The significance of E-Pao Chat platform

Nimita Laishram *

It is pretty reasonable that e-pao.net have close down the chat site. Certainly, the number of users had been declining over the years. As an active user, I had witnessed this decline myself. I think much of it must have been attributed to the fact that there is now state of art social networking platforms like Facebook.

It's indeed interesting to observe that social media platforms are becoming so powerful that I can foresee it as the fifth estate. Our lifestyle almost seems to be dictated by what's happening in social media from what we should wear, eat, travel or run our family, there is a continuous need of self-preservation being felt under the constant glare of online community.

Although, I have often been criticized for failing to capitalize from social media platforms like Facebook, I seemed to have done pretty well for myself even with its huge absence in my life. Nonetheless, I have not written this, to discuss on social media but about the significance of E-Pao Chat platform.

I have been told that this site had been developed by some of the finest minds and accomplished professionals from Manipur. My question, to the team is that in the light of the fact that the chat site has now become obsolete; do we just close it down? Is this the best solution?

I think over the years the chat site has given a lot to several anonymous individuals, including myself. Indeed it has even shaped the thoughts of many of us ,especially those of us who belong to the first generation of meitei's, who were neither born nor brought up in Manipur.

Due to our compelling circumstances, we didn't have much opportunity to be part of the community, except for spending couple of days in Manipur when we came home for summer or winter break. Trust me spending couple of days in Manipur isn't good enough to understand your culture.

Unlike most parents who feel that they have done their due diligence by taking their kids on an annual break in Manipur. It's like a yardstick of good parental skills, on how much a dose of the culture could they actually get for their kids in those annual vacations.

To me it felt more like an exposure visit overdosed by the cultural prejudices of my own parents. For years, I held on to those prejudices, till the time I got an opportunity through the online medium to actually come out of the ivory towers of culture and step-down to check what crap are they actually talking about ?

I can only see this issue becoming even more chronic with the increasing number of Manipur diaspora's. The chat site was bridging that gap, irrespective of the fact that many a times what was spoken out here was nothing but pumping crap!

Besides, isn't technology all about constantly innovating? Should we just close down because there is no more engagement? It's hard for me to imagine that some of the finest minds from Manipur have stopped innovating themselves. Are we missing something here?

Isn't technology supposed to become obsolete which is its intrinsic quality? Isn't this challenge of making the technology relevant to the present context, should be the most appealing aspect, to many of us who like to explore new possibilities?

* Perhaps, I am under the wrong notion that once anything is obsolete, it's time that I should learn to accept it and bid farewell. We should learn to give it a grand burial with guns salutes, commemorating its glorious days. *