By: Adolf Washington
New Delhi: Twenty three year old Chanchana Kshetrimayum has a sparkle in her eyes, excitement on her face and mind brimming with “future plans” ideas after becoming one of the first girls from the Meitei community of the northeastern Indian state of Manipur to earn a postgraduate degree in Communication.
The Meitei people are the majority ethnic group of Manipur state, and is made up of seven clans, who trace their history dating back to 33 AD.
“I was all so excited,” Chanchana told Matters India on the sidelines of a media conference she was participating in at New Delhi.
“It’s a big dream come true, I always wanted to become a journalist because I had a passion for writing right from my early school days” she says.
Chanchana, a gifted ‘extempore’ speaker, singer, musician, hoopster and adept at content writing, presently works for a nationally known firm as content-writer and ‘ghost-writer,’ says “I am very keen on moving into the electronic media and become an accomplished journalist on the national and international level.”
She says with a sense of achievement “Coming from a community that hasn’t scaled many academic peaks given the non-exposure to opportunities that girls in big cities in this country have, I decided to move out from Manipur to pursue my academics.”
Chanchana, who lost her father Ranjit Kshetrimayum when she was barely 7 months old, had to move into Delhi with her mother Kiran Moirangthem where she schooled at the prestigious Fr. Agnel School in Noida and St. Joseph School in Greater Noida completed her masters in Journalism and Mass Communications at the Lovely Professional University in Delhi.
[Pilar] “Fathers Bento Rodrigues and Jose Alaric Carvalho are my mentors, guides and inspiration who created around me an atmosphere for learning, a craving to acquire knowledge and never to give-up even when the going gets tough” she says adding “and my mother and brother have been a driving force all through my life”.
Chanchana’s world-view on culture, fashion, education and politics has grown from her innate desire to read and learn from books and her exposure to the cosmopolitan life in Delhi.
She says her priority is “to give back to my community and to this country by launching myself into active journalism and addressing issues that need national attention.”
When asked what she feels about racial discrimination and violence meted out to north-eastern Indians in other parts of the country she says, “This must end. We are Indians and contribute to the ethos of this country as much as anybody else. Kashmiris are mistreated because resemble Israeli’s and we because of our Mongolian looks. There is a visible discrimination against peoples almost everywhere in this country, it is high time we create a culture of acceptance and let people know that we have our firm roots on Indian soil and contribute so much to the progress and ethos of this country.”