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.