Kangleimaichou

He resembled the Flying Dutchman character with his long and bushy beard which left the eyes and the nose visible, if the eyes hadn't moved he would have been mistaken for a morose sculpture which could withstand the world for few years and then would crumble to bits.  The wind was strong and cold and it was certain that the rippled blue water would soon be more disturbed, but that would happen only when the golden disc, which had been influencing the water and everything with its hue, had disappeared; even his whole self seemed to have transformed by it , thus rendering him to some glittering standstill figure. Finally , darkness dawned upon the place, the water which was golden was now pitch black and its surface sparkled when the strong and swaying lights of lamps cast upon it. It was blueish, comforting and it promised something to life in days, and when it was golden it was full of melancholy , and now everything was still but fear. This old-looking corroded...

They made it fun Everybody had fun They had hopes They wanted to see The hope in me grow It did I could feel it But it was stopped I didn’t stop it I didn’t want that either But that was meant to be Was there something else? Something else to look at? Name! There was nothing Nothingness was The substitute I was not alone Never alone It was a boat The bloody water was choppy We knew our fate We had faith in our fate The fateful fate It thought it could hide It didn’t hide In our nothingness We tried to give it a meaning But many were busy with hunger Then we all were kept busy By him Him, we know We had another name Always friendly But nobody needed the friendship Nobody wanted But it was be ours It arrived early Sometimes too early We had no time to wonder We were doomed To be his We made him We grew out of us He outgrew is We reckoned we could slay Instead he s...

It isn't the place where you are that defines you, but it is the place that your imagination can fetch. All these months in the capital city of India you have been in a room; more than an oven in the harsh Summer of the city, and in Winter always wrapped in a sleeping bag. You weren't ready for the latter after having lived in hot and humid places for years .  Mind wanders off to the sight of warm climate, not so hot, and the white sandy beaches their ends marked by lines of palm trees, people in deckchairs, and the noise of the ocean waves rushing gently and ending with mild slaps, mildly rocking the moored boats. Only a while ago the whole place was bright, each part revealed, the chatters of people heard in near corners. The golden disc over the glistening wavy water seemed to have cast a spell. No life was visible on the beach, the folded parasols and the abandoned deckchairs wore a despondent look, but the place was alive with the sound of the waves, louder,...

My father always said, " I invested all your dowry money on your Media Studies, you'd better get a decent job after this." He wanted me to study the course and I managed everything within five in the morning and seven in the evening. You know we are from a very traditional family, and no one in the family went against any parental decisions.  My grandfather was a hardcore vegetarian , when he caught my father eating boiled eggs with his friends he made my old man sleep in the courtyard for three nights and made him bathe three times a day. Till to this day my father brings up the incident every night to ensure we preserve our traditional values. Some say we all are pickled in a cookie jar ,soaked in dos and don'ts, timed and when time has come for marriage, after having searched, found and negotiated, we will be pulled out from the jar. But this is my life, who are they to comment. Now I have a job which I got through an uncle who happens to be the fri...

When I met Jina while travelling in a North Indian city she was full of her husband, who didn't even show the courtesy to return my greeting when I was introduced. She left Imphal for Delhi for college, leaving behind a bad picture in which she was brought up ,in its dirt and tensions. All that she wanted to do was to experience a better life after  a better education  and Imphal being never the ideal place for such a place, where education exists for namesake, she looked at it with indignation. As she had been watching Bollywood films at home , Hindi was never that difficult for her when she was in college. Since she could communicate with most people it was easy for her to mix up with others. Having come from that remote corner of the world and then to mingle up with city-bred people in shopping malls and pubs she knew she had come a long way, unlike her peers who were still struggling with the language as well as with the system of chaos, racism, etc.  She ...

You came out from the bush in a mangled bus with a seam-bursting fake Nike bag, then on a packed train for nights only to be in one of the mainland cities. To those whom you left behind you had a promise keep, the new place held everything for you. It should since all of your parents' were poured into that place so that you could live comfortably and pursue your dream. It was cool and people here spoke a different language, what they did was the benchmark of everything and each time you tried something you measured yourself against them. The bulky man in a white sedan with windows rolled down, loud music blaring; this is what you have to be, but man like him comes from a different place, where a highway blockade for few hours builds pressure on New Delhi, and at least ten of their leaders would come out with threat that will make the biggest man in the largest democracy shriek. Years after you had gone through the tunnel of British leftover education and picked up a job...

