Stay-at-home-pops and Parbung

There is a common thread running through both the phenomenon, of stay at home pops and, of mass rape in Parbung.

The common thread is the subsidy from New Delhi.

It’s amazing that it’s already 21st century and we are still subsisting on the subsidy. We are at each other’s throat battling for the larger share of this subsidy.

Stay at home pops actually marvel at the glitter of this subsidy but just start beginning to feel that depending solely on it will not be a workable model in the long run. It will be good if they are trying to look beyond this subsidy. But they can also go in any direction—I guess it is a really fluid situation.

But Parbung is a classic example of trying to keep in tact the primacy of subsidy rule.

In reality there is no civil administration in Parbung area. But in paper that administration is depicted as being fully functional and all the officials and staffs are drawing their monthly salaries sitting comfortably in the district headquarter at Churachandpur and, in the state capital in Imphal. This is one face of the phenomenon.

Another one is the one concerning the development funds which are specially and exclusively designed for the interiors of the hill sub-divisions like parbung. Such funds never reach the targeted people. The village chiefs in connivance with the officials of the respective district administrations doctor documents depicting the projects as fully implemented, draw the funds and split them among themselves.

So, there is a very interested group of people who want to maintain the status quo in the interior sub-divisions like Parbung.

That status quo is unwittingly being challenged by the rebels operating in such sub-divisions. The rebels, despite condemnable for myriads of other defects, start summoning high level officers in the sub-division and start asking questions, that too in front of the local villagers. Some of them are said to be given punishment there and then.

So, the valley rebels with their revolution need to be packed off.
Mass rape is not the issue here. I suspect that they are even willing to be branded as ‘liars’ by the whole world as a trade off for bundling off the rebels together with their dangerous idea of ‘revolution’. All for safeguarding the status quo. And, the subsidy.

Is it broadband?

I went to meet the junior telecom officer this afternoon.

I have applied for 256 kbps connectivity. They are giving the initial service to 90 subscribers only. The number of applicants is around 250. So, how are they going to choose the 90?

They are calling a report from the junior telecom officer about the health of the network, especially at the point where last mile route to my phone starts. So, I asked if he could detect any network defect at my point. He did not reply yes or no; he only said the report was ready and he would forward it to the concerned officer on Monday. The report is necessary because the service is to be delivered over ADSL mode.

How are they going to choose the 90?

I managed to have a furtive look at some of the applications. All of them are for the plan of Rs 250/- per month. So, I quickly made mine Rs 500/- per month plan.

For the Rs 250/- per month the download limit for a month is 0.4 gb. For the Rs 500/- plan it is 1 gb plus the bonus of limitless download between 2 am and 7 am (yes, from 2 am to 7 am).

They will definitely prefer a customer who is willing to pay Rs 250/- more every month, won’t they?

Hyper-competitive in Imphal

It may sound like hyper-competition is kinda non-existent or new to Imphal. Folks! It’s not!! Hyper-competition is well and alive in one particular facet of our life.

This comes to Naharol(youth)—it is an enigma how this innocent and beautiful word comes to connote the rebels. May be, the rebels are youthful.

Seeking funds for their revolution by the rebels exhibits more than hyper-competition. They are mouthing revolution, liberation from Indian rule but they are so hyper-competitive in grabbing funds from New Delhi.

The modus operandi is like this: Every rebel group takes it upon itself to decide what percentage of a particular fund for a development project is just right for it! After thus decided they just inform the head of the department that the fund for the project should not be released until that percentage is given to them. Total embargo of the project! Very cute, isn’t it?

Imagine half a dozen such embargos for every project from half a dozen very active rebel groups.

The result is that all the head of departments cannot stay in their houses—they all flock to State guest house with their families. There they are guarded day and night by sub-machinegun wielding security forces.

Hyper-competition is good. Instead of being hyper-competitive in grabbing funds coming from New Delhi, why should not they decide among themselves shifting the game to an altogether new playing field? Say, foreign trade. It’s an open secret here that they have a lot of presence in several countries, including fast developing ones like Thailand, Hong Kong etc. And they have a lot of active members here.

