Wherever We May Roam

Heavy metal band Metallica's hit song "Wherever I May Roam... where I lay my head is home.." might be quite an apt song to describe the change of residences I and my parents have undergone through the years. Of course one can only imagine how incongruous it would be to see my father belting out "Wherever I may roam.." from the pulpit.

As most of you might know my dad (and mom) are employed by the Mizoram Synod Presbyterian Church - the largest Christian denomination in Mizoram. This entailed that we shifted our places of residence quite frequently due to my father being sent hither and thither for higher studies and his various postings under the Synod. Since the time I was born we have moved house at least SIXTEEN times. That's sixteen times in approximately 30 years! Most of you would not move house even once in your whole lifetime.

The obvious advantages of moving house often is that I'm not stuck with the same silly view from my bedroom for my whole life. I mean having to wake up every morning and having to see that stupid silly Reiek mountain for the rest of my life could be so very boring! Jokes apart it was a good way to make new friends and see new places at the expense of people contributing 1/10th of their income to the church. (Keep that 1/10th coming in folks!). It also enabled us to receive decent education outside Mizoram, something which many middle class families could not afford in those days. In the early nineties the only kids from Mizoram who could afford to study in Bangalore were those whose dads were doctors or engineers or related to a politician! We also got to live in relatively nice houses provided to my Dad by the Synod.

The other side of the coin is that I had to keep making new friends and I kept losing track of the friends I'd made. Sometimes I'm slightly envious of my friends who talk about their childhood friends with whom they grew up next door to each other their whole life. And when one keeps moving we don't have long lasting memories of the places we've lived in. And last but not the least the most annoying thing is the packing/unpacking/repacking of stuff that we need to shift from one place to another. I'm quite an expert now in packing 12 piece dinner sets so that even if dropped from 10 feet high they wouldn't break.

Anyway early this December my father was sent packing (pun intended) from his post as the principal of the Aizawl Theological College to Nagpur to take charge of his new post as the General Secretary of the NCCI (A Christian Organization). So poor old me and my creaking bones had to make the trip home from Bangalore to Aizawl to help out and help out I did! For proof check pic below -

We sent some of our stuff via plane from Aizawl to Calcutta via air and I had to go to Lengpui Airport and coax and cajole the Air India cargo staff in allowing us to send all our suspicious looking parcels via the Air India flight to Calcutta. Exciting stuff! My brother took charge of the consignment in Calcutta and sent it on its merry way via truck to Nagpur. We're thinking of starting a new business as movers and packers. The less said of the the journey from Aizawl to Nagpur the better it will be. Tempers get frayed when your total luggage weight exceeds the allowed luggage limit on the plane by 200 kgs!! Luckily we met (a) few friends at Lengpui Airport who helped us out in weighing our luggage with theirs. Hey DDB Thanks!

As I'd mentioned before the quarters provided to us are usually quite lovely and the place in Nagpur was no different so the soothing environment of the General Secretary's quarters helped in easing our minds so much so that my brother promptly decided to quit his job in Calcutta and move to Nagpur. It even has a bloody lotus pond complete with fishes in the frontyard. Groovy!

Pic below of House and Pond with my niece and her new found friends (Remember what I said about making new friends!)

The day we moved into the new place my dad told us with a smile on his face that we probably shouldn't bother unpacking since the NCCI office would be shifted from Nagpur to Delhi in 2013...

Unrelated Note: I changed over to the new blogger profile and it has totally messed up the fonts . Google, I am disappoint! (Yes Google owns blogger in case anyone didn't know)
Unrelated Note 2: Figured it out. The editor needed to be upgraded. I love you Google!.

Meizial Meizial Meizial!

Meizial ka zuk hmasak ber tum chu 1993 vel kha ni ta in ka hria, ka cousin in a zuk lai min fawh tir ve zuai a, pa ka in ti ve lutuk . Khatih lai khan pawl riat ka zir mek a mahse high school leh college ka kal lai kha chuan zu lo ang tluk ka ni in ka hria. High school kal lai chhung zawng kha chuan a belhkahwmin bawm hnih vel ka zuk ka ring.

College kal lai khan kar khatah tlawn 10 vel hi ka zu ve chauh maithei. 2003 khan hna ka thawk ve tan a , pawisa te kan lo hlawh chhuah ve vang te pawh niang ka zu hnem ta angrem khawp mai a. Rilru hah vang em em pawh a ni lo, thian ten an zuk vanga zu ve pawh ka ni chuang lo meizial zuk hi a nuam ka lo ti ve hrim hrim ti ila a dik ber awm e.

