Lamka Fast Pace Of Progress

LAMKA/CCPUR’S FAST PACE OF PROGRESS

By: Lunminthang Haokip: 

 THE CHURCHED TOWNSHIP: The occasional visitor, mistakenly judging by the bohemian lifestyle of a few slipped-disc type lasses-gone-berserk, may draw bizarre conclusions of their own. But appearances may be deceptive in the southern Manipur Zo city’s  lifestyle. It’s not for nothing that Church-bells chime audible every other day. High-rise Church spires are rowed chock-a-block in the by-and-large concrete-creamed residential localities of CCPur DHQ. A verse comes to my mind. Romans 5:20 says,

 “Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.”

 INDECENCY FROWNED UPON: The regular messages delivered in worship services may not have churned out great soul-winners like global faces. But the same had leveraged the fear of God in the average Church-goer. The net result is that, by now, resorting to the carnal privilege of open passage into embraces indecent is frowned upon as a sacrilege. Follow it or not, CCPur is no stranger to the Word of God. 

  LESSER PULL OF MOTHER-TONGUE: In this rapidly urbanized DHQ, any inhabitant feels free to communicate in his own mother tongue to any other citizen over any issue. One doesn’t have to worry as to whether what he coveys is being understood or not. Such is the magic of one of the  fastest growing hill towns in Asia. The dynamics of ultra-consciousness of one’s original identity may be lurking somewhere. It makes one a half-hearted Chauvinist reluctantly championing for one’s own old fold. 

 LINGUISTIC SWITCH-ON: But there’s confluence of inter-tribe marriages coupled with the influence of mixed-tribe settlements. This factor has rendered all locally spoken dialects corrupt. Situation is led to the extent of a futile struggle to regain a particular dialect’s original undiluted twang. This peculiar issue, in essence, sub-consciously sets the tone for the invisible super-structure of Zo brotherhood. An upwardly mobile favour-seeking Eimi can switch on, at will, to any dialect to please a prospective favour-giving Kuki-Zo as demands the value of the favour sought.

  PASSION FOR EDUCATION: Be it the man with the hoe, or man who owes heavy debt, every parent in CCPur District lays heavy stress on Education. A parent leaves no stone unturned, even when detractors leave no turn of his or hers un-stoned, to get the children make a mark in the field of learning. However, credit must also go to the efficiently administered Govt and Private Schools, Higher Secs, and Colleges of Eimi township. They produce huge batches of candidates for big and small jobs every year with factory-like precision. 

 ALL IS FAIR IN EXAM: Noises about unfair means in election time may have lowered the prestige percentage of Songpi-Lamka. But when it comes to HSLC and BSE exams, fair means in writing papers had earned laurels for the spiritually discerned super-district. One may come across ambitious saleswomen speaking stranger than Cockney-English to bemused customers, incorrigibly corrigible local slangs in some SE Asian cities. They use words like “Cannot”, and  “no have”. Going by the law of average, Lamka does much better in managing the Queen’s Tongue. Things that rock the senses may not come easy to this land-locked burgeoning DHQ. But the collective IQ of its citizenry is the stuff big metros are made of.

  THE 2ND ‘E:’ ENTREPRENEURSHIP: Songpi-Lamka is yet to get its act together to become an E-District to reckon with. Nevertheless, the typical Kuki-Zo mindset gel well with four other Es– Education, Entrepreneurship,  Evangelism and Employment. Devoid of infra to plan out big business, the human resources of this enterprising Christian town, upsets setbacks to create a trading climate of its own. The zeal to outdo the shop next-door keeps many home-fires burning. CCPurians benefit a lot from the new Coaching Centres. 

 SETTING THE PACE FOR BOOM-TIME: Daily bread stuff, baked with a passion usually reserved for religion, by Tunnu Bakes and Cakes, sell like hot cakes. The diversified in taste can pamper their up-market palate in Rengkai Road’s Life Café. The ‘Hatke’ Restro was launched  by Joseph Zote and Michael Esh in partnership. Entrepreneurial ventures like JK Gin business chain, the Pudaite Educational ventures, the Muolvaiphei Nursing School and Khokon Roofing Industry show the path. Add to these, the NGO-run orphanages and children homes, the mushrooming private clinics, shops, motor garages. Of late constructions teams had taken care of building houses. Besides, stone-carving, Media enterprises, wood work, catering, handloom and handicraft units, butchery etc set the pace for Lamka’s race to stage and taste boom-time.

