The Sheep
- Part 1 -

By Nameirakpam Bobo Meitei *

In his torn faded levies jeans, black T-shirt with the bright print of AC/DC band, his ponytailed long hair and the ends of the torn jeans resting on bright red All Star canvas shoes, he could be mistaken for some random New Yorker were it not for the setting; discoloured train chugging through the scorching Indian summer and the appalling smell seeping through the toilet doors feeding our noses as well as others', who are far from us.

When I pull out a flip-top Navy Cut cigarette box and ask him if he wants to smoke he waves his hand showing disapproval of smoking, but he says he has no problem with my smoking. With a warm smile he says 'Carry on.'

When I have started smoking and the smoke that I have blown out have been blown back towards our faces I notice his eyes are on my cigarette like a kid staring with his mouth watering at another friend licking an ice-cream.

I offer him one and he takes it with a blushed face, and when he started smoking and his face is veiled with the thick smoke, he wears a calm look willing to talk to me almost about everything like a little boy willing to narrate what he has seen to his grandfather.

His eyes meet mine and they blink, then they are plucked and planted on something in the distance. He wants to know about me, but he has difficulty in formulating questions.

When he has finally failed, he veers towards politics and when he has started talking I realize his mind is full of wrath, inexplicable wrath. I've been paying attention to his wrath and he has sensed it, with the knowledge that he has got an audience he seems to be stimulated. He accepts another cigarette and he talks.

He went to a prominent 'varsity' in some city in India. After he had graduated he wanted to stay on there, so we went about looking for jobs. He says he had no luck and he blames those 'blabbering people' and now he is going home to be with his 'people.'

'They need me, they really need me there. When I get home, you know, the first thing I'm going to do is to talk to the Chief of my city and see what we can do together to save our people'.

When I ask how come they have a chief in their city he says ' Even though, we have been living a city life we still are very proud of our culture and tradition. And because of our ethnic pride we are able to tell the world we are a unique people.'

'What people?' I ask.

He replies 'If you look at our people, we were never united and now we have a common religion and most people are able to communicate in English. This means we have arrived at a point where we can declare we are a unified power, which can challenge any power.'

He says he wants to help the 'city Chief' consolidate more power and this could mean settling old scores with one major community in particular. He wants me to give value to his plans because he studied political science in university and he knows exactly what he has been saying about geo-politics and the political plans he has got in his mind.

'First we are going to tell people that we all should respect our God and when people have become loyal to God they will understand what God reveals to us. If a people listen to the revealed messages then they can be the chosen ones, you know.'

He tries hard to give political meaning to the biblical talk. I ask him, 'What God is this? Is this God very important?'

He looks offended, but he tries not to show it and with this tried expression he makes his another godly political points, 'You wouldn't know about him, brother. To us he is important and he is who gives us the power to deal with our chief enemy. We all believe that he has granted us the power to crush our chief enemy who had exploited us.'

*** To be continued.....: