Disclaimer: This is not a so-happy-so-lovely kind of post…Highly explosive material ahead…You may or may not feel guilty… Read it at your own risk…The reactions are welcome though
The Princess today is in a very bitter mood. The anger that was piled up due to indifference to northeast by the rest of India was fired up last week. More than the violence it’s the nonchalant attitude towards us that frustrates me.
The sheer ignorance and negligence shoots up my temper. I am not joking if I say people have never heard of Kohima and Imphal … pick a random person and ask about the Seven sisters there… or their capitals … or just ask them what all are the seven states … blank… Helloo we don’t belong to timbuktooo … we are STILL in India… and with China already inside Arunachal’s territory, I just hope I don’t have to get a visa to go to my hometown…
The heights was when someone asked me if Assam is near Pakistan … Man, I was scandalized … never had any Geography lessons??? If you ask me I know about each Indian state… their capitals, their climatic condition, the people, the food … in my place people are not ignorant about other places… when we were brought up … we grew along with bollywood and chats of Mumbai , with Idli dosa from south, and the India Gate and red fort… the scenic beauty of Kerela is not alien to us… nor is the snowfall in Jammu… I grew with the geography of each region in my mind… but it really shocks and hurts me to actually experience our invisibility in other’s mind…
Why does it take 11 bomb blasts for Assam to appear in news headlines… North East is a myth and a misconception in the mind of rest of India… I won’t quote Jawaharlal Nehru’s speech where he had deliberately or not alienated Northeast… it was long ago … but why today…
My Friend’s Dad was posted in Jorhat airforce. Her family members were crying on hearing that. And when once they came to visit them, not a single day they spent peacefully.
Army has been deployed there for ages now… every nook and corner is guarded by a CRPF and an Army Jawan … I dnt know who is more responsible for the current situation… the politicians… the ULFA… the Central Govt… or just us.
Its not that we are unhappy or sulking… we are a happy-go-lucky group of people … all these years we have fend for ourselves and we will…. But what does a little knowledge about us would harm India… are we not a part of it…
Raise this topic in front of any north eastern{at your own risk}… and the response you will receive will make you dig and google Geograhy and geology books… and you will never forget to teach your seven generations about north eastern… maximum of us are bitter…
{No offence to anyone… it’s a truth that everyone is aware of…}
I would agree to it ,though to a certain extent.People, Indians ,who feel very passionately about the country know about the seven states . Yes ,those who turn a blind eye or at times think "is there anything called as / known as seven states" are the ones who are still left in a world where no one but they live. It's one country and one India.The sooner we get this the better. Nice share 🙂
Your frustration is totally justified. I have heard myself…NE people who migrate here are often termed "Chinkis"
I mean, what the heck? How can one be so indifferent to your own countrymen? Ignorant dull heads.
@Neeraj
I hope so… thanks 🙂
@Antarman
@Anisthomas
thanks a lot guys for your views… I hope NE and other neglected states will be given proper respect… but it all starts from us 🙂
We too had few noth-east friends in my college(sikkim – nagaland).But they were never used to mingle with others much(But my best friend was from jharkand and also she were the cute pie /goodfriend of each and everyone of my batch).I become closer to them(other north-east fellows) by final year only.Nice guys they were.And also one of my neighbour worked in assam for few years(in Army).He told me, there climate is much like kerala climate.
Even I feel ashamed of this attitude, and I have always wondered that if govt gave due attention to people and development in all the states, we wouldnt have these problems in JK, Assam or Bihar, jharkhand. But what I wonder is that these states are also represented by their MPs, what they do?
i agree with you laxmi , we indians treat NE in not-so-good way , i just hope we give equal love to all parts of our country ….
@Satish
but what could the army do… day and night they wrk hard together… to keep everyone safe… though the atrocities are not new…
thanks a lot 🙂
@Kavita
ya i know there's no use sulking and i try as much as possible to make people aware of our place… the beauty hidden inside …
thanks a lot for your inputs 🙂
I concur with ur views yaar…
This is the harsh reality in India 🙁
Moreover NE states need a good P.R.O dept to get their name firmly stamped in our country…..
The army's atrocities in the name of the law are very well known here…
These sick army people must first be ridden off ur land…
Lets hope everythin changes soon….
Rajlakshmi…dear,i believe in working on it rather than sulking on it…i understand your sentiments completely.When i married a NORTHEASTNER there were many questions asked to me and my family ..some were in good sense others just demeaning.So what i did was ..i started talking a lot about NE,to my surprise i got many listeners ,now i blog specifically about NE,it makes me happy when others like it …i think its worth trying.