  THE THIRD ‘E’ - EVANGELISM: The most cosmopolitan Zo city may cast a shadow of pessimism when other ‘isms’ are mooted. But skewered skepticism paves way for theism when things spiritual are viewed from the calming prism of Evangelism. Worldly development came from the North, yet Gospel movement came from the South. The revival fire that burnt up the tin and dross of pre-Christianity malpractices in the then ‘Lushai Hills’ spread across Tuivai river. Gospel sharing set hearts afire at Senvon in 1910. The evangelical wild-fire consumed a few houses at Phaitong in 1914. 

 EVANGELISM: A MESMERIZING ‘ISM:’ The seed of life transplanted by the early 20th century converts, was made hybrid by the Spirit’s power that germinated to change lives in all the villages and hamlets of the Southern District. It may not be wrong to remark that in this spiritually temperate believers’ hub, Church buildings grow and thrive on diverse denominational branches. Among Manipur’s administrative segments, CCPur is the fore-runner in import of the Truth and export of Missionaries to other Stayes. Evangelism, apart from being a mesmerizing ‘ism’, here, is a departure from age-old culture that all Churches loved to nurture.

  THE FOURTH E - EMPLOYMENT: My heart aches when I think about the plight of unemployed young educated boys (I too was one of them, once) and girls. They go tap-tapping from office to office, ad to ad, knocking the often closed doors of job opportunities. Fate sadly plays truant with the mediocre job-seekers here. This accounts for the exodus of many frustrated local job hunters to the dense jungles of places that promise to provide easier placement. The last resort port of call in this respect is Delhi NCR. 

 SERVING THE LORD PAYS: The waves of fortune take the emotionally intelligent lot from the shallow waters to the deep seas of prosperity. Yet, the ‘upwardly immobile ‘ get washed ashore by the backwaters of anonymity. NGOs, CSOs and COs (Church organizations) have done their bit to make many DGJs (Denied Govt Jobs ) get employed somehow. Jobs in local sectors barely make both ends meet in highly taxing but lowly-paid engagements. Of course, serving the LORD of Lords brings forth blessings in the form of higher jobs for their children. Proverbs 20:8 says,

 “The righteous man walketh in his integrity: his children are blessed after him.”

 ENGAGEMENTS & PLACEMENTS: The brainy lot, either latch on to AISs or Bank Exams, CGSs, LSS, SSC, CAPF etc with some measure of hard labour. Some just make do with doing nothing. In 2025, I was pleasantly surprised to know that there are a hundred incumbents of CCPur origin in Lok Sabha Sectt, Delhi. They hold posts ranging from Joint Secy, Director to the lower rank and file. Back home, those who prefer not to work under a nosey boss choose to get self-employed with their craft and talent as the capital. Yet, a good chunk of the Kuki-Zo habitation’s deserving educated class remain jobless. They wake up from a sleepless nights to another hopeless day, to place faith on which is like chasing the mirage.

  CAN’T AFFORD TO FEEL CONTENTED: All said and done, what are we to do from now? Shall we brag about our past achievements and sit idle on to tom-tom over the laurels of gen-last? We don’t have a stake in such, do we? Or, shall we dream to go global by tightening our belts and tapping whatever resources we have at our disposal? The first option is the lazy guy’s easy way out but will make our future hazy. We have had enough of slow growth, hackneyed surrounding and boring status quo. We can’t afford to take things lying down. Our nearest approachable airport is 400 Kms distant. No airport we can call our own! And we have no Municipal Council! 

 LET US MAKE CCPUR MORE LIVEABLE: The second option sounds challenging, out of the box, but not commensurate with our stocks. To turn dreams into reality, we will have to shock and coax our own folks. From the ashes of war and poverty, Korea rose like a phoenix in the 1960s to create a niche for itself in the A-team list of world economic players. Entrepreneurship was the key that opened the doors of greater avenues. Koreans also made capital of goods Manufacture. 

