Miles away, yet looking homeward

Pengba Aruuba Eshingee *

English Country-side

(This write-up is based on a short trip to the UK in second week of May 2014)

A gush of chilly wind hit the face as one walked past the exit of Terminal 5 of Heathrow airport. Mid May, landing from a place where the mercury had already raced past 40 degrees Celsius, 12 degrees in London felt like winter once more. It was as if the cold season had overstayed there, but then that's Britain.

A few steps away on the left, among those waiting with placards there stood a tall, Caucasian man, who was sent by the host to do the receiving duties. After firm shake of hands and the usual pleasantries, we walked towards his Ford van for a drive towards Stratford-upon-Avon, where one was supposed to be staying for a night before heading back to London.

Light drizzle greeted us as we hit M40, the highway connecting London and Birmingham. Morning traffic was gradually building up. A drive for over two hours in silence would be killing, so one had to break the ice.

As we drove trough the wonderful English countryside, we began chatting. It was clear from his accent that he wasn't a natural Brit. A further prodding revealed his roots. Andrzej had migrated to England 10 years back from Poland in search of greener pastures. After doing some petty jobs early on, he has now landed himself in somewhat better position -- driving a van for a living.

Head of a young family now, a wife and a kid, he happily showed where he lived now -- at High Wycombe, somewhat midway between London and Stratford-upon-Avon on M40. He sounded happy with life but changed his tone when one asked him about his family back home and parents.

"I do miss them. I do miss the place where I grew up, where my childhood memories are," he said.

River-side

How often do you go back 'home'?

"At least once a year, mostly during Christmas," he replied.

Andrzej said he was qualified to apply for citizenship in the UK and would soon appear in an examination.

"So do you intend to stay here forever and never go back to Poland?"

"No, no. Not that way. I will return when I retire. I want to spend my productive years here in England," he replied.

"Will you be able to adjust? Things will be so different from what you have in England?"

"When I retire, I will have lesser expectations and hopefully things would have changed for the better in Poland," Andrzej replied.

"Have you done anything from here to change there?"

"Not really. I have been too busy making ends meet here," he smiled.

There was a long pause before we spoke a word again as we drove through the beautiful English country side, the sight that brought back memories of past visits to the country.

There was one troubling thought though. If you have not done anything for the place from where you have grown up, how can you expect it to change for the better? Have you left it to others to make it better for your retirement?

Instead of continuing with the topic, we chatted about the beautiful landscape, rain, summers and winters in UK, the traffic and all the mundane things of life before we reached our destination -- The Arden Hotel, at the historic Stratford-upon-Avon the town where Shakespeare was born. We bade goodbye but the conversation with Andrzej left some lingering thoughts.

Against the backdrop of the conversation with Andrzej, it was such a pleasure to catch up separately with two Manipuris who, like him, have settled in the UK but their similarity with him ended in only being migrant residents there.

While one of them was a childhood friend, the meeting with the other was to be the first of hopefully many more to come in life.

Both of them have done well for themselves becoming respected professionals in their respective specialised fields of medicine. Heading young families miles away from where they were born, putting into practice what they have learnt in their home country and yet they gave the impression that the farther they were away, the closer they were to their roots.

Scheduling issues meant meeting them together wasn't possible. Yet, both graciously took time out from their busy schedules to spend sometime separately and the conversations that followed were like harbinger of hope.

The gentleman, whom one was meeting for the first time, charmed with his Manipuri manners and etiquette. As he drove around Stratford-upon-Avon, showing the beautiful sights of the riverside, how the tiny town had maintained those houses and buildings which are over 200 years old, preserving their culture, the conversation veered towards why can't it be done in Manipur too?

"Just how they have embraced modernisation yet maintained their past is something we need to learn and take it to Manipur," he remarked.

Royal Shakespeare Company, more famously known as RSC

The Royal Shakespeare Company, more famously known as RSC, stood testimony to his thoughts.

While most of us would just think of doing something for the place where we grew up, this gentleman has already started converting thoughts into action. Having played his part in the beautification of Ema Keithel, he is already into mobilising people back home to make other parts of Manipur beautiful.

"Unless we ourselves don't want to see Manipur, who from outside would like to come and see the place? We can't talk about attracting global tourists before we are able to convince domestic tourists. We need to make each and every locality neat and beautiful," he said.

One could only nod in agreement. But what's the solution?

"Let's just plant sanarei at each and every gate, it's beautiful and yet easy to maintain," he said with a smile but seriousness writ large.

His underlying theme was to re-ignite community participation and collective action through beautification of localities and leverage on the spirit of unity for other growth and development actions.

Noble thoughts, one could only admire.

Due to paucity of time, we had to cut short our time together but parted with a firm handshake with a promise to keep in touch.

The first half of day thus went by and it was time for work. After obliging all the engagements with the host, it was 7 pm. In this part of the world, the Sun was still bright and shining and just about perfect to catch up with the long lost friend, who was already waiting at Arden Hotel.

A big man-hug, patting of the backs, mocking each other over thinning hairlines and what not, that's the beauty of old friends. You pick up from where you last left.

It was agreed that we would spend the night at his place, Derby, about an hour-or-so drive and we hopped into his car.

Remembering good-old days, songs that we once sung together at college verandah and how life has gone, led to what we planned to do ahead. The journey didn't feel too long.

At his place, a typical English set up, one was pleasantly surprised when he showed his kitchen garden. It looked very much like the one he had at his place back home in Manipur. 'Hawai mubi, nakuppi, tokningkhok, hangam', all growing with glory.

"You can't really be far from you roots," he remarked as his wife treated us with the delicious 'bora' just out of the frying pan.

The post dinner talks were not about what we were doing in our lives but more of what were we doing for those back home.

For someone, who has treated over thousands of patients in career spanning more than 10 years in the UK, it was indeed touching when one learnt what he did in his little way in Manipur.

Whenever he goes to Manipur for his annual holiday, he conducts small clinic in his locality free of cost. At a time most of doctors in Manipur would charge not less than Rs 500 for an appointment, one was very proud indeed to learn that he would even give money to those who come to him for treatment to buy medicines.

"I can't cure all the ills in Manipur, but I can do that much at least," he said.

Like the previous gentleman, the idea is to spread that spirit of collectiveness through such small gesture and leverage on that for the betterment of Manipur.

While we agreed that so many things needed to be fixed for Manipur to make it better, he said: "We may not be able to fix them all in our lifetime but if we fix one, two or three at least, then hopefully the succeeding generation will have three lesser problems to fix."

What distinguished these two Manipuris settled in the UK from Andrzej was their strong connection with their roots. Like him, they wanted to come back home one day, probably retire in Manipur, having seen the world. But, they are aware that for such a state like Manipur, it would be unwise to leave it to others to make it better and hence play their part in it. May their tribe increase!

See a photo Gallery on this trip here