No Tourist Season For Lamka?

Recently my Boss had to tour the North-East for a series of pre-bid meetings. Imphal was her last-stop and she said she might visit CCPur (Lamka, we call it) if I can suggest something worth seeing there. I sheepishly scratched my head not exactly sure what to suggest.

The holidayer to Manipur that I knew of, come in two seasons. The first batch started as soon as the summer holidays started and ends just before school/college re-opened. They are mostly college students or families with school going kids. The second batch started from early December and ended in January. These winter holidayer are mostly servicemen and women or family without children. These people are not the typical tourist, they are holidaying back home.

To be very honest, I don’t remember ever seeing hordes of well-heeled tourists or back-packers in the street of CCPur. Well, Khuga dam is no Hoover dam, and our patchy hills and mountains are not the Nilgiris. And as for marketing our tribal identity, just remember, we don’t exactly live in the jungle any more and girls in hot-pants do not exactly portray the kind of tribal image people may expect. Even today, the few ‘strange face’ that are occasionally seen in our street are there only on the invitation of our churches or are there to visits or inspect one of our many rehab centres.

Well, Gamnuam Home, Shalom Rehab, etc. are not the type of tourist attractants we want. But, for a starter we can develop a botanical garden which will not only attract tourist but also preserve our much folk-lored but evidently endangered orchids. We can also develop a dedicated market for out tribal handicraft from cane, bamboos works to our various colorful shawls, etc. And to develop that, we don’t even need the government; we can use the people participatory approach involving the communities in the process through the NREGS. All we need is someone or an institution to lead and do all the planning.

CCPur seems to scarce rather than attract tourist, and we have to change that. We may not have much to offer that will compel visitors to stay the night, but we can at least develop something that will make CCPur a ‘must-stop’ for every visitor to Manipur.

tags: zo, zomi, zogam, lamka

Miss. Mayawati: The Wrong Dalit Icon

If the father of the Indian dalits, Dr. BR Ambedkar, had been alive today, he would be proud to know that the class for whom he bitterly fought social acceptance are starting to make their marks in most sphere of life from the Head of State to Chief Ministership.

But I cannot help wondering what he would think when he sees the omni-present hand-bag clutching statues of Miss. Mayawati in parks and recreation centres that also usually happened to bear his name?

Ms. M. Yes, during the last general assembly she had been touted as a force to reckon with. The result may have disappointed her and the many psephologist but whatever she had achieved so far in term of political havocs and media frenzies, considering her back ground and personality, are something that cannot be underestimated.

But, at the same time one cannot help but be aghast upon hearing her speeches. Her language were usually unpolished, raw, vulgar and most often a baseless character assassination of her political rivals. But the worst thing about here is that she never seemed to be apologetic about her unabashed abuse of power.

Her few press conferences were well-timed and opportunistic, and I am yet to hear her talk about fiscals, social or development policies. If she wanted to be taken seriously, she must freely interact with the press talking about her dreams, her vision and the step she took to further the situation of the dalits and the country as well and allowing us all to know her better. But sadly enough, she dictated the press only for verbally abusing her political rivals.

She is one of the few prominent dalits in India and much was expected from her, but without ever allowing us to let us know here true self, she just looked like an ignorant, opportunistic, corrupt and greedy politician who exploited her social back ground to achieve here selfish ambition.

There is no denying that she want to leave her legacy after she is gone, but the only legacy that she may leave as of now seems to be a badly plundered state, a divided society, and her hand-bag clutching statues. Well, at least the pigeon will be thankful to her for that.

tags: zo, zomi, zogam, lamka

The Horror Of OZ

The recent spate of racial attacks on Indian Student down at Australia has grabbed more than enough media attention in India.  I’m glad it does.  It brings to focus the issue of discrimination and abuses based on racial line.  It is one subject most Indian often overlooked or chose not to acknowledge until and unless they perceived themselves as the victim.

For instances, when Indian actor, Shilpa Shetty, alleged that she was racially abused at a TV show in the UK, the media and people of India cried wolves.  Contrast that with the time when a coloured Australian cricket player, Andrew Symonds, alleged that he was being racially abused by an Indian player, Harbhajan Singh.  Most Indian, instead of condemning the Indian Player, choose to mock the Australian, or ignore the issue altogether.

