many of his series of lectures on the subject prior to the publication of this book in question, including the one he delivered in the London School of Economics on May 22, 2008 (audio of full lecture available on internet), were titled “Why Civilisations Can’t Climb Hills: A Political History of Statelessness in Southeast Asia”. Otherwise, his theory of Zomia has been, as we all know, generally applauded and admired in the academic world. Nonetheless, while his identification of the genesis of the hill-valley frictions in Zomia is well received, his theory has been challenged for the portrayal of the nature of this friction.

Those of us who have read the book knows that in this friction, he describes the non-State hillmen as State evaders, who are abhorrent of the organised, hierarchic, regimented discipline of the bureaucracy which is a feature of the State, and would rather continue in their independent, though anarchic existence. They therefore consciously not only flee the State but also resist emergence of State like characteristics in their own communities. This is where many scholars disagree, and curiously many of these scholars, essentially Western scholars who are now looking at the Northeast with new interest (thanks to Scott), use the region as their alibi. While all agree there were clearly differentiated State and non-State spaces before the advent of modern economy, these scholars contend that though the State did not evolve in the hills, the latter were not always abhorrent of the State, and were in fact in envy of the security and economic abundance the State afforded its citizens. In other words the non-State also always had aspired to be State. They also did not flee the State as Scott presumed, but in their own ways, extracted benefits from the State.

This brief primer of Scott’s theory and its critiques is just to create the background against which I want to discuss a peculiar system in the pre-colonial State’s interaction with the non-State in Assam, for the valuable insights it provides to all valley-hill frictions, including in Manipur.

The Ahom kingdom was surrounded by non-State spaces of the wild hills where the Abors, Daflas, Singphos, Miris, Bhutias, Nagas etc lived. Here too, as sketched by Scott, the State and non-State spaces followed widely different economic modes – settled and very productive agriculture in the valley-State and subsistent existence in the non-State hills. There were commerce between the hills and valley at all other times at different haats or foothill markets, but in the lean seasons, there would be raids from the hills to capture food grains and often slave agricultural labour and others skilled in various economic activities. The Ahom rulers then would organise punitive expeditions to the recalcitrant hill villages, but it would be discovered these villagers were not keen on a confrontation and have abandoned their villages to take shelter elsewhere in the higher reaches of the mountain. The expedition party would then burn down the villages, recover whatever is found of the loots the hill raiders carried off earlier, and then return.

After the expedition has concluded, in no time the destroyed villages would be rebuilt, and sooner than later the haats at the foothills would open and the usual commerce between the hills and valley would commence, until the next lean season when raids from the hills could be expected. The cycle would hence be perpetrated. This sordid cyclic drama of war and peace of life in Zomia is probably what is also foretold in the popular Meitei verse which children sing in play: “nom nom sagai tong, chanaba leite takhel thang” (play and make merry while there is plenty, but if there is nothing to eat, pick up your swords). This in essence was the cruel predicament pre-determined by the hill-valley geography.

Probably in recognition of the inevitability of this geographical destiny, the Ahom State and the non-State hills through the aeons of living together evolved various mechanisms for conflict resolution. Of particular interest is the posa system of the Ahoms. By an understanding between the Ahom rulers and various hill chiefs, cultivators in the foothills would pay a percentage of their agricultural produces annually to the hill chiefs in their vicinity for the promise that they would not make raids in the valley through the course of the year. In other words, the Ahoms allowed a degree of suzerainty of certain hill chiefs over some valley villages, thereby avoiding the need for the perpetual destructive wars cycle. It was a system of multiple and overlapping suzerainty in which the Ahom rulers were recognized as the suzerains of hills and plains, and on smaller local canvases, hill chiefs were allowed to be suzerains over nearby valley villages on definite agreed terms. These terms too changed periodically.

When the British took over Assam in 1826, they inherited all of what was once the Ahom’s, including the posa system. But in the British vocabulary, there was nothing to describe the posa except as “blackmail”. What had then become a custom symbolising an amicable hill-valley relationship evolved through necessity, was suddenly given a legalistic meaning. As Assamese scholar, Bodhisattva Kar points out, with an expanding tea industry, the British soon learnt the benefits of allowing this “blackmail” to continue through the back door and avoid skirmishes. They also soon gave it a reinterpretation by which to turn the table of this “blackmail” equation against the hill chiefs.

