Benito Z. Swu
A blind man, who had never seen from his birth, found a lady who inspite of him being blind, fell in love with him and became his wife. Several children became theirs, who tenderly loved their blind father. An eminent physician met the blind man and informed him that his sight could be restored. The operation was performed successfully. The father was handed a rose; he had smelled one, but had never seen one before. Then he looked upon the face of his wife, who had been so true. And then the children, all of whom he had so often fondled, were brought to him. All at once he exclaimed: “Oh! Why have I seen all these before enquiring for the man by whose skill I have been enabled to behold them! Show me the doctor? Show me the one because of whom I have been given this wonderful and colorful new lease of life?Yes Sir, Sweet Jesus, you are our doctor, our mentor, our guide and our God. You are our father. Better late than never, father; Here’s a belated “Happy father’s day” wish to you. You are the reason for people wanting to become better human beings. You opened up all of our eyes. You opened up all of our mind. You opened up, infact, all of our senses. You showed us that there is no place for fear, for doubt, for apprehensions, and that there is always a way for victory as long as we have God in our side. But again, knowingly and unknowingly, the moment we get back our sight, our priority shifts, and we even forget you. Our flowers, our wives and our children takes the front row, relegating you somewhere in the back. I, for one, will not tire of asking forgiveness.
You made it very clear and transparent about the fact that in any given situation or circumstances, anywhere on earth, there will always be the skeptic, there will always be the critic, there will always be the Thomasic minds, if we, very simply, prefer to open up only that negativistic door of our ‘being human’ mind. Yes, we are aware that there is atleast a kernel of truth in what a critic says. But we abuse even this small truth and justify it all by turning it into a foothold to dive exclusively into that pool of pessimism and negativism. We are guilty of not opening up the mind-door of positivism and being optimistic, which you want from us, and allowing that mindframe to take root and breed. We do understand that, by doing so, all the negativism will only get itself burnt out automatically on its own. Ultimately, whose loss if we fail to do and be so? Our loss, Sir.
One’s spiritual wellbeing may not amount to even the size of the smallest metacarpal bone in self, but our Christian faith allows us to touch, read and quote the scriptures. Yours truly, therefore, takes this liberty to quote from The Book, wherein in 1 Tim. 3; 1-2, Paul cautioned Timothy to make sure that each man who wanted to serve was a certain kind of man. Again, in the same breath, as in Titus 1, we hear Paul cautioning Titus to ensure that men measured up to certain qualifications. Many of us, likeminded people, never ever measured up to the qualifications for us to be called sons. We were but, beggars. But beggars who decided to sleep hungry rather than torture our principle and moral conduct before the smiling, smirking face of the dispensers. However, miraculously today, inspite of us having no qualifications, you even took us to be called your sons. Woe to us, who fails to live upto your expectation, the bar of which you have set even so low that all may qualify. Dear father, you have clearly showed us that power politics is not just all about secrecy and closed door phenomenons. We are in awe of the transparency of the politics played by you, and the transformative changes that you have brought forth to our land, without even a hint of anybody raising a restless or an opposing higher-pitch voice. Why so? Because there is nothing to complain about, and eeevverything was so transparent.
The all party government that we now have in our state is uniquely unique on many fronts. Extra-ordinary times require extra-ordinary measures. For us Nagas, the times today are not ordinary times. Under such circumstances, it will be a tragedy if we fail to respect our Naga identity before the political party identity. In failing to do so, we risk throwing out the baby along with the bath-water. The people also will not forgive rocking the boat at this juncture. We all just have to remember that, father knows best.