 WE HAVE HUMAN RESOURCES: If they have the sea on their shores, we have a sea of sensible, capable and ‘sail-able’ human resources awaiting to be launched out to the deep waters.

  AN APPEAL FOR VERDICT: We are a talked-about group of people in this slippery world of fox-trotting developmental fluctuations. We Eimis need to reinvent ourselves, upgrade our outlook, and get hooked on to hard work. Above  all, let us be ‘bless-able’ in tune with the diktats of the Book of life that says, “The Most High ruleth in the affairs of men…..(Daniel 5:22).” Blessing comes from the Almighty Ruler of the affairs of men. Psalm 34:15 says,

 “The eyes of the LORD are upon the righteous, and his ears are open to their cry.”

 EXCEL AND GO GLOBAL: History is witness that wherever the finer contents of the Gospel gained momentum, the people’s per-capita income shot up. More than anything else, to hover above status quo, and move over to world-class levels, we need to be on the right side of God’s favour. Let’s honour the Almighty with renewed vigour and sell our God-gifted talents to ‘Excel And Go Global.

Increased Productivity

Here are practical ways to adapt 7 morning rituals into a sharp, actionable daily routine, along with the underlying mechanics for why they work:

1. Cold Water Wrist Dip (Vagus Nerve Reset)

• The Routine: Before checking your phone or brushing your teeth, run cold water over the insides of your wrists for 30–60 seconds.
• Why It Works: Radial and ulnar arteries run close to the skin surface here. Rapid cooling triggers a mild thermal shock response, signaling the autonomic nervous system to heighten alert state and clearing sleep inertia immediately without caffeine jitters.

2. Auricular Massage (Circulation Boost)

• The Routine: Firmly rub, pinch, and roll the outer edges and lobes of both ears for 60 seconds.
• Why It Works: The external ear is rich in nerve endings connected to sensory branches of cranial nerves. Massaging them increases local blood flow and stimulates sensory awareness quickly upon waking.

3. Pericardial & Chest Tapping (Lymphatic Activation)

• The Routine: Tap your sternum and upper chest lightly using flat palms or cupped fingers for 90 seconds.
• Why It Works: Mechanical stimulation around the thoracic duct assists lymphatic drainage after hours of static posture, aiding fluid movement and clearing sluggishness.

4. Hypoglossal Nerve Stretch (Brainstem Engagement)

• The Routine: Fully extend your tongue forward, hold for 10 seconds, and relax. Repeat 3 times.
• Why It Works: The hypoglossal nerve (Cranial Nerve XII) controls tongue movements. Deliberate motor activation directly engages brainstem pathways, helping break grogginess.

5. Controlled Nasal Breathing (Oxygenation & Focus)

• The Routine: Take 30 deliberate, slow breaths strictly in and out through your nose.
• Why It Works: Nasal breathing optimizes oxygen transfer via nitric oxide production in the nasal passages, stabilizing respiration and regulating heart rate variability to reduce brain fog.

6. Dynamic Back Extension / Mindful Bowing (Spinal Decompression)

• The Routine: Perform 3–5 slow, deliberate forward bends or deep bows, hinging at the hips for 30 seconds total.
• Why It Works: Lengthens the erector spinae and hamstrings, releasing overnight compression in the spine and restoring postural alignment for the workday.

7. Hydration with Natural Light (Circadian Reset)

• The Routine: Walk to a window, gaze toward outdoor light, and drink a full glass of warm water in measured sips.
• Why It Works: Morning hydration rehydrates organs after overnight fluid loss, while natural light exposure suppresses melatonin production, signaling to your master circadian clock that the workday has officially begun.

Implementation Strategy

Stack all seven steps sequentially right after getting out of bed. The entire sequence takes less than 10 minutes, costs zero resources, and creates a clear physical bridge from sleep mode to peak operational focus before you open your first email or notification.

Payment Alternative On The Issue of MDR

The Sovereign Alternative: Why Transitioning to CBDC Resolves India’s Battle Over UPI and MDR

The Digital Illusion

India’s digital payments revolution faces a structural crisis: the ongoing battle over the Merchant Discount Rate (MDR). While citizens treat digital payments as a seamless public utility, the underlying infrastructure relies on a commercial network of private applications, payment aggregators, and commercial banks.

