Do we find a pattern here?

There are media reports of the clashes between the regular army of the Indian nation and rebels of Manipur along the Burma borders.

Amidst all these media reports, the plane again returned tonight at around 8 pm.

So, do we find a pattern here?

Tonight the plane made sorties along very large circles across the Southern mountain ranges. It took around 15-20 minutes for the plane to complete a single sortie along its circular path.

Here, one thing comes to my mind. It is said that for the narcotics trade along the Burma border, Imphal-Moreh route become unattractive for several years now. A new route linking New Somtal and Churachandpur district is already in operation. They carry drugs from Burma via New Somtal upto the interiors of Churachandpur by foot!

And, the clash between the regular army of the Indian nation and the rebels of Manipur occurs in and around New Somtal.

So, it makes sense for the plane to fly over the landmass of Churachadpur district. It might even touch the New Somtal area.

In the above light, it now becomes a very pertinent question:

Do we find a pattern here?

Only the mine got snapped!

A truck jammed into the bundle of electric wires that go to the individual household from the poles in the street. The street where the poles stand were elevated more than 5 feet several years back but the poles remained as they were. So, all the electric wires are strung so low that any truck or bus can cause damage to them all.

It happened yesterday at dusk. At that hour I was tired and had neither the inclination nor the energy to organize a repair job.

Today, I bought new wires and engaged electricians and repaired the mess—all at my cost.

I know accidents do happen but why single out only the wires that go to my house—why?

Out of the bundle of 20-30 pairs of wires, only the mine got snapped!

The power of the crowd!

I started taking the anti-allergic pills this morning. And I'm already feeling better! (See my last post).

This is the case of the close encounter of daily kind. Encountering what? Yes, power of the crowd. This may just be the glimpse of the underlying idea behind the feasibilty of crowd sourcing.

In my case, the friend of mine who recommended me the pill is just a businessman--he is in no way connected with medicine. And, I was not scouting for advice either. We were just in a small gathering, talking and enjoying ourselves. But from that crowd came out a really actionable advice! Long live the crowd sourcing!!

Today another of friend (also in a small crowd) of mine told me that I had been too enthusiastic about the prospect of MPP in this election. He told me that the Party had no chance to come out with more than a dozen MLAs. In contrast, he said, the Indian National Congress had the likelyhood of getting at least 20 MLAs. He based his calculation on the individual 'electability' of the candidates.

I told him that he was being too impressed with the sitting MLAs. I also told him that it was natural to feel the sitting MLAs as quite formidable.

But, if there is a subtle change in the general public mood, anything can happen. All the sitting MLAs who look so formidable right now will fall like dominoes.

I know he has quite dependable basis for thinking that the Congress will be returned to power. I'm not supporting any particular party. But my point is that anything can happen in this election.

That said, I'm also aware of the power of the crowd!

Cold allergy

One of my friends told me this evening that the flu virus should have completed its lifecycle in my body. But during all those fight with the virus my body might have also developed an allergic reaction to the ambient cold weather. He suggested that I should take an anti-allergic pill for some days and he had a name of the pill in his mind.

I’ll try taking the pills from tomorrow for three days.

But I’ve been gurgling with lukewarm water with a pinch of salt. That should have helped and in my experience that gurgling helped most of the times. But what went wrong this time?

I also went vegan these two weeks. I reasoned that I should not impose my body with extra stress in the form of rich foods while it was battling with the flu virus. I don’t know how appropriate my response was. So, for the last 2 weeks, I was on rice and vegetables.

One interesting experience from these vegan weeks is that after a little more than a week into the vegan trip, my body developed cravings for meats.

Incidentally, Joi Ito also went vegan for the several weeks. Comments to his particular post about his vegan weeks are truly illuminating.

Total rest

I’d not step out of my house today which is a kind of record for me! I don’t particularly support the bandh called by the rebels of the NE region. Imphal was more or less shut down—absolutely no business of any sort here today.

In the evening also I didn’t go to the reading room. The newspaper agencies play it safe and do not distribute the papers even though they receive them from the airport. In the absence of newspapers, the reading room caretaker also thinks it wise not to open it on bandh days.

Anyway, I take it as good chance to take a full day’s rest. And, I now suspect that I again caught the flu virus on 19th or 20th of this month as I was on the process of shaking off the other strain that I caught during the first week. I tried to return to my rigorous routine on these two days. So, here I’m tied down by flu virus for more than 2 weeks now.

But today I feel better.

In the evening I turned to music. I dug up my playlists. Among them, I found one song by Audioslave which was mesmerizing. The song—‘I’m the Highway’. I have no idea how old the song but there is something about this song.

Shootings

There were two shootings, which were apparently election-related. One was proved fatal and the other was injured in the leg.

Most interesting thing is that there were immediate reactions alleging that the shooting were motivated, meaning that they were meant to intimidate some particular contestants of the election thereby putting some other particular candidates in stronger positions in the coming elections.

How the rebels would try to influence the coming elections but still come out of it not smeared by the ugly mud slinging of a typical election?

It would be extremely crucial question.

I want to go out and try to get a feel of the developing situations but I still need to rest for some days more.

