Manorama Devi. Who146;s that?

What is going to follow in the subsequent paragraphs may read more like an outburst. But I would rather write it and be condemned than not w...

What is going to follow in the subsequent paragraphs may read more like an outburst. But I would rather write it and be condemned than not write it and play a part in the injustice being meted out to that small fraction of the human race called the Northeast Indians, who the 8216;mainstream Indians8217; would find easier to relate to if referred to as oh-those-Chinese-looking flat-nosed-flat-faced-people.

So, for the sake of those who are new to that small section of human civilisation, here is a brief introduction.

The Northeast Indians live in a forgotten land, which is collectively called the Seven Sisters and which is lost in the hurly burly of who8217;s-doing-what-in-UP-and-Bihar and what8217;s-the-latest-toll-in-Kashmir discussions. While Kashmir and the Hindi heartland get more than their fair share of primetime TV and hog the front pages, a 30-year-old woman dies in custody, reportedly raped and killed by paramilitary forces in a nondescript town called Imphal, and yet fails to get a mention in the national media.

It is no wonder then that after years of living in the Hindi heartland, I am still a Chinese or a Jap to the ubiquitous autorickshawallah and to the eager beaver salesmen in Delhi8217;s Sarojini Nagar Market who finds in me an opportunity to experiment his newly-mugged up sentence of badly assembled English words.

To the so-called 8216;mainstream Indians8217;, the Northeast has become a stereotype. Which is exactly why they are amused when I tell them I don8217;t eat meat or chicken, or when I say that I, despite my Christian name, am not a Christian but very much a Hindu who swears by Lord Shiva and Lord Krishna and all the other gods, or when I say that I don8217;t live in a hut atop a hill but, like most of them, have a concrete building built of bricks and mortar to call a house.

It is no secret that the mainland has never learnt to accept this particular part of the country as their own and this is where the role of the pseudo-nationalists fits in 8212; how a small spark in Kashmir has their imagination flying while an explosion in the Northeast fails to have any impact on them is still beyond my comprehension.

It is about time mainstream Indians grew out of the stereotypical line of thought they have been born with, and stopped looking at the Northeast Indian as an anomaly which has never figured in their scheme of things. Until that happens, the Manorama Devis will continue to figure as faceless, voiceless entities who deserve no public concern 8212; or justice.