The enforcement of an MDR on certain UPI transactions has exposed a deep policy fault line. The state is attempting to run a sovereign monetary system using commercial pipes that demand a transaction toll. This framework creates friction, drives merchants to pass fees onto consumers under the table, and ultimately threatens to push high-value transactions back into cash.

To bridge this gap, India must transition its high-value digital transaction volume away from UPI bank rails and toward the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC)—the Digital Rupee (e₹). By deploying a true digital token, the economic justification for MDR evaporates, restoring digital commerce to a costless public good.

The Legal Realities of Transaction Consent

The fundamental misunderstanding in today’s financial discourse is the legal status of Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions. Under Section 14 of the Indian Contract Act, 1872, a valid contract requires the free, uncoerced consent of both parties regarding all essential terms. This explicitly includes the method of settling a payment.

While the Coinage Act, 2011 and the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934 mandate that physical banknotes and coins are legal tender that must be accepted to discharge a debt, digital methods like UPI enjoy no such sovereign mandate. UPI is not money; it is a communication rail that instructs commercial banks to shift deposits.

Because running this multi-layered rail involves thousands of servers, telecom linkages, and private fintech intermediaries, it incurs a massive operational cost. Because it is a commercial service rather than legal tender, a specific mode of digital payment cannot be legally forced by one private party upon another. When regulators impose an MDR to make the ecosystem sustainable, merchants legally retain the right to reject the payment rail entirely to protect their margins. The market is left in an enforcement stalemate.

The Architecture of the Digital Rupee

The introduction of the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) represents a profound paradigm shift. Unlike UPI, the Digital Rupee is not a digital claim on a commercial bank deposit. It is a digital representation of the sovereign currency itself—a liability directly on the RBI’s balance sheet.

By migrating high-value transaction volume from UPI to CBDC, the concept of MDR becomes structurally obsolete due to three key transformations:

1. Direct Wallet-to-Wallet Settlement: In a CBDC architecture, digital tokens move directly from the payer’s token wallet to the receiver’s token wallet. It completely bypasses the clearing, settlement, and netting networks utilized by commercial banks and private payment gateways. Because there are no intermediaries providing clearing services, there is no credit risk, and thus no basis for a transaction fee.

2. The Sovereign Obligation: The state has a foundational duty to provide free currency to its citizens. Just as the RBI absorbs the logistics, printing, and security costs of physical cash as a core public service, it absorbs the network and ledger costs of the Digital Rupee. This ensures permanent zero MDR for both merchants and consumers across all transaction values.

3. Seamless Integration: Thanks to the National Payments Corporation of India’s (NPCI) interoperability framework, merchants do not need expensive new point-of-sale infrastructure. Existing shop QR codes can seamlessly accept direct CBDC wallet transfers alongside standard UPI.

Structural Frameworks Compared

Feature	UPI Framework	Physical Cash	CBDC (Digital Rupee)
Monetary Classification	Commercial Bank Deposit	Sovereign Legal Tender	Sovereign Legal Tender
MDR Impact (>₹2,000)	Percentage Fee to Merchant	Zero Fee	Absolute Zero Fee
Settlement Velocity	T+1 or Delayed Batch Clearings	Instant Handoff	Instant Ledger Settlement
State Fiscal Cost	High (Taxpayer Subsidies to Rails)	High (Printing, Logistics)	Low (Scalable Digital Ledger)

A Roadmap for Policy Reform

To resolve the systemic friction surrounding payment consent and commercial processing fees, regulators should adopt a three-pronged modernization strategy:

1. Mandate High-Ticket CBDC Integration: Regulators should mandate all commercial establishments with average transaction values exceeding ₹2,000 to display an interoperable CBDC QR code. This guarantees businesses a state-backed, digital path to escape MDR fees entirely.

2. Redirect Financial Subsidies: Instead of utilizing taxpayer funds to artificially subsidize private UPI infrastructure providers, the state should redirect capital toward expanding, scaling, and securing the sovereign CBDC core ledger.

3, Launch Public Literacy Campaigns: Financial literacy campaigns must explicitly educate the public on the difference between commercial digital banking (UPI) and digital legal tender (CBDC), establishing the Digital Rupee as the official, digital extension of the cash in their wallets.

