''NORTH EAST'': A COMIC MISNOMER!

The phrase 'North-East India' makes a geographically fitting terminology; politically it doesn’t. By the slapdash use of this term one cannot help but be reminded of the by-gone days half a century ago when all the South-Indians in the country were preposterously clubbed as Madrasis!

The cultural and social awakening in the country has been rather ethnocentric I reckon. The horizon of consciousness of cultures and peoples has been narrow and confined to one’s own social well if I may! This is more so in terms of the outlook of the people at large, with exceptions I readily admit, from mainland India towards traditions and cultures of the ‘strange looking’ people living in the northeastern part of the country.

Anyway without getting emotional and going too deep into the way our “consciousness” has matured, let me focus on the point I’m trying to drive home! The term ‘North-east’ is used so liberally and conveniently in every possible context by one and all but without giving much thought to the political and cultural shade of the terminology.

For the record, politically and culturally, North-east India as a naturally fitting coalition does not exist. Very few countrymen are meaningfully aware that the ethos, customs and politics of the region beyond the waters of river Brahmaputra are not one and the same thing!

“Floods have gripped the North East” is a freely used news item flashed very often in the national media. The irony is that certain States in the region have never experienced floods for generations together! Similarly, to many people, North East India means Assam and Assam is North-East India! Well, it may be enlightening to know that Assam herself is a unique State embracing a wide diversity both in space and culture not to talk about the amazingly huge multiplicity of the peoples across the region. Arunachal Pradesh is a State endowed with enticing range of ethnicities that one-time exploration trips do not permit time enough to pick every different social group living within the State. Again, Tripura is entirely unrelated in many ways with any of the neighbouring States for the exception that it is a part of the region by geography. (By the way, very few countrymen are sure about the capital of Tripura!). There are other States like Manipur which has an exclusive and peculiar history of a great Kingdom the traces of which have by and large survived till today. Then you have States like Meghalaya, Nagaland, Mizoram and Sikkim which are an assortment of inconceivable shades of peoples, traditions, practices and institutions inhabiting an insignificant space on the eastern wings of the Country.

The issue at point is simple but twofold- one, the knowledge about the region and the people living there is rather shallow and superficial; and two, the term ‘North East’ is technically a terminology too simple and erroneously unpalatable to be used to describe a sea of humanity that has an incredibly immense multiplicity of cultures, politics and geography.

The expression 'North-east' is indeed a comic misnomer in that sense of the term!

Circles are Round!

Geometrically speaking!

I remember my arithmetic teacher from school trying to draw a circle which looked more like a square. Talk about squaring a circle! Well I’m not trying to asses his skills in art; he was a geometry teacher anyway. The point I’m trying to drive home is on a different plane - the fact that invariably, the circle of life completes its bizarre but inevitable cycle.

The roller-coaster (as some would say) of life is a unique phenomenon that appears to follow an intangible trajectory which strangely but certainly reaches its end-point or whatever point you call it.

Everyone quests for a better life. Those with a simple life want a bigger one; the poor wants to get rich, the rich wants to get richer; the cobbler wants to be an engineer, the engineer wants to be a millionaire; the millionaire wants to be a billionaire, the billionaire wants a simple and happy life.

The matrix of life is beautiful indeed. And life, as we all must have realized, is a great leveler. Nature has a particular way of treating her subjects. Every individual gets an opportunity to make a life, rather live a life.

And once is all we get, make it or wreck it! Some do make it and others, well they just miss it altogether. Whatever be the situation, the lesson is always the same- make sure your life is worth living. And a life worth living is priceless.

Luxury is desirable and wealth is superior but upright living is virtuous prosperity. The ghosts of fallen warriors bear the torch of honour and they often slay the deceitful it seems. In life, it all comes back!

The Law of Inactia!

Scientifically speaking!