Having ransacked a house, found nothing but picked up a suspect ,they know they are in no position to expose their spoils to the media, so they creep out from the village amid the howling canines.  They cross the parapet-less bridge over the Leisha Canal and charge their way towards the highway and after having crept along for few kilometres they arrive at the university gate guarded by club-wielding security guards who slouch by the gate in creaky chairs, their tiny and drowsy bodies clothed in thick khaki over coats and heads below khaki berets and necks wrapped with mufflers.  They lay there like some  abandoned  immobile lumps , their faces revealed by the glow of the beedi which they pass around among themselves. They have failed to notice the approaching vehicles, only when the driver in the leading vehicles ,carrying the Major and the lady suspect, sitting on the same seat, issues some thundering swear words in Hindi, “sister fuckers! You motherfuc...

Outside the house, amid the mounting noise of barking dogs ,the soldiers interrogate Sanjit about the where about of some commander, and this  interrogation is offered with powerful physical assaults. If he knew the language he could probably talk his family out of this dreadful event.  Before he can think of a Hindi word and has the nerve to utter it, blows land on him and the tremor out of the fear steals the few words from his mouth.  Among his attempts he has managed to utter the Hindi phrase “ sir, help me” only rendering laughter among the soldiers because of the mis-pronouncement. Having realised the futility of his attempts he has reconciled with his senses to give in to what holds his fate and there he lays taking the blows, the incoherent interrogative questions, and the jabbing of rifle barrels and the heavy poundings of the butts and boots. In the living room the major asks simple questions in a malicious tone without bothering whether she reall...

The Major is deeply disturbed by the stark light of the lantern, he withdraws from the room and issues his desire to interrogate the members of the  family in separate rooms. The parents are herded to their bedroom , the little sisters taken upstairs; they wail in vain, deeply distressed by this Sanjit begs that he be allowed to accompany the sisters.  While begging he has already taken few steps ahead, this is misconstrued as an affront and thus has aroused the contempt of the Major who has not  given any green signal.  The contemptuous man strides forwards to grab the brother by the neck , his hand runs up to grad the hair and having got the right grip he yanks Sanjit out of the room and pushes him out of the house.  Sanjit finds himself at the feet of a few giggling but still jumpy soldiers who seize him by the shoulders, press him against the ground. His mouth stuffed with rifle barrels, chest under the heavy boots he lies there immobi...

Few days later when a media  team went into the village;they interviewed the petrified villagers and learned the news of a young village girl who was raped and left and warned of dire consequences if she broke her silence.  It angered the masses and there were demonstrations all over the state. The whole state was burning, people had come out to  get his head, but the man was nowhere to be found. Some believed that he was flown out in a special military helicopter ,and when he returned was hidden in the state army headquarter for, waiting for the fury to ebb. It rose uncontrollably and the whole place was inflamed, then in another remote corner of the state, five civilians were lined up and shot dead by the Central Reserve Forces after their convoy was attacked. This diverted the fury; compelling it to flit between the recent and just-happened incidents.  Major Ranjit’s crime dwindled but it isn't forgotten by the short memory of the people. The army...

From the curve of the tarmac road which runs through the village soft rumbling sound of vehicles can be heard, the headlights of the vehicles are switched off. Two big lorries and two Maruti gypsies are seen moving slowly along the road, probably sneaking into the serenity of the village.  The last vehicle stops around the curve of the road and from it helmeted people carrying rifles jump down and they stand by the road and take position, the vehicle at the front stops twenty metres away from Sanjit’s house’s gate, while the other stop right in front of the gate.  Now both sides of the gate been secured, those in front of gate now force open the gate as soon as they have forced their way through the house is encircled. As if the village has been struck by something mysterious the dogs begin barking and the voices of people mumbling can be heard, but not loud enough to distract many from their slumber. The helmeted people are the personnel of Assam Rifle led by...

Three successive nights I was at O'Neils' thinking she would show up; thinking what I should say when  she had showed up I drank too much and found myself the next morning rolling over the cold carpet of the the lodge which sat by the tallest mountain in the country. The following night,  mind carrying a bit of guilt for the excessive  consumption the night before, I planted myself at the same place wrapped in an overcoat. I just wanted a Heineken, then the pub manager started some nostalgic tracks from school days. Perhaps it was nostalgia instigated by my unproductive life, I lost count of how many I had ordered. So, hugging myself I came home shuffling, I was already in front of the lodge, stood there exposed by the yellowish lights. There was nothing that I could do in the room; I was too drunk to pick up a book, or write something. But I could sit somewhere and watch people, may be I could just sit there the whole night. I felt for the pipe and the tob...