It is like gossiping with flowers, bees & butterflies

Salam Rupachandra Singh *

When I lost my mobile phone at Delhi Railway Station, it was a total handicap for me to communicate with the rest of the world. Shri Satya Paul, the Organiser of South Asian Fraternity insisted that I attend a Conference to be held at Faridkot wherein many friends had been invited. Many known friends and new faces piled up one after another for the said conference.

The North-East people are not so fluent in speaking Hindi and when we speak English, the men in railway counters etc, it seems, give not much importance in instant response as most of the Indians speak Hindi in the mainland. Of course, booking counters are manned by persons capable of communicating both in Hindi & English, but speaking English, it seems most of them do not prefer.

The world is full of the tendency to cheat, dupe or loot in the Indian context so far as I have experienced. Though I was not experienced and accustomed to be in booking counter for the purpose, Shri Satya Paul asked us to make reservation of our current rail tickets from Delhi to Faridkot.

When I went to Railway counter, it was replied-'this counter', 'that counter' and Dr Kajal muley & myself were running here and there for the said job. Delhi experienced the maximum heat in the month of June of that year. We always prefer to travel by bus or by air to free from all such complicacy but some feel it comfortable to travel by train.

Ultimately we got the reservation of tickets done but my newly bought MI mobile handset on the insistence of my children was not in my pocket. I went to the spots where I had been but I could not find them. The pick pocketters or mobile snatchers might be so happy in finding an unexperienced person like me in Delhi railway reservation counter.

In the past, our brains were so sharp and even we could memorise a lot of things and happening. However, due to the advent of android & smart phones, only I could memorise the phone number of selected afew and as such I could communicate with my home by using mobile phones of friends.

Thus, as my condition was just like that of 'Thakur in Sholay'' I took the mobile phone of Dr. Kajal and called up home telling about the loss of my mobile phone.

The fellow delegates only showed their sorry state of affairs in my condition, they enjoyed using their mobile phones by taking photos & making calls. I missed it! When we reached Faridkot, I had insisted that some of the organisers for going together to shops to have a mobile handset fetched for me and to block my lost number.

I didn't go for the costly one but the cheapest one as a temporary means for communication with home and a few once as all the other numbers were in the lost handset. whom should I communicate with or how could I get calls from others? The gathering was fantastic.

We could visit many places like the India Pakistan Border, the place where Indian shahids showed their mights and laid down lives for freedom movement, the war wrecked railway station and a particular bridge. When we crossed it, we witnessed the confluence of a couple of rivers which signifies the word - 'Punjab'.

The other significant thing was the demonstration at India Pakistan Border point where Indian & Pakistani soldiers competed their talents in the evening. Really speaking, the ceremony was worth watching as the countrymen of the two Nations took side to their own soldiers with full applause and ear-splitting yells.

We are to say that we are lucky as we could visit the birthplace and house of Shri Satya Paul. We were pleased to see how his family members and relatives treated us with warm hospitalities and how they showered respects to this young man of eighty then.we were welcomed, encircled,offered sweets & milk.

We experienced the best way of treatment as done by Indians to their guests. Dr. Kajal is a well known Gujarati Dancer of long standing. Even in her shows in the conference, I kept vigil of what assistance she needed from me.

After faridkot Conference, the next one was to be held at Kozhikode.I didn't not attend it due to postponement out of a sudden flood even though I had already booked air tickets for myself and my son.the next one could not be held by the reason of the infamous Covid-19 pandemic.

However, Dr. Kajal Had been endeavouring to do something good for the people even during the peak time of the pandemic, she contacted many persons from the other parts of this country including myself as well as other south Asian Countries and made a video clip on the suspected root of Covid-19 for giving messages.

Besides it, she invited articles relating to the culture of Manipur saying that she would publish a book on Indian culture by compiling different articles from across the country and south Asian region. I requested people in the field in Manipur. However, due to some reason or Covid, they could not write and contribute.

To this,she asked me to write by myself and that too in Hindi.It was a very difficult task for me to write on the subject of the Dance or culture of Manipur.so I thought of sketching something on Thabal Chongba of Manipur to express the abc of it by putting my personal opinion.

The difficulty in me was, it should be in Hindi. We speak Hindi in the so-called 'Bazar Bhasha' as we generally read Hindi upto VIII standard only. The difficulty I find in the Hindi language is its gender and spelling.

I endeavoured writing something on the subject and requested one of my colleagues to rectify the spelling and enquire about the place where Hindi script is typed. As she told me, I went to the place. The people I met there were well versed in Hindi and I thought they might be degree Holders in Hindi. They helped me a lot not only in typing but also in reshaping my write-up.

One day, a call from Dr. Kajal came saying that her book would be published in virtual mode. I clicked the link she sent and attended to it. It was well-published on a virtual platform. I insisted Dr. Kajal Muley to make me available a copy of the book as I was eager to see my article.

When we met at Gandhi Peace Foundation, New Delhi recently, she presented me a copy of it. When I opened the book, my article namely 'Manipur ke Thabal Chongba evam uske prabhav' meaning thereby the Thabal Chongba of Manipur and its significance occupies a space in her book. I simply expressed my opinion on the subject-matter as I was compelled to write it as a mark of acceptance to a friend's request.

The book entitled 'Pushpa Pankhuriyon Ke saath gapshap' of her is like Gossiping with Flowers, Bees & butterflies!

The uniqueness of the book of Dr. Kajal Muley, the Gujarati Dancer of popularity is her advocacy of making an art daily with the leaves and stems of plants,petals and sepals of flowers etc. to symbolize varieties of speaking objects. Some of them are in her book. It is a book with a difference in the 21st Century among the hundreds & thousands of books so far published that I have ever seen.