The Law of inertia, or more commonly, Newton's First law of Motion has a fundamental commonality with the First (and often the only) Law of many of us which I’d call the Law of inaction. To suit my convenience, I'd prefer to phrase it the Law of Inactia! Anyway my convenience apart, Newton’s Law talks about maintaining a net balance of motion unless acted upon by an external force; the Law of inactia would explain that human tendency disproportionately leans on net balance of inaction unless poked by an external agency!

The Law of inactia stems from the thesis that inaction is a common attribute found in the genotype of individuals with impossibly rare exception. Anywhere we turn to, whichever direction we look, we come across this all too familiar phenomenon of inaction. The government establishments attending to every other system but public delivery systems; the civil society taking up every other issue but social causes; the media unfolding all irresponsible actions without adequate responsibility; the netas talking every noble principle but failing to walk the talk; the teachers attending every other institution but the school; the engineers making every little calculation but that of quality; the list goes on and on.

Closely related to and emanating from the phenomenon of inaction is the unmistakable trait of ‘passing the buck’ from one court to the other. Inaction invariably entails accountability and accountability whips up the Game of Joy- the Blame Game! The soaring ‘estates’ then point their imperial fingers at one another but not sure why.

Grave social concerns and issues litter our worlds. We need to act and act fast. Understanding their gravity and working upon them is vital. Changing the whole big world is not the slogan; changing your own little world is.

Inaction is the perfect recipe for human disaster; collapse of society is an inevitable finale. "Action" is the key and everyone has a role.

SoUring High!

Reelistically speaking!

A theatrical entry of a Tom Cruise in MI drawing down from the ceiling, with crafty precision, with a cord strapped to the ankle can be best appreciated only if we understand the logic behind the stunt. It’d be quite a different story if he’d fastened himself to the neck and made the eternal descent!

The heroes of real and reel life are often matched up to by one and all. We are all so conveniently judgmental in our own ways. Looking at people with one’s own value-lenses is one art many of us have mastered even without adequate training! People are just okay with themselves; the way they are. Everyone’s just perfect in his or her own valuation-test; all others are fools, at best.

I am emotionally reminded of a man who thought his wife was going deaf and went to see the doctor. The doc told him to conduct a simple test. When the man reached the front door of his home, he called out, “Darling, is dinner ready?” Hearing no response, he walked inside and repeated himself. There was still no reply. On the third attempt, when he had walked close to her, he finally heard her say, “For the third time, yes!”

This is an all too familiar experience for many I’d reckon. But how often do we really look back and see where we stand. Jumping tall where one needs to dive can be fatal. The amount of time we squander in weighing up people around us can be best invested in nurturing one-self. Those who do are the real heroes indeed.

Having a towering esteem of oneself is one thing, misplacing one’s own self and persona is a different thing altogether. Soaring high on counterfeit feathers can meet with exceptionally sour experiences in sum!

Mission Success!

Bluntly speaking!

The mantra of success, they say, is to maintain one’s cool in times of impossibly difficult turbulence in life. This is a guaranteed approach and is said to effortlessly work well for both professional and personal life alike (the tele-shopping way!).

The success gurus always seem to be in a rush to develop novel models that work for all and sundry- One size fits all approach, if you like. There are manifold schools of thought on this subject matter though. And every such stratagem has come about from years of research and first-hand experiences, they all claim.

Anyway all such models apart, success in life does come through hard work and a pinch of luck, accept it or not. Slogging it out is the key, no matter what the shape or size of the lock is! In other words, there is no easy way to achievement. Success does not come by often to pay a visit. It hardly does in fact. But if it does come, one has to grab it not only with both hands but also, if possible, wrap it with both legs as well. Can’t take a chance with life, can we?

So as they say, nothing succeeds like success. But success has a compromise value tagged to it. One may scale the Mt. Everest or dive to the bottom of Mariana Trench, success may still elude us. One may make a living- room on the moon or drill down a few thousand layers beneath the earth’s crust and lay a tunnel connecting Oslo and Canberra, yet achievement may still appear out of reach. What then is success really? Is success for real? Is it like you get it and ‘live happily ever after’ kind of a thing? What really is success? This question, it appears, is in some way turning out to be a dilemma for many.

