Ludwig Wittgenstein limited his world to the limits of his language. He may well have been speaking for all of us. All we know is what we have words for. All we speak is what we can read, hear or write. Whereof one cannot speak or understand, thereof one must remain silent. We cannot speak or understand anything beyond the walls of our familiar world, and I wonder what we would speak or understand when we step outside it. I wonder what we would do if our wild world came crashing down all around us.

We live in such a small world. 22,327 square kilometers, and it is all that we have ever known. Manipur has a peculiar allergy to all things non-local, and shuts itself in at the slightest provocation. It ever continues to implode inwards and bury itself deeper into its familiar hole of snug temporals. Every now and then, a violent commotion awakens it rudely from its inert stupor, and it makes all kinds of noises in subconscious protest.

But the lethargy soon returns; the annoying hassles are quickly forgotten, and it nods back to its familiar deep slumber. Our semi comatose repose makes it so much easier for all manner of villains to catch us napping, and to trample all over us with regular ignominy. Night falls early, and yet we sleep on, unmindful of the nightmares and terrors that deny us proper rest, and which sap our inner peace and calm to make invalids out of us all. In a world that never sleeps, we are a state that never wakes up.

Man has to awaken to wonder - and so perhaps do peoples. We have to wonder at the gifts that nature has freely bestowed upon us, and how we have abused that gift or have taken it for granted. Our forests no longer contain the rich variety of flora and fauna that was in abundance earlier. Our rivers and streams are virtually devoid of marine life, and the scarcity of water has become an alarming and ironic reality in this traditionally rain soaked land. Our lands slide and sink deeper without a protective canopy against the relentless monsoons.

Our fields and gardens don't do as well as they used to. Every passing season seems more extreme than the last. Just when we think it can't get any worse than this, something or the other always worsens it. Just when we think we've hit rock bottom, we sink to yet another low. If this is the land of jewels, then we must have sold, extorted, or pawned off all its treasures. What remains is an empty shell: soon to be consigned to the eternity of dust. It is not only our feathered and four-legged species that are an endangered lot. The threat of extinction applies to all of us. All of us hang in the balance, and extinction is in the end based on nothing else but imbalance.

Nature has provided a time- tested method of checks and balances to sustain the mysterious force called life. While there are exceptions and uncertainties among all forms of life, it is generally true that there is a connection between all living creatures - from the lowest microscopic one-celled organisms to man himself. Besides being the most intelligent and inventive of all animals, man is also the most interfering and destructive of all creatures. He values and cherishes his own life, but cares little for the life and well-being of others - often with disastrous results.

Manipur is not yet in the category of a disaster area, but it is getting there fast. The abuses of the past and even the present continue to diminish its physical health. It continues to alter and disrupt the fragile balance which shelters and supports its own life. It may not be too long before it runs out of shelter. It may not be too premature to say that Manipur is in grave danger - from no one but itself.

While our list of endangered species grows longer, the only species which continues to flourish and multiply rapidly in the wild is that of the gun-wielding variety. It continues to resist all the checks and measures to tame and capture it; and it disturbs everyone and everything in its (r) evolutionary path. It continues to walk on the paths of violent desperation and leads us further down the road to perdition. It demands our complete and undivided attention as well as our unlimited contribution. It demands a substantial portion of everything and everyone.

And yet, it has not achieved anything of substance for the very land and people in whose name it takes up arms. It rejects all things Indian. And yet, it cannot reject Indian money. It fights to find a way out of all our troubles. And yet, it has only found more distress and oppression for all of us. We have moved towards neither peace nor progress along this path of armed resistance. We have only retreated deeper into the wilds and out backs of decayed retardation. We have been singularly, uncomfortably numbed.

We are a shell-shocked people; and a sorry shell of our former selves. It shows in our eyes, and more so in our blank appearances and expressions. It shows in our system, and more so in our eco-systems. It is indeed a depressing sight. But all may not be lost yet. Life does go on. Nature has a unique tenacity to evolve and endure against all odds. Bigger animals like the mammoth and the mastodon have long been extinct, while countless feebler species survive every danger.

We may portray a feeble and microscopic existence; and we may confine ourselves to our limited animalistic world, but change is inevitable and in line with the laws of natural progression. It may be a tough nut to crack, but we would see, hear, speak and do differently if we would only break free from the dumb, numb ice that freezes our collective world.

If we spoke a different language, we would perceive a somewhat different world. We would know and understand much more; we would see, hear and speak much better. We would perceive the clear difference between animality and civility, and would perceive the animate soul in our innermost beings. We would see and understand the importance of becoming human, and of not becoming a vegetable - out of stock, out of sight and out of mind.