An Inner Line was drawn to segregate the State from non-State, law from no-law, hill from valley, tax-paying region from non-paying ones, capital from pre-capital regions, (Kar) and was finally made official in 1873 by the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation. There were campaigns against the Inner Line at the time, especially by tea planters and other business prospectors in the hills, who wanted the government to extend its law to all of the hills so they can benefit from the protection, but the British government saw no reason for it immediately. They were supreme revenue managers and were not eager to extend their presence in territories which did not promise them revenue, or else pose immediate security threats. Take this example to illustrate this point. In 1826 after defeating the Burmese and eliminating a Burmese threat from the east convincingly, the British even withdrew its regular Army from Assam which they had brought in during the 1826 war, on the logic that it was not cost effective, as no formidable threats to its territory remained in Assam. Instead they chose to manage Assam with a people’s militia, an ingenious innovation of the British administration, and raised the Cachar Levy in 1835. This militia, we all know, ultimately grew and became, first the Assam Military Police, and then the formidable Assam Rifles at the end of the First World War.

So the Inner Line stayed, prohibiting free interaction between valley and hills. The British administration also monetise the posa system, and the annual customary payment in kind in terms of agricultural produces was ended and instead the payments were made as fixed sums of money. This tied the hill villages to the vagaries of the market, its inflation, commodities fluctuations etc, besides formalising and bureaucratising the tradition, exposing the hill chiefs to red-tapism, corruption etc of the government’s clerical world, until finally they came to be held at ransom under the posa.

The British were ultimately to extend their law directly to the hills beyond the Inner Line, taking over the Lushai Hills and the Naga Hills, but the developments that led to this policy necessity is not within the scope of this essay to cover. Hopefully however, this article would have given IFP readers some material at least to ponder on how, unimaginative transportation of age old customs evolved through experience to ensure social harmony, into rigid legal spheres can cause dangerous disruptions of relations between traditional societies. The bitterness in the hill-divide in Manipur probably can also be seen and understood from this vantage, hopefully giving it some sobering balm for the benefit of all.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2014/08/the-fascinating-norms-that-governed-the-land-before-the-inner-line/

By B.G. Verghese

The deliberate fanning of politically motivated communal discord in UP and elsewhere is both disgusting and alarming but cannot condone Rahul Gandhi’s storming the well of the LokSabha and disrupting proceedings last week. It was in order for him to demand a discussion on the communal situation but not at the cost of Question Hour instead of thereafter. The Speaker was not unreasonable in firmly disallowing this demand and Rahul, who is irregular in attending Parliament and seen snoozing when present there, had no business to insist on a here-and-now discussion or none at all.

Communal harmony cannot be protected or promoted by disrupting Parliamentand to cite the BJP’s own boorish and disgraceful behaviour in blocking all debate session after session in the last LokSabha is irrelevant. If Rahul was trying to project his “leadership” to his own increasingly disgruntled and even rebellious ranks, he singularly failed once again. Nor was ArunJaitley’s snide riposte on this account justified in view of his party’s past record in wrecking parliamentary proceedings.

Nonetheless, the deliberate stoking of communal tensions, not least by the BJP-Parivar, SP, BSP and even the Congress, is playing with fire. An analysis of police records by the Indian Express indicates that 600 communal incidents have been registered in UP since the recent general elections, almost two-thirds in and around 12 constituencies scheduled to go to the polls shortly. Many appear to have been instigated by outsiderswithdisputes over land, construction or repair of religious places, the installation and use of loudspeakers for calls to prayer and worship, and alleged cases of using eve-teasing and elopement being used as triggers.

Music and processions have long been used as forms of community assertion and to mobilise religious mobs and demonstrate street power. Lumpens, fanatics andpoliticians wait to stir rented piety to mob fury. Punishments are late and light, leading to impunity and immunity. Parliament should and must take note of these divisive trends. In all of this, the prime minister has been silent and silence will increasingly be read as consent.

