FLOODS IN THE DRY STATE!

The veriest travesty of being a ‘dry State’ is displayed in prolific extravaganza in no other place on earth than in this remote north-eastern Indian State of Nagaland. The flow of Indian Made Foreign Liquor into this part of the world is a matter of routine drill despite the statutory blanket ban since a little over two decades ago. Huge volumes of “alcoholic beverages” make their way into the State with effortless ease. At least a dozen times every twelve months you hear of seizure of huge consignments of such beverages en-route the State from the neighboring State of A***M! And we are not even talking about the un-intercepted passage of consignments that make it through, in smaller quantities ofcourse, in no less frequency nonetheless.

The issue is not about the moral outlook anymore, as it was when it initially came to head in the late 80s. The matter has become a grave social issue today. This has become, perhaps, one of the biggest challenges impinging upon the people of the State at large and several families in particular.

Coming as it does, the illicit nature of this sector has made it a huge business for black-marketing. The price of quality ‘products’, to begin with, multiplies many-fold by the time the consignment reaches the target group! Hence, the economic dent it has wheedled out of the innumerable family pockets in general cannot be conveniently ignored. In fact, this has made it imaginably unaffordable for the common people.

However, the bigger concern is different and very very serious too. The business has taken an immeasurable damage-profile in the sense that owing to the constraints of availability and the sky-rocketing cost, peoples’ frustration has reached summit levels where they have taken to any kind and quality of drinks so long as they are cheap and available. This has induced menacing trends where cheap and spurious liquor are being ‘tailor-manufactured’ solely for the people of the State entailing disastrous socio-health implications and irreparable consequences.

At this rate, the cycle is taking a hazardous trajectory threatening to spin out of control unless tackled fast and quick. The stakes are too high involving the fate of entire generations to come. There is an urgent need to seriously debate this growing issue of social concern and arrive to some kind of understanding or better evolve and quickly put in place a workable arrangement.

Rigidity is not the solution. Finding ways and means to a solution is the key. All stakeholders need to dialogue to hammer out this daunting challenge that is threatening to jeopardize the very progress and prospect of our entire society!

DRAINAGE - The Way Forward, Not Roads.

The focus on good roads has always been a concern for the public who travel on them on a daily basis. The urgency can not be overemphasized here.

Crores and crores of rupees have been spent on construction of roads in the State till date. While this is an assumptuous figure, there is no dispute about the fact that we have invested a huge amount of money in the road sector but without much result. Well one may partly blame it on the terrain not to mention the quality of workmanship. Be that as it may, our State is not the only State with the topography that it has. The world over, there are regions with far more difficult terrains and yet they make lasting and world-class quality roads that are pliable throughout the year.

Well it is about time we realized the core issues in this sector. The issue is not so much about the quality, though of course I am not completely ignoring that factor by any stretch of imagination. The point is, even poor quality roads can last for a long time when we have in place sound and well planned drainage systems. The early civilizations, the Indus valley for instance, had had well designed drainage systems which speak volumes of their ingenuity and deep perception of planning.

Unfortunately today, situations become pretty messy in our State owing to heavy downpour and rains during the monsoons. Our roads turn into nullahs and some of them effectively transform into rivers jeopardizing the passage of even the most adventurous characters of our society.

The issue I opine is basically about setting our priorities wrong. The problem is really about focusing on the wrong areas of investment. What we need to do is to reprioritize our investment sectors. Years of management have failed to produce satisfactory results. We need to drastically re-orient our policy towards constructing sound and well designed drainage systems when we lay our roads.

Our terrains do not suit four-laners or five-laners. What matters is not quite the size, it is the quality of road that we seek! And good quality roads do not appear without fine drainage.

What we need to understand and understand fast is that unless we start to invest in road drainage, all our investments and efforts in laying roads is going to go down the drain! The day we begin to invest crores of rupees not on roads but on road-drainage, only then can we expect to see some change.

Poor road is perhaps the biggest challenge confronting us today and big challenges demand drastic measures too. Instead of constructing more roads and cutting new ones, we really need to be investing on the drainage systems of the roads and highways that are lying abandoned for years together.

The day we realize this vague but potentially critical factor, the quintessential road condition in our State will see a revolutionary episode. So long as we continue with the present set of rules and standards, any prospect of improving our road conditions will never ever come to pass.

As I travel across the State, I come across highway-stones reading ‘Roads are the symbol of progress and development’. Indeed, roads are the symbol of progress...

... and sound drainage that of vision and wisdom! The moot question is, are we wise enough?

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)