A confession

It's 10 in the morning, sipping my coffee and as usual, there is a lot of thinking and processing happening inside my head. As usual, I was not sure about what to write about today. And then I see the 24 hour electricity 'they' have here, the 24 hour super fast internet, the fact that they have lectures on every day of the week apart from their bank holidays no matter how peeved they are at the functioning of their society, the fact that businesses can thrive without being stormed with demand letters.. And a realisation dawns on me- That is why they are said to be living in a developed country and that is why our country is a 'developing' one. And one just has to wonder, is it really developing?

As you might have guessed, I do not study in Manipur. I am one of the thousands who were lucky enough to get the opportunity to study elsewhere within India and later outside the country. But others are not so fortunate as me. Every bandh, every strike, every curfew affects them. I have been told that they have classes as little as four days a week and last year, there was even a ban on all schools all because a group of organisations wanted something for the Government. Such is life.

I feel a hopeless frustration every time I read and hear about such things. The Right to education is a fundamental right granted to us by our forefathers, the great visionaries who freed us from the British. It's a good thing most of them were cremated, or else they would be turning in their graves for what is happening not only in Manipur but also the whole of India.