MAGAZINE SEVENTH EDITION - "THINGS FALL APART"

Where do we stand and how do we perceive the world around us? Is it a case of “us” against “them” or is it a case of “us” against “us”? Perhaps civilization and barbarism has always occurred in alternating phases, each of which started slowly and gradually they spiralled outwards in wider and wider extremes, until it finally gave way to a new and opposed phase. The centre is unable to hold its own. As a result things are falling apart into an anarchic situation ….perhaps bringing with it a new phase of bloodshed and violence.

Are we still the same people who stands with a single heartbeat for a greater cause or are we a community riven with internal conflicts and scars? Through the gory 80’s and the suffocation of twenty one years we thought that we had matured enough to take lessons from history. Indeed its time for retrospection. Ironically, if we look around there are more things that which holds us together than that which holds us apart. Did we not receive the same shock when a lady was murdered in broad daylight and did the same fear not grip us when the town became a live pandemonium? Then again we could not betray our humane sensibilities with the demise of Mrs.Ghising and the reaction that followed. Moreover last year at this time were not all the Darjeeling diasporas- be it from abroad or from neighbouring Sikkim –united in their support for Prashant Tamang and Prakriti Giri? Then how can NH31 divide us now….a situation which not even the natural borders of Teesta and Rangeet had ever created (as it had always been a fact more of geographical distinction than a political one).Yet, we also suffer from the same rains, hail, storm, landslides and quakes. Between such disasters yet there always has been hope when one witnesses our upcoming generation struggling for a better education-be it in Dooars or in Darjeeling which has left beautiful memories like the “Class of 52”. Indeed the youths today are more determined than ever to make a difference and not suffer the “Legacy of a Rowdy”- though a Rowdy also shares the same heartbeat.

Indeed, it is not a time for personal vengeance and political intrigues but a time to gather ourselves and change the way people think, the way we behave in order to produce a more just and equitable relation among ourselves. It is a time to look not from above but from within. Gorkhaland is about a changing place, a place that has been changed by struggle and that which we all hope to change further for the better.


Shreyashi Chettri
Editor
DarjeelingTimes
letterstoed@darjeelingtimes.com