The unorthodox and funny way to look at things that happen around us
mave4.rick *
I warn you not to read it as it is going to make you feel bored to the core. I have rather written it without giving much deep thought into the topics that I have discussed. I do not have the luxury of explaining everything as I am running out of time.
Muivah tried to enter Mao and we saw and heard a lot of hue and cry from every corner of the land of Kangleipak. We are as agitated and feel as threatened as a wild bear could have been when provoked. Had it been made possible for an old lady thronging the bazaars of Ima Keithel to be present side by side with Muivah, heaven forbid, he would have known his fate.
I don't believe in violence and other useless working of our emotion, which we will not discuss here. So throwing all this fancy ideas aside and indulging into the matter at hand, I will try to chart out some of the causes and effects or ramifications of the present scenario, which we all are facing at this importune moment in the history of our motherland.
Who is Muivah and why his presence is not so desired in our motherland is a question that any well-read person or to say in other words, any person aware of his birth in the motherland and having a sense of history and pride would and should feel ashamed of asking. But we will answer this question within the scope provided by this trial article, as we also know that some of us hate him (Hate. Isn't it such a weak emotion?) only after hearing his name in the news.
He seems to be threatening the integrity of our state in pursuing his objective, which we know from the news propagated by the media from the time we heard about him. His arrival in Kohima and his plan to enter his home state, which he doesn't consider his home anymore has created a lot of unnecessary upheaval in every nook and corner of the adjoining districts of Manipur and Nagaland.
I am a very non-sentimental person and I feel myself as an outcast who can't think along the lines in which the popular mandate treads. Now that I have written the previous line I feel I have written a lot about myself. Ok stop horsing around and concentrate on the topic that is more important than my identity. As Muivah took his stand and discussed with the union regarding his plan for visiting his home, the "Jumpers" (I am hoping that you have seen the Hollywood flick) of our state cabinet woke up from their deep slumber. They saw an opportunity in the crisis to become the favorite star for the people again.
But I think they saw much more than that, they knew the value of people's sentiments, though it costs nothing in the market they knew how to derive the profits out of it. Logically if you see, in five years of reign they must have accumulated a lot of money in their kitty (Shouldn't be a surprise, just check out in the black market how much money it would cost you to enroll in a medical college inside our homeland. Thank god I hated Medical. I am not tarnishing the medicine vocation but just giving one of the examples. Ignore if anybody who are in it has become a scapegoat of my example. Couldn't help it).
They have their interest in all the business activities that thrive in our so-called city. Any blockade for any commodities from anywhere will lead to hoarding of goods and reduction in supply of essential commodities for use by the common people. Supply suddenly falls down the curve and demand keeps on rising. The hoarders will not bring out the goods from their storage facilities unless they get huge profit margins from their goods, which was not possible during the good times (I felt like saying Kingfisher Good times. It is good times as always it has been for guys who can afford petrol. Only 'Who' can forget Khungi atingba).
The business operators derive huge profits out of such scenario. I don't think all the needs of the state can be fulfilled by some mere airlift of supplies unless there are other means of fulfilling the needs. Such insignificant measure like airlifting of essential commodities which will score brownie points for the state's resident, is nothing but a garb to hide the heinous act of hoarding and black marketing. I bet you if the supplies would be rationed at the same price as before.
You can't and shouldn't imagine a politician or a person to suddenly become generous in his dealings when all the while he is being corrupt to the core. The whole state machinery is working on some or the other forms of favoritism, nepotism coupled with a huge stock of cash and power sharing deals and corruption in all its forms. Neither you nor me or for that matter any other can wash himself/herself away from this sin.
Is this sin curable? Well this question can't be answered by my fragile and fickle mind, which is not strong in its resolve, but the willful and intelligent mind of yours, which can think things through. You lead me and I will follow. I can lead you but you will tend to hate me. And as I consider hate to be a weak feeling I don't want it being associated with you, so leave me out of this. I like you to be strong. I am happy in following your lead.
It is only a wild thought but it could be a thought that can come from a feeble minded head like mine. I just tried booking a flight from my hometown to the destination that is in the making of being a metro city of the NE region. I couldn't do it. I know you are aware that everything can be done in the magic land of kangleipak. So I don't need to explain the further steps I took. I found out that the ticket that normally costs less than 4k is suddenly available but the price has shot up to more than 5k.
Then it suddenly crossed my mind. What if and I mean what if, please be clear on this to avoid any future differences over the things I am going to talk or rather write. What if they already knew that people have the affordability to travel by flight when they don't have the option of traveling by road? What if they knew that NH 53 isn't serviceable in case NH 39 is blocked? What if the government orchestrated an event that could bring back revenue to the already ailing airline service industry and in the meantime clinch a deal backdoor to stuff their piggy banks? What if the Muivah event is another means for replacing the government that keeps on piling up debts from the centre?
This 'what if' will become irrelevant and the apprehensions will become assertions by starting the sentence with 'they', if you and me agree that the JUMPERS are corrupt to the core. Is there a ploy in the whole event that has been, according to my apprehensive mind, staged? The weeds that we smoke in our place are good stuff. Meaning they pack the punch, everyone knows that. But a reader like you knows that the weed is more than just a mind kicking hallucinogen.