Three factors

The electioneering is so low key that there is a sense of unreal about the whole affair. As I’m typing this there are not many voices over the public address systems announcing election meetings. Neither are there any mobile campaigns on the streets seeking votes.

There are only 10 days left for the elections and the night is as still as just another normal night.

As for myself, I can name only two candidates for our constituency—one the sitting MLA, who is also the nominee for MPP and the other, the Congress party nominee. I even have no idea about the number of contestants in the field!

But I think the voters have already decided in favour of the Manipur People’s Party. To my mind, there are three factors behind this development.

>> It seems that the time has come for Mr L. Chandramani, who is the brand new president of MPP. Just like Mr A.B Vajpayee’s ‘ab meri bari hai’ moment. Everybody in Manipur more or less agree that Chandramani is one of the fittest candidates for the post of Chief Ministership but somehow the post eludes so far.

>> The rebels of Manipur have so totally controlled the finances of the State that their nest logical step is to try to influence the political process it self. I’m surprised at the speed at which they insurrect the MPP into a serious contender of power in the State. Three months back nobody had even thought that MPP would return 3 MLAs to the new Assembly. It is almost the proverbial rise of the Phoenix.

>> The rape and killing of Manorama and the ongoing fast by Sharmila also contribute to the public mood. A simple girl named Manorama was rape and murdered by the troopers and the prime minister of the land came and announced publicly that he was a father of two daughters and thus could feel how the parents of Manorama would have felt. He promised publicly that he would do everything in his power to punish the guilty. But nothing happened. Not even a suspension in the ranks of the troopers!

And, right at the moment they are slowly murdering a simple named Sharmila.

Thus folks just feel in their bones that they are living under the shadow of a power that be which has neither an iota of feelings for them nor is fit to rule a human society.

ISKCON bomb blast has just become the cannon fodder for petty political gamesmanship

The last three days are truly important days in the political history of Manipur. Let’s see the chronology of events.

20th – The Director General of Police announced in an event called ‘ Police-Media interaction’ that they had the details of the perpetrators of the ISKCON bomb blast. They are, according to him, going to make public the details in right time.

21st—In a Public meeting the sitting MLA of the Keisamthong Assembly Constituency announced that he took the advice of the rebels and chose to contest from a local party platform. Indirectly he clearly hinted that he (and his party) had the blessings of the rebels.

22nd—Mr A.B. Bardhan, the general secretary of the Communist Party of India, expressed his fear that the election would be hijacked by the rebels.

If we try to find the trend behind the happenings during these three days, then it would be clear that the rebels are throwing their weight to influence the political process and thus the working of the State Assembly. It is also clear that they are trying to hand over the rein of power to a local party, MPP.

So, what’s the response of the Chief Minister, his cabinet ministers and the ruling parties as a whole?

Here, we have to remember the announcement of the Director General of Police. In plain language, the power that be, using the DGP as proxy, sends the clearest message to the rebels that if they don’t desist from supporting the MPP in full throttle, they would disclose that they (the rebels) are behind the ISCKON bomb blast.

Thus, the ISKCON bomb has become a cannon fodder for the petty political gamesmanship.

From a purely Machiavellian point of view, the Chief Minister’s response is a superb countermove.

But what about the future of this society, our principles and our resolve to fight the scour of the 21st century, terrorism?

What about them?

Can't wait for the next few days!

Last night, the sitting MLA of the Keisamthong constituency spoke (see my last post) in the election meeting as if he was already elected and was one of the cabinet ministers! He openly said that they were s osure of forming the next government in the State. He also openly let it be known that they have the blessings of the rebels.

Read this together with what Mr A.B.Bardhan, general secretary, CPI has to say about this election. All the papers today quoted Mr Bardhan as saying in Imphal that this election is likely to be hijacked by the rebels. Tongue firmly in cheek, he appealed to the rebels to leave the election (the sacrosanct one?) alone!

The tone of the statement of Mr Bardhan suggests beyond all reasonable doubts that the rebels are having the upper hands.

I’m terribly intrigued to find out the rebels have managed to do that in such a short period of time. But I’m still tied down by the cold I’ve been battling for the last 7-8 days. With this sneezing and coughing subsiding a little I’ll be ready to go out and try to find their modus operandi.

I can’t wait for the next few days!

MLA Laisom Ibomcha's public announcement

I was in the thick of making preparations for cooking my dinner. It was around 9 in the night. A voice over the public address system announced the ongoing election meeting nearby. I could hear the actual proceedings of the meeting clearly.

After several speakers, the candidate came to the mike. From his voice, I can clearly know that he was the sitting MLA o f our constituency, Mr Laishom Ibomcha.

At the fag end of his speech, he made extremely points summarized below:

>> A joint secretary from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) visited his home twice to ask him to facilitate the initiation for the talk with rebels. He went to meet the rebel leaders. The rebel leaders wanted him to contest from the platform of a local political party.

The interesting part is not of the joint secretary of the PMO visiting him. But it is in the part when he told the gathering that the rebel leaders want him to contest from the platform of a local political party. That he could say it in public means that the rebels have approved dragging their names in the election campaigning. That, in itself, is a remarkable development.

