Religious Verbosity!

The implausible consistency of some peoples' pleasure for wordiness and their loquacious behaviour is indeed note-worthy. The love of being chatty is definitely not a rare phenomenon though as is evidently exhibited at almost all times, irrespective of social and cultural variations! In short, this is a behaviour transcending cultural and political demarcations making the ‘virtue’ of verbosity a pan-global phenomenon! Well virtue or nuisance is a different debate requiring a different platform for deliberation.

For now, I shall simply pull my attention towards the nature of effusive characters found in no less numbers all around us. The ability of certain people to go on and on without much difficulty has always fascinated my person. Fascinated because of their aptitude to say things (talk) without giving much attention as to whether the audience is least attentive or worse interested at all. The revolutionary leader of the Carribean’s Cuba, Fidel Castro comes to mind in this category of chatty personalities! Ofcourse, the ideology of the same does not constitute our course of discussion presently. And it may also be clarified that there is ground for a distinction between world leaders and the laymen. And ofcourse here we are largely interested in the people who form part and parcel of our daily lives. People who just love talking without much restraint and inhibition. There is no attempt to smear such characters with any prejudice; this initiative is simply a general observation and ofcourse my fascination with their voluble abilities that I lack indeed!!

It does require a serious knack and habit to go on and on talking (yapping, some extremists would vehemently claim!). Such habits are preferably infused in the formative years of an individual when he/she is least prepared to take it. The young mind (orifice) then takes it upon itself as a moral obligation to function relentlessly without respite. These early lessons then gradually take shape and become established habits that come very naturally at later stages of a person’s life without much effort! The flow just comes whenever an opportunity is offered or when it doesn’t is seized, whichever is applicable! They can really talk and talk and talk an audience to death. And whoever survives is perpetually plagued or worse psychologically handicapped by the verbal onslaught of the esteemed speaker!! Well verbosity has always been and will always be an asset for some, a habit for others, and a perpetual threat to few others!

Dedicated to one and all for whom the audience is God and chattering is a religion…!!!

SECURITY BANDOBAST!

As the “VVIP” lollopped his way out of the stage, curtains came down on yet another play, another show. The Chief’s gone and so has the katzenjammeric effect that had entailed his arrival. As the Lal Batti (LB) wanes its way into a distance, the same LB culture continues to create havoc in our rustic (euphemistically for dusty!) land. Just when you thought one has left, the other makes its way right onto your footrest. What is left of you is a column of air to float or dangle upon whichever is applicable! Atleast a dozen cars driving down behind the VIP’s MUV, leaving behind a long and towering trail of dust essentially turning passers-by into brown standing structures!!

And ofcourse the loyal khaki friends are kept on their toes until they see the back of the ‘VVIP’ (emphasis on the double v) and receive stand down orders. Security arrangement is always a tall order whenever “State leaders” visit places. And yes, the tension across the rank and file of the security machinery in such times is a reality and a grim picture to witness! Any hitch and you have it. No snag and no one really bother- a mammoth task indeed bandobasting ‘VVIP’ security!!

VILLAGE IDENTITY

The root of every Naga lies deep in the countryside. The identity of any Naga hangs long on his Village. Every Naga, no matter where he lives, reveres moments of the good old times when life was blithe and carefree - the fields, the farms, the hills, the hays…every one almost unexceptionally affixes this landscape with an emotional attachment.

…that old stone still unmoved, that old gate still standing, that tall tree still growing but looking less intimidating. Fond memories rebuff to die away. The simple village life, the broad smiles along every shelter you pass by, the smell of the village soil… "certain things money can’t buy!”

With such deep associations, the identity of a Naga rests profoundly on the village he belongs. And people get charged when it comes to ‘the village’. There’s a peculiar pride attached with village sentiments - an effort to identify oneself with the Village, an attempt to establish oneself with village lore. A unique appreciation for people with traditional teachings and a particular liking for folks who share a common village. After all there’s a serious esteem for one’s village and the values that abound there!

Villages are where grandparents have left a mark, villages are where parents live and where friends of old times wait. Naturally, deep roots remain too dear for any human to sever links with.

The Village is where it all begins and there it ends too. The mortals wish to be laid on the proud soil where they spent “their best times”; the land of the opera of chirping birds, the howls of blissful children all around and the deafening sound of peace- the scenery they spot in every dream!

Rustic People!!

Life’s tough in that part of the world. The sun’s blazing hot at noon as you’d expect in high hilly regions; the atmosphere’s thin in these places. But the spirits are high and the hearts unreservedly big. Every day’s a struggle, the people struggle their way and manage to live on somehow; go on in life! The wind is chilly once dusk sets in. There doesn’t seem to be much clothing to protect from the cold air that develops quickly as the temperature plummets drastically at night in places located high above sea level. Yet nature seems to be reasonable to those who have a big heart to lend.

Hospitality is a virtue to possess to keep the docs at bay (mind the term)! These are people who have never seen the clinic as we know, yet they are fit and perpetually in the pink! They have natural medicines that they pluck along as they make their way to the fields. They do not know the office that you and I would imagine. Yet they work overtime and are sound professionals of sorts. They ain’t troubled when crude prices sky-rocket $200 a barrel. Automobile is one possession they could never comprehend. Bearish trends and bouts in the stock markets are of little concern, currency transactions are a thing they deal with most seldom. Catastrophes are not of great concern. When tremors come, they do not worry, for they live in huts of leaves and branches, not skyscrapers or marble-plated structures. They possess very little to lose in the first place anyway. Sleep takes over as they lie down after a hard long day; there is no time to flip and turn.

They are skillful and know the tricks of life or rather the tips to survival. And this is perhaps the reason of that smile, the smile they wear every time you look into their tired eyes. Is that really a smile sometimes I wonder? Perhaps they cackle at me, perhaps they see my plight. Should there be a situation of survival, perhaps they know who’ll stand and who’ll snap!

BRAVE SOULS!!

The night’s been long or so it seemed,

Dawn is slowly breaking, I can see the beam

Life’s taut and the going’s rough,

Oh they alone know how tough!

Watching on the lawns as friends play,

Jubilant and elated the whole day.

Wishing they too could jump someday

At that thought they laugh away!

Life’s tough but they don’t mourn,

Oh what brave souls they all own!

Each day’s a challenge for them to settle

And they do like warriors in battle.

The day seemed short or so it was

The laughs, the smiles wilt like they must

Oh the familiar end as day fades to dusk

The familiar question ‘Why am I different?’ they do ask!

(dedicated to all the differently-abled people with a salute)

''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!