SMS-es mei di maw

Khoveel thak ah i teengta. Misi kou di’n mun gamla pipi khe a paitung angai nawnkei. Kithuzaakna di’n laithon kikhaak tuah leeng atawm hiaihiai ta. Meelmuhlouh tongsaan bangleeng hunteng a vazat angai nawnkei. SMS khoveel a teeng i hihtaak man un kithuzaak tuahna a ol mahmah ta hi. Abiik in, tulai in service tuamtuam te ah free offer a om a, hiai phattuam pih in SMS, khuai vaitung bangmai in, i kikhaak tuah huthut hial uhi.

Hiai ah SMS thu leh a poimohna te kikup sawm i hikei. Alehlam daih ah, bangchi bang a SMS in i laipau hon nawkkha hiam, chih i endiing. SMS i kikhaak chiang un a tomthei lamlam, a simtu te’ theihsiam diing daan in i gelh uhi. Saappau ahihleh pau piching ahia, i utdaan teng in heikawi lehang leeng a paidaan khat ana omsa om hi. Ahia, i pau peen a pichin louh baan ah paidaan zuihtuam a neikei a, a gelhtu’ deih daandaan a heikawi ahimai hi. Hiai in buaina a hontun gige.

Lawmte khat in hichiin geenngei hi: "Tulai SMS hahgelh theilua ing a, ekzamna a bang a tomngen a vagelh kha dek!" Saappau ahi i geen. Eipau ah en lehang, SMS i gelhte’n naaktak in laipau i gelhdaan a sukha. Huaiziak in pilvaan mahmah ngai hi. Tulai khangthak te i pau gelhdik siam i tam hetkei. Va gelhdik siam chihbang leeng thil namai ahikei. Bulhkhawm, repkhawm, khenzaak, khenkhiat leh a neuhneuh hihdiing tam peetmah hi. Ahia, a poimoh zual khenkhat a om hi. Huaite i endiing.

Paite Laipau Saipawl in i pau ah ‘J’ taang in ‘Z’ zatdiing chi ua, laimal ‘O’ leh OU’ a tuam ah, baan ah a tomgin te ah ‘O’, a saugin te ah "AW", leh thumal saugin te ah ahithei tan a vowel zatkop diing chih ahi. Etsakna, Toupa aw, zaanmial nuai ah honleen in. Khenkhat te laimal ‘I’, ‘E’, leh ‘A’ zatdaan a buai leeng i om hi. "Emu ta m?" chia hong ki mesees leh bang chu kibuaitop maidaan ahi. A zatna te uh enni: "Ehe, ihmu hakvee!" Ahia, SMS ah grammar diktak vazui ni chi bel i hituan saamkei.

Baan ah, SMS khenkhat ah laimal ‘W’, ‘X’, ‘Y’ bang i hahzat sim ua, hiai in buaina hontun phetdiam, chih dotna piangthei hi. Huaibel, a keypad meek nopdaan zir a i zat leeng ahithei. Etsakna, ‘kwateng’ , ‘bangxiak’ , ‘hya’. Ahia, hun hongthak toh kiton a i paidaan khentouh a, behlap zeel bangleeng thil navaak huai khat ahi. I pau suk hauhsakna khat ahihman in. I lak a a kulmuut pawl in bel hiai a deih lawmlawm kei diing uh. ‘Mahleh, khangthak te’n "kikheekna" i ngaina uh.

Himah lou hya?

[Siamsin Bulletin, August 20, 2006]

By The River Lanva, I Sat Down And Wept

[ C H A P T E R O N E ]

I hope someday we would break free from these chains and fly in the clear blue skies. Up, up and away into the lost paradise – our dreamland, Zogam.

Blood has spilled. A lot of blood has spilled.

The recent fortnight has witnessed an alarming spate of violence erupting in the streets of Lamka, our dear old domain. Sporadic gunfights between armed groups, senseless hail of gunshots, extorting money from local businessmen by some scrappy hooligans, torturing innocent civilians for no apparent reasons have increasingly flared up, again and again, with alarming regularity. We have always been through such random acts of violence and to me, it seems we all have become fairly accustomed to them.

I am not going to delve into the whole lot of situation. I won’t dig further down the road. And I won’t suggest any outcome either.

But lots of innocent civilians have suffered. This has become a matter of concern now.

When the sun goes down in the evening sky, fear begins to darken the picturesque town, and cold terror lingers into the night. Armed guerillas begin to reign, roaming free around the town under the flickering neon lights, flashing their guns at people who they think belong to a particular community, and beat them up till their spines give way. And the night usually ends with a big bang. One more drip. One more death. The story doesn’t end here. The toll is likely going up in the days to come.

Following this hazy chain of unsavory events, one after the other, give me a freaking headache. There isn’t a damn thing we could do? Just how helpless we all have become! Just how far we all have been victimized! How long are we going to let loose these raving lunatics in town? There isn’t really anything we, the people could do in a land where camouflages and M-16 rifles reign. I shuddered quietly, trying to calm my racing heart. Perhaps the dawn would bring us light. That seems to be the only refuge we have.

In the latest turn of development, four persons, including a pastor, from the Mahanaim Home, a rehab center in Vengnuam, Lamka were brutally tortured on the night of July 17 in Bijang by some unknown armed miscreants. They begged and pleaded humbly for mercy. The perpetrators knew they were innocent. But still they simply were not set free. They were beaten the whole night. A couple of months ago, a mentally ill person was killed at Kamdou Veng and about a week later, some young thugs threatened a journo not to ever set his foot again in Tuibuang area and knocked him cold. We would never know why. That is left to our own reasoning.

Horrific violence seems to sprout everywhere and communal tensions are on the high, yet again. This unprecedented spasm of violence seems to push us closer to all-out ethnic war. A woman was shot dead yards from her home in Hmar Veng on July 19. Two opposing arm groups were engaged in a bloody gunfight on July 10 in Phailian and a drastic re-run of the sequence followed suit on the night of July 12. (I am pretty sure there might be some more incidents which I miss out.)

I don’t really give a damn on what’s the fuss all about. Or who gets killed or by whom or why. They are simply nauseating. But something terrible has troubled my mind. And the very thought of it makes me chill to the bone.

Ten years ago, automatic assault rifles were the most advanced form of arms our ‘guys’ used for combating. That’s during the 1997 ethnic clash. More and more sophisticated weapons have evolved and now, landmines, lethal bombs and RPGs become part of our military strategy. Bombs have now been widely used among civilians. I don’t know what would become of us say, five years down the line. This is quite disturbing. The blame could be squarely put on Meitei UGs. They are the one who invent this culture. Our precious lands are now littered with landmines and munitions. Innumerable lives were snuffed out and limbs were maimed indiscriminately. The grand, sinister Meitei spirits of death, divide and destruction are freely let loose in our land. I wonder why are we too blind to let ourselves swept along by this tidal Meitei current. When are we going to wake from our hypnotized slumber?

The time has now come, I think, for us to stand up, speak out, and fight back. The time has now come for us to get united. We had suffered a great deal, and lest we act fast, we are doomed to eternal damnation. But the sad truth here is that we just love to fight each other in our own way - and not against our common enemy.

I am quite prepared to believe that my views and writings will be misused by right-wing fanatics and extremists. I know some may even find them offensive. My solution is simple enough: don’t read the damn thing — that way you won’t be offended, if ever you were. And don’t call me a radical. I am simply being rational. Or rather emotional.

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.


© vaphualization july 26, 2006