Indian abroad have become quite sensitive towards the issue of race today, but back home, it doesn’t cut much ice.  Most Indian in India don’t know what constitute racism or discrimination, or for that matter, what racism is all about.  That is not so surprising considering that India is the one country where segregation based on the line of caste/ class has been accepted as a normal social order.

Racism exists all over the world in one form or the other. Even in the developed world where people are more sensitive and awareness are higher, racism and discrimination still existed, but are hidden, unspoken and unexpressed.  In India it’s different.  People still curse their birth because they can never change their social standing no matter what.  For instance, even in the richest family, inter-caste/race marriage is still a big taboo.

If you belong to any of the lower caste, people will judge you from your surname, and your surname will decide if you can enter a certain place/temple, or touch a certain thing. If you happened to be a racial minority, you don’t even get to give your surname, people take one look at you, and you are already judged.  As a minority, each and everyday one has to face some sort of discrimination –it can be mild, coated or blown-out abuses.

What happened at Australia is awful and should be condemned.  But what happened at India is also equally awful, and  should be equally condemned.  But the big difference is that, the Australian Government has acknowledged the incident (though reluctantly), while in India, such incidents will be conveniently swept under the carpet as a normal outcome of the social order.

I really do wish those people who took out to the street for the students down under will also look closer at home and stop being a perpetrator and stand-up for the minorities which they failed to notice all these years. I hope, at least, a lesson is learnt.

-for related post, please click the following;

1. India & Discrimination

2. India & Racism

That Little Village My Parents Love So Dear…

Every alternate year, I went back to that little village despite dreading the seemingly endless journey.  Despite being provided with options and having alternate and much better places to live, my parents insist to continue living in that obscure little mountain village often inaccessible during rainy season, with a distant mobile phone network that works just a few days a year.

That little village is also the place where they brought us up their six children.  It must be the one place they wanted to brought up their children and grandchildren but that’s not the case for my parents.  None of us stayed back and none wanted to live there in the future so we all tried to make up by spending our summer and/or winter holidays with them rather than getting away to one of those exotic location often advertised in those glossy magazines like most people do.  Of their eight grandchildren two were born in their presence and the last one was over a decade ago now.

That doesn’t meant I don't like the place.  No matter what that little village is the one place I still called home and my heart still beats for it.  Despite my untiring complaints of  everything, from the lack of privacy to my inability to use my mobile phone or wifi-internet connection, and despite my unending whining about the lack of basic infrastructures and the government’s apathy, I still yearn for that village and the simple people who live there.

My mother sent me off to live with my Brother just before I entered my teenage years not only because of the ethnic troubles at that time, but also to escape the drug-prone environment.  Moving to Delhi has been dramatic for me in many ways.  But I'm not complaining or blaming my Mother, rather I thanked her for letting me face the real world early without waiting for the inescapable reality we are ought to face in the future and being caught unprepared.

My whole family has been scattered across India and abroad.  My parents are getting old and there are slim chances of a family get-together.  I often wondered if my parents ever felt lonely and regret sending all of us off.  Mother always explained that it’s for our own good and with the hope that we can make something out of ourselves. 

I can’t say we made something out of ourselves with pride –to other, we are still nothing but we did it okay.  We all would loved if our parents wanted to live with at least one of us in a city, but they have sacrificed enough doing without us and we are not going to ask them to part with the one place they love.  Apart from that, I often observed how handicapped and worthless they felt in the few occasion they came to visit us. 

In the village, they have farm and garden to keep them busy, animals to take care of, have close relatives as neighbours who sought their advice for every decision and can take care of them if the needs be. They have a full and dignified life there, the only thing amiss is their children. If they had lived with us, they have to give up all that since life in a city call for a totally different life style. We don’t want them to make so many changes and adjustments so late in their life or feel sorry about themselves for the remaining years of their life.

We know how much they miss us and we miss them too.  It’s a sacrifice –a sacrifice to maintain dignity, to show our respect and love and as a token of thanks –a sacrifice that we all understand.  That’s the reason why we never wanted to drag them away from the one place they love –the place that we all realized we are still in love with.