The Zanzibar born Singer with the strong Indian connection Farroukh Balsara popularly known as Freddy Mercury (of the Rock Band Queen) sang his heart and soul out on this hauntingly beautiful soul moving song. And when it was released in 1975, it shot straight to the top of the Charts and stayed there for sometime.

Yes! I am talking about the Queen Classic 'Bohemian Rhapsody', even when the song was re-released in 1991 to raise funds for charity following the untimely death of the band's flamboyant lead singer, Freddie Mercury. It still managed to regain the coveted No 1 spot in the Charts. In all, the song has spent a total of 14 weeks at the top of the charts. It is also the only song to have hit the No. 1 spot twice at Christmas.

Being an avid Rock Music Fan myself, I have always taken this particular Queen record with me wherever I go. I fell in love with the song the first time I heard it, I sill love it and will always do. But never had I imagined even in my darkest hour, that the desperation, frustration, agony and hopelessness sung by Freddy with such feeling and passion would become so applicable and so relevant to the situation prevailing in my own hometown Churachandpur/ Lamka after the birth of ' The Gun --Culture'.

As we look around our town today. It paints such a sorrowful sight, peace has been crucified, our security sacrificed. Our Little town of Ccpur has been a battle - field and there is no guarantee that it won't be again in the near future. Unless and until we sink our differences and start co-existing peacefully as we once did in the past.

With the dawn of the Gun Culture, which created mistrust and suspicions among us Ccpurians, aided and abetted by Communalism. The mistrust and suspicion of one community of the other ultimately culminated into the unfortunate Paite/Kuki ethnic clash of 1997. This brought untold miseries on our fellow Ccpurians/Lamkaites, and which left many our brother and sisters homeless, orphans, widowed, and their world torn and damaged beyond redemption. The spirit of one-ness and of belonging to the same place has been thrown to the winds after that fateful ethnic clash. And Ccpur was never to be the same again. As fear and insecurity stalks the residents of this once so peaceful town.

Communalism has reared its ugly head and it is still rearing it, which quite evident from the very fact of how divided Ccpur and the Ccpurians. There is Communalization of every aspect of life in Ccpur, right from appointments in Government Jobs to communal journalism. This only creates animosity between different communities.

Communalism aided and abetted by the barrel of a loaded gun has created a 'Miniature world' in my Home-town Ccpur. With many 'Parallel Govts' apart from the Indian Government running their own show, collecting their own taxes - the future does not look so bright for the town of our birth.

The age-old maxim 'Nothing is certain in Life but only Death and Taxes ' can be seen practically manifested in the situation prevailing in Churachandpur. As we often receive 'demand letters' or 'Love Letters' as they call it from many extremist outfits, asking us for a 'little -donation' to help their organization cause. Refusal to comply with such demands, one has to face 'the dire consequences'.

Gone are those days when we could take a walk around town at night without being afraid. But times have changed now, and the town of Churachandpur has been many times an arena where blood thirsty 'Gladiators', sought and kill their next prey. Peace has been crucified now for the sake of false pride, so-called racial superiority and inflated egos. As 'patriotism' for one's own community takes control.

Now fear and uncertainty fills the air. Every aspect of life in Ccpur seems to have come to a standstill. Many prominent businessmen have shifted their base due to fear of the Guns. The only thriving business in Ccpur is ' Killing' and this Business is going great guns. Our town, our society has become a stagnant pool of water where mosquitoes comes and breed, where miscreants and antisocial multiply living off Someone's hard earned money, as fear psychosis' has our town firmly in its grip. Who will stir up this stagnant pool of society?

And many restless youths and school drop -outs in their pursuit of fame, power, and importance have joined one outfits or the other. The Lure of the Gun Culture with its theme of 'Easy come and Easy Go' may be a little too hard to resist for the restless unemployed youths, thus swelling up the rank and file of the various extremist outfits who have unleashed a 'reign of terror' in our towns and our districts.

It makes me wonder sometimes - How many innocent lives have been lost after the birth of the Gun Culture? How many innocent deaths now lie on their stony beds? Tell us what sins they have done? They were to me - Victims of Circumstances, who had nowhere to run, nowhere they could turn to. After all it is said' Man master much of life upon what ground he stands' It does pains me deeply whenever I think of the number of promising young lives swept down the drain of death by this vicious cycle of violence to which my town Ccpur and my State Manipur and its people are slaves. Those young people who died fighting for their 'nation' in that civil war - were just like you and me, who have their own dreams, hopes and aspirations. They did not deserve to die do they?? Life does not have a value anymore in Ccpur, and Manipur as a whole when all can be over in a split of a second with the pull of a trigger. The consequences of arguing with a loaded gun are, as we all know are - very fatal.

Whenever I can find the time, I'd go for a walk in the cemetery' and spend some moments of solitude with the death. I'd trudged on slowly from one tombstone to the other reading the names, age, and year and date of death inscribed on the tombstone. One thing that I have found really ironic is that there are more young people buried in our graveyards. I have likened to them to like a candle burning brightly yet to fully give out its light, snuffed out too soon by the callous act of fate. They were like flowers, yet to fully bloom, but faded away too soon before one could really smell its fragrance. Isn't it ironic? Oh! How cruel life can get.

