Inter racial relationships - ah now that's a topic that can always start up a fiery discussion or in this case - a blog. My former flatmate Sandman has written in detail about InterRacial Relationships - and it has been discussed ad infinitum,ad nauseaum and also generating lots of ad sense revenue too I expect.
I'm sure you're thinking everything that can be said about it has probably been said. Topic Closed.. right? Nope - what about us the products of those very relationships? The author of this blog (I am already referring to myself in the third person - signs of a good writer I'm told) too is one of those products and I shall venture forth in writing a lighthearted piece on this hitherto unexplored facet of inter-racial relationships. Any offence taken by you the readers will be met with a light hearted reply. :).
A little background information before I delve into the heart of the matter might be helpful. I'd be using Mizoram (a hotbed of inter racial marriages) as the backdrop for my ruminations. Now Mizoram is this peaceful little sleepy state in the North East region of India. Over here the localites (Mizos) are genetically bred to be antagonistic towards outsiders especially the ones from the plain areas of India and are referred to as "vais". (There is a long story to be told here as to the "whys" but lets save that for later).
Now over to the mid 1970s which is when my father who is from Bombay and my mother who is from Aizawl (the capital of Mizoram) met in Secunderabad where they were studying theology. They ran around some trees, flowers bloomed, brothers vowed revenge and in October 1979 I was born in Aizawl,Mizoram (to cut a very long story short). I was given the very non vai sounding name of Amos Lalremtluanga ; I used to hate having my name start with the letter A. I was always roll number 1 or 2 in school. Always a target of teachers to pick on when asking questions " Roll Number 1 - what is 30 plus 29 " .. (spare a thought for my brother Abel who was ALWAYS roll number 1 unless there was a Abdul in his class and in Mizoram that was pretty much unlikely).
Anyway times rolled by and for all intents and purposes and in mind body and soul I grew up as a normal Mizo kid - hunting lizards, climbing trees and falling down from them, stealing gear knobs from Jeeps to use as marbles, licking battery acid from those very Jeeps. But physically I didn't look like a normal Mizo boy. My nose was long. My eyelids were hooded (Yep I've never been called a chinky..dunno whether I should be sad or happy). Slowly I became aware of the Vai/Mizo divide when I got teased by other kids for being a Vai. When you are a kid you don't feel Vai or Mizo or Japanese - you are just a kid so these things probably didn't bother me much cause I don't remember ever taking offense or running to my parents and crying in their arms.
So in a nutshell I never really had any racial issues to face as a kid. I infact was called a "sap" (a fair skinned foreigner) once but in Mizoram "saps" are placed on a higher pedestal than vais and are highly desired as bridegrooms. I studied in Mizoram till the fifth standard and then our family moved down to Bangalore for three years and then came back to Aizawl and that's when the fun really started. Now this time I now looked really vai - no chances of me being called a sap now. My hair was curly, i was dark skinned (the hot summers in Bangalore took their toll) and my nose put Julius Caesar's nose to shame.
So the day came when one day in class only the Mizo students were asked to go out and practise "sarlamkai" - a popular Mizo dance form. I naturally got up to go out and then one of my teachers told me to not go since I was a vai. It was rather embarrassing but one of my friends dragged me along with him anyway. I practiced the dance but that very same night I dropped a piece of red hot coal on my toes (Don't ask me how) and my toes got swollen and I couldn't dance anyway.
And then once on the way to school I hopped onto a bus and two girls from my school stood next to me and one of them said to the other in Mizo "ka bula vaipa hi chhelo eee" (This vaipa standing next to me is so goodlooking). Good thing I had not forgotten my Mizo or else I wouldn't have had any reason to grin madly from ear to ear). As Borat would have said - " Great Success!" But there were also sad times too ,for instance there was this time when a Mizo-Vai riot broke out but I had to go to school and some teenage boys tried to pick on me but became terribly confused when I replied to their taunts in fluent Mizo.
And one time at the Bharat Scouts and Guides camp in Tanhril a mystified scoutmaster asked me in English " Are you a Mizo?" Joining the Scouts was at that time was mainly a Mizo thing ( I still can't figure out why that was the case). And this other time when I was ranked in the Top 10 in the Matriculate Exams I couldn't apply for an MBBS seat since I was a hybrid. It is an entirely different story that I wasn't interested in studying MBBS (I at that point wanted to retire to an island in the Caribbean Sea with the money I got from well wishers). Older readers will recall the controversy when IPS Officer Kiran Bedi got her daughter admitted to a medical college under the Mizoram Quota. These vais are so shameless I must say. Kudos to my parents who tried their best to get me to study MBBS - they whipped me and fed me only baibing,bekang and water for one month. I never gave in.
I now end my tale with a few notes - I am now in Bangalore where I have been mistaken for an Arab - It must be the camel I ride on, a Malayalee(???), and a Nepali among other things. For added hilarity my father's relatives (cousins,aunts, uncles etc) consider me to be a true blue Mizo. I also don't/can't speak a single word of my father's mother tongue - Marathi. When I go to Mumbai (yeah it probably might've been changed to something else now considering the time taken to write this down) I don't feel like a Marathi at all. Probably what some of you might say is.. it doesn't matter what race you are as long as you are a good person. It's what you feel inside that matters. I dunno about all that but I'll always be a Mizo and I'll happily stick to my bai,bekang,vawksa rep and our Mizo girls (girl actually)for the rest of my days.