Talking of foreign trade, young and very smart new generation businessmen are constantly moving along the Singapore-Hong Kong circuit and they have good businesses.

I know one of those businessmen. His house is one the best designed one that I’ve seen.
Most of what you call of upper class has houses that are at best, of insipid designs and at worst, simply concrete boxes.

I hope this tells something of the emerging generation.

Wolfberry. What is this?

This reddish small fruit has 500 times more vitamin C than orange (or is it lemon?—I’m confused) and much more antioxidant than pomegranate. This is a super fruit.

Most of the world’s supplies seem to come out of China. It’s not clear if it is native to China.

If we have at least a poor cousin of this fruit in this more or less unexplored part of the world!

It was in this state of mind when I had searched images of this fruit on google. I saw several images. As I tried to see if it was one of those obscure fruits that abound in the hills and mountain, the thought suddenly came to me—if these images are in 3 D I could be certain whether I had seen it before or not.

Then, the next day I read that google had just released a product for 3 D modeling and mashing them with google earth. They will even have a warehouse for all the 3D thus created.

It will be extremely good experiment if we just see 3D images, just as I’m extremely keen to see a 3D image of a wolfberry.

But with my Celeron processor and this dial up connection, it’s best not to waste my bytes and time on this—I mean, for the time being.

Stay-at-home-pops!

My neighbour to the right and also to the left is what we may call stay-at-home-pops! I don’t intend to make mockery of them. They are sitting on hot real estates (as do I) and they can comfortably live off them (as can I). Looking at from another angle, theirs (also mine) is an ideal situation for someone who wants to write.

My point is stay at home pops are becoming acceptable here. (Oh! How I wish it’s just a fad). I personally know so many of them (who, obviously, are not endowed with hot real estates!)—good, educated and smart men.

So, what we are looking at?

I think we are looking at a particular time of the growth (should we simply call it just a journey instead?) of this society where its citizens are in a shock in suddenly finding their mode of making money is not workable anymore. They are in a state of shock. They are silently trying to find out what’s happening to them.

Of course, they are aware of Bangalore. I think it’s the focus of everybody’s attention. They have their neighbours, friends, relatives or, someone they know, who are working and earning well in Bangalore. It’s not the case of making comparison between the two, but rather to say that they are at least aware of a working model somewhere where their kith and kin are capable of taking part as productive and competitive members.

Terming it as a lull before a storm is grandiose—somehow it sends out meaning that they are about to leapfrog to some higher state after the lull.

Rather, we are in a bleak situation. I’m so worried that instead of going forward, we may well fall into the nadir of mass pessimism and ultimately, to depression—dazed by this hyper-competitive and globalised world.

Personally, I’ll be blessed if I’ve an inkling of that part of the dynamics of this society, which if properly attuned, will make this society hold on into its own, come around to stand on its own legs and starts confronting this dizzying world.

That was a rant! Rant of an activist.

More than the rant, there is a slogan as well—
“LET THE STAY AT HOME POPS BE JUST A FAD!”

Better?

Who is more logical?

Google has a service called Guge. I don’t know what it is. But it is taken out of some Chinese folk songs and chosen to rhyme with Google. Most Chinese find it difficult to remember the word, Google—that’s why they are to find out something that’s Chinese and at the samw time,closely identifiable with Google.

Apparently, there are many who do not like Guge as well. There is even a protest site called http://www.noguge.com/.

They are proposing gougou.

This means dog dog.

They have 2 GOUs and for those, 2 dogs as well.

But we have 2 GOUs and for those, 1 dog only.

Who is more logical?

I got this guge stuff from this blog at http://google.blognewschannel.com/index.php/archives/2006/04/25/no-guge-say-chinese-users/

Some years back a friend of mine went to Aizawl for shooting a documentary. Not affording to haul all the crew members from Imphal he had to find some from Aizawl. He managed to locate them and it’s time for all the crew members to get to introduce to each other.

