Well it has been great to be able to share stories with you all. I have had a great helluva time interacting with many different
people from all over. It is such a blessing to get to know them.
I get to learn a little something from each in many ways unknown to them. Thanks to E-pao!! Yamna Punsiyuko!( Long Live).
Yesterday I happened to watch the movie "Chak De India" online and mind you! It is very aptly titled and I am pretty sure
it would appeal to all considering its diversity, touching all of us!!
I thoroughly enjoyed it, more so because I personally happened to know some of the Jharkhandi and our Manipuri female players based
in Bombay city! I learnt a lot by observing and watching them live harmoniously together in that old broken down railway quarters
which was amazing to me!!
Such unity in diversity among them is commendable as I knew them from very close quarters. We used to eat dinner together sometimes
in their Western Railway quarters in Santa Cruz-west. We had a great time just being ourselves!!
They were naturally blessed with talent and had magic with their hockey sticks when they played! They were a whole simple bunch of talented players from a remote corner of our big country called India!
People did not even know the N.E region existed over there! No wonder people of N.E face so much racism in Delhi and elsewhere because people are ignorant about their existence!!
I really liked the scene in the movie when the players are at the McDonald's and the N.E. gals get teased and all their team-mates descended on the culprits! That was a great moral!!
It is a great feeling to know at least Bollywood acknowledged that the N.E region is full of talented and gifted people unbeknownst to other parts of India!!
Good work, Bollywood! It can portray a whole lot of meaningful message to all people through its depiction of such appealing themes!! At least it is a good start, for one!!
So all you sisters out there who played their hearts out for the country, we are very happy for you.. go gettters and trendsetters
like you amidst the prevailing prejudice against women's sports or women in general, in India!
I must say it is a good and watchable movie!! Because of its unifying power for all people from different states of India! I dont know how others feel but its a very unique film for me !!
I for one would like all of us live peacefully irrespective of caste, creed and religion. I dont understand why we have to be divided on ethnic lines.
Are we not all Manipuris from the same state? Cant we be friends with all other communities ? Cant we just drop the various organisations and come under just one ? I guess I am rattling up a beehive. This is just a thought!!
I came into contact with many soccer players from our state when I was in Bombay and it was great to know them. Some of them did
not have proper education due to their poor socio-economic background but were a talented bunch. I was very proud of them all as
everyone of them played for professional teams and earned good moolah!!
I was very surprised as most of them were based outside Manipur and knowing how our Manipuri parents are paranoid about their kids
being outside...! It was a tremnedous effort on their part to be able to convince them of their desire to play outside and earn good while the going was good!
I particularly recall a good friend Surmani from Tiddim Road whose mother was hell bent on him to return and be near her! Poor guy! he loved his mom as much as anyone else! So he had to pack his boriya-bistar( belongings) from Goa and go back to Manipur!
And boy! He is now a good restaurateur and busier than ever! And he told me that he gets visited sometimes by extortionists for keeping his business running!!
I guess he rather likes to live close to his mom and make her happy in her old age!! These players always gave
me free tickets to watch their national league matches whenever they came down to play in Bombay.
So me and two other young students.. Radhakanta and Jimmy were my constant companions at such games as we were rooting for our
hometown boys who played big time matches for pro clubs!
Though it was not a soccer crazy city, we had the good fortune of watching our boys play and get to say hello to them briefly!!
Sometimes we also watched the local leagues and I always rooted for the "Air India" team which had few Manipuri players. And all the supporters of the opposite team would always pass so much comments about us but we did not care!
We were there to encourage our boys and enjoy the game!! We were the only Manipuris to watch those sometimes barely attended matches
but hey! we were proud of those guys playing for big outfits like Air India, RCF etc.
Many think I am way too crazy about stuffs but its the love of sports that makes me so because I never got to play in my youth so
I am very happy to see people achieving such things in their lives through sports!!
To be continued..........!!
* Shanti Thokchom, a resident of Tulsa, Oklohoma, contributes regularly to e-pao.net .
She can be reached at hanubi2006(at)hotmail(dot)com .
This article was webcasted on October 18, 2007.
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