Limalenden Longkumer
The news of the recently held Miss Universe beauty pageant results had me thinking big time. Beautiful maidens in beautiful gowns, a sight to behold! I am told that all the five finalists spoke in their own mother tongue and four out of the five had to have an interpreter. Miss USA, the fallen lady (literally… or did she fall for real?) was the only English speaking finalist. That stirred something inside me. Dialects are a part of who we are, an identity that defines us. Speaking Japanese distinguished Riyo Mori, the best from the rest. It identified her as Japanese and proudly speaking her own dialect, she graciously walked away with the ‘coveted’ crown, I believe. Or, if you’ve watched her, did she walk away a beleaguered Japanese lady? Nippons are Nippons.
And here we are a tiny nation of tiny people with little minds, a bunch of thick-skulls who are so consumed with love for alien cultures that we discard every element of our culture as inferior and backward. One can imagine Nagaland as a free Nation, which will be for real someday, but can you imagine a belle from Nagaland speaking her mother tongue in a world beauty pageant? I’ve encountered Nagas affluent in various foreign languages, some even in Martian… perhaps after a glass of Old Monk or Bacardi, but who can’t construct a single sentence in his/her own mother tongue. What irony! You may reach the ends of the Earth, or even shuttle to Mars and back, but you’re still a Naga by blood and that can never be changed by your Prada shoes or your Marc Jacobs outfit or your Ray Ban pair of shades.
Just because America’s broadcasting company NBC in collaboration with real estate mogul Donald Trump organizes a show business where nations’ most ‘beautiful’ girls are systematically used as sales girls to fatten up their bank accounts does not mean that our girls should mimic the used girls. Or are we that cheap? Whatever. They ‘crown’ an Indian girl Miss Universe, no Miss Milky Way or Miss Galaxy, and then they dump their zillion product line in the Indian market, use the same ‘beautiful’ lady they crowned as their endorsement agent, fool the Indians, make good money, and leave, or stay and keep making even more money. Our next Miss World or Miss Whatever is going to be a Chinese girl … because China is some market, you know. Almost 2 billion consumers they got there! It’s all about money, baby! Nonetheless, she will walk away with the ‘crown’ speaking Mandarin anyway, like a proud Chinese lady.
Closer to home, I get a feeling that not only do we denounce our culture, but we also are indifferent towards safeguarding our ethnicity. I mean, we might soon crown a non-Naga girl as our Miss Nagaland one of these days. But that’s none of my business. Hey hold it… it is, of course. Nagaland is my …err… country. Miss Nagaland ought to be a Naga girl. After all, she represents the fairer of the Nagas. If I were a girl, you know, I’d have been one drop-dead-gorgeous-smart-intelligent-beauty-with-brains. Being as such, I’d contest for Miss Mokokchung. And during the contest, I’d say what I need to say in my mother tongue… and get crowned. But you think that’d be so ‘bosti’, right? You do. Fortunately, I am not a girl. But being the Brad-Pitt-look-alike-hunk-with-Arnold-the-Governor’s-body that I am, I am eagerly anticipating for a Mr. Mokokchung contest… hehehee.
Nagas are at a crucial stage of history where if we lack vision, all elements of our identity will be lost to us forever. And posterity shall blame us. Culture is the one thing that defines a people’s identity; and language is the most important element of a culture. The land where our forefathers lived, and where we live today, is Nagaland. Our language and our culture is our identity. And we identify ourselves to our land - Nagaland. And by preserving our culture, we honor our land – Nagaland – the land we inherited from our forefathers, the land for which our forefathers sweated out sweat and sweated blood, for our sake, and for our children’s. To quote Paulo Coelho, “The person who does not honor the land where his (her) ancestors are buried will be cursed for all eternity.”
If there is one noble cause that beauty pageants in Nagaland could stand for, then it must be for the preservation of Naga identity – celebrating Naga girl power!
I tell you, the clinking, tinkling coins don’t even jingle in my pocket but I wish I could donate a few grand towards any beauty pageant organized in Nagaland where in the contestants are required to speak in their own mother tongue.
