Nikali Sumi
Morung Express News
Dimapur, February 18
Unlike in the past when people had to be taken outside for major operations and treatment, today citizens in Dimapur are blessed with good hospitals, qualified doctors and latest medical equipments. The city is also fast-developing into a proper commercial hub, with new stores, restaurants, lounge bars and shopping malls opening up almost everyday. There is no dearth of customers as peoples’ way of life has drastically changed over the years. Now, people are discovering new ways of earning and spending. Loan facilities have come as a boon to thousands of people, giving them respite from economic hardship. Every new store or restaurant is generating employment for youths, bringing down the scale of unemployment, although nominal.
Nowadays, people have become so conscious of their surroundings that holding a job or earning money has become a concern. Almost every family has a person who is earning. A cycle rickshaw-puller said Dimapur is a ‘nice’ place for people like him to make a living. Whereas, a shopkeeper is apprehensive because he feels that many shops have opened up lately and so customers are ‘divided.’ “My income is depreciating,” he explained with gloom. Earning and being content reflects on the overall lifestyle change taking place and people’s perception of life.
Roads are now flooded with cars of different size, shape and colour. It has become so necessary for families to own a car. Many luxury restaurants are offering people new flavors to experience. One particular restaurant is earning about Rs 15-20,000 per day, and entertaining more than 80 customers a day. One can see that entrepreneurship is gaining more importance. Educated youths — those not seeking government jobs as the only way — are taking up challenges to find their place in the society.
Having enough to spare, people are catching up with latest fashion and trends. Branded clothing stores such as Adidas, Reebok, Puma and electronic giants such as Sony, Samsung and LG have opened branches and serving customers with multiple choices. When asked how they feel about the developments in Dimapur, a school child remarked “Dimapur is good, but people are not good.” She meant to say that people have become self-centered and greedy, owing to competition and the availability of fitting oneself into “something.”
Society as a whole is witnessing an apparently peaceful environment. Whether or not Nagas attain ‘freedom’ is another chapter but the good thing is the formation of the Forum for Naga Reconciliation, which is endeavoring for reconciliation of the warring underground groups. The forum’s efforts have in a way brought the city into somewhat peaceful environment.
Also, leaving behind the old-fashioned closed-door teaching at school, students today are exposed to different fields of learning. Parents are now focusing on both academic and technical areas of learning. Sports and computer education have become compulsory subjects. On their part, schools are giving exposure to students through school excursions, inter-school and inter-colleges events, where they get the chance to interact with new people and get a glimpse of new environments. Career-counseling is held in schools to guide students on career prospects once they graduate. In small towns, these capacity-building activities are rarely organized by school authorities.
On the rural front, the village development institutions are up and about with what they can do for the city and elsewhere, having success factors in resource mobilization through self-help and incentives (matching-grants), village funds and so on. The state’s Village Development Board institution had won the UN Award for Public Service in 2008 and the Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in Public Administration in 2007.
Likewise, Dimapur Naga Council’s successful completion of 60 years of existence was a moment to be proud of. The council, formed in 1949 by a group of Nagas residing in Dimapur and two mass-based organizations, namely the Dimapur Naga Women Hoho and Dimapur Naga Students’ Union. The aim was to promote social harmony by bringing together all the Naga tribes and other non-Naga communities in striving for betterment. Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio termed Dimapur as “miniature India where all Naga tribes and non-Naga communities have lived in harmony and continue to do so.”
Putting aside political corruption, slow law and order activism and some groups of people who make themselves a chain of “class,” the city is the place where people from different backgrounds come for better facilities, flaunt their money, make a living sweating it out in the sun and to build a roof above their heads.
