Whistleblower

Whistleblower's musings... Then some trivia. Write to me at ranjanyumnam@gmail.com

Monday, June 28, 2004


Diary: In which I find I am 47% Indian

The tone and theme of my last few articles have been very trenchant to say the least. I have attacked people, accusing them of being unfaithful to their roots. I have blackened one entire nationality, and tried to prove that they are hypocrites and parasites of power. The recurrent theme of my outpourings was my insistence on maintaining an airtight Manipuri identity, or rather the mockery of Indianness in us, the Manipuris.


Earlier, I got some angry mails from readers, which I am reproducing below:


"I am shocked to read the aricle "Indians exposed by an indian".
This man who is calling himself whistleblower is not an indian
am sure....
I am a German. I came to INDIA 6 years back for an assignment
and what I found here was a great peace of mind and that's why
I am still here. He has given 5 of india's qualities
but can he name place where all this does not happen. I have
a personal experience being a foreigner and being in foreign
service. I have seen many counries of the world but only india
is the one where I found what I did not find anywhere. In these
6 years I have learnt a lot here. I have even learnt hindi. There
is one saying in hindi language "JIS THALI MAI KHANA USI MAI
CHHED KARNA" I'm sure you must have heard it and I dont feel
any need for explaining it. But this man that whist...... deserves
to be thrown in the dark sea. If I had the power I would have
burnt him alive and I mean it.
I have a requeat to make to the management of this site not
to give this kind of articles here."


From CHRISTINA WEBER
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Dear Ranjan,

Just read your tirade on e-pao. Being a "mayang" married to a manipuri, I
know what you are talking about.

Maite [Maiteh ?]-s like you are the most Indian wanna-bees that I have seen.
Including a guy who calls himself Randeep [let me hold on to the last
name] - who has no idea that he has a "sardar" first name [he's all of 35
years young]. Plus, I have noticed that the Ranjan Yumnams of the world love
to be seen eating Indian food, love to admire, adore, adorn themselves like
the desi movie stars that they try to not be like :-)

Moreover, I dislike to hate Gandhi. When in 6th grade in Madras, I was
asked to bring my parents to reinstate me into school when I claimed
[correctly] that Gandhi would have lasted less than a minute under spanish
[rather than the gentlemen Brit] rule [the spanish took the Inca's gold and
then killed them.....].

Even in sports, the best defense is superlative offense. Just like the US
is the #1 superpower due to its overwhelming firepower, the Brits were [in
the days when the sun never set on the British empire] the superpower.
Gandhi had [I agree with you here] no choice except to embrace non-violence
[then Martin Luther King Jr. emulated him].

Oh yeah - Mr Varma could use a lesson in being more civilized - nothing like
a bloody nose to teach a person on how to be human.

Bottom-line: Desis [and you] are more like everyone else - than different.
The best defense is superlative offense, and Varma needs a bloody nose to
become more human."


From Bapcha S. Murty
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"What ever you said on Thiyam is right if you are looking from ETHNOCENTRIC prism.We are in twenty first century, please,let us learn to look beyond meitei, manipur,our religion, our culture and all bla blas.

If you look closely,Thiyam is much ahead of our time.There is an element of humanity and internationalism in his theme. Let me cite an example from history,Tagore did not take major role in Indian freedom movement inspite of his towering personality.Because his idea of nationalism was much ahead of his time.(To know more read Tagore and Nationalism).And it is a theme which you are missing in your most of the literature , you have published.

Pliz, let's not dig up too deeply that nothing comes out of it."


From Michael Achom