S Varah
They must take both: not only pains and harshness of living under environs’ furiesbut those ofmen:forces of both India and Burma. They dismiss the idea of meeting their ends, timely or untimely, not out of mere anticipation butcontract to which they pledge never to surrender. Some understandable enterprises always precede their choice: out of true love for freedom, to escape army atrocities or out of ‘suppressed feelings’ for equal payback for what those forceshad done to their father, mother, sister and loved ones. Once departed and registered to the Order, the chance of return, for many, is remote unless initiatives or active, persuasive promise of better reward sway over some immature age and decision. For many, the ending is as always anticipated: gruesome while many carry the scars or marks of vengeance through the day and moment of the final. They are imaginatively rather happy or so appear allof the times in the serenity with surroundings full of songs of birds and amidst majestic foliage and, of course, uncertainty and wind of danger looming large and ever abiding during light or dark, rain or shine. Theirs is fits and starts throughout; rest comes last and seldom, and away from comfort. Attacks of malaria and other undiagnosed pestilences and infections unsparing, with no remedial substitutes within reach, many get abandoned under the mercy of unfriendly beings and beasts aplenty in the woods while under pursuit or enemy’s dragnet closing in. Running from attacks or anti-tracking without food is somehow manageable but not thirst when a chase gets prolonged or though rough sanitization exercise ordered by the enemies. Many times these comrades fall into between swollen rivers in the fore and pursuers in the rear; and all options run out, they are down to knees, their hands cuffed and look up. Means of escape or survival, though slimmest as often is, used to come! Miracles or unexpected are often made manifest of: a powerful demonstration oflike that unseen Pillar of cloud leading the Hebrews in their uncharted desert wilderness was ever present as their steadfast Guide and Protector. Their trust and solace they found in Him showcased; they praised Him. His continued association rarely departing, they realised He was theirs and they, His, forever! Such partnership, many today, remember and regret for being as wayward and deliberate as to pretend‘Heknoweth not’and therefore, choose to drift. He has been betrayed. He has been rejected today. They have departed from Him, and yet call His name sanctimoniously while He is grieving and yearning for the return of His wayward and arrogant son who once pledged eternal allegiance to Him!
How dare they who claim they are anointed, chosen for a cause they know no other nobler, rank Him last today when they first pledged Him their eternal Leader? Don’t they remember they sojourned thousand miles from eastern Nagaland to Yunnan Province without guide, map, compass or other modern paraphernalia?Don’t they at least recall the Providence Hand so mightily arbitrated their extremes and virtually rescued them when men thought they were doomed and their going no moreextended? They have dared enemy’s bullets and their ‘mission’ knew no failure or, that, they would never accept defeat, no matter what! They have more than once traversed distances and treacherous terrains and foreign lands or strange and unmapped jungles when duty demanded. They have done what their enemies thought impossible. They have been schooled in the wilderness and under quietness and serenity of mountains and valleys, amidstenemies left and right, where the lessons and their Jehovah’s voice could be best heard and listened to as they always leaned and stayed put!
That is how their mind frames got shaped up. That was the way the difference has developed: away from human though-rough-fares and normal social conventions. We do understand the variance of their upbringing and ours. They think differently from what we do. Their concerns are not like ours; their likes or tastes do not corroborate our inclinations. The only similarity we do share with them is nothing but what our hidden self, as all humans, crazes, in our private sanctum, what we do covet and envy but unexpressed and yet known and shared. When we do expect them the way we feel they should, we fail to understand one pertinent consideration: what we always put on top sequence that we think it should be, it is their last; that while their priorityis personal security necessity while pursuing towards the finish line, the other sequences of what we reflect and we are most concerned of, are mundane to them. The two of us or rather, the two mind frames therefore, are opposed to when we or they try to INSERT IGNORE into what is not, by temperament, receptive.
We who have not lived the life they have, assume permissibly therefore, that, they be taught what is generally congruent to the commonness of all the Naga populace. This feeling is shared amongst especially so called over grounds or the public while staking equal holdings with the argument that they were not conscripted into the Order in the first place. Counter argument flashes back that Naga people do not demand for mere spectators at the same time, a judge who has refused to go down to the field when freedom duty, in a defining moment, calls all and sundry. Either one of this hence becomesmisfit whenever an argument ensues especially during this cease fire times when ‘liberty to express’ without hesitation or fear perception the other day otherwise stops us saying so. This disagreement tilts towards debate between sermon on Naga freedom and irrationality, and often the latter gets bad title.
Many school drop-outs and desperados, especially an age group of all-round-wannabe, are susceptible to being infatuatedwhenever Naga armies clad on fatigues and Kalashnikovs suddenly surfacedup---pre-cease fire---in their villages. They used to be loved, admired and never turned down; rather, best food and other essentials are immediately marshalled in to their attendance during this ‘unexpected or seldom or essentially arranged visit and, of course, for their comforts and rest under watchful and total security cover to ensure safety of their quests and the villagers’ freedom from security personnel later. The most moving or straight from the heart prayers are often said either from the host village or one from among the soldiers. Love was there; people loved them wherever they were and went. NNCs/NSCNs were not hated then as they are today. And, importantly, their Jehovah never forsook them! Two noticeable priorities were in command: absolute obedience to established regulations and keeping Jehovah first in whatever they are commissioned to. They were ‘success insurance’. These are absent today; the rest are understandable without clarification.
Cease fire brought two things. One is deficit as result of introduction to the thrill of substances abuses, linking partners like women and other expenditures which were otherwise regulated and out of affordability or access to. Second, to which the downfall is accounted for is that cadres are assigned to go, collect and abuse instead of subscribers coming to pay taxes in different forms and substances. The shift has dramatic follow ups: cadres are so prone to crossing limits while they are opportune to stash from so called ‘wind falls’ introduced and tutored by chamcha or technical know-how whoare too, fairly and equally benefited as middlemen. The truth comes home: ‘the love of money, not money itself’ the root of all evils and vice. This mix of two typically varied upbringings today seems to wreak disaster over all-round down gliding of our Movement. Re-doing or undoing is a matter of time or diff erent ending. Sad to say so! Cry over spilled milk will never upgrade relation; we must create a curve to make parallels meeting somewhere possible or never.
