North East Indian

S02E36 FindingTheVoices: Moirangthem Loiya Ngamba, Wildlife & Habitat Protection Society, Punshilok, Manipur (Part 1)

/ Monica Ingudam / 2 Comments
FindingTheVoices: Moirangthem Loiya Ngamba , founder of  W.A.H.P.S (Wildlife And Habitat Protection Society) at Punshilok, Imphal, Manipur.
Language: Interview in Meiteilon (Manipuri)
Moirangthem Loiya Ngamba followed the calling to plant more trees and created a beautiful place at Punshilok, Imphal, Manipur. He started by living all alone in solitary on top of the hill. And slowly it expanded and extended to many young people providing a calm and spiritual place, a place to reflect on oneself. Meditation, music, silent retreat, connecting with nature, planting more trees in the hill are some of the activities. It’s amazing to hear the story of how some of the changes were seen amongst the youth who have been affected by the unrest and conflicts, giving focus and calmness in their life.
And a great satisfaction to convert a once barren hill to a hill with luscious greens and trees. I got an opportunity to visit the hill which is very close by from the heart of Imphal, with less than half an hour trek climbing up. Presenting the first part of the interview where he shared about the making of Punshilok and his journey.

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/

S02E35 FindingTheVoices: Sanhita Ambast, International Legal Advisor talks about Silence On AFSPA

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FindingTheVoices: Sanhita Ambast, International Legal Advisor talks about Silence On AFSPA
Guest Speaker : Sanhita Ambast
A web Interview, with Sanhita Ambast joining in from Delhi, India.
Language: Interview in English

I read the article “The Undemocratic Silence On AFSPA” written by Sanhita Ambast and featured at http://www.huffingtonpost.in. This article highlights about the silence from the government of India, 10 years after the Jeevan Reddy Committee submitted its report. It has done nothing about its recommendations.

Sanhita shared about AFSPA in Manipur and status about the “Jeevan Reddy Committee” and the findings and recommendations. We spoke about national and international bodies that echoed the recommendations of the Jeevan Reddy Committee.

Several UN bodies and experts have called on the Indian government to repeal the AFSPA. However, the government of India – 10 years after the Jeevan Reddy Committee submitted its report – has done nothing about its recommendations. And, as the answer to the question in the Rajya Sabha indicates, it has provided little meaningful explanation about why.

When the system takes so long to provide justice, can there be peace ? Where is the justice ?  Where is the hope for people opting for peaceful protest seeking for the system to work ? There has been compensations but compensation cannot replace Justice, and it is justice, the people are waiting.

Sanhita Ambast is the International Legal Advisor (South Asia) at the International Commission of Jurists. Sanhita graduated from the National Law School of India University, Bangalore. She has completed an LLM from Harvard Law School, and an MA in law and diplomacy from the Fletcher School at Tufts University, specializing in international human rights law.
AFSPA

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/

S02E34 FindingTheVoices: Mr. Arambam Boby (4 times Mr. World, 12 times Mr. India) speaks out – Part 2

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FindingTheVoices: Mr. Arambam Boby, 4 times Mr. World, 12 times Mr. India, a bodybuilder from Manipur speaks out (Part 2)
Guest Speaker : Mr. Arambam Boby
A Phone Interview, with Arambam Boby joining in from Guwahati, India.
Language: Interview in Meiteilon

Mr. Arambam Boby, bodybuilder from Manipur speaks out and shares his story with FindingTheVoices. He is 4 times Mr. World, 12 times Mr. India and has bagged many other titles.

And yet Findingthevoices is the first to interview him. Another reason of why we are here, we believe in the power of Internet, Youtube and sharing by the public covering voices which the media haven’t found.

Mr. Arambam Boby laments that when the state government of Manipur have ignored his achievements, what can he expect from the rest of India ? We as a community still need to progress in the field of recognition, learning to clap to celebrate achievements of an individual. He expressed his thanks for the support, encouragement given by the Railway department in Guwahati, where he is currently posted. His team has been very instrumental in all his participations of the body building events.

This is the second part of his interview where he spoke about the coverage and recognition of any achievement in the field of Bodybuilding. He shared about where Bodybuilding stands in India as compared to cricket. We spoke in appreciation of the article “Did Indian media just ignore the Mr. World from Manipur?” and thank Bhargab Sarmah for highlighting this.

He shared very interesting perspective of travelling, international and local career perspective and charm that comes as part of participating Bodybuilding events, competition and shows. He spoke details of what he follows to maintain his body.

Do catch up the first part of his interview, where he shared about his story on how he got into body building, his journey and experiences on his winnings and his reflections and lamenting on the lack of encouragement and recognition.

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/

S02E33 FindingTheVoices: Mr. Arambam Boby (4 times Mr. World, 12 times Mr. India) speaks out – Part 1

/ Monica Ingudam / 3 Comments
FindingTheVoices: Mr. Arambam Boby, 4 times Mr. World, 12 times Mr. India, a bodybuilder from Manipur speaks out (Part 1)
Guest Speaker : Mr. Arambam Boby
A Phone Interview, with Arambam Boby joining in from Guwahati, India.
Language: Interview in Meiteilon

Mr. Arambam Boby, bodybuilder from Manipur speaks out and shares his story with FindingTheVoices. He is 4 times Mr. World, 12 times Mr. India and has bagged many other titles.

And yet Findingthevoices is the first to interview him. Another reason of why we are here, we beleive in the power of Internet, Youtube and sharing by the public covering voices which the media haven’t found.

Mr. Arambam Boby laments that when the state government of Manipur have ignored his achievements, what can he expect from the rest of India ? We as a community still need to progress in the field of recognition, learning to clap to celebrate achievements of an individual.

He expressed his thanks for the support, encouragement given by the Railway department in Guwahati, where he is currently posted. His team has been very instrumental in all his participations of the body building events.

This is the first part of his interview, where he shared about his story on how he got into body building, his journey and experiences on his winnings and his reflections and lamenting on the lack of encouragement and recognition.

Please do check out for the second part of the interview.

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/

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.

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

/ Monica Ingudam / 1 Comment
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.

/ Monica Ingudam / 3 Comments
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

/ Monica Ingudam / Leave a comment

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