Wish you a Happy Good Yaoshang!

There are people who look at negative side of everything and they love criticizing things. There are also people who see the positive side and love appreciating things. Those who see positive sides are found to be more optimistic, confident and social. I want to be that guy who looks positive side of the things. People say there is no career and future in Manipur, there is no growth of industries, there is no job, government officials, departments and ngos are corrupt and law and order is not good etc,. However, I see positive side and have been working here for almost one year. I am seeing the positive changes happening around and meeting wonderful people who are smart, sincere, industrious and willing to accept the challenge and bring development to our home state. There are so many good things happening around but we ignore or just don’t give proper attention to those. When I started appreciating those good things, I started seeing a good future which many people don’t see.

But it doesn’t mean I don’t see, feel and experience negative things happening in our society which are acting as bottle neck to our development. There can be two reasons for not functioning a computer, one is problem in hardware and another is problem with software. The problem with our society is with the software part. When I say software part, I mean the way we think, the value we give to things and things that we appreciate and how we define happiness. In this short article I don’t want to bring everything at one time. When I try to be realistic rather than being a blind optimist, I find few disturbing things which I think we should change it. 

It is a festival season, so let me focus only to our greatest festival Yaoshang. Here I am not saying anything on religion. And views are personal, you may have different view, and you don’t have to accept what I am saying here.

Yaosang is resemble to Holi festival of India, festival of colours. In Manipur, it is quite different therefore saying Yaoshang is similar to Holi is wrong. Yaosang is indeed bigger and more beautiful than Holi. Yaoshang is celebrated for five days. It is not only playing with colours, it is a mixture of sports, colours, get together, dinner parties and lot many things. When you see small cute kids coming to your house with beautiful dresses and abundant of happiness in their pure and innocent faces, and when they give you blessing for the little money you give to them, you will feel as if God itself is giving you his blessings. There are other many things which adds beauty to this festival.

But, there are few things that we should avoid. Two days back I went to home, it is 50 Km away from the place where I am staying. It is a national highway which also connects two major city of Manipur. Yaosang is not yet started, but I found young girls, age between 12 – 18, coming on the road and blocking the commuters and asking for money. Isn’t dangerous? How come their parents allow such things to do by their daughters? If it is not in the name of Yaoshang festival, will their parents allow them to do such things? In Yaoshang, it is a part of the festival to ask money from commuters. I have heard passenger vehicle drivers cursing those kids and their parents, if any accident happens their parents will blame only to the driver. 

Why our happiness is causing lots of disturbance to others? Why can’t we teach our children not to disturb others for getting the happiness we want? There are many friendly and lovely method for raising fund, why don’t we teach those to our kids? Our Elders teach their Youngers to take the easy route, to snatch if they don’t give, to cause disturbance for getting our benefit. That might be the reason we are so good at forming JAC and blocking the road, without having an empathy that their action is causing lots of disturbance to the many innocent commuters.

Medium of Education - in English or Mother language?

People think Students who studied in English Medium has many advantages over those students who studied in their own mother language, because English is a global language and it enhances the rate of employability of a person. I don’t know how far the statement is correct.

I agree the part that learning English enhances our employability rate in this globalized world. But I don’t want people to forget few benefits or advantages of studying or providing education in our own mother language, especially to the growing up children. Education is not learning language, it is not learning speaking English or any other foreign language. The actual purpose of the education, as Swami Vivekananda said, is the manifestation of the perfection already in man. This statement seems very simple, but its meaning is deep and explains the actual purpose of the education. The purpose of education is to provide knowledge and developing wisdom to the individuals. Like water and mineral is to the plants, education is to the human being. A well educated person knows his responsibility towards the society, nature and his surroundings. In different civilization era the mode or system of education might be different but the purpose of education remains the same. It all started with understanding, understanding is like absorbing – plants absorbs water and mineral for growth. like wise young mind must absorb the best things to become a good man. And how well we absorb defines how well we are educated. Language is a medium through which the knowledge is pass to our mind, if it is in some foreign language which we do not understand properly, how much I will able to absorb and understand?

There are more than 100s of English medium schools in Manipur.  Among these only few are considered as good institution, which means teachers are good and explain properly to the students. What about those students who are studying in English medium and teachers do not take regular classes? May be that is the reason of mushrooming tuition culture in Manipur, in-fact taking tuition becomes a necessity in Manipur. Manipuri medium schools are dying and most of the Manipuri medium institutes were already converted to English medium. People think it is a good change, but I doubt on this.

Studying in foreign language also reduces our habit of reading. How students will be motivated to read when they cannot understand what they are reading? This must be the reason why many of us do not read.

In this blog I am not saying English is not important and we should not learn English. In-fact it is very important, we all must know it and encourage others to learn it. But this should not covers the importance of mother language in education, especially to those young minds.

Who is a Slave Worker?

When I was a kid, my mother used to say there are two kinds of worker, one is slave worker and another is working for self. The superficial meaning of the statement says if you work for somebody, you are a slave. However, it was not the point my mother wanted to make. We all have to work for others, even an entrepreneur also has to work for other stake holders. Work is a service we do to fulfill the needs of people. The better we fulfill their needs, better we are paid. Fulfilling their need means we are working for them, isn’t it?

Then, who is a slave worker in this 21^st century? A slave worker is a person who thinks he is a slave, he doesn’t want to work but his condition or whatever the reason compels him to work, the work he doesn’t want to do at all. He works only for the money, and therefore he does only those things his master told him to do.