During the last few months of 2006, there were whispered talks in our locality that the sitting MLA was summoned to Bangkok by rebel leaders. Apparently he went there twice. It was said that the brief given to him by the rebels was to find out some legal framework on which the holding of plebiscite can discussed with the Government of India. We gave to note here that he was also the former Law Secretary in the Manipur Government Secretariat.

I also remember asking one of brother-in-laws who is a very active worker of the sitting MLA about the veracity of the rumour. He told me that the story was authentic and the MLA went to Bangkok to meet the rebel leaders. But, he hastened to add that the MLA himself was not ready to admit even to them about his trip to Bangkok.

So, I decided that if the MLA himself was not ready to talk about it then it sure was in the realm of plane speculation. And, I decide not to take interest in the whispered talks whirling around then.

Now, the MLA himself publicly announced the trips he had undertaken at the behest of the rebel leaders for the groundwork of a talk with New Delhi.

Reading room banters!

The small reading room, which provides me all the daily newspapers in its Spartan two-desks-in-a-single-room facility even have a survivor of the ISKCON bomb blast as one its regular readers! Sometimes, he rolls up his trousers to shoe off his wounds in his shins. It’s horrible to see that grenade wounds—really horrible. We tend to see grenades as some run-of-the-mill weapons of war but I change my opinion—the scale of damage it can inflict to a human being is really, really horrible.

Today’s papers carried a story of the DGP telling the media that they knew who were behind the ISKCON blast and they would disclose the identity at the right time.

What is right time?

Most of the times, I’m totally pissed off by the loud talking and even louder debates by my co-readers in that reading room! But that said, where would I get such nuggets if they desist from talking loud in that reading room?

>> Rebels leaders pulling strings from Bangkok pulled off the near miracle of settling leadership issue of Manipur People’s party within the time frame of one single night.

That was the hottest subject in that reading room some months back. At that time I only smiled at myself hearing them talking like that. But now I think that there must some grains of truth in that. Some months back there was that unruly fight between Mr O. Joy and one Borajao for the leadership of MPP. There were frequent pitch battles between their followers in the office premises of the Party. Ultimately, their fight went all the way to the High Court.

Then, one fine morning all the papers screamed at their headlines that Dr L. Chandramani had become the president of the Party and all the pending cases before the High Court were withdrawn by the litigants themselves!

>> The rebels are trying to influence the outcome of the election and hence the functioning of the State Assembly.

This is the current line of discussion in that reading room. I’m at a loss trying to unravel how the rebels would have a say in the outcome of the election. Would they gun power and dictate that the voters should vote for some pre-selected list of candidates? How? How?

But still I now come to term with the fact that rebels are indeed in the field trying to influence the result of the election. If it is not the case, then I cannot see any reason why there have been such mad scrambles for getting tickets for MPP. Now, every promising candidate wants to contest the election as one of the official candidates of MPP. It is a huge change in the political firmament of Manipur, that too in such a short time—within some months.

>> Last nights temperature was -3 degrees!

This is the subject of discussion of the reading room this evening.

Again, I think that it must be true because I’m typing this it is unusually cold here. My Google homepage has a daily Imphal weather report in it but it never shows a –degree readings. But they are giving the reading in Fahrenheit.

It’s cold, really cold here.

It's getting closer

It was around 10.30 pm when I was eating my dinner.

In the middle of my dinner that military came again.

To my mind it is a military plane is a foregone conclusion because no one in Manipur has the resource to fly planes late at night.

And, tonight it was getting really closer. I got the sensation of hearing a plane flying in my immediate surrounding. The sound of the plane flying in such a range produces such a load noise. In the earlier sorties at night, I got the distinct impression that it was really hard to avoid disturbing the general population. But tonight they seemed to give a damn about such niceties. If they do like tonight 3 or 4 times, people will start noticing and asking questions.

But after 10 minutes or so it was gone. As I was eating my dinner, I had no chance to see where it was heading when it left the scene. I only had a quick peek at the flying object when I first heard it flying so close. Tonight it also seemed to flying towards Loktak area but by making wider circles towards us. So the loader noise of the flying machine.

How do anybody achieve by 10 minutes’ worth sorties? Even if it was training sorties, what is the use of flying for 10 minutes and call it a day?

It confuses me.

Beautiful

Normally, I take the path along the Kangla Park to reach the small reading room near GM Hall.

Today, I changed course and instead, walked through Paona Bazar Road.

Right from the mouth of the Paona Bazar Road, at the Paona International Market, I was jostled by the rush of shoppers. There were so many shoppers around. The cars and other vehicles they came with, were parked right upto the middle of the street! Why were so many shoppers?

When I reached the other mouth at the end of the Paona Bazar Road, I could not even space to take a step forward. The area was packed with so many people. And, they were shopping!

Well, I walked through the crowd thinking why there were such heavy rushes of shoppers in this part of the year.

When the flyover was still under construction, they had fenced off the construction area and that too, right in the middle of the street. Now, all the fences were dismantled and there is so much space is available by the side the flyover and under it. But still there is no even space for taking a step forward. Is it because of the surge in the population of the State? But we understand that the State’s population is not increasing at that scale.