Great indignation has been expressed by some over a Supreme Court judge’s remark that were he a dictator he would make readings from the Gita and Mahabharata compulsory in junior schooling. The remark has got “secularists” frothing. Maybe the idea was crudely put, but the Judge is right. Children should be made familiar with them not as part of religious learning texts but as great and uplifting moral and cultural texts, philosophical treatises, wonderful poetry and enthralling literature.Children should equally be exposed to stories from the Bible, the life of the Prophet and Islamic traditions, the Buddha, Mahavir, Nanak and learn of other faiths and sages that are part of our life and culture. Not to know anything of these treasures is to be illiterate and uncultured. Unfortunately our totally skewed definition of “secularism”, increasingly hollowed out by vote-bank politics, has been reduced to “equal respect for everybody’s communalism”.

There has been another perverse debate and decision on the civil service aptitude test. The Centre has decided to exclude the 22 marks hitherto given for simple English comprehension while determining selection grades so that students from the Hindi stream have a level playing field! There havenot unexpectedlybeen protests from Tamil, Oriya and other Indian language speakers. Why debase standards? The CSAT English paper translates steel plants aslohakepedand the North Pole asUttariKhamba!Do not condone such nonsense, which is what the Centre seems to be doing under Dina NathBatra’s advice as it is precisely his formulation in a PIL that the Government appears to have adopted.

Here again, the undeclared tragedy is that successive Governments have had no language policy. Article 351 has been treated with contempt, no Hindi-made-easylearning aids have been produced, Hindi teaching and propagation have not been incentivised, inter-lingual dictionaries from Hindi into Tamil, Assamese,Kannada, Oriya or whatever are either not, or not easily, available. Translations are limited. Standard keyboards are rare if they exist at all. Simultaneous interpretation facilities are grossly inadequate. The official language committee goes globe-trotting and has a wonderful time but has done nothing of consequence whatsoever.

Parliament has meanwhile taken adverse not of Tendulkar and Rekha’s studied absence from the RajyaSabha of which they have been nominated members for two years. Tendulkar has made three appearances and Rekha seven over this period. Tendulkar says his brother had surgery? When and for how long? And did that prevent him gallivanting around the world, watching cricket, going to Wimbledon, attending commercial brand ambassador functions, opening malls and so forth – everywhere exceptParliament.

Nomination to the RajyaSabha is not a trophy or award but a highly privileged call to participate in national governance and oversight. Both Tendulkar and Rekha were wrongly selected for all the wrong reasons. In Tendulkar’s case, he had erred in fighting to get a very expensive gifted Ferrari into the country without paying customs duty and had overstayed his cricket innings, playing Tests for glory for nearly a year to get his elusive 100th test century at the cost of shutting out younger talent. And now having availed of all the benefits of RajyaSabha membership and scorned attendance in the House, the only honourable option left to him is to resign his seat. The Parliament of India cannot be reduced to a joke and government’s must learn to make less frivolous nominations.

The same must be said about the appointment of Governors. Raj Bhavans are not dharamsalas for the fallen and faithful or perches from which to dislodge or embarrass elected state governments. If a number of UPA appointed governors have been crudely dismissed by the new BJP regime, the appointments made by the latter are as disappointing. There are of course honourable exceptions but the selection of governors has by and large ignored their true constitutional role.

The dismissal of KamlaBeniwal is a particularly bad case of vindictiveness and pettiness. If she is charged with alleged corruption over several years, why was she summarily transferred from Gujarat, where she was a thorn in the side of Mr Modi, to Mizoram within weeks of her retirement? And what message did that send Mizoram and the Northeast generally?