Coming to one crew member from Imphal, he said—“This is Angoubi”.

All the Mizos present there muttered ‘angoubi’, looked at the man and broke out laughing.

Sensing something very wrong, he asked them what made them laugh.

Pat came the reply—‘angoubi’ is the wrong way to say thing in that particular occasion. The correct way should be ‘pangou’.

Because he is male, there should be ‘pa’ and for white, ‘ngou’.

Back in Imphal after the shooting all his friends started calling him ‘pangou’!

In both the cases, we are less logical,
isn’t it?

I'll come to the truth--Justice Rajkhowa

I depended on Imphal Free Press for yesterday’s post. Today, all the papers came out with reports on the inquiry commission’s proceedings. Poknapham had one photograph of the school where the proceedings took place in Lungthulien. I read all the papers and all of them said they were prevented from taking pictures—Poknapham did not say how it got the photo.

Justice Rajkhowa was asked how would he come to the truth without getting statements from the perpetrators and also without medical reports. He said he invited statements from all the concerned including the perpetrators and if some parties did not co-operate, it would not be his fault. Regarding the medical reports, he said that as there was a time gap of 4 months it’s futile to seek the reports now.

So?—the journos asked.

The justice said he will decide if he can trust the persons who directly deposed before him. Based on this he will make his recommendations to the State govt.

Sangai Express has a further meeting with the Justice in his Imphal office. He said he had more statements from more than 200 persons. So, he has now to continue the proceedings in Churachandpur to formally record their statements.

All the reports said they found all the houses in Lungthulien with closed doors and they could not find lodge for the night’s stay there. One paper pointedly mentioned one Joseph Hmar, a student leader who told them that he was not in a position to make arrangement for the journos’ stay there. So, all of them had to return to Parbung, 10 kms away from there.

So, why could not they stay back in Parbung and have, let’s say, a feel of the further two days proceedings there?

The details are hazy. One paper suggested there was apparent sabotage there in Parbung also. So, they had hurried back to Imphal.

This should be a tight-fit blog!

I didn’t give any thought to the particular day when I had started my blog. But it happened to be the 17th of April. I probably read the interview of the blooker winner on the 15th ,absorbed all the implications on the 16th and just started the blog the 17th.

17th of April is an important day in the history of student activism in Manipur. On this particular day two students fell to the police bullets in the Anti-foreigner Agitation two decades ago.

I grew up a student activist in my college life. I learnt nothing in college except organizing student protest, leading rallies, learning techniques of avoiding arrest by police and other related things.

Some parts of me will always be an activist forever. I mean until that last day of my life in this planet. It’s another way of saying that you are liable to be led (by this blog) towards a particular point of view—an activistic view of the things happening around us. I mean you have to be diplomatic but not to fool anybody.

So, anyway, be warned!

Inspired by a blooker winner on an important day—this should be tight-fit blog!

Funny—some days ago I happened to stumble on a 2-minutes clip of a porn manga. I downloaded it and immediately developed a liking for it. I searched for more and failed to find any more.

I always thought that porn is a three-minute stuff—you watched for 3 minutes and you become bore. Until I came across a Ursula Cavalcanti starrer. A story of loose-fit hubby and the wife trying to find a tight-fit lover—the usual fare. But I found myself fantasizing in ‘action’ with the star. It’s a completely new experiment for me. Oh! Boy, a completely new one!!

Though I’ve to confess that I once dated a girl, who is, let’s say, in the mold of Ursula Cavalcanti.

So excuse me for the unusual description.

But I mean it—TIGHT-FIT BLOG!

Male villagers also abused??

I’ve got time just now for posting about this morning’s report about Rajkhowa commission.

There was a media team. But they were prevented from meeting the girls and hearing the proceedings of the commission. They were not even allowed near the building where the proceedings were taking place. At last they were willing to settle for just a photograph of the building where the proceedings took place—they were turned down.

By whom? By the villagers and the local NGOs.