When I reached BT Road, I saw some workmen trying hard to put up a sign at the steel gate at the mouth of the flyover. The sign was ‘ Welcome to Bir Tikendrajit Flyover’.

So, it’s official. They are naming it ‘Bir Tikendrajit Flyover’.

Just near the small reading room, there is a restaurant called ‘Talk of the town’. This evening the place was jammed with so many beautiful people eating out.

Well, I forgot to mention earlier that when I passed through the mass of shoppers, I was mesmerized with the abundance of so many beautiful people around!

Imphal seems to be chockfull of beautiful people this evening!

Plane watching again!

I’m again in a plane-watching mood!

Tonight at around 7 that UAV-sounding plane came flying very low in South Western horizon. It also seemed to be pretty close to where I was watching it. I suspected that it was hovering very low over Loktak Lake.

After making a circle 3 or 4 times in a rapid succession, it suddenly changed course towards what looked like to me Khoupum valley ranges.

It seemed that it was returning towards its base in Cachar valley.

I’ve read newsreport that India’s elite Para Regiment ( as elite as SAS or DELTA) have established operational base in Shribar in Cachar District of Assam.

What foxes me to this day is that not a single established newspaper carries a single story about night sorties of the plane from Cachar valley. Even if they cannot unearth the military secrets behind these night time sorties, a simple description of the plane with some photographs would be a quite an interesting read.

Mr Obama has a middle name!

It is now fairly certain that Mr Obama will run for the presidency of the USA.

He has just announced a preparatory committee for the purpose. He announced the formation of the committee in his site.

In reading the story of the announcement what proved to be most interesting to me is the middle name of Mr. Obama. His full name is Mr Barack Hussein Obama.

Imagine someone having a middle name ‘Hussein’ becoming the President of US!

He was born to a white American lady and a gentleman from Kenya. When he was 2 years old, his parents divorced. His father returned to Kenya. His mother married an Indonesian and the new family moved to Jakarta. The young Barack was brought up by his maternal grandma in Hawaii.

It is apparent that his father has Islam as his religion.

My fullest support for Barack Hussein in his bid for the presidency of the US!

Only the cursory looks

Gen JJ Singh has just laid down 10 point guideline for his soldiers in discharging their duties in counter-insurgency operations.

Some days ago, I also read the report on the Army’s doctrine on handling counter-insurgency which they termed as sub-conventional warfare.

This evening it was quite windy and chilly. And I suspected that I might develop a fever as the flu virus attack on me is showing no sign of letting up. So, I quickly returned home from the library with only a cursory look at the headlines.

In the meantime, I’m reading an older post of mine. It was dated 15th Nov 2006 and it dealt with the Army’s doctrine of the acceptance of limited rebellion in the country.

Here is the link.

And, tomorrow, I’ll try to present a cogent opinion on the subject.

REALLY?

Like last night, tonight saw Keisampat and Paona Bazar areas thrown into complete darkness. When I returned home along the Paona Bazar Road from my daily visit to the small library near G.M.Hall, I felt like actually traveling inside a tunnel. Not a light in sight.

Last night was an exception of sort. I personally visited the ‘complaint room’ telling them that there was this power outrage in my area. They said they would they would look into it. Apparently, they didn’t. I only got power supply in my house only late in the evening today.

What is my response to this state of affair? As a private citizen living in such a situation, what ought to be my reaction to it?

It would seem to be an irony but I’m actually enthusiastic in my response to it!

I’ve a friend who lives around 6-7 kms from Imphal. Such a small distance from here but they are living just near a hill range.

I told this friend of mine not to bank on Manipur Govt’s services regarding power supply. Instead, go in for a small wind mill. I told him about a small business in Langol housing complex dealing in small wind mills.

Whenever I’m Langol housing complex area I make it point to have a look at office of the wind mill guys. They put up some wind mills in their office premises, apparently for demonstration purposes. They are wind mills as small as an exhaust fans! Although small in size, they are so furiously there. I’ve no doubt in mind that in Langol areas if someone put up several of puny wind mills they can be effectively out of the Manipur Government power grid.

Whenever I see those small wind mills working so furiously, I rue my predicament of not living near a hill range.

That’s the reason why I was so enthusiastic at telling my friend about those wind mills.

Seeing my enthusiasm, my friend smiled and replied—‘I know’.

He knows? And, doing nothing when actually living near a hill range?

He informed me that those wind mills were advertised on the daily basis on the spots of ISTV News! Well, I’ve been living without ISTV news for so many years!

He further informed me that he actually saw some of those puny wind mills coming up in Nagamapal and RIMS Road areas.

This time I replied---‘Really?’.

Some crazy resting moments!!

I’m taking rest. May be, for some days.

It’s wonder how man reacts to his environment. Because I’m living alone, I can’t afford to be bed-ridden even for some days. Even if I’m not feeling well, I still want to be able to cook my own meals and do other chores for my personal upkeep.

That being my ‘environment’, something inside me always tells me when I start traveling towards that area where I would be ‘bed-ridden’.

