Imagine the feeling of a mother when she saw her little baby taking the first step walking! Well, I bet, she must be spell-bound with joy or even anxious if the baby might fall... Maybe it's what people call the nervous beginnings.
It was the same feeling for us, more or less on Sunday, January 22, 2006. The day when One Manipur- A Campaign for Love & Peace was launched. It all started with the deep yearning for peace and love in Manipur and the coming together of the six people. We had often talked about doing something for long but had never been able to take those first concrete & definitive step. We took a resolve that we should start our journey lest our dreams live in our minds. It took us only TWO weeks since that resolve to take the first step. It involved running around meeting BMP officials to get the ground permission, standing in the queue to get the permission from the Police for Sound, endless reviews to get the Tee Shirt design as it is now, working up the xls to capture every details of the activities that were needed to be done. Needless to say, it had been one of the most satisfying period for all of us.
Ground Zero was at Nandan Football Ground, Austin Town, Bangalore and the event was graced by our Chief Guest Dr. H. T. Sangliana, Honorable Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha, North Bangalore Constituency. I can tell you that our mind was engulfed with apprehension and so many butterflies were flying in the stomach. As the watch clocked 6:00 PM, there were hardly any attendance. Someone murmured "Manipur Pung". Nonetheless we were worried but we never lose hope. We told ourselves, this is good, but it can be better.
But time has played its role. As the clock struck 07:30 p.m., our chief guest arrived with his family to grace our occassion and timely we had around 150 attendants. Then there was no turning back. We were indeed priviledged to have Dr. H. T. Sangliana, as our Chief Guest for inspiring everyone present in the event with his thoughts and eloquent speech. Our event was made lively by a short Manipuri Group Dance. And adding to the vigour, we had our T-shirt launched with the Theme of 'Peace Inside'.
The major attraction of the event, Thabal Chongba was kicked off with our Chief Guest joining hands dancing out the passion of Peace and love. It started at 08:45 p.m. and benevolently there were 400 plus attendants till the beats of the drum fades away.
We, the campaigners, would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone present on that day and making the event a successful one. We also extend our utmost gratitude who had charitably donated towards us and supporting our cause. Two little words to express our gratitude that's felt towards YOU, "THANK YOU".
It's well that ends well. But this is just the beginning.
One Manipur: For YOU and for ME.
This message goes out to all the communities of Manipur. Even as we start and move towards our common theme for "One Manipur", I would like to invite like minded people from different communities to contact us, so that we can forward this movement better. So often we have come across suggestion to make this team more multi community based and even multi gender :) . We humbly take their suggestion. However we need enthusiastic help from every person from Manipur who can believe in the theme as we do, in working as a team and to respect other person irrespective of caste or creed.