But they were given interviews by the Justice himself. He said he had to go Langthulien (apparently further away from Parbung) to record the statements 9 school going girls. He also took statements from further 6 girls from Parbung itself. The total seem to be 15 girls. He further said that because of claims and counter-claims and the total lack medical report made it very difficult for him to ascertain the truth.

What’s striking is that he said because of further allegation abuse of male villagers by the cadres of the insurgent groups, it will now be necessary to continue the hearing in district headquarters in Churachandpur.

Well, that’s quite a news. Male villagers also abused!!

It seems blogger likes it too!

I mean, my adventures with my brown rice!

I posted it once and blogger had gotten itself to reproduce it into two posts.

I thought of deleting one of them. But I desisted from doing so coz it’s better to let the two of them etched themselves in time –let them proclaim loudly that there is serious user interface flaw in one of the products maintained by those genius in googleplex!

I’m new to blogging itself. But I’ve been into reading blogs for the last ¾ years. I’ve heard some bloggers grumble that MSN Spaces has nearly 20 million (I’m depending on my memory) blogs and so far, not a single hitch in their servers.

But I like Google. I guess that’s an understatement. I’m almost a fan of Google. Someone wrote that Google is most probably building a second internet and I thought what a good idea! Again some other chap wrote that Google had just employed a lobbying agency in the power corridors of Washington and that only meant that something big (read: something really big that’s likely to bust some existing regulations). Great, I said, c’mon, Google bust all the damn regulations of the entire world!!

Don’t you not think that sure sounds like a fanboy?

I’ve this hunch that there is a lot to do with three most visible googlers—Larry Page, Sergey Brin and Marissa Mayer. They all seem to be good souls—inherently good persons. Someone incapable of doing anything bad. Or, not doing anything evil, as they are saying ever so loudly.

Brown rice

A month back I was reading a beauty column in (where else?), the Times of India.

She said many things but what caught my attention came near the fag end of the article.
She said she made it a point to make it her kind of rice --the brown rice. I said to myself why not mine also?

Next morning I went out in search of brown rice.

Actually, I had to meet a friend also and I got into the first rice mill along the way to my friend’s office. Apparently severally women worked in the mill—not a male was to be seen. I approached the lady who is farthest off the running machines which were giving off tremendous noise. Luckily, I could also find some milled rice near her. After checking out several sacks I pointed to the sack which contained what appeared to me what you called the brown rice.

She shook her head and said it was ‘chamang’ and it’s not for human consumption.

I took a fistful, had a good look and said they sure looked like good rice.

She said they would not cook.

Well, that’s puzzling to me. I had in my fist what seemed to be perfectly good rice but she said they would not cook. Why? I asked—“Why?”

She explained that the kinds of rice need to go into two further machines for making them human-ready.

I wanted to shout –“Whoa! I have the brown rice!! No further milling, please”.

O f course, I didn’t shout. After fidgeting with the rice in the sack for some moments I casually asked—“What’s the price?”

“Rs 13.00 a kg”, she said.

By now I was perfectly willing to gamble 130 bucks to see why would not my brown rice cook. So, I said—“Give me 10 kgs of this”.

C’mon, she had that bewildered look in her face! She stammered, cleared her throat and said that she was perfectly willing to sell me the rice but she again warned that it was not for human consumption and again emphasized that it would not cook.

I tried not to send out any sign of not heeding her good advice and said as politely as possible—“Please give me 10 kgs”.

Suddenly, she played forgetful—“Oh! That was all sold out. You have to come next morning to get your 10 kgs”.

I walked out of the mill. Abruptly.

Now, it was the day after. (By now you would be well aware that I could absorb only that much of customer service in a single day. Enough for a day!)

Again, it was a rice mill near another of my friend’s place.

This time also all mill hands appeared to be women. One happened to be a lady who ran a tea stall near my friend’s place—apparently she was out of her own business.

I could only barely uttered ‘chamang’when she said—“Oh! Laigi oiramtare—you must be needing it for some religiously ceremony, right?”

I grabbed my golden chance and said—“Yes, yes”.

