Boarding a plane for pleasure or work is one thing, but fossicking for an air ticket just to access internet is something else. Filmmaker Longjam Meena Devi had tight-scheduled the post-production of her documentary, Andro Dreams (2023), on the sexagenarian Laibi Devi, who helms an all-girls soccer team in a remote Manipuri village, a week before the submission-deadline for the International Film Festival of Kerala. Within four days of the breakout of the conflict in Manipur, even private Wi-Fi was snuffed.
Initially, Meena, the first woman filmmaker from Manipur to receive a National Award, tried to make do with DIPR’s (Directorate of Information and Public Relations) facilities but the waning net-speed was not conducive to heavy uploads. Though Meena somehow managed, many others, including artistes, have suffered immensely due to lack of connectivity. Filmmaker Longjam Meena Devi| Photo Credit:Special Arrangement Narrating with a smile in his voice, as is their wont, at Manipuri Nartanalaya, dancer-scholar Yumlembam Bidyananda Singh, a resident of Keishamthong in Imphal, rued that he couldn’t participate in a Kolkata youth dance festival only because he couldn’t receive any mail.
And later when the organisers called Bidyananda, he couldn’t travel because of the exorbitant air fare. Bidyananda briefly trained under guru Bimbavati Devi, the daughter of the illustrious Kalavati Devi, who co-founded the Nartanalaya with guru Bipin Singh and the Jhaveri Sisters, “ I ha.