Whenever I feel this way, I immediately disengage myself completely from my commitments and scheduled tasks and take rest for some days. After some days I always manage (so far!) to return to normal regime. I also always try to avoid popping pills.

I’m trying to return to my normal by Monday.

Taking rest enables me to cook my dinner early. I finished eating by around 10 pm.

But I had still to climb the ladder and pour water over the overhead beams, over which roof RCC slab is to be laid. I had to pour water over them and wrap them tightly with plastic sheets. It was nearly 11 pm when I finished with them.

It took me nearly 1 hour doing that!

Some crazy resting moments!!

Fighting cold

Right now, I’m struggling to shake off an impending bout of cold.

Last night when I was there at my sister’s place, another of my sister, with her hubby in tow, marched into the house. They came unannounced. Two brother-in-laws, glowing charcoal stove and never-ending plates of kanghou proved to be real time killer. It was more than 9 in the night when I returned home.

But, before the arrival of that sister, I was there in front of my sister’s computer watching movies. She has 17” LCD monitor and it’s really superior viewing experience that struck me most. Last night saw marathon movie watching. I watched 2 movies non-stop.

Carried away by the movies, I really didn’t remember feeling getting a chill in front of that computer. Now, I think it was during those movie moments that I met my tryst with this impending cold!!

My brush with history!

This I didn’t prompt her! Tonight, one of my sisters invited me for dinner. As is evident from the timestamp of this post, I arrived at the blogosphere a bit early. But I’m also going to bed early. For several nights now, it was well past 1 in the morning when I retired to my bed. That will be bad for health.

Talking of health, my stock of green tea exhausted yesterday.

Developing a liking for green tea in Imphal is proving to be a real struggle! Most of the time, I bought my stock from Guwahati. Several kgs at a time. That was in the early days. I made enquiries at all the tea leave distributors of Imphal but they said they were procuring all their stocks from auction and they could not get green tea from there.

In the meantime, I came across a packed green tea from a guwahati-based company. But yesterday, when I went to my grocer for a packet, all of them were marked as manufactured in 2005. The packet also clearly mentioned that it should be used within 1 year of the manufactured date.

So, what to do now?

As a last resort, I again visited a distributor at B.T. Road. This time they have the stock. The guy at the counter informed me that they had just started keeping the stock. They will be keeping the stock at the rate of 5 kgs a month! They are kind of testing the market.

As I returned home in the afternoon with my 100 gms of green tea, a thought occurred to me.

If someone, for some reason, starts compiling the Cheitharol Kumbaba for the 21st Century, there would be an entry for the month of 2007 like this:

Beginning the early part of the first of the first of the year 2007, a distributor, located at the historic B.T. Road at Imphal started selling green tea for the first time in Manipur, keeping the stock, for the start, at the rate of 5 kgs per month.

I am absolutely certain that it would be totally valid entry in the Kumbaba!

Well, it was my brush with history for the 11th day of the first month of the year 2007!!

The remaining portion of the text

Last night, I stopped at the third sentence of the third paragraph of the article. Tonight’s first paragraph forms the remaining part of the third paragraph of the article.

***Ngasi eikhoigi khunnaisigi naharolpumbana chaokhatpa lamdamgi namunani haiduna nongchuplomgi sex free oiba jatising-gi phijet-chaakset, chaatcha-yuthakki matou kanna tamnaribasi thik nembana tha laamba haibadu thok-e; keidounungda aphaba phal oiroi/ Masigi maang-oinana eikhoisu chaokhat lamjelda saruk yabada noptanaba thoidok hendokpa adhyantikki phidam kharada meetou tamba heinakhisi/ Ngasigi bigyan ngamkhei naidaba lamjelda maangjil thaakhraba jatising-di indrigi ning-kha paambagi matik thing-ngamdaba waakhalgi shakti mai-on chumna maching-paanna sijinnaba heinajaba, indomitable courage leiba luxurious lifena heritage culture oijaba punsigi marek-mahou khangna hingjaba jatisingni/ Makhoiga chaangdamnarubada eikhoidi will power sukleimak-leite haina louba yai/ Chinglon maapanna koisinba lamdamsigi climate mahousana moderatre oiba ka-henna saba nattraga engba thoktaba, akanba yuhar amadi nonglei-nungshitki saaphu phangdaba, meigi ching-gi meepaining-ngaisu leitraba naturalbalance kaijadaba environmental condition kaya asina natural calamitygi ka-henba khaang-ning-ngai ethil amattasu hakthengnadraba pangcha-cha, pangsu-su chamna hingjaba eikhoini/

Khunnaisigi pang-gal sijinnadaba komna sel taanba heiba okta-eraang khangba kaangbu kharana masagita yengduna modern civilizationgi matou maannaba beauty parlour amadi restaurant kaya additional cabin haaptuna sahargi kaachin koya pumbada paaktaknana lingkhatnarakpadagi nouriba chhatra-naharol kaya restaurantki chiklaba amamba kakhuda sexki para ouraibada lupa 50-60dagi taadana chaading touba taarak-e/

