About Manipur

Happy New Year 2016

/ Monica Ingudam / Leave a comment
Happy New Year 2016

Happy New Year 2016

Wishing everyone a very Happy New Year 2016.

The picture in our 2016 Calendar is the beautiful Dzukou valley of my native place, Manipur. A beautiful photograph taken by Loyangamba Khundongbam capturing the Dzukou lily with the green luscious hills at the backdrop. The Calendar Format is from e-pao.net and printed at Lumen World in Imphal, Manipur, a small memento for the family of FindingTheVoices. For those away from Imphal and not able to get the hard copy of the Calendar, I will be very happy if you will download this Calendar and make this your Calendar for 2016.

Born and raised in the violence-torn landscape of Manipur, I have a vision to promote and spread inspiring, empowering, educative & entertaining stories. I believe that we can create contents bringing the positive side of Manipur. I believe we can do this together by finding the voices, voices which needs to be heard and shared, voices of the people, people all over the world. I believe that these voices will bring a change and connect all of us.

We are in our 4th year of pod casting and progressing our content and productions with time, we have had a tremendous positive response from our viewers and listeners. And from the messages received from various age groups, our programs continues to touch our vision of getting our listeners and viewers inspired, educated, empowered and entertained. I believe that these stories will bring a change and positive thinking to many individuals. I believe that this will definitely contribute to change the scenery of the conflict and violence-torn to peace and progress in our society.

Thanks to each and everyone for your support. Happy New Year 2016 and to more Finding The Voices.

S02E32 FindingTheVoices: Tamara Reisdorf From Germany, First time Author, Nanowrimo 2015 Winner

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FindingTheVoices: Tamara Reisdorf From Germany, First time Author, Nanowrimo 2015 Winner
Guest Speaker : Tamara Reisdorf
Interview Location: Web Interview, Guest Speaker joining in, from Germany.
Language: Interview in English

I love the concept of Nanowrimo , to write a novel in 1 month. On November 1, participants begin working towards the goal of writing a 50,000-word novel by 11:59 PM on November 30. We have Tamara Reisdorf from Germany, First time Author and Nanowrimo 2015 Winner sharing about her experience. It was really great to learn her experience and Nanowrimo is a great platform for first time author, trying to write with the drive and support, to pour out the 50K words floating in your mind into written words.

A little bit about Tamara Reisdorf in her own words:

My name is Tamara Reisdorf. I am a 24-year old german, social worker and participated this year for the first time in Nanowrimo. Currently I am getting a master degree and there I specialize in grief/loss/death and social work related to this. At the moment my thesis is about how grief is shown in children’s books. Afterwords I plan to do a Phd in the same research field. This inspired me to write my novel about a 11-year old girl (Prim), who lost her sister a few weeks ago. Therefore she is full of grief and sadness. Then she meets Alma who is a Bothynum which is a little creature that gets send to humans, who are going through a hard time. Only the human who they get send to can see them. Together they experience the loss in the family, the burial and different things.

S02E31 FindingTheVoices: Ingudam Manoranjan, Entrepreneur from Manipur, Founder of Vbooky

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FindingTheVoices: Ingudam Manoranjan, Entrepreneur from Manipur, Founder of Vbooky.
Guest Speaker : Ingudam Manoranjan
 
Interview Location: Bangalore, India
Language: Interview in English
Interview of Ingudam Manoranjan, Entrepreneur from Manipur, CEO of Vbooky. We spoke in-depth about his journey in taking up the path to building up the product from ground up and finally being deployed and used. It’s very interesting to hear the technical as well as the team and market dynamics in building a product and running a startup company. He also shared about the strategy on recruiting his team members and what they look for as they are expanding their company.
VBooky is an online marketplace for beauty and wellness services for a particular location.

VBooky has been started by 3 enthusiastic technologists, powered by a talented team & driven by the single desire for delivering better customer experience through technology & operational excellence. VBooky is derived from “We[V] Book You” & strives to bring the best customer experience & convenience to you.

I got the opportunity to meet the young and dynamic team and got a glimpse of their workplace, a team who gives their best. I love technology and found it extremely interesting, listening to the young team on their solution, vision and plan for the company. It’s been just a year and it’s encouraging to see the tremendous progress, growth and expansion  of the company. I wish and see a very bright future and success for all of them, a team who are not afraid to pursue their dreams giving their best.

As I walked out from the Vbooky office, I felt this extreme sense of pride with the realisation that, this young man, Ingudam Manoranjan from Manipur has co-founded a company, hiring teams in Bangalore. I started my career in Bangalore working for Wipro and have seen many of us working for companies founded by others. Now we have many companies all over the world, founded by people from Manipur and I am in search for their voice to feature their talent and story to the world.

MI_5Born and raised in the violence-torn landscape of Manipur, I have a vision to promote and spread inspiring, empowering, educative & entertaining stories. I believe that we can create contents bringing the positive side of Manipur. I believe we can do this together by finding the voices, voices which needs to be heard and shared, voices of our own people, people of Manipur and well-wishers of Manipur. I believe that these voices will bring a change and connect all of us.