Increasing efforts by the Modi government to control the judiciary and bureaucracy do not augur well. The latest news is that the DG of the Press Information Bureau has been removed for issuing dinner invitations to media persons in her name and not in that of the Minister, PrakashJavdekar. Simultaneously, while an already crippled PrasarBharati had had the head of Doordarshan’s news division put on “compulsory wait” since he edited Mr Modi’s interview during the recent general election in an allegedly partisan manner. This is post-facto censorship by other means.

www.bgverghese.com

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2014/08/unhealthy-trends/

By Chitra Ahanthem

Isn’t it interesting that even as technological, scientific and medical advances are now able to ward off various diseases and infections, some find a way of making their deadly presence felt? The latest public health scare is currently the Ebola outbreak of East Africa, which the World Health Organization (WHO) has declared as an international health emergency. Mention may be made that it is only for the third time that WHO has declared a public health emergency of international concern, after the H1N1 outbreak, commonly called swine flu that broke out in 2008, and the ongoing polio outbreak in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. The other side of development and progress is that geographical boundaries open up and there is more interpersonal interactions that fuel the growth of the spread of infections. To cite an example, when an epidemic of plague or cholera or such broke out in a particular town or village in an earlier era, the most that the infection could travel would be to towns or villages or cities in the immediate surroundings. But the same outbreak now in this time and age of increased person to person interactions and more people being congregated at markets, airports and train stations mean that the spread of infection is increased manifold.

Another very interesting feature with viral outbreaks is that they are most deadly at its break out point and time and then go into a stupor, waking up again in either a more deadly version or a weaker strain. This happened with the H1N1 virus that took a heavy toll in terms of public health leading to a huge medical scare that eventually led to the imposition of strong medications as a generic treatment measure with no importance given on its life threatening side effects with no mention yet again on the fact that a majority of people infected by swine flu recovered without any medical treatment. I still remember the knee jerk reactions around me when lab tests confirmed that I was positive for swine flu and yes, I still have the medicines that were given to me: the ones that I refused to take because I felt that it was risk worth taking. But no, it was not easy to take that stand since the large scale fear prevailing then was that swine flu was infectious and the mortality rates were reported as being high. Of course, what made it easy for me to decide was largely the condition of the isolation ward at the hospital where I had gone to give my sample (the room had live vermin and germs that came out of the bathroom!) and then the volume of resources that I had access to (mostly online) with regard to the nature of swine flu and its implication on the human body.

What is happening now is that with more infections taking place all around us (due to more people being interconnected), there is first and foremost a tendency for a large scare that in turn creates pressure on health and state authorities to respond to the situation. It happened when the first cases of HIV/AIDS were being reported in the country: largely considered to be of foreign origin, the Ministry of Health actually sent out a directive that entry of foreign nationals would be curbed! The fall out of a public health emergency and the scare that follows it, the risks and trails undertaken by health workers along with the economic sidelight that pharma companies enjoys: all of these and more have been well portrayed in Steven Soderbergh’s acclaimed film that came out in 2011, ‘Contagion’. The film largely captured various nuances of the swine flu and earlier SARS outbreak and featured a fictional viral pandemic, the mad rush to ascertain its origin, the politics behind finding a cure and then deciding who gets the medicine first before it would get on the public domain. A viewing of this film would be largely educational as it narrates quite well the various push and pull factors that come into play when a global pandemic strikes. And call it a continuation of the debate over whether life imitates fiction or fiction imitates life for the questions that this 2011 film threw up is still relevant today with reports of yet to be approved medicines for the Ebola outbreak being a good therapy but unavailable to all outside of the well to do nations.

End-point:

When international health agencies come in with declarations of emergency etc, it means that governments tend to wake up though sometimes not in the best way as happened when HIV/AIDS was reported or even with the generalizations in the wake of the swine flu epidemic. But one aspect of viral infections is that it can be prevented or made weaker by one basic act: that of washing our hands and keeping them clean. This is easier said than done since the amount of interaction with people and things that are touched by different people (starting from doors and furniture to vehicles, utensils and buildings) is mind boggling. Then again, the entry of hand sanitizers in the consumer market today bodes well for people who want to keep away viruses, which are on the look out for a potential victim. And now, shopkeepers stocking hand sanitizers can thank me if their stocks of the same fly away from their shelves!

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2014/08/a-movie-and-a-viral-outbreak/

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/