[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he people of Nagaland will be drunk with the festive mood till January 1. Three days into the festivities today the expenses of the people have sky-rocketed. The market rushes and jams say so. The business community is enjoying the brisk business. As the festive season advances the spending of the people also becomes heavier.
Well, it is a welcome change for the people after a year-long toil. Harvests are over and the education institutions have also started closing for a long winter vacation. It is also a time of family get-together and merry making. Indeed, this season is a good vitamin for everyone.
However, our only wish is to kill the snake without breaking the stick. We Nagas are yet to learn this art. We are a brake-failure society when comes to many things. We don’t think for tomorrow. One cause for this has been the hollow pride every one of us has. To our eyes the line of limit becomes blurred when we started indulging into something. Hence, we often cross the limit. Extravagance has become a matter of pride and appreciation, the trend which is eating up our Naga society. Most Nagas do not cut their coat according to our cloth.It may not be wrong to say that at this moment most Nagas will not see the world beyond the Christmas and the New Year celebrations. To quench our wants in markets and feasting will be the most privileged and dignified activities at the moment for all of us. You feel good and powerful when you spend more. But for how long can we go on like this?
Let us check our brake and see that The Hornbill Festival, the Christmas and the New Year celebrations are not the last ones. Expenditure for the benign cause will be heavy in the beginning of the year as the children will be going back to schools. Perhaps, ours is a practice of waste and rust.
We are running behind the trend. We desperately need our own Birlas, our very own Tatas, the Gates, the Ambanis…