Note: I was having a conversation with a Mizo friend the other night and this person said to me " oh so you also like the taste of Mizo dishes too?" ... The insults still fly thick and fast :)
I'm sure you're thinking everything that can be said about it has probably been said. Topic Closed.. right? Nope - what about us the products of those very relationships? The author of this blog (I am already referring to myself in the third person - signs of a good writer I'm told) too is one of those products and I shall venture forth in writing a lighthearted piece on this hitherto unexplored facet of inter-racial relationships. Any offence taken by you the readers will be met with a light hearted reply. :).
A little background information before I delve into the heart of the matter might be helpful. I'd be using Mizoram (a hotbed of inter racial marriages) as the backdrop for my ruminations. Now Mizoram is this peaceful little sleepy state in the North East region of India. Over here the localites (Mizos) are genetically bred to be antagonistic towards outsiders especially the ones from the plain areas of India and are referred to as "vais". (There is a long story to be told here as to the "whys" but lets save that for later).
Now over to the mid 1970s which is when my father who is from Bombay and my mother who is from Aizawl (the capital of Mizoram) met in Secunderabad where they were studying theology. They ran around some trees, flowers bloomed, brothers vowed revenge and in October 1979 I was born in Aizawl,Mizoram (to cut a very long story short). I was given the very non vai sounding name of Amos Lalremtluanga ; I used to hate having my name start with the letter A. I was always roll number 1 or 2 in school. Always a target of teachers to pick on when asking questions " Roll Number 1 - what is 30 plus 29 " .. (spare a thought for my brother Abel who was ALWAYS roll number 1 unless there was a Abdul in his class and in Mizoram that was pretty much unlikely).
Anyway times rolled by and for all intents and purposes and in mind body and soul I grew up as a normal Mizo kid - hunting lizards, climbing trees and falling down from them, stealing gear knobs from Jeeps to use as marbles, licking battery acid from those very Jeeps. But physically I didn't look like a normal Mizo boy. My nose was long. My eyelids were hooded (Yep I've never been called a chinky..dunno whether I should be sad or happy). Slowly I became aware of the Vai/Mizo divide when I got teased by other kids for being a Vai. When you are a kid you don't feel Vai or Mizo or Japanese - you are just a kid so these things probably didn't bother me much cause I don't remember ever taking offense or running to my parents and crying in their arms.
So in a nutshell I never really had any racial issues to face as a kid. I infact was called a "sap" (a fair skinned foreigner) once but in Mizoram "saps" are placed on a higher pedestal than vais and are highly desired as bridegrooms. I studied in Mizoram till the fifth standard and then our family moved down to Bangalore for three years and then came back to Aizawl and that's when the fun really started. Now this time I now looked really vai - no chances of me being called a sap now. My hair was curly, i was dark skinned (the hot summers in Bangalore took their toll) and my nose put Julius Caesar's nose to shame.
So the day came when one day in class only the Mizo students were asked to go out and practise "sarlamkai" - a popular Mizo dance form. I naturally got up to go out and then one of my teachers told me to not go since I was a vai. It was rather embarrassing but one of my friends dragged me along with him anyway. I practiced the dance but that very same night I dropped a piece of red hot coal on my toes (Don't ask me how) and my toes got swollen and I couldn't dance anyway.
And then once on the way to school I hopped onto a bus and two girls from my school stood next to me and one of them said to the other in Mizo "ka bula vaipa hi chhelo eee" (This vaipa standing next to me is so goodlooking). Good thing I had not forgotten my Mizo or else I wouldn't have had any reason to grin madly from ear to ear). As Borat would have said - " Great Success!" But there were also sad times too ,for instance there was this time when a Mizo-Vai riot broke out but I had to go to school and some teenage boys tried to pick on me but became terribly confused when I replied to their taunts in fluent Mizo.
And one time at the Bharat Scouts and Guides camp in Tanhril a mystified scoutmaster asked me in English " Are you a Mizo?" Joining the Scouts was at that time was mainly a Mizo thing ( I still can't figure out why that was the case). And this other time when I was ranked in the Top 10 in the Matriculate Exams I couldn't apply for an MBBS seat since I was a hybrid. It is an entirely different story that I wasn't interested in studying MBBS (I at that point wanted to retire to an island in the Caribbean Sea with the money I got from well wishers). Older readers will recall the controversy when IPS Officer Kiran Bedi got her daughter admitted to a medical college under the Mizoram Quota. These vais are so shameless I must say. Kudos to my parents who tried their best to get me to study MBBS - they whipped me and fed me only baibing,bekang and water for one month. I never gave in.
I now end my tale with a few notes - I am now in Bangalore where I have been mistaken for an Arab - It must be the camel I ride on, a Malayalee(???), and a Nepali among other things. For added hilarity my father's relatives (cousins,aunts, uncles etc) consider me to be a true blue Mizo. I also don't/can't speak a single word of my father's mother tongue - Marathi. When I go to Mumbai (yeah it probably might've been changed to something else now considering the time taken to write this down) I don't feel like a Marathi at all. Probably what some of you might say is.. it doesn't matter what race you are as long as you are a good person. It's what you feel inside that matters. I dunno about all that but I'll always be a Mizo and I'll happily stick to my bai,bekang,vawksa rep and our Mizo girls (girl actually)for the rest of my days.
Note: I was having a conversation with a Mizo friend the other night and this person said to me " oh so you also like the taste of Mizo dishes too?" ... The insults still fly thick and fast :)
