The north-east state of Manipur is endowed with scenic beauty and inhabited by wonderful peace-loving people. The state is nowadays in the news because of unfortunate conflicts that too among the local residents who lived generation after generation blissfully and peacefully. Before highlighting a few points about the recent issues, I wish to mention some points about Manipur based on the secondary source, viz.,britannica.com/place/Manipur.
It is pertinent to mention that the state has two major physiographic regions -the Manipur River valley and a large surrounding tract of mountainous country. The valley, encompassing around 1,787 square kilometres, runs north-south. Its main physical feature is Logtak Lake, which covers about 100 square kilometres and is the source of the Manipur River. The river flows southward through the valley into Myanmar, where it joins the Myittha River, a tributary of the Chindwin. The lake is really awesome when I visited the state some years ago. The hill ranges, linked by spurs and ridges, run north-south. These ranges include the Naga Hills to the north, the East Manipur Hills along the eastern Myanmar border, the Mizo and Chin Hills to the south and the West Manipur Hills to the west. Average elevations vary between 5,000 and 6,000 feet (1,500 and 1,800 metres), although the hills in the north rise above 9,500 feet (2,900 metres). In the west, the Surma River, known as the Barak River in Manipur, has cut a narrow steep-sided valley through the West Manipur Hills as it flows to join the Meghna River in Bangladesh. About the people of Manipur, it is pertinent to mention that the Meitei people represent around 53 percent of the population of Manipur, followed by various Naga ethnic groups at 24 percent and Kuki/Zomi tribes (also known as Chin-Kuki-Mizo people) at 16 percent. Agriculture and forestry are the primary sources of livelihood.
I had the opportunity to visit the state of Manipur from one corner to another on a few occasions and interacted with all sections of people and observed the people were peace-loving and friendly with the guests and outsiders. Almost all the women still today know weaving and in their kitchen gardens varieties of fruits and vegetables are grown mainly by the women. Also, the women of Manipur come forward in a group for any social issue particularly to address the issue (s) which is known as Meira Paibi/s (Women torch bearers). Based on Wikipedia it may be mentioned that Meira Paibis (Women torch bearers) is a women’s social movement in Manipur. Meira Paibi was established in 1977 in Kakching, Kakching district of Manipur. The women activists carry flaming torches and march through city streets, frequently at night doing patrol duty, and as a way of protest for seeking redress against human rights violations committed by paramilitary and armed forces units against the innocent (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meira_Paibi). The Manipuri Dance, also known as the ‘Manipuri Raas Leela’, is one of the eight major Indian classical dance forms, originating from Manipur. Anyway, in 2004, the Meira Paibis stunned the world by stripping naked outside a military camp in the capital, Imphal protesting against a rape case. A few days ago, Soutik Biswas, a Correspondent for BBC presented that “Ethnic violence continues to roil Manipur, nearly two months after clashes between the majority Meitei and tribal Kuki communities left more than 100 dead and displaced some 60,000. This is despite the presence of tens of thousands of security forces in the valley, inhabited primarily by the Meitei community, as well as in the hills, home to the Kukis”. Also as per Biswas report, “A recently shared video by the Indian army from the violence-wracked north-eastern state of Manipur captured a dramatic sequence of scenes. The two-minute 14-second footage shows unarmed women confronting soldiers on a busy street. Aerial shots show women gathering around an excavator on a disrupted road, a bustling mix of SUVs, cars, an ambulance speeding along a scenic valley route, and glimpses of agitated women” (bbc.com/news/world-asia-india).
I hope Kuki, Meitei, and also other communities as usual will live peacefully and blissfully. I humbly request all groups of Meira Paibis ( whom I as a very senior citizen consider as my sisters), politicians, NGOs, civil societies, and others to promote peace and tranquillity among the people by setting aside politics and other differences. Killing, arson, damage to properties, displacement of people, etc, are against humanity. We are all brothers and sisters. I remember the phrase Vasudeva Kutumbakam – sometimes spelt Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam which means “the world is one family.”

Prof Shankar Chatterjee, Hyderabad

 main:-

    enter(monkey,room).

enter(monkey,room):-

    write(“Monkey enters the room”),nl,

    checkheight(monkey,banana).

checkheight(monkey,banana):-

    write(“Monkey cannot reach the banana”),nl,

    move(monkey,left).

move(monkey,left):-

    write(“Monkey moves towards the chair”),nl,

    push(monkey,chair).

push(monkey,chair):-

    write(“Monkey pushes the chair towards banana”),nl,

    place(monkey,chair).

place(monkey,chair):-

    write(“Monkey places the chair below banana”),nl,

    climb(monkey,chair).

climb(monkey,chair):-

    write(“monkey climbs the chair”),nl,

    function(check).