Hun rei lo te chhung khan nikhata tlawn 2 vel zu thin kha tlawn 10 ah ka kai chho ta thut ta a. 2007 thleng a ka zuk ber thin Wills Navy Cut kha 1995 a ka pocket money a ka lei hmasak ber khan bawm khat (10 awmna) hi cheng 12 ni ta in ka hria. Taksa pawn a tuar tan ta reng bawk a – chawlh hmanga Aizawl a ka haw chang te hian step a kal te kha ka harsat a thawk te hi a hah hma thei thin khawp mai. 2007 khan Wills Classic Milds ka zu tan ta a, packet khat (20s pack) hi Cheng 94 an chhiar a thla khatah hian cigarette man ringawtah cheng 2800 vel ka seng ang .

Ka sum hmanral atang ringawt pawh hian meizuk bansan tumna rilru lian tak chu nei tawh tur chu ka nia mahse bansan tawp hi a lo har em ani. Chawi ei kham te hian zuk hi a nuam em a , a bikin vawksa hmeh zawh a chaw ei khama kuhva hring thial suah suah pah a han zuk heuh heuh hi chu a van han nuam tak em.

Tihtur neih loh chang a in a awm mai mai TV/Movie en lai te hian meizial hi ka ban reng bawk. Vawi 3 vel chu bansan ka tum tawh a. A aiah sweet/bubblegum te ei kan tum a mahse a daih rei tak tak lo. Sap hovina “cold turkey” method an tih mai anga quit hi chu a lo har ngang mai. (Cold turkey quit chu vawilehkhata thil tih thin tih tawp thut) .

Nicotine patch hi hmang ve chhin ila a tha angem te ka tia mahse vawikhat chu Bangalore a medical dawr lian ve deuh ah hian Nicotine patch an neih leh neih loh ka zawt , a zuartupa pakhatin kan nei lo , chu chu enge , condom ami te ti mai mai sia ka buaipui zui ta em em rih lo.

Tichuan 2010 kumthar ni atang vel khan engtin tin mawni ka nghei ve tan a mahse nghei han tih ah Monday to Friday hi ka zu lova mahse weekend hi chuan ka insum zo ngang lova ka zu leh ta nge nge thin. Tiang khan thla thum erh awrh chu ka ti chhova mahse hun a lo kal zela thil hrang hrang vangten rilru hah chang a lo awm khan weekday zuk loh te kha ka thei ta ngang lova a ngai te in regular tak chuan hei ka lo zu leh chu a ni ta mai sia!

Kum lamah te pawh kan lo upa ve deuh tawh a (han ti ve ringawt ila) nupui te pawh kan la nei duh anga, fa te pawh kan la nei duh ngei dawn sia meizial kan zuk reng chuan fa neih lamah te pawh buaina a thlen thei dawn tih hria in tunlai tak hian bansan duhna rilru lian tak ka pu ve tan tawh. Thian te pawh hian i zu hnem e min ti fova a zahthlak lamah a kal tawh chuvangchuan theihtawp chhuahin nghei kan tum ve tawh ange!

1-0 to the Arsenal (aka the laziest blogpost ever)

• Wash my 2008 Official Arsenal Home Jersey ✔
• Download English Premier League Fixtures File ✔
• Put up English Premier League Fixtures (EPL) Poster ✔
• Pay Cable Fee ✔
• Purchase sports mags with stories about previous EPL seasons ✔
• Inform manager that I might suddenly fall sick during the weekends all throughout the year ✔
• Update Facebook/Orkut profile pictures and profile names to reflect the fact I'm a hardcore Arsenal fan ✔

Yep my English Premier League checklist is complete. Now all I have to do is wait for the annual football extravaganza to begin. It kicks off next week on 21st Aug but Arsenal will start their campaign the next day with a tough trip to Anfield to play Liverpool. At one point I was half heartedly thinking if it would've been possible to fly to England but I looked up the prices of tickets and found out that unless I rob an ATM I wouldn't have enough money to make the trip. The other options were either swimming all the way or via ship both of which I don't have time for.

Anyway unless if you ain't been paying attention I have made it quite clear that I'm a huge Arsenal fan. Yes it was all because of Dennis Bergkamp and his exploits in the1998 World Cup. I was too young to remember the '89 English Premier League (or the English First Division as it was called then) but I like to pretend that I watched on tv Michael Thomas' last minute goal in the last game of the season against Liverpool which won the league for Arsenal (but I didn't).