What are we after really? Where are we heading? Whom are we following? Do we even know the course we have taken for this long expedition to success? Where did we start in the first place? All these uncertainties baffle every time I pick a discourse on the ‘road to success’ and related subject! The answers are there somewhere; I would love to think so atleast.

Anyway the point is, in our zeal to achieve something novel, something different, we have lost our way somewhere. We have lost relationships, we have lost our decency, we have let down dear ones, we have lost our integrity, and we have lost ourselves- being human. We have in fact failed to attain the greatest feat any human could possibly achieve- being a man or a woman. Just being one, the sheer personification of being one.

Success in life has become the mission, life has taken a backseat. That is still fine so long as we do not go on hitting below the belt along our way. But far from sticking to rules, we are all ever ready to trample over any thing, repeat anything that comes our way in our quest to “achieve”. Mission Success has failed and failed terribly. Abort!!

My People, My Land

Patriotically speaking!

‡ Rising high from the enchanting Dzükou valley

Streaming down to the brimming Doyang banks

Towering with royal pride the Mt.Saramati

Stretching to the majestic forest the Intangki

From the hush of the hills of Pangsha

To the rush of the plains of Dhansiri

Rests my land in a mosaic of colours

Colours of festivals, dances and warriors!

‡ A montage of cultures and peoples,

The ubiquitous and warriorly the Sumis

The simple but ever out-reaching the Kukis

The contented but vivid the Yimchungers

The native but courteous the Khiamniungans

The beauty personified and avant-garde the Aos

The unsung but loyal patrons the Phoms

The quaint but humorous the Lothas

The somber but industrious the Rengmas.

‡ The historically-oriented but affable the Changs

The stout but cheerful the Chakhesangs

The vibrant and mingling the Sangtams

The aged but sharp-witted the Konyaks

The dance-beauty and colour-embodied the Zeliangs

The gracious and candid the Pochurys

The vague but ever present the Kacharis

The undulating but blessed the Angamis

Oh a grandiose medley on land

My People, my land, Nagaland!

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But not the Dream that i Revere!!

Folkmen and folkwomen ( traditionally speaking)!

This for ‘friends in faraway places…’

♯Too long a winter we all survived

But leaves have turned green and spring’s arrived

The Magpie’s flying and with grace

The countryside’s turned bestowing a joyous face

The weary shoulders’ risen again

Farewell to the sky that was a bane

All things’ well or so they appear

But not the Dream that I revere!

♯Oaring seamen back to ports

Bringing ecstasy of sorts

At the sea it’s been a good day

Their delight impatient for the bay

There’s bliss all around

Brood jigging and making sound

All things’ well or so they appear

But not the Dream that I revere!

♯Womenfolk with sheaves of grain

Too bounty for the thought of pain

The wait they made the field to ripe

Home they come with pomp reside

The sky’s cleared for better days

Now life it seems has many more ways

All things’ well or so they appear

But not the Dream that I revere!

THE SEACHESTRA !!

Folkmen and folkwomen, traditionally speaking!

let us chime this little rhyme...

♪The roaring sea waves roll on in course

I’d never know why they should see the shores

The murmuring they make when they do meet

I’d never grasp what tidings they do feed

♪The hastening symphony, I hear them far away

Rushing in with royal conviction all the way

Bliss music sojourning through the miles

Shipping in laden with uncountable smiles.

♪This is all pleasant and exceedingly soothing

But wake up and watch for your footing

This was a dream or so I thought

I was dreaming of a battle already fought

♪All this while I thought I knew

Lest did I know I was among the few

All fools think they alone know

That in mid summer it doesn’t snow

♪Was this a dream? I wish it was

But if it wasn’t and must come to pass

Help it go past in a rush

And let me sink again into bliss hush.