Sometimes, I do not know whether I am Bangladeshi Manipuri or Bangladeshi Meetei. To my knowledge, the people of Manipur should be known as Manipuri. But I am no longer living in Manipur. I know, I belong to Meetei ethnic in Bangladesh. So, what will be my identity? I like to introduce myself as Bangladeshi Meetei. Politically, I have to say I am Manipuri in Bangladesh but I am a Meetei in terms of ethnic. There are Sanamahism, Hinduism, Islam, Christianity and Buddhism in Manipur. We are Manipuri and nothing else should be in Manipur.

I speak Manipuri and I know my ancestor came from Manipur. As long as we do not know the Motherland, we cannot develop. We should love three things: Mother, mother tongue and motherland. Some are surviving in Bangladesh because of these feelings. When someone lost these feelings, he would lose his identity it can be anywhere. Some are speaking Bengali to be a pure Bengali in Bangladesh. Neither their pure Bengali nor pure Manipuri. They are in the middle of Manipuri. These types of Manipuris are easy to lose their identity. What I want to say is; we should learn Manipuri as well as Bengali. But we should not forget to learn English, as it is an international language.

In July 2003, I went to a Manipuri family with my friend in Bangladesh. Actually, my friend took me over there. They live in a town. I found that all their family members are educated but they do not speak Meeteilon. I was deeply shocked by their activities. I felt pity for them. One Graduate girl from this family wanted to talk to me in Bengali and was interested about Norway. Finally, I said I prefer to talk with my mother tongue. I know Bengali language but I use whenever I need it. But I do not use Bengali with the Meetei. There is peace in my mother tongue. And there is a hidden love in my mother tongue. Why should not we be multilingual with mother tongue?

Identity can be saved by ideologies and these ideologies come from his or her base (parents, family, society, surrounding environment etc). In Bangladesh when a Meetei is born, his or her family and society shape the brain. Finally they are shaped by schooling, interaction of different types of people, mass media etc. We are living in the 21st century. It is very hard to escape from the modern influences or external forces. We have ethnic boundaries. But we are not beyond the ethnicity. Charles Darwin already said; survival of the fittest. If we do not know how to cope with present world, there is nothing to do. And nobody will do for us.

Let me say something about the real situation of Bangladeshi Nupi. When a Meetei nupi is matured, she needs some social demand as well as biological at that time she faces dilemma if she has more interactions. Most of the Manipuri are economically not so sound. But her non- Manipuri friends are economically sound and have good education. What should she do now? She wants to leave her parents and society because her dream is lead a smart life after marriage with a non- Manipuri. This is her individual choice but her choice affects the whole Manipuri society and patterns. The society is the production of many actors' /events. After marriage with a non- Manipuri, some months or years later, she found that life is different then what she was thinking earlier. She has to accept all punishments such as giving in to the threat of divorce, being considered as tribal background and daily kicking. She has to work like a housemaid. She will not be even considered as a human being. She is bound to accept all these punishments. Otherwise, she will be divorced in a single word. If she is divorced, where should she go now? She has to commit suicide or to become a prostitute. This is the final stage of Manipuri girl in Bangladesh , who like to have a smart life after marriage. While I visited Sylhet in November 2003, I came to know that a University Graduate Manipuri girl left her family and married with a non- Manipuri. She was from a rich educated family. If a University Graduate, Manipuri girl does like this, what can other Manipuri girls learn from her? While writing this article, one of my friend from Bangladesh informed me that another is gone again with non- Manipuri. The flow of this trend (ones' action) affects the whole society when it is aggregated. Every Manipuri is important, and he plays important role in society. 'My mother is more beautiful than any other mothers. When this metaphoric related meaning is broken, there will be chaos in society''. I do not know how to stop this trend in Bangladesh. Interestingly, Manipuri boys do not follow this trend. Even people are not taking any action regarding this matter. As we are a small number of people, we have some taboos in Manipuri society. Actually, it has been following since the beginning of migration from Manipur. If once a Manipuri girl is gone, she will be gone forever. I also think that above-mentioned trends are not uncommon in Manipur and Manipuri habitat areas in this world. As long as we do not help ourselves, nobody will help us. At least we should protect our Manipuri gene pool.

Now, there is not a single Manipuri family, in Manipuri para in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Can we imagine? They used to live in the heart of Capital and near the parliamentary house. They may leave Manipuri para after failing to cope with the given environment. There is a big place in Dhaka called Manipur. Manipur has covered a huge area in Dhaka. I did work in this Manipur but I found only that there were Manipuri once upon a time. We are proud that our ancestor was given the name as Manipur in Dhaka.

National hero, Hijam Irabot was also student of Dhaka (Saint Pogos High School). The first finance minister of Manipur was also student of Sylhet MC Collge. The first Manipuri matriculate Wahengbam Yumjao was also student of Sylhet Pilot High School. Some archaeological relics are about to vanish from Bangladesh, which are related with our history. If we forget these relics, we will forget ourselves very soon.

We should understand our values. Here value means the Manipuri. How can we create our values ourselves? If we interpret our cultural values in a proper way, I want to claim that the Manipuri is a God gifted community. But we failed to understand ourselves. When people do not understand themselves, they lose their road. When a nation lost his culture; they would lose something, which are hard to make up by any other things. To my knowledge, our society may be controlled more or less by the earlier mentioned three things (mother, mother tongue and motherland), if we know how to interpret these. My recommendation is, we must preserve our identity by hook or by crook. In the case of Bangladesh, there is some lacking of interaction among the Manipuris of Bangladesh. I think we need long-term thoughtful social reform to sustain our identity in Bangladesh. Finally, I want to say we are surviving for the fittest, not for extinction.