“How many kgs? I’ll give you for Rs 12 a kg”.

That’s how I got my first 10 kgs of brown rice!

I went out again for another 10 kgs this afternoon.

The same mill. The same lady.

She was smiling and said—“Another 10 kgs? But why would need ‘chamang’ of all things?”

She took the money for the 10 kgs, had a mischievous grin and said—“We know it’s for making ‘hamei’!!”

Well, for the uneducated ‘hamei’ is the ferment ting agent for making rice beer!

Chamang, laigi, hamei. That’s the story of brown rice!!



Postscript: White rice costs you Rs 15 a kg. Not considering all the vitamins and minerals not polished off from my brown rice, what a bargain I had got, let’s say, notwithstanding the little adventures!

Brown rice

A month back I was reading a beauty column in (where else?), the Times of India.

She said many things but what caught my attention came near the fag end of the article.
She said she made it a point to make it her kind of rice --the brown rice. I said to myself why not mine also?

Next morning I went out in search of brown rice.

Actually, I had to meet a friend also and I got into the first rice mill along the way to my friend’s office. Apparently severally women worked in the mill—not a male was to be seen. I approached the lady who is farthest off the running machines which were giving off tremendous noise. Luckily, I could also find some milled rice near her. After checking out several sacks I pointed to the sack which contained what appeared to me what you called the brown rice.

She shook her head and said it was ‘chamang’ and it’s not for human consumption.

I took a fistful, had a good look and said they sure looked like good rice.

She said they would not cook.

Well, that’s puzzling to me. I had in my fist what seemed to be perfectly good rice but she said they would not cook. Why? I asked—“Why?”

She explained that the kinds of rice need to go into two further machines for making them human-ready.

I wanted to shout –“Whoa! I have the brown rice!! No further milling, please”.

O f course, I didn’t shout. After fidgeting with the rice in the sack for some moments I casually asked—“What’s the price?”

“Rs 13.00 a kg”, she said.

By now I was perfectly willing to gamble 130 bucks to see why would not my brown rice cook. So, I said—“Give me 10 kgs of this”.

C’mon, she had that bewildered look in her face! She stammered, cleared her throat and said that she was perfectly willing to sell me the rice but she again warned that it was not for human consumption and again emphasized that it would not cook.

I tried not to send out any sign of not heeding her good advice and said as politely as possible—“Please give me 10 kgs”.

Suddenly, she played forgetful—“Oh! That was all sold out. You have to come next morning to get your 10 kgs”.

I walked out of the mill. Abruptly.

Now, it was the day after. (By now you would be well aware that I could absorb only that much of customer service in a single day. Enough for a day!)

Again, it was a rice mill near another of my friend’s place.

This time also all mill hands appeared to be women. One happened to be a lady who ran a tea stall near my friend’s place—apparently she was out of her own business.

I could only barely uttered ‘chamang’when she said—“Oh! Laigi oiramtare—you must be needing it for some religiously ceremony, right?”

I grabbed my golden chance and said—“Yes, yes”.

“How many kgs? I’ll give you for Rs 12 a kg”.

That’s how I got my first 10 kgs of brown rice!

I went out again for another 10 kgs this afternoon.

The same mill. The same lady.

She was smiling and said—“Another 10 kgs? But why would need ‘chamang’ of all things?”

She took the money for the 10 kgs, had a mischievous grin and said—“We know it’s for making ‘hamei’!!”

Well, for the uneducated ‘hamei’ is the ferment ting agent for making rice beer!

Chamang, laigi, hamei. That’s the story of brown rice!!



Postscript: White rice costs you Rs 15 a kg. Not considering all the vitamins and minerals not polished off from my brown rice, what a bargain I had got, let’s say, notwithstanding the little adventures!

Outrage and the murk

There was power outrage all throughout the night last night.

The killing of Isaac L Hmar was reported in yesterday’s paper. All the Imphal papers said he was serving as the publicity secy of Hmar Inpui—only one Kolkatta-based said he was the ex-publicity secy of the outfit when he was killed. I have no source to confirm which one is correct. But Hmar Inpui is the organization which single-handedly managed to persuade the Govt of Manipur to conduct the proceedings of the Rajkhowa inquiry commission in Parbung.

