the north-east

The first time i encountered a person from north-east was when in response to my ad for house-on-rent opendra singh innocently asked whether he will get the house? Opendra is from manipur and had found it difficult to get house for rent due to his distinct features that marked him out. he turned out to be an exemplary tenant for four years.
The unrest in parts of assam had their reverberations in bangalore. the killings of muslims at the hands of bodos in the ethnic riots a few days back was used to paint the entire population from north-east with the same brush. people who had nothing directly or indirectly to do with the killings in assam were threatened with dire consequences in other parts of india, especially in bangalore. holding the entire community responsible for the actions of a few is a dangerous precedent.
Fear is irrational and nobody can be blamed for taking the decision to flee that led to the large exodus of north-eastern people from bangalore in the last one week. life is the most precious thing and this threat to life, however ill founded, created this mass hysteria. we all have a lesson here- learn to get along with one another, after all we are part of the same society.

the Word

Wanted something to shoot from my hips. the title has to be justified. no point in saying the obvious and going along with the others. people are conditioned to say the right thing. it is considered to be in the interest of everyone. now, how can repeating what one wants to hear be in the interest of the society. everyone is busy skirting the issue in the hope that time will heal and set things right.
Assam is burning and burning again. the trigger may be different each time but the issue is the same. politicians will not do anything to solve the crisis as it can be used again and again to whip-up communal/ethnic frenzy. vote-bank politics is seen as the sure-fire way of staying in power. a few hundred lives lost, a few thousand people displaced is well worth the sacrifice to hang on to power.
Solutions are not easy. but they like justice has to be obtained. for how long will we keep referring to them as people from North-East. like the rest of us they are also Indians and we need to make them feel they are in the same motherland.