From the South of Manipur where the paddy swell and sway in the winters wind…… to the serene and snowy mountains of Sikkim where hearts cool ……to the concrete jungle of Bombay where instinct teaches us to survive tread I did and breezed with the innocence of the world and the cruelness of the humanity all I had experienced ……. All the more it still leaves no trace of regret of being born as a human. Against conflicts of Muslims with the Hindus and the fight of capitalism against communism I have tried to open my eyes only to the realities of life and found still that there is some kind of hope lingering in my mind even though some illusions of a perfect world as I had built during my childhood innocent days remains a mirage. Still my heart yearns that one day all of us will rejoice in harmony.

Sometimes I wonder why can't we all judge people through their actions rather than their religion, community or caste. Having tread so much and seen so much you might laugh at me of having such an innocent outlook at this age and of course of being not realistic about life. But at the bottom of it all what is real is that all of us want to live……live with peace and happiness. Human instinct teaches us to survive and we cling to this life so much so that we would hold on to it in the expense of so many other lives or we would prefer to take so many lives to save one of our own regardless of who is right or wrong. Some times I seriously wonder why these thoughts come to me too. In the midst of Communities where the severe conflicts between the Muslims and Hindu exists I have heard Hindus listening to the melodious songs of Mohd.Rafi and not even thinking that they are listening to a Muslim.

For that matter you must be knowing that Hindu fanatics who does not want to see or hear anything of Muslims FOUND ACTUALLY watching a la Shahrukh Khan or Amir Khan movie deliciously. Or do you know that a true Muslim fighting from a BJP ticket and still winning at the Lok Sabha Elections? In which state was that? Grope and you will find many more examples of religion, community or caste not being factor of division amongst us. Amidst the riot at Gujarat the media even showed that there is a place in the communal riot torn state of Gujarat where two villages of Muslim and Hindu co-exists and have been co-existing over so many years. All this brings forth the thought that are these divisions actually there amongst the minds of the general public or are these the integrated vicious circle created by a group of cunning schemers for their selfish ends.

These thoughts sometimes brings me back to the hard realities of life in Manipur where there is a strong undercurrent of hatred flowing between many communities of the state which otherwise have coexisted peacefully and lovingly over the years till the concept of division came through the concept of religion or "The Tribal-Meitei"Divide. Historically I am not so fluent but as far as I know it is certain that we all lived and still live in the same land, breathing the same air and sharing the same sunshine even long before Santidas Gosai brought Hinduism or the Missionaries introduced Christianity to Manipur.

I believe every human have their own right to live life the way they want but not at the expense of peace of the society and future of the generations to come. And I know a little bit of love amongst the various communities of our State is not going to harm any of us Manipuris but rather it would give us a stronger sense of unity and sovereignty.

I can very well recall an incident to prove this point. It was in the year 1988 when I was the President of North East Students Federation ,Delhi(NESFED) I observed that this mentality of division was strongly prevalent even then in the minds of the educated students who are supposed to be future pillars of the state . During the festival and tournaments of the Association various communities from Manipur were participating as separate teams such us Meiteis, Zawmis, Nagas etc. rather than a team and in the process it was difficult for the state to become first in many areas where we otherwise are the best if we unite and participate.

I was really against this and I put my foot down that if our different communities don't unite to take part as a team I will resign. There was a lot of hot exchanges after which everyone showed some sense in my suggestion and we put all the good players regardless of they are Meiteis or Tribals in the A team and the rest in the B team. And it was the year in which we won many prizes amongst all the other states of North East.

So I learn quite early that if all communities in Manipur unite we can come out a winner in many competitions with rest of the country or the world. This is my strong belief. This has been further enhanced by many other incidents thereafter and recently the winning of Santosh Trophy by the Manipur Football team has proved that Manipur can be first in many areas if there is greater sense of unity amongst us rather than fighting against each other either in the name of religion or community.

So lets us all learn from ours and others experience that love and unity amongst the Manipuris will make us the winning team that we are.