When I was about to shift out of Manipur to Guwahati, my mind was filled with endless number of thoughts; thoughts of adjustment to new environment, new job, finding a place to stay, etc etc...But today if you ask me, I have done pretty well in terms of everything...i have found some good frens among colleagues and a place to chill out at a place called GAGAAN apartment (courtesy: Dilip singh) . Guwahati has treated me well so far and my boy (Classic 350 Royal Enfield) will soon join me on my verge to unwind this region.
Over a period of time I have realized the importance of being present in one's present, one's life cycle and staying connected with external factors. Importance of living one day at a time; living to its fullest and bringing in more meaning to it by reaching out to more and more people and being a catalyst for life changing processes in other lives. Afterall, everybody dreams of having a fulfilled death one day or the other, me included.
When I take a snapshot of my life (past and current days), I feel more relaxed and am able to discover many facets of myself whenever I get a chance to do that during weekends. I like spending time to myself and it really helps me connect with the so called 'self' underlying within me, though the thoughts tries to get out of my grip, only at times...you eat what you like to eat to make you happy, you get bored for yourself and no one else, you sleep tight when you want to, you want to love someone for yourself and not for others...the mantra is being present in oneself and being at the moment, heart and soul.
Last few days, I was on tour to Meghalaya in parts of West Khasi Hills and Jaintia Hills. I have never travelled to Meghalaya in so much detail and with so much feeling of belongingness to this region. I guess that came very naturally as i have studied my three beautiful childhood years in this part of the region. In a sense, I was revisiting my past filled with much expectations and hopes.
Shillong, the capital city (Scotland of East) still stands unshaken, preserved in its mouth watering beauties, natural vegetation, the famous Maruti taxis and buzzling sounds of people. The city has developed at a very fast pace and can confidently say that it is 'the next town boy after Guwahati (among capitals in NE region)'. The booze are cheap here too. Even the sight of 'War's lake' in the middle of the city is enough to awake a person from his sleepy existence and instill a sense of love for the place.
The roads connecting West Khasi Hills and Jaintia Hills from Shillong were quiet different and had something unique about each of the roads. However, I enjoyed the road to Jaintia Hills as it was more straight, took lesser time and also had my old school on the way (got few snapshots). The sight on either side of the road, however, remains breathtaking.
During my trip to Jaintia Hills, Meghalaya we visited quite a number of health facilities ranging from Sub centres to Civil Hospital. Every level of the health facility provided us in-depth knowledge of the prevailing health conditions/status of the people, quality of services being provided, involvement of local authorities for better management of health programmes and so on. And I would not say, it is very much different from the health facilities in the rest of the NE region. The health infrastructure (whatever was existent) was well maintained though.
People were very kind wherever we went, served us to the best of food, followed by kwai (local paan). I connected really well with the people around. I guess I was able to do that as I was from this side of the region (added by my friendly nature with people).
We saw that the quality of health services still have to permeate at the field level (peripheral regions). For example, the load at Civil hospital was really high whereas it was negligible in some health facilities. In most instances, the load gets added up due to referrals from peripheral region due to inability to provide the required service or non existent of such service.
In some cases, the home deliveries was conducted by the relatives of the delivering women and was quite obvious as seen from the Auxiliary Nurse Midwives' register. Nobody dared thought about the safety of these women and their new borns? We have to realize that we are living in 2010 (Gone are those days). It is just one example from many such examples and hardships that people living in far flung areas have to encounter on daily basis. The India's vision to effective decentralization (power to make decisions locally) on aspects of health is yet to be seen in true spirit. I hope with years to come people will become more aware, start questioning the system about one's health rights and take charge of their own health situations locally. Otherwise, we may never be able to achieve the MDGs.
I,too, form a part of this section of society who lend voice for the unheard vocies to be heard.
I say there are four types of people in this world:
1. People work or be part of the system to bring a change in the system.
2. People work or be part of the sytem to get absorbed in the system.
3. People work or be part of the system to give up from the system.
4. People who dare not get into the sytem due to various reasons.
The choice is yours!!!! Choose one!!!
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