Conclusion

A modern digital economy cannot be sustainably scaled on the backs of forced merchant levies or endless government subsidies. If digital transactions are to be as seamless, friction-free, and universally accepted as physical paper cash, they must be backed directly by the central bank's balance sheet.

Transitioning the nation's high-value transaction volume to the Digital Rupee architecture satisfies the legal requirement of mutual consent, protects small business margins, and delivers on the true promise of a cashless, costless sovereign economy.

The God of Second Chances

The God of Second Chances

I remember standing at the door,

One step from everything I knew,

Convinced I could make it on my own.

So I walked away without a prayer

And turned my back on all I knew.

It didn't take long for me to see 

How far my heart had turned from you 

As tears of regret fell from my face.

And that's when mercy reached down to me,

Lifting me up out of shame and regret,

Showing me love I'll never forget.

You're the God of second chances, 

Who restores and makes me whole.

When I thought I'd fallen too far, 

You came and lifted me up, 

Embraced my fear and shame, 

And redeemed my wounded soul.

You're the God of second chances.

You're the God of second chances.

You heal the parts I thought were ruined.

But the scars and regrets still remain.

They remind me of the road I chosen,

And how I walked away from you.

But you never once walked away from me.

And that's the grace that rescued me.

You're the God of second chances. 

And that's when mercy reached down to me,

Lifting me up out of shame and regret,

Showing me love I'll never forget.

You're the God of second chances, 

Who restores and makes me whole.

When I thought I'd fallen too far, 

You came and lifted me up,

Embraced my fear and shame, 

And redeemed my wounded soul.

You're the God of second chances.

You're the God of second chances.

My scars remind me of my past.

But you don't waste the years I lost.

You shape them for your purpose

and turn my failures into praise.

You're the God of second chances, 

Who restores and makes me whole.

When I thought I'd fallen too far, 

You came and lifted me up,

Embraced my fear and shame, 

And redeemed my wounded soul.

You're the God of second chances.

You're still the God of second chances.

You're still the God of second chances.

Zomi leh Sakmin

Zomite ngeina ah sakmin kici pen a thupi mahmah, thupha leh deihsakna kiguang a phuaktu in lungsim tampi seeng a a phuah ahi hi. Sakmin phuahna pen a mal tam leh mal tom thu ahilo a, a khiatna thupi pen hi. Tuhun khantouhna leh leitung paidan tawh kizui in, sakmin I phuahdan leh laigelhna (documents) I zat dan ah ngaihsut ding poimoh tampi om ta hi.

Sakmin Malnih: Min i phuah ciang in Pasian i muanna leh I upna tawh a phuakte ihi hi. Kammal khat bek zang a I phuak zong in, Pasian in tua kammal khat tungtawn in thupha lianpi hong pia thei hi. Tulai in mintuam deuh leh a danglam deuh phuah ut man in sakmin a sau lua a om thei a, tuate in maban ah a gelhdan mahmah zong buaina hong tun thei hi.

Sakmin mal nih bek phuah ding ahihdan:

1. Sap a nuam hi: Sakmin malnih hileh I lawm leh gual lak ah hi ta leh, nam dangte leh gam dang mite' a ding in zong theih baih in sap a nuam hi. Mal tam lua leh I min diktak theihkhialh in a om kha thei hi.
2. Tom litlet leh gelh baih: Sakmin a sau luat ciang in midang a diak in nam dangte a ding in sap haksa, theih haksa leh gelh khelh baihlam hi. Midangte'n min a tawn a hong sap khak ciang un, ki simmawhna in I ngaihsun kha thei hi. Tua ahih man in tom litlet ding, theih nuam, sap nuam leh gelh nuam ding a phuah ding thupi mahmah hi.
3. Deihna kim thei veve hi: Mal nih bek ahih hang in, a phuaktu in a deihsakna, maban a ding thupha, leh a lungsim taktak a mal nih sung ah kicing takin a guan thei veve hi. "Lian", "Muan", "Kim", leh "Suan" cih bang kammalte lak ah mal khat I guan ciang in, a khiatna thuk in kicing mahmah hi.