It may not be possible to own a company, but there is always a possibility to own my job. If we do not own our job, it simply means we are a slave. Nobody can make us slave; it is our attitude that makes us slave. We are misguided by our society which gives more importance to tangible and materialistic things. We think the person who owns a lot of money is the real owner or the most independent person. But it is not. In reality the most independent person is the one who owns himself.

An independent person owns his work, he has his own personal goal and he works for it. He controls the situation, he doesn’t allow situation to decide his life. He doesn’t work just for bread and butter. His self dignity is so high that he doesn’t allow others to make him feel small. Remember slaves do not have self dignity. He is not afraid of being different. But it doesn’t mean he is arrogant. Whether you are a slave or an independent person is not decided by for whom you work, it is decided by how you work.

A Magic Elevator

I was walking in a busy street of Fency bazzar, it is the busiest and oldest place of Guwahati Market. Most of the buildings are old and I can see lots of red colour stain everywhere and in every corner of the street. While I was crossing a narrow street in between two buildings I found a little strange place, it caught my eyes. An old man was sitting there next to him there was an elevator lift. It is quite strange to find such nice lift in this old place. Nobody notice that place, everybody was crossing that narrow street hurriedly because that place stinks. I approached that place; it was hardly 10 meters away from the narrow street where I was standing.  

I saw the old man was staring at me and inviting me for a friendly chat. When I was near to the elevator, he smiles at me as he knew me. He didn’t ask me why I came there. Instead he asked me, ‘do you know where this elevator leads to?’

‘I don’t know. It is quite strange to me that in this old building how come such a nice elevator  functions.’ I replied.

The old man with a matured smile on his face replied me ‘Because it is not an ordinary elevator and you will get the answer of your curiosity when you know where this lift will take you.’

 

This old man wore very simple dress; he looks Aam Admi, not the AAP one. He also seems a man with wisdom, considerate and kindness. There is a saying in Manipur that there are two kinds of old man, one kind is known as “Me ahan lai” which means “Old man who is God” and another kind is “Me Ahan yong”, which means “Old man who is Monkey”. The basic explanation of this saying is the old man who guides the young people to the right direction with wisdom he had accumulated in his long life experience is comparable to God, where as the other kind of old man who misguides the younger ones, hate them and envy them is comparable to Monkey. This Old man looks like the first kind. 

As continuance of our chat I asked him “in which floor this lift will take me?”

He laughed and said “this is not an ordinary lift that will lift you to second floor or third floor.” He whispers,“It is a magic lift, which will take you to a new world.”

Where, in what kind of world? I inquired.

I didn’t believe him at all, I thought this old man becomes lunatic because of old age. Speaking all strange things, but I was enjoying talking with him because he talk so nicely.

“The world where you want to live, the world that’s model is inside in your mind.” He replied.

I am not getting you.

This is magic lift, this lift chooses the people, and people cannot choose this lift. Today it chooses you and giving you a chance to live in the world where you want to live.

“There is only one world, the world where we are living now. Are you talking me this lift will take me to another planet like Hollywood movie?” I laughed.

He smiled and said “while you are dreaming don’t you think that you are in real world? In your dreams you created a world made up by your mind and that world is completely yours. In dreams your mind travels there, same way through this lift you can travel to your own world, not only your mind but also your body.” 

Wow! That is interesting. But what is the use when I know that all the living beings and things there are actually me and created by me, I will get bored after some time. By the way is it possible to return back into this real world? I asked. 

He smiled and said “what is real? How much confident you are in saying this is the real world?” He saw my confused face and didn’t give me time for answering his question. He continued saying “in your dreams you do not have control over your friends, enemy and things around you, you don’t even remember that you are inside your dream. In the same way once you entered to this world of yours you will start thinking you are living in real world in the same way now you are living in this so called real world by you. And it is a one way trip.”

  

It is very confusing, I responded. 

Yes it is. He was smiling and looking at my eyes. 

I was silent for few second then I asked him, “my mind is in my control and if I think of a beautiful and peaceful world with full of magic creatures, where all the people are humble and kind and give respect to each other and to the entire creature, will this lift take me to that world?”

It will lead to the world that your mind is seeking, he replied.

How many have already traveled to their world through this lift? I inquired.

He said, “many, I cannot count now. But in last ten years ten people were traveled to their desired world.”

Are they all happy in their respective world?

 

“They got what their minds were seeking”. He replied

Are they happy? Please answer my question. I insisted him to answer my question directly.

He laughed and said, “What should I say, they got what they were looking, that should make them feel happy, but if they are not happy that is not my fault. They got what they asked.”

All the ten people were unhappy with their own world? I was amazed. 

One boy, an orphaned and he was only 10 year old when he came here, is living very happily in his world. He replied.

Why other guys are not happy, everybody wants to live happy life and why should they create a world that will give them suffering? I asked. 

Because they live in fear, the reasons why insurance companies are doing so well. He laughed.

Why that boy was happy? I asked.

Because he is a boy, didn’t see this world much. He was not infected yet with fear. And he believes in magic. 

If I go there, will I be happy? I asked.

“Up to you and your mind. Even though you say of good things, you have the desire of good life, if your mind always reminds you of miseries of life, badness of people, mistrust shown by your friends, misfortunes of your life, failure etc. your mind will create a world with all those elements. It is up to you whether will you be happy or not into that world.” He smiled.

"It seems, that world is not going to be much different from this world." I replied.

"Which one is the real world?" He asked me with same usual smiling face.

 I replied ‘well let me believe the world where I am living now is the real world’. 

He laughed.