ALL MEN MUST DIE
September 14, 2023
A 134 days since May 3rd.
It has been a season in hell and then some.
Some people ask why the counting?
A month.
Two and a half months.
90 days.
A fortnight shy of 5 months.
It has been a season in hell and then some.
Some people ask why the counting?
A month.
Two and a half months.
90 days.
A fortnight shy of 5 months.
It is not just the days we count though.
Counting the collateral damage in the aftermath since.
Houses burnt, people displaced, and worse still the casualties.
Only the ones felled by bullets or hacked or burnt alive make it to the news, if at all.
The many languishing for want of medicine and treatment remembered only in the unspoken grief carried by the many families who can do nothing but watch helplessly by their bedside, in this case, most often than not, a mat on a cold, cement floor.
Houses burnt, people displaced, and worse still the casualties.
Only the ones felled by bullets or hacked or burnt alive make it to the news, if at all.
The many languishing for want of medicine and treatment remembered only in the unspoken grief carried by the many families who can do nothing but watch helplessly by their bedside, in this case, most often than not, a mat on a cold, cement floor.
Counting still, how many days since the last attack?
We look at each day, waiting with hope when there is a lull, when there are no reports of gunfire or women amassing, the foreboding of ill to come.
This past week, however, there has been no respite.
We look at each day, waiting with hope when there is a lull, when there are no reports of gunfire or women amassing, the foreboding of ill to come.
This past week, however, there has been no respite.
And then there is the silence.
Of a nation that has forgotten that somewhere in the far east, there is a fight for survival, and not of the metaphorical kind.
And by that, I mean in conversations with ordinary folk, when asked how are things back home, I ramble awkwardly, hurriedly. Trying to encapsulate in a few words the horror that is unfolding every day.
More than my response though, has been the reaction that I get.
One, ignorance.
You are a Meitei right? The tone quickly changing when they find out I am not.
You are a Meitei right? The tone quickly changing when they find out I am not.
Kuki? But you know this reservation thing is the root cause of so many problems; they should just do away with it.
The government? No, no, no it has nothing to do with the government, this is all political. Everyone has an agenda.
And then of course, the truly clueless.
The ones who cannot fathom my lineage, my father, his position, who and why tribal?
The ones who cannot fathom my lineage, my father, his position, who and why tribal?
The only saving grace, and I look for the silver lining amidst this darkness, is in all of these conversations that at least now, Kuki and Meitei have made it to the national vocabulary.
So good thing, right?
So good thing, right?
In this absolute surreal unfolding of daily scenarios, young men and women train with wooden replicas of guns, children eat out of plastic bottles cut out, fashioned into makeshift bowsl, men living in dug outs, and alongside barbed wire boundaries on the highway.
Oh, and let’s not forget the 1,00,000 armed personnel, both state police and central paramilitary forces.
(Not included are the impersonators in fatigues mingling freely and with impunity among the crowds.)
(Not included are the impersonators in fatigues mingling freely and with impunity among the crowds.)
So here we are, a 134 days since May 3rd.
A Lieutenant Colonel seriously injured last week, airlifted to the Guwahati Army Hospital; thankfully he is recovering.
Three men shot dead in a matter of seconds even as one of them who was ill, was being ferried to the nearest medical center.
A sub-inspector shot in the head, killed by a sniper.
Three men shot dead in a matter of seconds even as one of them who was ill, was being ferried to the nearest medical center.
A sub-inspector shot in the head, killed by a sniper.
Apparently, the bloodletting isn’t enough.
Not enough to satiate the blood thirsty throngs of misguided torchbearers and the dart wielding cavalry.
Not enough for the Big Brother watching you bloodhounds that spew out vitriol under the garb of ‘oh the illegal immigrants’ war cry.
Not enough for the so-called elected representatives who will not utter a word of condemnation and who would rather let their people die and starve (yes it’s coming, and that will be another day) because I mean why should I relinquish my seat?
Not enough for the big blow and the ‘we need equal rights’ lobbyists.
Not enough for the intellectuals and the academicians that continue to mouth platitudes and but oh look we have so many awards..!
And obviously not enough because the travelling, the summits, the campaigning and the name calling.
Not enough for the Big Brother watching you bloodhounds that spew out vitriol under the garb of ‘oh the illegal immigrants’ war cry.
Not enough for the so-called elected representatives who will not utter a word of condemnation and who would rather let their people die and starve (yes it’s coming, and that will be another day) because I mean why should I relinquish my seat?
Not enough for the big blow and the ‘we need equal rights’ lobbyists.
Not enough for the intellectuals and the academicians that continue to mouth platitudes and but oh look we have so many awards..!
And obviously not enough because the travelling, the summits, the campaigning and the name calling.
So all this?
It isn’t enough.
It isn’t enough.
Because if it were, this would have stopped a long time ago.
When will it be though?
Be enough?
When will one more dead person, dead father, mother, brother, sister, grandmother be too many?
Honestly?
It doesn’t look remotely likely in the near foreseeable future.
Be enough?
When will one more dead person, dead father, mother, brother, sister, grandmother be too many?
Honestly?
It doesn’t look remotely likely in the near foreseeable future.
Maybe it’s time to realize that perhaps the answers lie with us.
ALL MEN MUST DIE
There’s killers here
In Paradise
And everyone
Has something to hide
Killers amongst us
Laying traps,
Building walls,
Feeding lies
There’s killers here
The news spewing
The endless screaming
There’s killers here
And people
Dropping like flies
Killers amongst us
Blinding, misleading
Blending, masterminding
Unholy allies
There’s killers here
In Paradise
And everyone
Has something to hide.
You and I?
We are the same
Sister, Brother,
Farmer, Friend
You and I?
We are the living
Dusk, Day
Is done
And the
Living know
That they will die
But the
Dead die
And know
Nothing
‘Tis just
You and I
Living
Why
Must
We
Die?
For the living know that they will die,
but the dead know nothing
~ Ecclesiastes 9:5
~ Judith Vaddi
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