THE MANIPUR WITHIN ME




“We all see only that which we are trained to see.”

Robert Wanton Wilson

 

Some years ago, our Centre - The Dawn Club Centre of Excellence - published a book by the title- ‘I AM GOOD, THE WORLD IS GOOD’. We had invited many little ones, young ones and adults to get in touch with their prejudices – which blocked them from viewing people from ‘other communities’ as ‘our own’…

The book was highly appreciated…

How I view my outside world depends on how I view my inside world. If my heart is clean, mind is clear and – if I nourish my ability to see right as right and wrong as wrong – then, I can  be an instrument of peace and harmony…

Imagine, from cradle to grave, we live wearing clean filters – unbiased, caring and compassionate… Imagine, the world that gets shaped through such an outlook!

All conflicts first arise within us… They get brewed inside our respective echo champers… The echo chambers, like I am White, I am Black, I am Indian, I am Pakistani, I am Christian, I am Muslim, I am Hindu… I am pro-government and I am anti-government… and many, many more. If fact, every group we create can be a potential echo chamber… Inside these chambers, what we see is what we like to see, what we hear is what we like to hear, who we love or hate is who we like to love or hate…

We see through, we hear through and we judge through our biased filters…

Hence, this apathy when a Manipur or a Ukraine burns… when innocent citizens are caught in the hate-fire… killed, paraded naked, gangraped, shamed, banished. Yes, when all this happens right in front of our eyes, we are unable to feel the pain and anguish…

We need to come out of our echo chambers – every ‘stronghold’. Living inside them, for years and years, has numbed us… We have converted ourselves into zombies… heartless!

The ethnic cleansing starts from self-cleansing…

What is wrong cannot be justified as right. But, that’s exactly what we find ourselves doing!

Hardcore politics and religions are the echo chambers we need to be most mindful of. Trust me, we can never see, hear and feel anything that happens outside clearly, unless we step outside these chambers.





Yes, I am good, the world is good…

You and I need to pray for peace and healing in Manipur…

When anger dies, compassion is born!

 

GERALD D’CUNHA

 

Pic.: Zino Bang/Pixels

 

Video: WISDOM MUSIC/John Lennon

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

MUTHU KODI KAWARI HADA

Image
Pic.; Ashwin Mohta M y Hindi was always bad. It still is. One reason for this was, that they introduced Hindi for us only in 6 th standard. Or, was it in 8 th ? I don’t remember… I only remember struggling to write and read… leave alone speak! But, I loved Hindi movies, and, strangely, I could understand the dialogues and the lyrics of the songs… I used to sing those songs (of course when no one was around me!) as if I was the lyricist… One of the songs was a very funny one. ‘Muthu Kodi Kawari Hada’. It was from Mehmood’s super-hit comedy – ‘Do Phool’. I was a 15-year-old high-school boy when I had heard that song (not watched the movie). I could grasp the meaning of two words – ‘Muthu Kodi’… which meant ‘Give kiss’… But, what ‘Kawari Hada’ meant, I have no clue till date! It was just like ‘Why this kolaveri di’... Yes, why ask? Simply enjoy the beats… And, the beats are great… The rest... Who cares? Really! So, whatever bit of Hi...
Read more

SELLING MIRRORS IN THE CITY OF THE BLIND

Image
“I laugh when I hear that the fish in the water is thirsty. I laugh when I hear that people go on pilgrimage to find God.” - Kabir T here is a universal human weakness – and it dates back to the days of fallen civilizations – and it is: to place people on pedestal and trying to be smothered by them, feel loved and protected in their company… worship them as mentors, heroes,  gurus, Mahagurus and Satgurus… Make these mortals larger-than-life cut-outs, worship them as flawless, pure and give one’s all… And, then, ‘take’ everything from them blindly as divine… Give everything to them blindly… Eventually, what happens is:  one more dangerous bondage… What was supposed to free you now becomes a new prison… It’s sad to see this happen! T his room, where I am writing this Post, has no image of any deity. I have no image of any Guru or Master around me… My question is: “Am I not able to feel close to Almighty God?  How ...
Read more

"HAPPILY EVER AFTER IS NOT A FAIRY-TALE... IT IS A CHOICE"

Image
“Love doesn’t just sit there, like a stone… It has to be made, like bread; remade all the time, made new.” – Ursula K. Le Guin,  The Lathe of Heaven T welve years ago, when Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie got married, the world began to hail the couple as ‘Brangelina’. It became a fashion for couples around us to call themselves so… Norbert and Teresa renamed them as ‘Noresa’…  Amol and Vishaka baptized their relationship as ‘Amoshka’… and, Salman and Nargis became ‘Salgis’! I and my wife, too, got tempted to re-christian our matrimonial relationship as ‘Germa’... That is, Gerald and Anima, to be precise! B efore I proceed any further, let me make it very clear, here… that, I have no business to judge on the break-up of Brad Pitt and Angelina’ Jolie’s marriage. I have no inclination to go into why, how, what when etc behind it… The couple ‘chose’ to split. And, it’s their choice… Only they know how good or bad… how joyful or pain...
Read more
THE WILD, WAYSIDE FLOWERS
There is, always, something extra-ordinary in the wild, wayside flowers...