It has been long since hearing good news and it is like a famine in our society. Today the media is crowded with hot news, but we hardly find good news from the Newspapers and other magazines and radio broadcasts. The news today are full of violence, divorces, burglary, theft, collisions, corruptions, allegations, suicides, unemployment, diseases, dropouts, accidents, natural calamites and so on. And we wonder asking ourselves can something good come from us?
Today, we are very much individualistic and losing our culture by forming a series of new but artificial customs suitable for individual purposes only, which actually were not handed down by our ancestors. To narrow down and contextualize the question (Can something good come from us?), come to people of Dimapur and the regular visitors to this commercial capital city of Nagaland. No one seems to care about the values, norms and ideology of the society. All of us are responsible for inconveniences that we experience everyday and take that for granted thinking that ‘this is not my duty’.
We live in this city Dimapur but nobody realizes about its cleanliness, both locals and non-locals do not care how clean a city should be. The drainages are full of garbage and are stinking, which were not taken proper care of. The roads have heaps of garbage and sandy dust and it is hard for foot walkers to take road whether shine or rain, as it is either muddy or dusty though it is concrete road. The hospitals are spreading bad odors and I wonder how the patients get well from sickness whereas hospitals should be the good examples for cleanliness; both visitors and patients should feel the hygienic serenity. Hospitals should be the first institute to give impressions of cleanliness. Hospital treatment should be both physical and psychological. All of us need public toilet even in the town but there is none. Why are there no toilets for public use (per person Rs. 2)? We cannot rush home for nature’s call. These are very little things but matters a lot to us because it is important and related to all. The one who is appointed to sweep the supermarket bus station upto the vegetable market hardly does his duty and the vendors are champions in adding untidiness by throwing leaves, straws, papers, and plastic bags everywhere. Newspapers give the news of arrest of persons smuggling contrabands but openly we find things injurious to health in almost every small shops like Talab, Wiz, Raja, Rajnigandha and Pan Parag etc. Everywhere we can see Guthka covers scattered. Can something good come from it?
The auto rickshaw fare is unreasonable in this city because different autos ask fare not equal to other auto drivers for the same destination/distance. Why is it so? Aren’t they from the same town and under the same auto union and abide by the same rule and regulations? The power (electricity) failure is regularly irregular that goes off every now and then that creates inconvenience havoc for students in exam and in the summer. In addition, on the way to Doyapur we find the electric wires sagging down almost touching bus roofs that may one-day cause accident, costing life. The scene that shocked me most was a policeman on duty and in uniform selling money order forms for Rs. 5/-, which actually is Rs.3/- only. Under which scheme should we put this act to? A cop even by his physical presence should reflect sincerity, honesty and security to any person but here is a wrong impression to our expectations and our feelings. Isn’t he an intruder of our feelings, cultures and customs? Can we really rely upon such personnel? Are they trustworthy for all of us? We are living in Dimapur and our generations will live here tomorrow. The values that we leave to the next generation are more precious than the valuables we leave for them. The real repentance is the resolve not to do wrong again. The ruin of the nation begins at the home of its people. Let us discipline ourselves and make an impression so others will not have to.
Yu-Wan Bomi
A citizen of Dimapur city, Nagaland
