“Sir what would you do after your retirement? I asked an elderly person from Manipur whom I met in Guwahati, Assam, during a work shop on Photo-Documentation organized by Photo Division Ministry of India in 2008.
“I will buy a small piece of land in Assam and will spend my rest of my life peacefully”, was his straight and effortless answer.
I was surprised. I said, “Every person desires to spend his life in one’s native place but yours is opposite. You wish to remain away from your native place. Politely he replied, “Son, I have survived enough in Manipur, in my own land, in my native place hoping that a day would come when everything will be fine but nothing changed.”
From childhood to this day, I have seen lots of changes. It is saddening to see Manipur going these way killings, rapes, murders and suffering. I feel choked in my own land. I have go through unexplainable suffering in my own land. I want to live here yet I cannot. So I no longer want to survive here.
Once, Manipur was really a beautiful state. Now I find it the ugliest. However I love her with all her ugliness. Yet, how long will I love her ugliness? I have seen innocent person turning into the most devilish individual.
I have spent my childhood, boyhood in Manipur. I became a husband and then a father in Manipur. I never wanted my children to experiences I went through but they too know the reality. I don’t know what they feel but I don’t want to remain in my own native land, he told in a single breath. I might get some piece of peace in others’ land. I want to feel the taste of peaceful ambiance so what if it has to be in others’ place? People might consider me weak, coward, or even escapist.
However don’t I have right to spend my life the way I want?” he asked. I said nothing.
Finally he asked, “Heard that Arunachal Pradesh is a Peaceful State? I said with a pride a Big YES. But today I realized I lied to him.
“I will buy a small piece of land in Assam and will spend my rest of my life peacefully”, was his straight and effortless answer.
I was surprised. I said, “Every person desires to spend his life in one’s native place but yours is opposite. You wish to remain away from your native place. Politely he replied, “Son, I have survived enough in Manipur, in my own land, in my native place hoping that a day would come when everything will be fine but nothing changed.”
From childhood to this day, I have seen lots of changes. It is saddening to see Manipur going these way killings, rapes, murders and suffering. I feel choked in my own land. I have go through unexplainable suffering in my own land. I want to live here yet I cannot. So I no longer want to survive here.
Once, Manipur was really a beautiful state. Now I find it the ugliest. However I love her with all her ugliness. Yet, how long will I love her ugliness? I have seen innocent person turning into the most devilish individual.
I have spent my childhood, boyhood in Manipur. I became a husband and then a father in Manipur. I never wanted my children to experiences I went through but they too know the reality. I don’t know what they feel but I don’t want to remain in my own native land, he told in a single breath. I might get some piece of peace in others’ land. I want to feel the taste of peaceful ambiance so what if it has to be in others’ place? People might consider me weak, coward, or even escapist.
However don’t I have right to spend my life the way I want?” he asked. I said nothing.
Finally he asked, “Heard that Arunachal Pradesh is a Peaceful State? I said with a pride a Big YES. But today I realized I lied to him.
N:B:- I wrote this on October 11, 2011
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ReplyDeleteWish your BIG YES return soon!!!
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