I welcome you to join me in my journey to finding the voices at Http://FindingTheVoices.com/

S02E30 FindingTheVoices: Interview of John MPamei Musician from Tamenglong Manipur.

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FindingTheVoices: Interview of John MPamei Musician from Tamenglong Manipur.
Guest Speaker : John MPamei
Interview Location: Web Interview, Guest Speaker joining in, from Qatar.
Language: Interview in English
John Mpamei is a musician from Tamenglong, Manipur. He shared about his journey of being a musician. He is specialized in Guitar, Piano, Violin and vocal. He is currently teaching music at Doha, Qatar. He shared his pain with the situation in Manipur with the media portraying the divide between the hill and valley, but gave a very hopeful message for peace, unity and progress in our beautiful land. He shared very interesting perspective and experiences which he faced.
Congratulations on John MPamei’s  first music Album Far Away released on 21st Dec 2015.  Be sure to get a copy of his Album from iTunes.

MI_5Born and raised in the violence-torn landscape of Manipur, I have a vision to promote and spread inspiring, empowering, educative & entertaining stories. I believe that we can create contents bringing the positive side of Manipur. I believe we can do this together by finding the voices, voices which needs to be heard and shared, voices of our own people, people of Manipur and well-wishers of Manipur. I believe that these voices will bring a change and connect all of us.

I welcome you to join me in my journey to finding the voices at Http://FindingTheVoices.com/

S02E29 FindingTheVoices: Bung Keisham, fashion designer from Manipur, sharing about his work and life (Part 2)

/ Monica Ingudam / 1 Comment
FindingTheVoices: Bung Keisham, fashion designer from Manipur, sharing about his work and life.
Guest Speaker : Bung Keisham
Interview Location: Web Interview, Guest Speaker joining in, from Netherlands.
Language: Interview in English
Bung Keisham, Fashion designer from Manipur shared about his rough childhood and dealing with the unacceptance of his identity as a gay. This was covered in the first part of the interview.
In this 2nd part of his interview, he shared about his work. It’s interesting to learn the details about his work. He is working on Kids wear and I am looking forward to see the collection. He also shared about life in Netherlands.

MI_5Born and raised in the violence-torn landscape of Manipur, I have a vision to promote and spread inspiring, empowering, educative & entertaining stories. I believe that we can create contents bringing the positive side of Manipur. I believe we can do this together by finding the voices, voices which needs to be heard and shared, voices of our own people, people of Manipur and well-wishers of Manipur. I believe that these voices will bring a change and connect all of us.

I welcome you to join me in my journey to finding the voices at Http://FindingTheVoices.com/

Kishalay Bhattacharjee, Danger of a single story from Manipur

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Today, I want to share a video of covered by iValley Talks. This video was shared more than 1 year ago way back in July 2014 with only 596 views. In this video, Kishalay Bhattacharjee talks about the danger of a single story from Manipur. Kishalay Bhattacharjee, an author, a senior journalist who has been with broadcast television for twenty years, seventeen of which he spent at New Delhi Television (NDTV) where he was a Resident Editor covering conflict in India’s North-East. He is a regular columnist and speaker on conflict and post-conflict situations in India.

First of all I would like to thank and recognize the work of Kishalay Bhattacharjee and also to each and every brave journalists reporting the conflicts stories of Manipur. Their reports have given a glimpse to the world of the conflicts and issues of Manipur. In this video, he talks about what and how he has failed to cover other stories, stories which are important in breaking the stereotype image the world sees. He has covered only the images of violence. And in his attempt to cover other stories he has written the books “Che in Paona Bazaar” and “Blood on my hands: Confessions of staged encounters”

He is right, there are a lot of stories which needs to be covered, stories where people rise and celebrate life in the midst of the conflict. There are stories of people working together showing hope, unity, integration and progress in the conflict zone.

People (both government officials and public) working together and rising up. Such stories aren’t covered. But you will see stories of the divide amongst people and people OR people and system, covered in bold with the same title and content (even with the mistakes carried over), being circulated.

Let me give an example. During the flood and landslides calamities in Manipur this year, the people (irrespective of ethnic community) came together reaching out to the people affected in the valley and hills. This was an empowering example of people coming together. Then, there are the army officials who worked very hard in repairing the roads for the people. Where are these stories ? Aren’t these stories important ? There is no divide in this effort and so this story didn’t reach the media.

So yes, I definitely echo that we need to change the single story portrayed in the media. And I am in the quest for FindingTheVoices, I believe that these stories will bring a change and create a positive image of Manipur and positive thinking to many individuals. I believe that this will definitely contribute to change the scenery of the conflict and violence-torn to peace and progress in our society.

