TODAY -
How to lose a generation :: Samrat Chakrabarti - Tehelka
Tehelka Magazine, Vol 7, Issue 50, Dated December 18, 2010
IT'S PAST 8 on an early winter night in Imphal. On a vacant lot, the size of a children's playground, in the midst of a modest neighbourhood, is the hot-spot of a Monday night's offering to this city’s nightlife. Blocking the little brown lanes of coagulated mud leading up to the neighbourhood, are scooters and motorcycles from a different age — when a two-wheeler was marketed as a family investment and not an object of lust. A local television news anchor, looking out of place in a dapper sky blue suit, makes announcements to a crowd of 500-odd people, from a well-lit, carpeted stage.
Notice the statistical curiosity in this Monday night crowd, or indeed the whole of Manipur. There are gaps in the age groups. The 20-30-year-olds are absent and the 40-45-year-olds are missing. The latter lost to HIV and AIDS, and the other, its youth, sent away for a fair shot at life. In college-heavy cities around the country, they come, to 'India proper' as it were, and discover that a true learning happens outside the classroom. Nobody knows where Manipur is. Most people think you are from Nepal, and getting a local accommodation can be a trying experience as you navigate through the humiliating set of prejudices people have about you based solely on the shape of your eyes. Grown up on the same oaths in the morning assembly as that of millions of Indian children, oaths of loyalty to India — the land of the various, what is it like to reach there and find that you are an alien? What is it like in the conflict zone that is home? If we remembered to ask them, what would the youth of Manipur say?
You can read the entire article here.
** This article was forwarded by Samrat Chakrabarti (Tehelka) to e-pao.net . This Post is uploaded on December 13 2010. You can contact the sender at samrat(at)tehelka(dot)com
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