Derry and Dimapur

March 2020

Derry Girls is a television series on Netflix that captures the lives of five high school teenagers growing up in Derry (Northern Ireland) during the troubling nineties. It is set against the backdrop of the IRA conflict, bomb threats, military routine check-ups, and political turmoil and violence between the Protestants and the Catholics. There are quite a couple of scenes in the series where the high school teens would be walking back home from school, and the streets would be filled with armed military guards, frisking people, doing their rounds, etc. This show reminded me a lot of my own home town, in Nagaland, and growing up against the backdrop of violence, gun-culture, and political unrest.

Growing up, we Nagas had always heard of the political turmoil in the newspapers and first-hand account from friends and neighbours., be it atrocities committed by the Indian army towards Naga villages post-independence, or witnessing the evolution of the Naga militancy and insurgency movement, which started as a nationalist movement for Independence to now a complete Mafia-type Thug run organization that thrives on extortion and threats. As high school teenagers, growing up in Dimapur, we were not immune to witness the constant flow of military trucks in the highways and main roads, routine check-up, and frisking done by the army, imposing curfew to hearing endless tales of shopkeepers, the business community at the receiving end of extortion, kidnapping, bombings and being targeted by the insurgency group.

Even our local dailies are bombarded, with news clips of the various armed insurgent groups, or shootings that take place, etc. However, over the past few years, a kind of subtle normalcy has taken place in the state, due to the relentless efforts from both sides (the Indian government and the Naga armed insurgents) to maintain peace, engage in dialogue and come to an amicable solution. 

However, this was what many Naga millennials grew up with, against the backdrop of gun violence, bombings, kidnapping, genocide, military operations, extortions.

In Derry Girls, these five teenagers are almost oblivious to the violent culture around them and instead caught up in their own world of high school drama, bunking classes, gushing about their crushes, and planning for prom. These teenagers are caught up in their own bubble world. And it’s a good thing, because in their pop culture world of listening to boy bands (like Take That), to trying to find a part-time job to be able to join their class trip to Paris, and obsessing over test and exams, they are perhaps shielded by the ugly realities of the real world around them. The real world which to them was an environment of hostility, mistrust, fear, unrest, and hatred.

Growing up in Dimapur as teenagers we (millennials or late millennials) had a similar experience. Apart from all the “violence” happening around us, as high school teenagers, it was the least of our problems which bill was passed or which political group was ruling.  After school and in between recess, our problems and issues revolved around trying to catch a glimpse of our crush who was a senior, trying to investigate who spread slander about one of our friends, and plastering our rooms with posters of Spice Girls and Backstreet Boys.

You see, very similar to the situation in Northern Ireland, during the eighties, the reality of our world was tainted with wars, political unrest, and an uncertain future. However, very similar to Derry Girls, as high school teens, we were too caught up in our own world of MTV, high school crushes,

and high school drama to fret let alone think about the underlying reality of our troubled state.

And perhaps this is true to this day, as a new generation of millennials rises up in Nagaland, against the backdrop of the continuing political unrest, these teens are caught up in their Instagram and reality tv shows, sports week and Mr and Miss fresher, k pop, beatboxing, and cosfest, to sit back and ponder on the murk that paints their home state. And perhaps it’s a good thing. Perhaps it’s a good thing to be shielded away, to divert their attention elsewhere, and give them room to dream, to aspire, to be inspired, and to be creative. So that, as they get older, they will remember their world not as one marked by constant violence, hatred and mistrust; but a world which is imprinted with creative variety, diverse influences, and inspiration, and in this way, give room for poets, writers, and artist to take over soldiers, radical anarchist, and thugs. Perhaps Dimapur is Derry for many high school teenagers, and like in Derry, life will go on, laughter will continue, and dramas and dreams will flourish.