Reference: IVALLEY TALKS

S02E28 FindingTheVoices: Bung Keisham, fashion designer from Manipur sharing about being gay. (Part 1)

/ Monica Ingudam / 1 Comment
FindingTheVoices: Bung Keisham, fashion designer from Manipur, sharing about being gay.
Guest Speaker : Bung Keisham
Interview Location: Web Interview, Guest Speaker joining in, from Netherlands.
Language: Interview in English

Bung Keisham, Fashion designer from Manipur shared about his rough childhood and dealing with the unacceptance of his identity as a gay.

 “The first time I knew I was different was when I wanted to buy Manipuri dolls. I was locked in the house and beaten up because I liked girl’s things. I was taken to the psychiatrist to change my thinking. I tried to commit suicide multiple times. I wasn’t accepted the way I am.”
This is the first part of the interview, please come back for the 2nd part.

MI_5Born and raised in the violence-torn landscape of Manipur, I have a vision to promote and spread inspiring, empowering, educative & entertaining stories. I believe that we can create contents bringing the positive side of Manipur. I believe we can do this together by finding the voices, voices which needs to be heard and shared, voices of our own people, people of Manipur and well-wishers of Manipur. I believe that these voices will bring a change and connect all of us.

I welcome you to join me in my journey to finding the voices at Http://FindingTheVoices.com/

S02E27 FindingTheVoices: Juliana Phaomei, a rongmei kabui tribal student from Manipur

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FindingTheVoices: Meeting with Juliana Phaomei, a rongmei kabui tribal student from Manipur

Guest Speaker : Juliana Phaomei , student, blogger at This Life, My Day   

Interview Location: Video Call , Juliana joined in from Bangalore.

Language: Videocast in English

Meeting with Juliana Phaomei, a rongmei kabui tribal student from Manipur.

I met her to get her feedback and input as part of our outreach campaign of FindingTheVoices. I received such great feedback and was very excited to answer her questions, listening to her views/feedback. I am really happy to meet young people from Manipur who believe in peace and progress. She also asked me great questions, where I got an opportunity to share my vision and thoughts. Juliana is a young 20 year old student filled with great ideas and spirit, seeking change, a change and integration we need in Manipur. This was not a planned episode but I have to share her voice and her questions. This is just the beginning.

MI_5Born and raised in the violence-torn landscape of Manipur, I have a vision to promote and spread inspiring, empowering, educative & entertaining stories. I believe that we can create contents bringing the positive side of Manipur. I believe we can do this together by finding the voices, voices which needs to be heard and shared, voices of our own people, people of Manipur and well-wishers of Manipur. I believe that these voices will bring a change and connect all of us.

We have completed 3 years of pod casting and have had a tremendous positive response from our viewers and listeners. And from the messages received from various age groups, our programs achieved our vision of getting our listeners and viewers inspired, educated, empowered and entertained.

I believe that these stories will bring a change and create a positive image of Manipur and positive thinking to many individuals. I believe that this will definitely contribute to change the scenery of the conflict and violence-torn to peace and progress in our society.

I am seeking out for collaboration to include you. Inviting you to join me in my journey of FindingTheVoices by making this your own.

http://FindingTheVoices.com

 

S02E26 FindingTheVoices: Moirangthem Inao legendary radio playwright of Manipur Part 2

/ Monica Ingudam / 1 Comment

S02E26 FindingTheVoices Moirangthem Inao legendary radio playwright of Manipur Part 2

Guest Speaker : Moirangthem Inao

Interview Location: Imphal, Manipur, India

Language: Podcast in Meitei-lon (Manipuri)

An interview with Moirangthem Inao, a legendary radio drama script-writer. He is 70 years old. He has scripted more than 90 Radio plays and around 50 video/movies. This is Part 2 of his interview where he talks about students of Manipur, moments of hearing about getting awards for his work, journey of his financial struggles. He also shared very interesting details where he compared his production for Radio and Cinema. He shared about his personal life which influenced his choice of work.

Catch up Part 1 of his interview at S02E25 FindingTheVoices Moirangthem Inao legendary radio playwright of Manipur Part 1

I am a big fan of his work and grew up listening to his radio dramas broadcasted by All India Radio, Imphal. And to hear his journey and experience from him is an absolute honor.  His work are inspired by the social life in Manipur. His strength in his writing is bringing out human emotions with a mix of romance and tragedy.

“Anuradhapur Ashramgi Rajkumar”, “Lonthoktabagi Lon” “Chatledo eidi”, “Nongallabasu Thaballei Manam ” are some of his popular recognized work.

 

MI_5Born and raised in the violence-torn landscape of Manipur, I have a vision to promote and spread inspiring, empowering, educative & entertaining stories. I believe that we can create contents bringing the positive side of Manipur. I believe we can do this together by finding the voices, voices which needs to be heard and shared, voices of our own people, people of Manipur and well-wishers of Manipur. I believe that these voices will bring a change and connect all of us.

I welcome you to join me in my journey to finding the voices at Http://FindingTheVoices.com/