Post # 27 # On Black Laws and Dark Views

Irom Sharmila has been on a
protest fast since Nov 2000

For long we have been complaining that we are not getting enough attention from mainland India. This is not about Narcissus and things like that, but a wretched tale of a neglected part of India. Neglected is quite a light word if people know the reality in Manipur with regards to the largest democratic country by virtue of its ignorance about condoms and contraceptive pills. A controversial front newspaper story in the Telegraph, a leading daily in the eastern part of the country however, has had a lot of stories to tell us.

The news which was published a couple of days ago is nothing unusual, but about the love affair between the star campaigner, Irom Sharmila and his boyfriend. Let’s put the records straight first: Sharmila has been on a fast since Nov 2000 (that’s more than ten years ago!) against the draconian Armed Forces Special Powers Act; all along the national media has been willingly or unwillingly ignorant about her; for ten years nothing substantial was printed or published but this ‘insubstantial’ side-story on an important front page; now a powerful group of civil organisations in Manipur has banned the newspaper and several others are pouring in their condemnation.

This whole issue of newspaper-published-shits-and-gets-banned looks like a passing event, though without no reason. So many people are getting killed and injured because of this controversial martial law. In the process, we have also become too intolerant to accommodate others’ views. But why is it that the mainland people, the mainstream newspapers always suck a big time?

In a broader aspect, India sees in us as a buffer zone. It does not matter how people are eating bullets and drinking bloods as long as its vested interests are safeguarded. Otherwise, there could have been a lasting peace in our region, where anyone will be bowled over by its natural beauty. These things apart, the march will continue. India must know we are not voiceless. India must know if the shits continue all the time, there will come a time it has to eat the shits more than it can chew one day.

Post # 26 # Night Warriors Never Whine

Outsourcing is a one of the mantra driving the Indian economy. Business.mapsofindia.com mentions, “India, since the past few years, has experienced a paradigm shift due to its competitive stand in the business world. Being a huge market itself, as well as the home to cheap and skilled labors in abundance, India became the favorite hunting ground for the companies to explore the market and grow their business.”

Well the above paragraph is too hard for this blog, but I can’t help taking help of a reference. In the last decade, we were as kids only happy stomping our foot to Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath and their ilk for two reason: firstly, we were too young to care for the mundane things like jobs or economy of a country, and secondly, as far as we know life was all about thinking and acting local though our lives were tinctured with rock n’ roll. Then Bob Dylan re-sing, The Times They Are a-Changin’. Now the tincture is gone as I’m tracing a way back to my roots, reading poetry, researching the stuffs from all over and imbibing the ethos of our time. I have also changed my slogan to thinking global and acting local.

Now back to the issue that matters. Outsourcing has made us richer, has turned me from a small-town nonentity to an Error Checker, ready to check any error committed by anyone across the world. But we need a boring, uncommon calibration that we can find nowhere else: Time Adjustment. For example, the guys on the other side will always be sleeping while we are working, and we will be sleeping when they are working — a real case study for the needs of proper and meaningful communication an without which business will be doomed. As a means of synchronization, we do a monthly rotation of day and night shifts.

PC World predicts India's revenue from outsourcing could be $225 billion in 2020. I need no billion or million but a real nice sleep. What the heck? Why are the old men and women so fond of jogging in the morning? Good night. 

Post # Six # Clash Inside a Civilization

I went to visit an uncle who is diagnosed with Hepatitis C in a hospital. My aunty was worried because the doctors have advised them that my uncle should be shifted to another hospital, that it’s better if he can be transferred to a hospital outside the state. The reason: lack of medicinal oxygen supply.

The Bra Protest: Economic
blockade, in early August 2011 *

For the past one week, there has been economic blockade on the highways imposed by some organisations demanding for separate districts. First, we have only two highways we are connected to the world and secondly, barbarism knows no bound here. Even in war times, lines for medicines and food stock are kept clear, educational areas are kept clear and there is a limit to everything. But the rules are different in my hometown, Imphal. And this is the second time in two years.

In 2010, the highways were blocked for more than two months by another organisation. For plain information, our land is inhabited by more than thirty ethnic groups, each having different agendas and some of them are fighting for homelands and some others fighting for self-determination and independence from the union of India. In this part of the world, luxury is having a cooking gas to prepare food. Luxury is having electricity for at least six hours a day. Luxury is having food stocks to buy.

Things are still manageable till now. But last time, we had some hard-earned money but had nothing to buy. Life’s a tragedy.

Now my uncle’s worried. But I think he will feel better if he can go to, like, Guwahati. We are living in trying times of the Manipuri civilization. We are proud of inventing polo, developing a classical dance, being the sports powerhouse of India and things like that, but this pride means a big zero when it comes to life and death. After running here and there for the medicines for my uncle, I came back home feeling exhausted.

[* Image originally published by E-pao.net (http://e-pao.net/) at http://www.e-pao.net/epGallery.asp?id=37&src=News_Related/Archived_News_Photo/NewsPhotoArchive_2011_4]