Four things need to be noted:

1) The killing took place in Aizawl, the capital town of Mizoram, our neighbor in the south. Note the calculated move to stage the killing outside the political boundary in which there is the continuing turf war between the two insurgent outfits.
2) There was no effort to conceal the killing. He was gagged by his own shirt and hit by a heavy object in the head.
3) The killing took place on the night of18th. !8th is day when it was originally scheduled to begin hearing in Parbung.
4) The news of the killing reached Imphal on the 22nd only. That’s after Justice Rajkhowa was safely packed off to Parbung in an army army.

I think these are too many a coincidence. It reeks of the high drama of border crossing political intrigues. That kind which you think you would find only in a political thriller.

It certainly start getting murky.

Beauty and the fish!

That damned fish!

It was already noon when I was able to go out and buy a fish.

And it was 3 in the afternoon when I cleaned, cut, cooked and yes, ate the fish.

It was hot and being wary of UV of the sun ray I returned home literally jumping from shade to shade of the buildings housing the rows of stores.

I was kind of startle when I literally jumped into a celebrity. You know I was that simple guy returning home jumping from shade to shade. With a live fish firmly in his hand!

And the celebrity literally smiled right into my face! Phew! She was so close—literally close brush with a celebrity!!

I was on speaking term with her when she was one of those aspiring actresses. Back then I thought that she was just a kid.

Now she is quite something.

It's news to me

Yes, it’s news to me.

Today’s papers announced that Justice Rajkhowa reached Parbung yesterday. They reported that weather was the culprit for the 2 days delay.

May be, I’m in the mood of a little conspiracy theory. But there is something fishy about the whole thing.

Days ahead of the scheduled departure of the Justice on the 18th all the papers carried elaborate reports about the unusual turn of events. Some women from Parbung area went to meet the chief Minister accompanied by a lieutenant general of the Indian Army. In the meeting they managed to persuade the Chief Minister to give more time for submitting affidavit to the commission. After getting that time extension, there was the strong public campaign for getting the Justice travel to Parbung instead of the rape victims coming to Imphal with their affidavits. Thus the govt of Manipur hired a three-seater chopper from the military.

Then, on the morning of the 18th all the papers carried one report of a press statement and another report of the news conference. The press statement was from a human rights group and they complained for not getting a seat in the Justice chopper and they also demanded a good interpreter for understanding what the rape victims has to say before the commission. They said when they presented an affidavit demanding a seat in the chopper the Justice himself admitted that it was a legitimate demand and he would forward it to the govt. They further said that even if the commission failed to accommodate them in the chopper the commission should wait for them to reach Parbung before the hearing commences.

The press conference by what you call the civil society organization contended that every interested citizen have the right to know the proceedings of the hearing and it’s very difficult to travel that far. So, they demanded that the hearing be carried out in the district headquarter, of which Parbung is a sub-division. They also expressed their dismay at the prospect of proper media scrutiny of the proceedings.

One Kolkatta based paper today carried a statement by the Justice. He said it’s ok for him to conduct the proceedings at he district headquarters. But ‘the tribal’ strongly demanded that he carry out the proceeding at Parbung.

My gut feelings tell me there is something fishy about whole thing.

Beauty and the seminar

She was there. But she seemed to be busy---I mean, in every sense of the term!

Oh! How she attracts me!!

Today also I was in the control room for the cable guys. It seemed like I was watching some kind of a talk show! It was a good experience.

There were top officials from 10 important state government departments taking questions from the representatives from hill districts. Most of the officers kept saying that almost all of the government’s development schemes were failure because there was lack of community participations. And most of representatives kept insisting that the departments in the first place should keep in place reasonable monitoring mechanism for evaluating how their money are spent and if the money reaches the targeted people.

In the end, the meeting adopted a recommendation to approach the government to introduce an inbuilt monitoring mechanism in every developmental scheme.