function(check):-

    write(‘Enter height of the room’),

    read(H1),

    write(‘enter height of the chair’),

    read(H2),

    write(‘enter height of monkey’),

    read(H3),

B is H2 + H3, check(H1,B). gets(monkey,stick):-

    write(“Monkey Move Towards The Stick”),nl, 

    write(“Monkey Gets The Stick and Climbs Again”),nl,

write(‘Enter Height of Room: ‘),

read(N1),

 write(‘Enter Height of Chair: ‘),

read(N2),

 write(‘Enter Height of Monkey: ‘),

read(N3),

 write(‘Enter Height of Stick: ‘),

read(N4),

 SUM is N2+N3+N4,

check(N1,SUM). check(A,B):-

(

 A>B-> write(“Monkey Still Cannot Reach The

Banana”),nl, gets(monkey,stick);

A

 write(“Monkey Ate The Banana”);

A=B-> write(“Monkey Ate The

Banana”)

    ).

from collections import defaultdict
visited = defaultdict(lambda: False)
jug1=int(input(“Enter Capacity of Jug 1 : “))
jug2=int(input(“Enter Capacity of Jug 2 : “))
aim=int(input(“Enter Goal : “))
def waterJugSolver(amt1,amt2):
if (amt1 == aim and amt2 == 0) or (amt2 == aim and amt1 == 0):
print(amt1, amt2)
return True
if visited[(amt1, amt2)] == False:
print(amt1, amt2)
visited[(amt1, amt2)] = True
return (waterJugSolver(0, amt2) or
waterJugSolver(amt1, 0) or
waterJugSolver(jug1, amt2) or
waterJugSolver(amt1, jug2) or
waterJugSolver(amt1 + min(amt2, (jug1-amt1)),
amt2 – min(amt2, (jug1-amt1))) or
waterJugSolver(amt1 – min(amt1, (jug2-amt2)),
amt2 + min(amt1, (jug2-amt2))))
else:
return False
print(“Steps: “)
waterJugSolver(0,0)

Around one hundred years ago, Gopal Krishna Gokhale ji, a renowned patriot of India said “What Bengal thinks today, India thinks tomorrow.” The reason is that United Bengal produces/produced great personalities and stalwarts in all fields – games and sports, film, music, literature, politics, spirituality, etc. But the past glory in the present days has been fading. Whenever I visited across the State for academic activities in my service life, I was told “The people are Bhadralooks meaning gentleman to the core”. But in the last Assembly election in the State and this June 2023 during the filing of the nomination of the Panchayat election unprecedented violence took place in West Bengal and bloodshed and deaths which are very unfortunate also happened. As per India Today, New Delhi, June 19, 2023 “Ahead of the next month’s Panchayat polls in West Bengal, a cycle of violence has begun across the state, resulting in death and destruction, quite expectedly. Six people, including a ruling TMC worker, have been killed since the nominations began on June 9. Reports of violence have come from Cooch Behar, North and South 24 Parganas, Murshidabad, Birbhum, East Midnapore, and East Burdwan, among other places. Perhaps in no other Indian states, so much violence took place”. I feel this is a shame to “Bhadralooks”. Against this backdrop elections in Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Karnataka may be cited where there was no death or serious injury in recently completed elections. In UP, “In the Assembly elections of 2022, a total of 33 incidents of electoral violence took place. Of these 28 incidents happened before polling days and five happened on polling days in which no person was seriously injured or died,” Deccan Herald (March 9, 2022). In the recently held Assembly election in Karnataka, some minor incidents of violence took place but not a single case of death or serious injury was reported.
Anyway, observing huge violence during the filing of nomination in the Panchayat election in West Bengal, the election issue was State police or deployment of Central force, and finally, “The Supreme Court on Tuesday (20/6/23) refused to interfere with an order of the Calcutta High Court directing the State Election Commission (SEC) to requisition and deploy central forces across West Bengal for the July 8 Panchayat polls. The pleas were filed by the West Bengal Government and the State Election Commission. Holding an election cannot be a license for violence,” a vacation bench of Justice B V Nagarathna and Justice Manoj Misra observed during the hearing (Mid-day, 21/6/23). It is observed from India Today (21/6/23) that “the Supreme Court, on June 20, rejected the Mamata Banerjee government’s challenge to deploying of central forces for the election. The Mamata government and the State Election Commission had opposed the Calcutta High Court’s directive that security during Panchayat polls be handled by central forces”. In another development, the Panchayat polls in Bengal should be stopped if the bloodbath continues, the Calcutta High Court observed on June 21, 2023. The court was hearing a case in connection with the disappearance of names of candidates contesting the election. According to Justice Amrita Sinha “So much violence in panchayat polls. The poll should be stopped if the bloodbath continues.”
So, I suggest the Bhadralooks of West Bengal should take lessons from other states as killing, arson, injury, destruction of properties, etc., are highly deplorable in an election. Moreover, this is a state of “Bhadralooks”.

Prof Shankar Chatterjee, Hyderabad