Ma-ngaal naiba maheiroigi waakhalna lumtharaba maithoingda kaaba arangba lekki rasi-gun pumba eraang-gi saphuna thaksingkhre/ Khutpham chaadana tengi liri chingthokliba maheiroi pumba nongmadon onkhat-tuna kaapkadaba tenjeisingda leikup-leiraida nishaan toukhibana uton youoningbagi asha thadok-khre/ Asigisu mathakta ngasigi bigyangi pot-thokta leiyengna experiment toubagi chatnabi ama eikhoigi self control leijadaba mabuk-paandaba luxuryda ngoujaba nahasingda yok-khat-khibadagi asibagi mongpham pumba drug addictsing-gi asiba hakchaangna leiron naina kupsinbagi loiba naidari/

Adunadi, achangba samaj ama saagat-nabagidamak prithibigi jati pumbagi sumhat-yai-pubi kangleipungna kangleichasing-gi yumpham oiri-gnei, waayen mapuna ukkan oiba yumthak kuplaga yumbi oiba naharol eikhoibu matamgi nongleidagi kanbinaba security forcena phaklaang kharaga leiba pukning waakhalgi yotpina mai-on chumna yeisinduna kaang-khong chairaba samajgi saktamsibu amatta oina punsinduna thamnabagidamak maanglam-chakki achum-araan-gi bicharna tung-oi-nana thamlasi, tunglamchatki waayen bicharna taibang mapuda sinnathoksi; sikhibana sikhrabasu hingliba kouba eikhoidi houjik haiba pungphamsida eikhoigi pukning-waakhalbu best levelda sijinnaba tamba hourasi/ Mapaanthong-gi arang-araakta meetou tamba thaadok-tuna prithibi laanna paikhraga atoppa graha amada saadongduna prakritigi drishyabu mapum oina amuktang yengtharakke ningliba yotki maringjeldudamak phidam oina loukhisi/***

The text

It is an old copy of Huiyen Lanpao of 12-10-1997. It may be an oversight but the paper does not carry the day of the week but I presume that it must be a Sunday. It seems to be a weekly pull out because in the header it was categorized as ‘chayolgi latam’.

Sharmila’s article is in the section ‘Nupigidamak’ and her article is named ‘Yotki Mariljeldumak Phidam Oina Loukhisi’.

It seems to be a one-sheet pullout. The lead article in the page 1 is a travelogue by Lai Imo. Sharmila’s article is the last one, at the right hand bottom of the page 2. On top of it are three poems. On its left there are 2 short stories and a feature on Pol Pot.

Here is the article verbatim in Roman:

*** Mahousa lairembigi khutsemna khaang-ngam pu-ngamdaba thammoida ethil pidaba, atappa a-ingba saratna prithibigi jati pumbagi pukning chingsinbiba eramdam manipurbu aseibasingna ‘sana leibaak’ ming-gounei/ Adubu sanagi leisak leichu heng-gakhanba tampha oiba mani pumba a-ing asagi ayoubi saphu mayoknaba meeramgi chatnarol tamlubadagi nongma nongmagi mami saamjillakle/ Eramdamgi senglaba hawa nungsitna saa-olbikhiba kalagi mathoi haaplamba khunung esheisu nongchuplamgi meisa khaangbada seisaknaba masing-ga phudoktuna lao-khongba sursingna dominate toukhre/ Restriction leiba filmsing, reastaurantgi cabin, beauty parlour, rock musicnachingba amadi samajbu masak thihnabada ahouba thoudaang louriba lamchat naidaba-naidabi kayasina sahityakaargi ephut oina thoraklabada chingya tamya pumnamaksu thak-kha onnaba drisha ngakta urak-le/

Mapanthong-gi meetyengdadi Manipur developing country amagi ma-ngaal ujarabasu kharadang-ga hakchinna yenglabadi nomadic tribesing-gi statustagi pangwaang-waangkhataba civilization amagi shaktam lotlamba urakkani/ Leiton saru paandabana panghai haibra haibadusu tin yot-thaduna khanthaba chang-e/

Eikhoi mee-oibasi eikhoi eikhoigi samajda hek pokpadagi eroinaduna laaklaba enaatki phijet-chaakcha, laininglon, dharma, houna-lonchat, yumbaal-lonnachingba leijaribasigi chatnabi pankhei waangmada leiba eikhoida khwaidagi henna impressive oiba atoppa khunnai amagi influential natureda meehougalli, makhoigi alochanabu eikhoi eikhoigi samajgi punshida paansinduna matou tamgalli/ Tamba haibasimakti chaokhatpa a-onba paamba meeoibana masha inkhakchanabagi eshwarna pibirakpa mamal naidraba gunni/ Aduga tamlibani haiduna mapaanthing-gi outstanding character kharada matou maan-naba khutsemgi turina pangyet yekpanadi enaatki cultureda amadi naharolgi moralityda maksillaba, leikha tana maangsillaklaba shaktam kaya akoibagi ethilgi saaphuda will power laan-na sijinnakhraba khunnaisida apang-thouna ut-thokpa ngambagi manaa oina khudol tambirakpada karamna latnapham thokpage?***

Of course, I’m nearly halfway through the article. I’ll do the remaining tomorrow. It’s because when I started this it was nearly 11.30 pm. Now, I want some time for my daily reads.

