Land of peace
That had once been the epithet used to describe my native place – Lamka – otherwise officially known as Churachandpur. I refuse to call it Churachandpur as it is a name imposed on my beloved Lamka by the powers that be against wishes of the local people. Lamka – the place where I grew up and which gives me so many memories – some sad and some sweet. Bittersweet may be the appropriate word here. The place that once was the only peaceful district in the otherwise trouble-torn Manipur – an oasis in the desert. Where different communities lived in peace and harmony.
The older generation would always look back in nostalgia of the days gone by - when Lamka was an oasis of peace in the trouble-torn desert of Manipur. “Those were the days…” is the usual refrain of a lot of people. The 1980s and the early 1990s were indeed the golden era of Lamka. I was a young teenager in the early 1990s and I fondly remember roaming the streets of Lamka along with friends without fear and without any care or worry. To paraphrase Rabindranath Tagore it was indeed a place “where the mind is without fear”. We would roam with friends along Tedim Road or even to Tuibuang at night. We would shout at the top of our voices singing love songs and what not! We had no cares or worries and we were very content with our lives. No gunshots, no murders or senseless killings. How I cherish those memories!
But since the mid-1990s winds of change have swept across Lamka. Sadly a change for the worse. It started with kidnappings and demands for ransom money and these eventually led to senseless and mindless killings. The culmination of all these was the Kuki-Zomi ethnic conflict which resulted in the death and destruction of many lives and property on either side. Eventually peace accord was signed and the ethnic conflict came to an end.
But sadly enough Lamka has still not returned to normalcy and is still not the place it once was. Killings and gunshots have become the order of the day. And it seems like all these troubles are here to stay, for a long, long time…
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"I hope someday we would break free from these chains and fly in the sky. Up, up and away into the lost paradise – our dreamland, Zogam..."
A previous post on my blog - "By the River Lanva, I Sat Down and Wept" - haunts me back.
Let me paraphrase my concluding remark once again:
And as I sat down by the river Lanva in passing thought, multitude of repressed memories came swirling in my mind. I thought of all the good times we have had in our lovely, little town of Lamka. I thought of all the sufferings our people had to endure as a result of the surreptitious penetration of the divisive Meitei ideology into our land. And I wept.
First thing first....Nice post!! Keep on posting... More more.. hear me???
Lets hope that we will and would have a peaceful LAMKA once again..
To make LAMKA a peaceful town, we need to change our attitude on how we the Zo People look and treat other tribes.
Thanks for the comments, we the younger generation can do a lot to change our land. We have no hope in our politicians. It is on the economic, education and social front that we can make a difference.
Man, I had so many friends from Churanchandhpur during School. Amazing people. But lost touch with them after I shifted school from Calcutta to Tamilnadu.
Nothing is more sad than to witness ethnic conflicts among our own bretherns. I hope things get better over there soon.
And bro, I really hope you don't mind me for saying this, but I've been blogging since 2004 and I had many many blog frens, and we all used to add each other as links, but then, my list kep on growing and growing, occupying so many spaces, and you know, I can't remove some since the others are there. So finally I decided to put the blog links of only the mizos so that the list will not grow that fast. I really hope u dont mind man... unless ofcourse u want to be listed under the category of "Mizo bloggers" :-) I've ofcourse bookmarked you on my browser, like how I bookmarked all my other blog frens, but I displayed only the mizo blog link list since I am a co-admin for a mizo website that consolidates all mizo blogs...
This is going to sound really dumb, but I never knew Churachandpur was also called Lamka!
'Where the mind is without fear' - have always loved that poem, touched a chord in me...
I remember a guy in college from Churachanpur I had a major crush on. Mimin was his name (I don't think that's how it should be spelt though..)
I pray you can roam your streets without fear again soon.
Sundancer, thanks for dropping by. Lamka is the original name of this once peaceful town. Churachandpur is the name imposed by the government against the wishes of the local people. yeah you spell the name Mimin correctly, it's Mizo equivalent is "Hminga Or Hming".
hey, sundancer, you got a crush on -- oh, what's his name? Mimin, right? hmm.... am gonna find out who Mimin is! hehe!
hey Jeru... "Where the mind is without fear ahh??? " lolz.. dats how i point my my dear hometown.. but to be specific.. its a land where the mind is with fear.. Sad huh???? Mimin.. i'll hunt him and will pack it and send it to yah.. :D .. don't worry.. I've been with the mizo's all of my high school and even my parents used to brand me with the name Mama cos i used to speak to my sis in mizo cos when there's sumthing to hide from my youngest sis.. its better to talk to her in mizo.. :D... And to be tell ya da truth.. i haven't had a gf who aren't from the mizo community.. weirdo.. huh LOLZ.. beware.. Lolaz.. mahse nang chu ka u i ni c a.. lungngai suh.. akekekeke...
hoih mah2 e...na thu gelhte a sim nop lua....ken chu chiangtak a hon theilou hilele ka zin ah ka tanaute ahi hon chi a...innlam hong pai remchan chiah chu hoihtak a ki meltheih a ut huai...chanchin iki hilh zel d uh aw....
thangguite
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