Every 27 minutes someone receives an organ transplant. Every 144 minutes someone dies waiting for that transplant. Given the sick nature of Manipur, and its more than gravely diseased condition, it would be dead at least once every 2 ½ hours.

How it manages to resurrect itself from the dead is another matter, but it is sick nevertheless. Sick in every part, parcel and fiber of its entire being. A sick thing for which a complete transplantation of each and every organ may be the only remedy left.

Not many people will openly declare what they really think about the sick state of our society. Neither will they openly discuss opinions on the sicknesses that affect us. It is not their fault though.

The disease will not have the grace to apologize, even if it knows that it is wrong. It will strike at them long and hard instead. It will seek a pound of its own flesh and blood. And kill us all once every 144 minutes.

Nothing has lent greater decay to the prevailing multiple failures of Manipur than the principle of terror, first adumbrated in the work of 1970-era rebels, and now entrenched in most revolutionary departments statewide.

The widely shared understanding - known in scholarly circles as 'insurgency', 'extremism', or 'terrorism', assumes that these conditions are the result of the exploitation, corruption, and civil strife characteristic of our times. But that is perhaps too general an assumption.

In simpler circumstances, Manipur would have enjoyed a perfect harmony with its environment. It would have got along just fine. Ours is not so unendurable a place. Not exceedingly rich, in any sense of the term, but one which could look after itself.

As for such common 'revolutionary' customs as demand letters, demand phone-calls, kidnapping, punishments, executions, they would at once become unwelcome practices subject to collective condemnation.

Fear is the key. It is the key, the lock, stock and barrel that have made a profound impression on both personal well-being and popular imagination.

Among other effects, the marriages of convenience of an impotent government, and a relentless pressure on state security have helped create more hysterical reactionism. This has resulted in the continuance and maintenance of illegal practices that have harmed and endangered collective health and well-being.

The disrespect for collective health has undoubtedly done more damage for Manipur than other generalized abstractions of exploitation and strife. Such attitudes are a feature common to all societies, but it becomes more pervasive in an isolated society like ours.

Life itself becomes guarded long after its circumstances become unbearable. There is maleficence on every part of its being. The damage, regardless of its many justifications, has still been done.

Where there is an absence of remedies, populations tend to stick with traditional solutions to common problems even if they are visibly unhappy with the quality of these solutions.

The inherent conservatism of our society, not only works to prevent innovation but breeds suspicious attitudes toward any form of change. Worse still, because a sick society has such a diseased understanding, it often makes erroneous causal inferences, attributing all manner of ills and disasters to everyone except itself.

But living in perpetual terror of wrathful ghosts is nothing compared to the everyday difficulties and misery of most parts of Manipur. I am sure I am not overstating the case. Poor health is one feature; non-availability of life saving drugs is the outstanding feature.

Poor rainfall is one feature; non-availability of fertilizers is the outstanding feature. A bad road is one feature; blocking it is the outstanding feature. A bad market economy is one feature; a legitimized black market is the outstanding feature.

A five-figure income is one feature; a six or seven-figure demand is the outstanding feature. With so many outstanding features of collective misery, it is no surprise that Manipur has been brought to its knees. It is more dead than alive.

If Manipur has managed to endure all this, it surely must know better than to mistreat the sources of its sustenance. History does not necessarily have to repeat itself.

A particularly tragic feature is the rigidly defined concept of declaring guilty until proven innocent, which is, among other things, too easily translated into personal concepts of justice. It would be both suicidal and morally callous to continue on this path.

Other obvious factors point to our steady demise. We are beset by a homicide rate comparable to that of any inner-city ghetto. The dead and wounded just keep piling up.

There is not a single part of Manipur out of range of an itchy trigger finger. There are no weapons without loaded chambers. There is nothing that cannot be fired upon.

To be sure, unhealthy practices have flourished, and continue to exist. The excessive emphasis on self-flagellation has brought about such losses that the consequences now threaten our common well-being.

But there is a sharp qualitative distinction between getting better and worse. After all, it is only holistic healing that prevails over painful surgical techniques, where every living part enjoys real health and wealth, and where the specter of pain, suffering, and death no longer haunts everyday life.

It is allowed to look back and give yourself a kick on the backside whenever you deserve it. Don't break your arm in the process though. Don't beat yourself senseless over your condition.

Everyone gets sick sometime. There is need for balance at all levels. Everyone that is sick has a chance to recover. Recovery varies from person to person. As you already know by now, life dishes out different flavors in unequal quantities. But ours need not be the hardest life.

One thing is for sure though. No matter how long the distance we have to cover, or how slow the progress might be, it is a race that is worth participating in.

We have always loved the part about ourselves that is good and true. It is time to find and live that part again. Time to seek and save what is left of our lives.

Time to think about a new word - Transplantation.