If you are the one who is also interested in what it does to your perception in addition to just losing yourself in the psychedelic experience, then you might have already read its after effects. It alters the perception of your mind and you are thrown into a vicious circle of semi confusion. It doesn't have any side effect (they say that but I again doubt it), but it does carry a lot of side defects.
Now if you compare this supposedly splendid plant to the organizations (under, over, 1st, 2nd, left, right, top, below, whatever) that operates in our state you would have better understood by now what I am trying to imply and to whom. But these so called organizations are our own creations and they are the outcome of our individualistic, aggressive, greedy and acquisitive behaviors harbored inside us either consciously or sub consciously. This will continue to lead us to the vicious circle of misery unless we break out of the existing norms.
We need a radical revolution of the mind. A mind that doesn't tolerate old and binding norms that hampers our mind while taking decisions. A radical mind, which will understand that when it is time to think from the head it shouldn't engage the emotional heart. A mind that is capable enough to emancipate itself from the chains of mental slavery. We have to escape this slavery and we and we alone can free our mind. We all are knowledgeable fools who have become impotent in our character. We have lost the sense of history and its very essential ideal, which is necessary for the prosperity of human mind and for it to survive in a just environment where knowledge is treasured and talents are nurtured. We know that we have to feed ourselves but we have lost the idea that we shouldn't overeat.
The first idea is the knowledge of the NEED and the latter is the knowledge of the GREED. Needs can always be satisfied but Greed cannot be. It is an ideal, which we have forgotten to remember and never realize. It has lost its mark from the conscious and subconscious minds of the present generation (Was it an ideal in the previous generation? I don't know. I didn't live at that age). Day by day we are feeding souls into the system who have never considered it necessary to work hard and become worthy before demanding their rights. Souls who expect to get jobs even if they are not well educated and not well trained because they have the means to achieve it.
We continue to feed to the system a set of people who doesn't have a dignified way of earning a living, who have removed the essence of service from the work they do, who keeps on overstepping those good and great individuals who has the vision and ideal to bring forth a just society by the sheer brute force of their monetary power. We are humans but we seem to be living in a society where jungle law thrives. When we honor and let mediocre people fill the system and give them power whose real magnitude (positive) they cannot fathom, we are depriving the system of intellectuals with vision and continuously starving the society of ideas and positive recourse.
Entrepreneurs, academicians, businessman and thinkers will shun those societies where mediocrity is praised and egoism is considered a way of life. For exceptional mind to flourish, the society needs to present itself with a framework that doesn't compromise on the integrity of the institution, which is the backbone for the healthy working of the state (any organized institution) machinery.
The intellectuals and the exceptional people are not available in large number in any society. They are always an endangered species always on the verge of extinction. They will flock to areas where they can survive and exercise their skills better. They don't stoop for something as inconsequential as status or wealth not like the feeble-minded mind like mine. Our aim should be to increase their numbers not dwindle them down. They are the ones who will work selflessly, for they are not those who care for position or for power but focus only on the perfection of the skill they have acquired, reliable shoulders that can easily delegate the duties of sustaining a healthy society.
I have written this as a stupid treatment of a subject that has unnecessary created ripples of untoward incident in recent days which is uncalled for. Had we perfected ourselves the art of negotiation we could have come out of it with better results. Had the so called intelligentsia which is presently running the state machinery was aware of the Maslow's theory of motivation and had they taken necessary steps in fulfilling those needs to keep the population motivated, we would've seen people coming out of the bottom of the pyramid and try for the top level needs which will ultimately lead them to strive for self actualization.
Better society is groomed out of better individuals. The other way round holds the same maxim. Better individuals are groomed out of a better society. Isn't it a crystal clear deduction that people will almost never think of ethics, morals and uprightness until their basic needs are provided? These are ideals of the mind, which can be strived after only if you have fulfilled your basic needs of home, food and shelter.
We are in a catch 22 situation now and as you would've already known it is not a preferred situation to be in. The faster we can come out of it, the better it would be. So my (I absolutely mean only me) call is to plead to you guys/girls (whoever is reading this) to figure out what your present condition is and give your best in whatever you do for the betterment of our society. Believe me, it is you and me that will build a society not me and I.
But I will not exhort the idea of us creating a mob, which we have been doing from immemorial past of ours. Mob has a big power attached to it but you already know that its power is transient and directionless which is of no use to us. Also know that the strongest persons are the ones most fallible to the weakest whims. Keep your mind clear and focus on the objectives at hand and educate yourself. Let this be the start of the radical revolution of the mind.
We are in this condition because our previous generation who is running the society now is not doing their job properly. If we don't act now, some feeble minded person like mine who will come in the next generation would blame us a lot. I hate this feeble minded person. Ask your parents about their jobs and ask if they are doing it ethically, if you hesitate in doing so then don't follow whatever I have written above as it would make you feel weak in your character.
For those who are able to overcome this barrier, know that your parents will be doing their job properly and most importantly ethically once you ask them that. I am almost positive for such parents that they are already doing their work ethically.
"A dollar earned is far honorable than five found"... Abraham Lincoln
"It is more honorable to fail than to cheat"...Abraham Lincoln
"Alone we can do so little. Together we can do so much"...Hellen Keller
"The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision"...Hellen Keller
* mave4.rick (Email ID) contributes regularly to e-pao.net
The writer can be contacted at mave4.rick(at)gmail(dot)com
This article was webcasted on June 01, 2010.
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