Rise, Rise... Rise and Shine
A common man’s plight of living in a strife-torn region and his high ambition of good things in society plus his desire to understand the sociopolitical reality
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| Social Contract: In an interwoven network of stakeholders in restive circumstances, there are me, you, us and them linked by our leikai, their leirak, the constituencies, the state, the nation and the whole world. (Photo by Chitaljit Heigrujam) |
Is there any sane being who does not long for peace and progress? We aspire for the most ideal condition of living but we have been working extra hard to stay afloat in a vast ocean of blood and pain. There is no likelihood of a magic wand, which can change the situation overnight; nevertheless we must never retreat in our march to collective glory. Unsurprisingly the air is stale and dark with pessimism—only the hope for a better tomorrow lit dimly like the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. Here’s the paradox: we want peace as much as the beggars want the alms but we live in abject misery, occasionally distracted by some intervals of ennui. You know better how living is in a place like Manipur. Halt for a moment—do we really enjoy serenity and the comforts of modern life, or at least feel we would be happy to have these privileges?
ETERNAL DILEMMA Is there seemingly a lack of sincerity on our part—wanting so bad yet lacking even worse? On one hand we don’t get all the things we want from life, that’s true, but it’s possible we will get several of them if we earnestly strive for them. On the other hand, a cursory glance gives the impression that either the political class—funnily spineless in the mainstream arena—is fooling us around or the wires in our brain are primitively short circuited that we fail to see beyond our nose when it comes to efficient governance and administration. The short circuit leads to lack of leadership, greed for power and money (both in similar proportions), and utter deficiency of morality and discipline among us. In deeper retrospection, the predicament is more intricate than a layman knowledge of the psychological complex. In an interwoven network of stakeholders in restive circumstances, there are me, you, us and them linked by our leikai, their leirak, the constituencies, the state, the nation and the whole world. Hard to admit but this integrated whole is a disintegrated lot, and it implies nothing but the tunnel is going to be long.
RESIST, REFUSE We can be a better human being on our own terms. Mass indoctrination is possible only in a well-established society; so we can streamline the processes, in a fractured sociopolitical and economic structure, starting from ourselves and from what we understand could be the best thing for us. But we have been witnessing the dramas of the state and nonstate actors have substituted these probable voluntary actions. In this regard, we have every right to say they are but nothing. If we are shackled by perjury and intimidation—and with the fact that we are not beasts—we must find a way to let them know we can be what we can be and that we have the freedom to be free. How do we create our own space? The only way is to resist and refuse. We have to rise above them… we have to compete with the most capable human beings.
ETERNAL DILEMMA Is there seemingly a lack of sincerity on our part—wanting so bad yet lacking even worse? On one hand we don’t get all the things we want from life, that’s true, but it’s possible we will get several of them if we earnestly strive for them. On the other hand, a cursory glance gives the impression that either the political class—funnily spineless in the mainstream arena—is fooling us around or the wires in our brain are primitively short circuited that we fail to see beyond our nose when it comes to efficient governance and administration. The short circuit leads to lack of leadership, greed for power and money (both in similar proportions), and utter deficiency of morality and discipline among us. In deeper retrospection, the predicament is more intricate than a layman knowledge of the psychological complex. In an interwoven network of stakeholders in restive circumstances, there are me, you, us and them linked by our leikai, their leirak, the constituencies, the state, the nation and the whole world. Hard to admit but this integrated whole is a disintegrated lot, and it implies nothing but the tunnel is going to be long.
RESIST, REFUSE We can be a better human being on our own terms. Mass indoctrination is possible only in a well-established society; so we can streamline the processes, in a fractured sociopolitical and economic structure, starting from ourselves and from what we understand could be the best thing for us. But we have been witnessing the dramas of the state and nonstate actors have substituted these probable voluntary actions. In this regard, we have every right to say they are but nothing. If we are shackled by perjury and intimidation—and with the fact that we are not beasts—we must find a way to let them know we can be what we can be and that we have the freedom to be free. How do we create our own space? The only way is to resist and refuse. We have to rise above them… we have to compete with the most capable human beings.
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