There were also some professors from Manipur University attending the seminar. Even they did not try to approach the issue of leakage of government funds from the standpoint of a management theoretical perspective. I guess that should be the main focus of the deliberations.

Btw, newspapers did come out this morning. But not a mention of the Rajkhowa inquiry commission’s progress. It’s a surprise. But again the road there is said to be so bad it takes 14/15 hrs to cover nearly 150 kms from the district headquarters at Churachandpur. May be, the media is still on the way—you know, they don’t have a chopper!

And...

This afternoon I went to a seminar.

Sure enough, it’s about the ‘constraints in the development process in the interior areas’ ie, the hills.

I was not a registered delegate and so I thought of going to back benches and listened to the deliberations.

When I reached there ( the State Guest House) it was late( around 3 in the afternoon) and the auditorium was completely filled up.

Why, so many people are interested in seminars.

But there was some cable guys covering the seminar live. I went in their control room and watched and listened to the deliberation until it was 6.30 in the evening.

Today is the day one of the seminar. I’ll be going there again tomorrow.

Hey, there must be something wrong ! So many beautiful girls ---presumably part of the organizers. I even manage to spot one girl –a beauty and whom I suspect I’m attracted to.

Will she be still there tomorrow?

Is this just a simple coincidence?

Too many things happened today.

One insurgent group detained 6 editors for one night in their custody. The editors responded by leaving their editorial spaces yesterday and today they totally stopped publishing all their papers.

So, we have to go without any newspaper and news this morning.

Eveningers do come out. This means papers will come out tomorrow.

Every body should be waiting for this morning’s news because an enquiry commission, Justice Rajkhowa inquiry commission had started their hearing yesterday. The report of the first of the proceeding should be coming out in today’s news. But the newspapers failed to come out today.

The commission is inquiry the case of the rape of 21 women by the cadres of a particular insurgent group. You should go to www.siphro.org for details.

Whether the rape actually happened is the hottest topic here right now. Behind the allegations and counter-allegations is the turf war between two insurgent groups. Of course one is hill-based and smaller and another is valley-based and much bigger. Being more resourceful the bigger group has been running a virtual government in areas of Parbung, which is mainly populated by one of the tiny communities, whose members again form the backbone of the smaller insurgent group.

Last month the Indian military moved in and drove out the cadres of the bigger group. Only then this allegation came up.

Parbung is around 200 kms from here and has no government administration and Justice Rajkhowa had to go there by an army chopper.

Justice Rajkhowa had retired from Kolkatta high court and is a native of Assam, one of the States of Indian Union.

My fascination

I’m posting this from a place called Imphal.This is my hometown, a smallish capital town of Manipur, a state of Indian Union. I think I don’t need to give any link as now is the time of google earth—anybody can zoom in to have a look at the shape of the township. Keisampat is the exact local where I’m banging at my keyboard right now.

I belong to a community called Meetei or Manipuri. They populate the valley—the Imphal valley. It’s surrounded on all sides by hills, where reside another 33 small communities. They call themselves tribes—I’ll call them tiny communities.

So, it’s a bewildering mix of people, every one of them trying their best to protect their cultures and identities. Most of the time it’s the ugly shouting match for protecting their own turfs.

Almost all the political commentators pronounce we are finished as a political entity.

But I passionately believe that we are being shaped by an age-old melting pot process.

So, I’ll be posting from here---by the side of a melting pot.

I’m fascinated by this melting pot.

That blooker girl and the writer's block

I read the interview of that blooker girl on the Times of India. And I genuinely have forgotten the name of the award winning girl. The interview had even a photo of her presumably in her tiny kitchen.

She said blogging helped managing her writer’s block.

And I’m so easily convinced by a blogger!

I’ve been trying to write a drama. And so far what I can do is to play hide and seek with my characters! And I also think of starting a blog. But I thought blog can wait because more important work should be the drama.

But if blogging can actually cure my writer’s block, that’s double whammy for me!!

Today I’m starting my blog.