After many of my 'walks in the cemetery', I have come to the conclusion that our cemeteries are not just a place where the dead and the deceased silently lay. But our cemeteries are rather 'A Storehouse of great Treasure'. Do you ever wonder 'How many promising singers, composers, footballers, leaders, scholars lies buried in our cold graveyard due to their untimely death? Do you ever wonder 'How many books unwritten? How many songs unsung? How many tunes not composed?

I used to ponder 'Had these young man and women who died so early lived their lives to the full. Who knows? They might have changed the world. But due to the cruel act of fate, they now only have the cold grave below to lay their heads. Can life get crueler than this? Do you ever wonder that the only mortal remains some parents have of their children are memories etched in the mind?

There are many mothers in our town are spending endless sleepless nights, worrying about their beloved sons who have joined one 'revolutionary outfit' or the other, praying hard for the safety of their sons from the bullets of the enemy guns, because 'Death is never an adventure for those who stands face to face with it'.

Oh CCPURIANS! Look at all the Damages the Guns had done in our lives and in our society. How long can we allow this to continue? We cannot turn a blind eye and walk the other way. We need to be alive to the challenges before us, to the grim reality that confronts us. The situation in our town seems to be getting precarious day by day. It is like we are all riding a wild untamed tiger and we cannot dismount. We either have to destroy the tiger or it will destroy us.

Hatred, animosity, communalism and narrow mindedness dictate our lives when other Communities and Nations are reaching for the sky. We are busy killing one another and pulling each other down - as our town lies bleeding softly. It is a real tricky situation and it is even harder in our society where the Church as an institution has failed to unite us together under the banner of the Cross. We Ccpurians can carry the cross on one shoulder and the AK 47 on the other shoulder. We are such a good example for Christianity, Aren't we? Forget about evangelizing the world.

'And I blame this world for making a good man hero
and it's this world, it could trap a good man bad
And its this world has turned a killer into a hero
And I blame this world for making a good man bad'

Sang Bon Jovi in one of his songs 'Santa Fe', I think this holds true for our town after the Birth of the Gun Culture, if one makes a careful study of the Guns and the Damages done.

Poverty and Misery fills our town. Communities are hungry, but ironically they are armed. Human Chess - Children are dying, but who cares as long as "Kings and Leaders' are unharmed. Brotherhood is now a word to laugh, there seems to be no way out of this Human zoo. And with the automatic guns comes sweeter death, I think only God can help us through.

Who will silence the Guns and repair the damages done?

We need to break these chains of hypocrisy, mistrust and that binds us. We need to remove this cloak of suspicion and the clouds of doubts that obscured our view. And dare to dream for a better tomorrow far from the reach of twisted and crazy sorrow. We need to look beyond the horizon. As the saying goes 'Man is bounded by the mind and is also liberated by the mind'. We need to have a change of heart, a change of attitude, a change of mind, and a humanistic view of life. We need to think and live for the whole and not the parts and the sub parts that make up the whole. And remember 'The change can come only from you and me'.

We have to learn to forgive our brothers and sisters 70 times seven as Jesus taught us in the Bible. We need to rebuild and re-affirm our faith in each other and in the cross and try our best not to be a 'Shame on the religion that we profess. Let us all be a Joy for the Lord Jesus rather than be a thorn.

To quote the Late John. F. Kennedy 'We must remember that there are no permanent enemies. Hostility today is a fact, but it is not a ruling law. The supreme reality of our time is our indivisibility as children of God and our common vulnerability on this planet'.

So I appeal to you my fellow Ccpurians. Let us forgive each other, sink our differences at least for the sake of our religion - the faith that we profess. And try a build a better Ccpur, a better society for the future generation. Let Unity and Love and Universal brotherhood prevail over hatred, suspicion, mistrust, narrow mindedness, and Communalism. Let us try earnestly to restore Ccpur the town of our birth to its rightful place. I know it's hard to trust freedom when it's not in your hands, and when everybody is fighting for the promise land. But at least we can give it a try.

And with a little bit of love, care, trust, prayer and affection, I am sure we can silence the Guns and rebuild the damages done. And let peace prevail one again, let it take it rightful place. It may sound like a Herculean task or an Utopian's dream. But let us remember 'Even a journey of a thousand miles begins with just one single step"

We must have the courage to think globally, to break away from traditional paradigms and plunge boldly into the 'unknown' - to dare to dream and to dare to believe in our dream. We must so mobilize our inner resources and outer resources, so that we begin consciously to build a 'New - World' based on mutually assured welfare rather than mutually assure destruction.

For us to be able to realize that dream - Hatred, bigotry, fundamentalism, fanaticism, greed and jealousy whether among groups, individuals or nations are corrosive emotions which must be overcome and that Love, Compassion, Caring, Charity, Friendship and Co-operation are the elements that we have to be encouraged.

We are on the Cross - Roads of Destiny, we must take the road that leads to complementarity and not competition, harmony and not discord, holism not hedonism. And in the final analysis, it is our 'Faith' in each other alone that can bring this about. And turn 'the dream, that we dared to dream into reality' .The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.

Don't you think it's high time we stop smoking each other out and smoke the Peace pipe in the true Red-Indian style? Sink our differences, let the white doves fly again through the blue Ccpur sky. Come Let us strum that old guitar again and sing together a new song of peace in love and perfect harmony.