Post # 13 # The Place I Belong to

Manipur in crimson

Noam Chomsky, Stephen Hawking, Karl Popper and their ilk would have been living listless lives, in obscurity, had they born in my native place. The intelligence of these few men is, no doubt, extraordinary but yours truly just want to convey what a non-conducive atmosphere can spoil the mental health of the individuals and of a society at large. That's my hometown, in one of its darkest ages in history. Pity that we are a part of this contemporary generation. But there are hopes and aspiration for change. There are a lot of many things that we want to do and that we would be doing to put a full stop to the unending crises.

A modern society. And there are things like post-modernism. Going by the literal meaning of the words, we have been doing a great injustice to these natural/creative/artificial phenomena. Because we are struck in between in some turning points of a civilization. We saw the first trace of modernity around the mid 19th century, amidst World War II and the independence movements and the subsequent periods. And till now, we have been dragging our foot to eternity or simply, have not been able to get out of a certain ancient cocoon. The situation is, however, quite complex. From around those 19th-century days, some parts of our social lives have also been under a primitive cloak of mindsets and attitudes. Put simply, we have never been able to get rid of medieval disposition nor have able to move forward to leave behind the sub-modern legacies.

Another major hindrance to this unintentional effort to better ourselves is our geography. Once we have a thriving business with the Far East countries, now we are a landlocked state after becoming a part of the Great Union of India.

Now the government is only capable of committing brazen crimes like unbridled corruption and state terrorism. The authority is non-existent when it comes to governance and administration. The insurgents who started an idealistic pursuit of self-determination are also now becoming like the elected government: corrupt, uninspiring and a pain in the ass. And us, the common people? The less said the better. Greedy, lazy, violent... How true nobody is perfect!

The only thing which have remained is the natural beauty that bestows the land. Green and blue mountains, colourful skies, breathtaking spots. Nowhere would I find such wonder and awe and such things so close to my heart than this raped land.