Fast forward to the 2003/2004 EPL season and this time I was able to watch Arsenal's famous undefeated season when they didn't lose a single game and went on to clinch the EPL title for a third time under Arsene Wenger .

After those three wins the closest we have come to winning the league title again was missing out by 4 points in 2007/08. This season Arsene Wenger has continued as our Manager and with Fabregas ,Robin van Persie, Vermaelen, Nasri et al in the team we could very well get our hands on that EPL trophy again. Yes I'm aware that I've started using the word "we" because except for during the World Cup I support only Arsenal!

As talented as we are we don't have too many good looking chaps in our team so I don't think too many of the female sex will be supporting us. (Actually there might be one that I know of) . That honour always has belonged to the oh so handsome I'd turn gay for them at the drop of a hat Manchester United team . The most good looking chap in our team is Bacary Sagna and he looks like this -

Anyway enough about Cristiano Ronaldo who doesn't even play in the EPL anymore.. uh wait.. ok never mind. Enjoy your EPL Season and if you ain't a Gunner (aka Arsenal fan) then I hope your EPL season sucks!

You are my Arsenal
You are my Arsenal,
My only Arsenal,
You make me happy,
When skies are grey,
You'll never know just,
How much I love you,
So please don't take,
My Arsenal...Away

(Note: Regular readers of my blog (if there are any) will have noticed how much time and effort I put into my posts (very modest there, Amos) but this time around there is a possibility that my latest effort is a copy pasta! Sorry I don't have a lot of free time on my hands nowadays! The only free time I have, I spend on the internet looking at funny pictures of cats )

Adelante La Albiceleste!

• Wash my 2006 World Cup Official Argentina Jersey - ✔
• Download World Cup Fixtures MS Excel File - ✔
• Put up World Cup Fixtures Poster - ✔
• Pay Cable Fee - ✔
• Purchase sports magazines with stories about previous World Cups - ✔
• Inform manager that I might suddenly fall sick during the weekdays - ✔ (If Argentina are playing a game on that day then it will be just a coincidence)
• Update Facebook/Orkut profile pictures and profile names to reflect the fact I'm a hardcore Argentina fan - ✔

Yep my World Cup checklist is complete. Now all I have to do is wait for the quadrennial football extravaganza to begin. At one point I was half heartedly thinking if it would've been possible to fly to S.Africa but I looked up the prices of tickets and found out that unless I rob an ATM I wouldn't have enough money to make the trip. The other options were either swimming all the way or via ship both of which I don't have time for.

Anyway unless if you ain't been paying attention I have made it quite clear that I'm a huge Argentina fan. Yes it was all because of Maradona and his exploits in 1986. I was too young to remember the '86 World Cup but I like to pretend that I watched Maradona's Hand of God goal on television (but I didn't). What I remember clearly is the school notebooks sold in Aizawl which had Maradona and other famous football stars on the covers. I had quite a few of those back in the late 80s.

Fast forward to the 1990 World Cup and this time I was able to watch my first live World Cup football game which happened to be Argentina vs Cameroon but 'twas rather unfortunate that Argentina lost the game. However they made up for it by reaching the final where they lost to Der Germans.

After the 78 and 86 WC wins and the 90 final the closest we have come to winning the trophy again was reaching the Quarter Finals in 98 and 2006. This time around Diego Armando Maradona is our Manager and with Messi,Aguero, Higuain, Tevez, di Maria et al in the team we could very well get our hands on that golden trophy again. Yes I'm aware that I've started using the word "we"; during the World Cup I'm an Argentinian.

As talented as we are we don't have too many good looking chaps in our team so I don't think too many of the female sex will be supporting us. That honour always has belonged to the oh so handsome I'd turn gay for them at the drop of a hat Italians. The most good looking chap in our team is Carlos Tevez and he looks like this -

I could go on and on about those dreamy Italians.. oops I mean incredibly talented Argentinians but I need to go pray at the Church of Maradona. Yes there really is a Church of Maradona. Go enjoy your World Cup but if your favorite team is NOT Argentina then I hope your World Cup really sucks.

No tome mi cielo azul y blanco lejos de mí. Adelante La Albiceleste!