Tomorrow again

It was nearly midnight when I finished eating my dinner! So, I’ve to put off the posting of the text (of Sharmila’s 10 years old article) tomorrow again.

There is something terribly wrong with my time management.

I’m sorry for this postponement.

A collector's item!

Somehow, I could not find time to go through the old article by Irom Sharmila, let alone typing out the transliterated text. May be, I’m living through a curse of the God of small things! So many small things to mind. It was already 3.30 in the afternoon when I finished having my lunch.

I’ll publish the text tomorrow.

And here is the story of how I stumbled upon a 10-yrears old newspaper.

I’ve this huge desk. At this moment, I’m typing this out right on that desk. This desk can accommodate my monitor, processor tower, UPS and my speakers and still having space for the keyboard and the mouse!

As befitting the desk, there is this big drawer at the right side when I sit facing my computer. As long as I can remember it, this drawer remained locked and I did not have any idea where the key was. It was only some months back that the key in question materialized out of blue.

I still remembered the day when I used the rusty key to open the creaky drawer. To my disappointment it was jam packed with old newspapers.

For months now, I’ve been using the old newspapers to wrap up fish innards and fruit peels!

The particular newspaper in question is Huiyen Lanpao.

I know that the brand Huiyen Lanpao was sold to a new group. I doubt that the transaction did cover the archival materials of the newspaper. There is this likelihood that all the old copies of the paper are in disarray and rotting in some dank corners of a godown. The only other reliable place where it would have been stored properly was the Central Library. But it was also burnt down.

All these point to the fact that I had stumbled upon a collector’s item!

But, still, I’ll publish the text tomorrow.

What did I find today?

I was having my breakfast of nuts, papaya, passion fruit and green tea.

To peel the papaya, I just grabbed an old newspaper so that the peels did not clutter my table. I had no time for eating on a plate!

As I was half way through my portion of the papaya, I noticed that I was peeling the papaya right on top of a women’s column of the old newspaper. Looking down to the end of the article, I was startled to find that the writer was Irom Sharmila.

I quickly brushed off the peels and made it dry putting there in the sunshine and safely stored in my locker.

It was a 10 years old newspaper!

I think it needs to be told how I stumbled upon a ten years old newspaper. I’ll do it tomorrow. Right now I’m so in a hurry.

Today, I did not even get the time the quick reading of the article. Tomorrow I’ll decide whether to publish a translation of the article. Should I publish the article verbatim?

Besides, I’ll publish a scanned image of the whole page when I get some time to do that.

Dichotomy

Today I was so full of running errands for the constructions of my annex. So much so that I had absolutely no time to cook my lunch. So, I let one of my sisters invite me for lunch!

This is an easy way out. But I’m convinced that I should not do this frequently. My living alone should not be an extra burden to anybody. My sisters have their own families to mind and I should not be an extra to them either.

I had been to a stone crushing plant near Mantripukhri. Nothing particular about this plant. I went there to pay some advance money for getting stone chips for reinforced concrete. Apparently so much construction going in and around Imphal that anybody wanting to get stone chips should be in queue for some days. There is this dichotomy in our society. One face of it is that there is so much unemployment that it is sought to be directly linked to the ugly appearance of insurgency in the State. Another facet is that there is so much demand for construction materials that we have to be in queue for buying them!

I cannot make head or tail of this dichotomy.

Exhausted

When my blog fails to appear in the blogosphere, it can be reasonably assumed that there must be power outrages in Keisampat area, at least! In short, my blog will continue to be a function of the power outrages in Keisampat area until I upgrade to bigger capacity UPS or until I buy a generator.

I got electricity at around 5 in the evening after missing it for one full day today and another full day and night of the previous day. It must be straight 40 hours without electricity. It must be worst than in Baghdad, which is a straightforward war zone. Worse than a war zone!!

I’m exhausted in running errands for buying knick knacks for the ongoing construction of my annex.

Yesterday also, after running so many errands, it was already 1 pm when I started preparation for cooking my lunch. And, as the luck has it, I ran out of cooking gas in the middle of the making of my lunch. I had to rush to the furniture workshop and quickly collected wood scraps and burned them to finish cooking my lunch. Good that I’ve got a rent paying workshop in my premises!

I had to wait for a friend apropos a previously scheduled meeting in my house but he never came. Waiting for him and for the workmen to cease work for the day, it was already 6 in the evening. Only then I started looking a cooking gas refill in the black. At my first try, the price quoted was Rs 500/-! Several attempts, I managed to get one for Rs 420/- but it was already 8 at night when I reached home with the gas cylinder. I was totally exhausted.

I’m still not fully recovered from yesterday’s exhaustion.

Report on the first bandh of the New Year!

Either it is something to do with the previous day’s ‘wining and dining’ or the plain support of the bandh, the first bandh of the New Year is an effective one. On most bandh days, we can buy groceries and et al in Keisampat area. But today it was completely shut down.

