Things we can't do - Take 2
(We can't be street beggars)
How often have you seen beggars in the streets of Manipur? You can count on the finger. The beggars I have seen were all mentally deranged people who didn’t know what they were up to. They picked up rags, worn wall-clocks in their necks or swaggered like a character straight out of Charles’ Dickens’ novels in the broad daylight. I used to watch them as a child, amused and frightened at the same time; their sightings were few and far between. I have never seen a pauper who talks like you and me, and was normal.

Oh yes, few victims of Kuki-Naga clashes once came to my house asking for food and clothes. But, I don’t consider them beggars; they were actually barterers. They brought with them bamboo and cane products of high craftsmanship, like mora, phak, and so on – all items we really needed but didn’t find the convenience of time to purchase from market. My mother gave them old clothes and rice, and they would leave us with valuable household items. The exchange was to the advantage of both the parties.

So, is the lack of beggars in Manipur an indication that ours is a prosperous state? I vote a big NO. It only means that we are an incorrigibly proud people who think it is beneath ourselves to beg. Our ego takes precedence over the hunger pangs. We can steal, extort, rob, cheat the bank, anything…hey, but no begging! Our parents are wonderful. They almost always give in to the persistent nagging of their son to buy the latest Nike shoes and the Enticer motor-bike for a fortune, with money loaned by some local usurer.

Though we are never reduced to the condition of a street beggar, we are nevertheless beggars – big time beggars. The state is in a financial mess; it can’t even pay the salaries of the workers. Our leaders are tigers in the state, but are kittens outside it. Every time they go to Delhi, I suspect they hide a big begging bowl in their briefcase.

The hypocrisy is split wide open when they open it before their masters at Delhi, who threw crumbs on their faces.

Meaning we are not street beggars. We are only beggars.