E-Pao! - a journey through 2003
- IV Anniversary -

Have you seen the new E-Pao? Of course, you have!

The new look went live on 31st December 2003 and it commemorates the completion of 4 years of e-pao.net's existence. 4 Years! That means E-Pao! has news archived from 31st December 1999 till date. This version is designed to move us towards the portal look. That's the most noticeable change. The snippets and sports news that used to be clubbed together are separated now. The rest of it is pretty much the same. All contents are still organized in the same way as before. We are also introducing the 'News in Picture' with this version of E-Pao!. That reminds me to bring to notice the immense storage of graphical image related to Manipur that we have under the Galleries section.

E-Pao! has been bridging the thought gap between Manipuris (not necessarily only from Manipur) that are spread out on the planet Earth. Wherever they have dotted the Planet Earth, they are now more visible and their voices more audible. A Manipuri living in Canada is able to hear when his brethren in Dubai or Bangladesh speak out. As each of them become rich with exposure and gain experience, it offers them an opportunity to view Manipur from a different angle. Each such idea is a precious drop and we are all too familiar that the ocean is made of many such drops. As each one strives to carve a niche for themselves in their career, they also create a distinctive space for all Manipuris to come and share. This is the way of the "Global Manipuri Thinking" - Strong, Independent and Competitive. E-Pao! would like to walk along with them and lend the right platform for their thoughts.

One such Manipuri that could be remembered this year is Miss Rina Baruah Nameirakpam who was one of the final four for the reckoning for the prestigious Business Woman of 2003 (Corporate Category) in the Asian Women of Achievement Awards. E-Pao! have come to know the person that is Rina in the build up to the Awards and we are so honored to have been associated with her. We are sure all Manipuris out there is proud of her too.

The find of 2003 has to be Ranjan Yumnam. He is a fine young man with a talent to match. His Opinions corner has been quite popular. It's interesting to note that his articles has started quite a many discussions and incited replies of all sorts from various readers. There are various other users who also have sent in their essays, commentary or opinions on the current issues. We often see a reply to the original article, which sheds more light or offers another view of the same topic. We have webcasted these replies as articles in the hope to connect all these pieces of ideas and to help kindle the thought process. These are all 'thought processes' that starts other thought processes.

Various discussions that take place in the 'Manipuri Diaspora' group are also summarized and are loaded into the E-Pao! from time to time. We believe this would give more visibility to the various intellectual discussions that happen over there.

Our own E-Pao! Message Board also has seen many an in-depth discussions on various issues and interest.

All these are pretty encouraging for us and it can only re-affirm all of us of the emerging global Manipuri thinking. What can we say? Keep it up.

Other very worthy contributors are GS Oinam whose well-researched articles is a treasure trove. The timely news from Oken Jeet, K Zou and several others had been a treat for the E-Pao! users. We would like to thank all those who have selflessly contributed to E-Pao! and made this site a truly exciting site for all of us. The names are many and we are not able to list them all.

Another great thing this year is that there were no elections held in Manipur this year. After seeing so much of political instability and as many as 2 elections between 2000 and 2003, we were sort of expecting it anytime.

The Poetry section is growing considerably. We are sure everybody is pleasantly surprised to come across such enormous talent in writing English poetry. Contributions for this section keep pouring in and we are more than happy to share it with everybody. There are many repeat contributions from the poets that we have dedicated separate poems corners for each of the regular contributors. You can catch Arjun, Dr. Robert, Santosh, Sarat, Sidhartha, Dr. Nelson (Yes! History showed us that doctors can be very poetic), Borkanya, Helena, Ashalata and much more. There are also Meiteilon poems, which are scripted with English alphabets. E-Pao! would really love to see them in meiteilon script one day. E-Pao! also would be happy to receive poetry written in other languages of the state like Kabui or Tangkhul, and all the language spoken in Manipur.

E-Pao! was also associated with the Miss Manipur 2003 pageant organized by TAPRO. Eager voters polled Ms Tanushree as the Internet Queen in the online poll. Fashion is another hot area where global manipuris are pursuing their career. We had Mr. Roshan Ningombam designing a dress for Ms. Rina Baruah Nameirakpam for the AWA Awards (sponsored by E-Pao!). A Manipuri designer designing the dress for a Manipuri on her moment of world-wide recognition. That was poetic justice. While on the Fashion subject, we were proud when Ms Sucheta Wangkhem became the Bombay Dyeing Gladrags Mrs. India 2003 runners-up in the nationally televised event.

One section that became really popular this year is the "Job-Posting". It started with few of our readers wanting to share information on job requirements in their respective companies. It was a true people movement, which gained momentum and E-Pao! has at any given time many such information listed in this section. The "wanting to help others" that was evident amongst us in this information sharing was, to say the least, very commendable. What could be more satisfying for us than receiving thank you notes on the jobs secured through this information sharing system.

The Yellow Page (YP) database is also much accessed. So are the e-Frenz profiles, which crossed the magical 1500+ mark.

Like the slogan says, "Complete e-platform for the Manipuris" - we would like to stress upon the point that e-pao.net is indeed an e-platform for the global Manipuri.

2004 is starting and we are looking forward to more of your support and love.

Wish you all a happy new year.

As usual …
With a smile,
Team E-Pao!