I had a schedule for meeting a friend. I could not miss it and so I went there anyway. Two wheelers, cycles and rickshaws were plying on the streets. After finishing talking business with me my friend told that he went to an epaan thouram the previous night. On the way, he passed the mortuary of the RIMS. The mortuary was packed with all the top brass of Manipur People’s Party (MPP). They were waiting for the mandatory post mortem on the lifeless body of Mr Chingsubam Akaba.

My friend suspected that unknown to the general public Akaba seemed to have a very active role in the recent developments in the affairs of the MPP, particularly in the run up to the coming election. He was also an unsuccessful candidate for a State Assembly from Wankhei constituency.

My friend was visibly disturbed and told me that Akaba’s killing seemed to be the beginning of a coming spate of political killings likely to accompany this coming Assembly election.

For several months now, few of the regular readers in the small library hotly debated about the advisability for the naharols to try to influence the outcome of the Assembly election. They have been doing that loudly inside the small reading room! According to them, it is by now well established that the naharols are trying to influence the election.

I have not given any particular thought to the raging debate inside the reading room! But during the last few weeks important MPP leaders have been publicly expressing their political agenda for pitching in for plebiscite for resolution of the insurgency problem. That seems to point to some grain of truth to the raging debate.

Around 7 tonight I had been to one of my sisters’ house. There I learnt that shots were fired at the sitting MLA of the Wangkhem Constituency, Mr Nimaichand Luwang. He is also a top leader of MPP.

I have no means to confirm the news at the moment but if is true, I think we can talk of seeing a pattern forming.

A military plane over bandh-afficted night sky

At around 6.30 in the evening I sighted a plane flying very low over the Southern horizon. With red and yellow lights, it was flying from the Southern to the Eastern horizon. I watched it heading straight towards the Eastern horizon. Then suddenly it took a detour and again headed towards the Southern horizon. When it was taking that detour, the whirl of its engine faded and then the flying object itself became flimsy over the night sky. It must be taking that detour away from the Imphal valley.

At around 8.30 at night, it again returned.

Tonight it was flying really low over the horizon.

Tonight it also occurred to me that the whirl of its engine somehow had the ring of a toy plane! That means it must be a UAV.

Then, it must be a military plane flying sorties over the night sky looking down towards the somber and bandh-afficted Manipur valley!

AUDACITY

What would I expect of this New Year? More to the point, what would I do to mould myself to go along with this New Year but at the same time manage to extract from it what I desire?

Every time I try answering this question, Barrack Obama comes to my mind!

It makes me smile trying to figure out why should I have this much audacity to tangle up with the rising star in America’s political firmament in answering a very personal thing.

But I must hasten to say that the key word is the word ‘audacity’.

I’ve be reading stories about Mr Obama. The first thing that strikes me is his name. There is something about the name ‘ Barrack Obama’. All the stories focus on how he could be the first black president of US. Would a black in the helm of the mightiest nation in the world have a discernible impact on the keeping of the peace and upholding of justice of this global village? Personally, I would nudge myself to believe that it would.

Like most Americans, Mr Obama seems to be real hard worker. He is 40 something, first time Senator but he has already published his second book.

I can’t remember the name of his latest book. But the word ‘audacity’ seems to form the central theme of the book.

And, the word never leaves me from the moment I read that particular story. It strikes a chord with me.

AUDACITY.

Yes, it is the word which will push me all throughout the New Year to battle for getting for what I desire most.

First bandh of 2007

We are hardly 24 hours into the New Year but we are already encountering the first bandh of the year.

Bandh sucks.

Mr Chingsubam Akaba was shot dead by two assailants near his own home around midnight of the last day of 2006.

His supporters are calling for a bandh on the 2nd of Jan as a protest of the slaying of their leader.

Akaba is mostly known for his works for trying to bring the Manipuri script back to the mainstream uses.

From what I’m reading in the papers he seemed to be 60 years old man. I’m at a loss why should anybody want to shoot down a 60 years old man.

A very happy New Year.

A very happy New Year.

Gift of Emoinu!

Today being the last of the year, I bought a calendar for the New Year this evening!

This mostly sums up the moods in Imphal as I’m typing this post right at the moment. It is not fair to describe it as the low key celebration of the end of the year. It will be more appropriate to describe it as the absence of celebration. I’m surprised by this turn of the event.

By now, it can be safely inferred that something is definitely going on in this society. It’s the feeling of not living in a normal time and situation. I suspect that previously this feeling of living in an abnormal time and situation was just an undercurrent of the society. But by now it is forming the mainstream of the society.

Today is also the day when Emoinu is worshipped.

I’m not that religious to plan for anything particular for the Emoinu’s day. It’s just the normal day for me. I shopped for vegetables, fruits and fish. The elderly woman selling the fish gave me double the quantity of fish which I would get by that amount in any given day. I was surprised. But she informed me it would not lucky for her to bring home any unsold fish on this day of Emoinu. This is news for me. But I got the larger fish!

When I returned home, I found out I spent all the cash I carried for my shopping. Except for one single coin of the denomination of Rupee 1 in my pocket. I was surprised! Just one of Rupee 1!! So, I took it as the gift of Emoinu and locked up safely in my locker!!!