“BEEEEP” the phone rang as I was about to doze off in the midst of my lecture. Even though I had declined the call it continued to ring. Finally I couldn’t resist and I picked up the call and an inhumane person on the other side of the phone suddenly spoke, “Hello Mrs. Nitara, your son has crossed his limits and behaved immensely unruly in the school today. We want you to be present in the principal’s office at 1.p.m sharp, as we need to urgently talk about today,” as she violently hung up the call. The day had a wonderful start with an argument with my boss and now a complaint about my son Aron gave another reason to get a cup of coffee.
As I waited outside the principal's office it felt as though it would take one more eternity to finally meet her. As I entered her office I saw my son with tears filling his eyes but I could not look at him due to the shameful act he had casually presented in the school today, with the tones of disappointment and anger the principal shrugged and recited the whole incident, “Mrs. Nitara your son has insulted a Manipuri kid by calling him not an Indian and outsider. During the history class he laughed out in front of the whole class telling others that they ‘NEVER CONTRIBUTED TO THE HISTORY OF INDIA.’” Hearing this my eyes turned red, I could hear steam coming out of my ears. I wanted to throw the vase and crunch up the flowers that were beside the sofa in her cabin. My husband and I had definitely not raised our son for us to see a day like this. On our way back home in the car I did not speak a word to Aron but he begged for forgiveness.
I could not sleep the following night. It felt as if my son had stabbed me with a knife but I was forbidden to remove it from my back so I continued to live in that pain. However, I realised that instead of sulking I could find ways through which I could teach my son a lesson so that he remembers that every state, every city, every district and every village has always been a proud Indian. With that, I came to a conclusion to introduce him to The Ahoms.
Ahoms were small but an empire full of bravery and courage. They ruled the North Eastern part of India for 600 years, can you imagine! It is not a small feat to hold power in a region for over 6 centuries, if that was not surprising then they even defeated the Mughals 17 TIMES! How could my son have ever wanted to tell others that this community does not deserve any recognition. Lachit Borphukan was one of the greatest generals India had ever seen who led along with a small army without any hesitation and had defeated the Mughal army which consisted of 30,000 infantry, 15,000 archers, 18,000 Turkish cavaliers and 5,000 gunners. We only need sheer determination and self-belief to sometimes even win over the world. Others may celebrate 24th November as Children's Day or former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s birthday; however, very few people know about Lachit Divas which is celebrated on the same day to honour our national hero.
We Indians may racially discriminate against our own north eastern brothers and sisters by calling them out with various slurs but what we may not realise is that they were very much a part of our country for the past many years and are proud INDIANS just like all of us.
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