Note: La Albicelesete is the nickname of the Argentina football team. Literally translated it means "the blue and white skies" . Blue and White are the colours of the Argentina national flag. Adelante means Forward.
"No tome mi cielo azul y blanco lejos de mí " - Do not take my blue and white sky/skies away from me.
I just wanted to add something in Spanish to this post so that it would give me this whole Spanish vibe thing and girls will fall in love with me and all that. Sigh! :(

XXX

When I first started writing this blog I mentioned that I already was starting to have writer's block .I was not kidding. I haven't updated my blog for seven months. Or maybe I'm too lazy to write. Probably laziness coupled with not being sufficiently inspired enough to blog. Tonight I found that I had no movies to watch and I'd just finished watching my football club being beaten(Aaaargh!) so I found time to spare before going to bed. What shall I blog about this time?

An obvious topic would be to blog about me turning thirty (Yay!) which happened last October. This must be one of the most common topics people would blog (brag?) about . Its an important milestone to have completed thirty years on this earth so this post will be a short review of how things have turned out now that three decades of my life have been completed.

Big thanks to the Man up in the sky for having given me good health, a loving family, a decent job etc. I have had a few close calls with death - so far I've almost drowned twice, met with a pretty nasty road accident while driving on my way back from work, inserted a stone in my nose and it fell down into my throat and I almost choked to death. Yes I really did that but this was when I was a kid. The last time I spent more than one night in a hospital was when I was born so basically I was a healthy enough baby/ toddler/ child/ teenager/ adult. Drinking Horlicks must've really helped although as promised on the carton it didn't make me grow 6 feet tall . I might sue them.

I don't think I really was a problem child for my parents. However there was that one time when my father discovered one of those erotic novels lent to me by a well meaning classmate . I'd hidden it behind a cupboard and my father stumbled on it while chasing a rat who led him to that treasure trove of erotica. I hate that rat. I had a tough time explaining that one. I think I said that the previous inhabitant must have left it there. The previous inhabitant of that room was a theology student so I don't think my dad believed me. Did okay in school and I was beaten by my teachers only once (as far as I can remember). High school was awesome but my college life was spent in Tamilnadu.....

On the romantic life front I have had my heart skewered , roasted and turned inside out (not literally) and I've also done my share of breaking hearts. (No I'm not proud of it.) Anyway enough about my love life already.

And then when one turns Thirty , we start getting asked the "When Are You Going To Get Married? Your Younger Brother Is Already Married And Has A Kid. Your Brother's Kid Is Going To Beat Up Your Kid.. HA HA HA " question pretty often. If I had saved a paisa for every time this question was asked to me in this exact format I'd have collected Rs. 342 already. (Yes I counted). The simple answer is "I Don't Know" (Ka Hre Lo!) . The oft repeated cliché that we men like to remain bachelors as long as possible doesn't really apply to me so when I feel that the conditions are right and that the planets are stars are aligned correctly I'll get married.

And as far as my career goes I'm glad to have a job that enables me to sit quietly behind the scenes and chat with friends do my work. There is a running joke on the popular FRIENDS tv show where no one knows what Chandler Bing's job is so similarly I bet that 99% of my friends do not know what I do . Anyone? Anyone? ... [Long Silence] Well, thanks for asking - I edit Microsoft's support and help websites for the UK and Ireland regions. It pays the bills and enables me to travel to exotic places around the world and buy the latest cars enables me to take economy class flights home and purchase a Honda Activa.

And as for extra-curricular activties - I can/could play any game (indoor or outdoor) but I never excelled in any sport which is why I'm working a desk job instead of playing as a striker for Arsenal Football Club. I also suck hard at playing carrom board. People have cried in despair watching me play. I can paint/draw a bit. I can sing a bit. Yes I can. I can write poems . Yes I can. I suck at card games. The only card game I'm good at is playing Solitaire on my laptop. 145 games won in a row. Yeaaaaah!! Books are the only extra curricular activity I excel at. It's easy to beat a book 'cause you can carry it into the loo and finish off reading a book. I also excel at watching movies. I must have watched at least 90% of the movies on IMdB's (the most popular movie website) top 250 movies list. Great achievement!

Usually these kind of posts end with some kind of sage philosophical/practical advice that the author will impart to his/her readers. I have none uh... okay maybe one : Do not insert stones into your nose. They hurt like hell and will probably kill you.

However (kinda out of the blue) I would like to take this opportunity to make a public service announcement. Please take care to preserve our fragile ecology and environment. Do your bit by not using plastic shopping bags in stores and take more showers together (only for married couples) to save water. I will end with one of my favourite quotes. This is a Carl Sagan quote which he made in reference to a photograph of Earth suspended in space.

From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of particular interest. But for us, it's different. Consider again that dot. That's here, that's home, that's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives.

The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

God Bless.

(PS: Why is the title of this blog "XXX"? - well, duh XXX denotes the number 30 using the Roman numeric system.)