Vaipa Mix

Vaipa Mix

Back in those days when we joyfully ran down Tlangnuam road after school got over we used to invariably pass by this old Bihari (?) guy who  sold an assortment of "chanas" and "muris" by the roadside.  He would mix them all together with some ingredients we never knew the names of and we called  this concoction "Vaipa Mix". It was quite spicy and also quite delicious and often led to upset stomachs but we were kids and  at that age what did one care about upset tummies! Some naughtier guys used to grab stuff from his cart and not pay him but he never dared utter a single word in fear of harsher treatment. Wonder what became of him..

The Facebook 

The other day I did a quick mental survey and found out that 90% of the people I know who are roughly in their 30s and below have a Facebook account. Facebook is everywhere and I'm pretty sure that the word 'facebook' pops up almost invariably in any sort of casual conversation. Even my cousin who as far as I know doesn't even know how to open internet explorer asked me the other day if "facebook was a good thing". Well even my dad once asked me which one I thought was better - "Google or Bookface?". Did Mark Zuckerburg ever envisage that FB (as it is now referred to by my friends) would grow into the behemoth that it now has become? Let me add him and find out! He originally called it "The Facebook". People who've watched that movie about FB will know.

Musicatto

Music is awesome. Especially sad songs. I find myself listening to sad songs a lot even though I'm not necessarily sad. Maybe it's because they seem to come straight from the heart of the songwriter. It's also sometimes easier to identify with sad songs. I mean if Thom Yorke wrote  a song about how exciting it is to be in a band we wouldn't really identify with it but he wrote about heartache and loss we are right there with him on the same page.  It also slightly saddens me or maybe I should be glad that there are so many awesome songs and bands out there waiting to be discovered by me but even if I live my life thrice over I'll never get to listen to them all. Musicatto was one of the first reasonably well stocked music stores in Aizawl. It was in that building near Canteen Kual. I used to go there after school with Osbourne and Albert to just look at what they were selling. I bought my first Faith No More cassette from here. I still have the cassette.. the store however is long gone.Osbourne too has now left us to play that great gig in the sky. No idea what Albert's upto nowadays.

Never judge a book by its movie

The other day I was telling a friend how much I missed curling up at night with an exciting book and reading it from the beginning to end at one go. While the internet has been mostly useful I also blame the internet for taking away my "bookworm time". Yea pathetic excuse I know. I have three books lying unfinished. One of them is Gabriel García Márquez's Love in the time of Cholera. This guy doesn't do 'easy reading'. I think I'll have to make do with watching the movie based on the novel. Reminds me of a joke - Guy takes his dog watch a movie. Friend was surprised and asked him if the dog liked going to the movies. Guy says.."Well he thought it was okay but he liked the book better". I still love the look and feel of an old dog-eared musty smelling book. I bought an old second hand edition of Great Expectations just because I liked the way it was bound and the way it smelt. Book lovers of the world unite!

Love will tear me apart

It's not easy being an eligible 30+ lad with excellent marital prospects. Every move I make is closely scrutinized by hopeful young belles and their match-making mammas. If I speak so much as a couple of sentences to a girl, I have to contend with that gleam of hope and acquisitiveness in her eyes and that could get very unsettling. And I hate to disappoint them so.

Who am I trying to kid? Im a single, lonely, teetering-on-the-hill man who has found to his chagrin that romance is not as forthcoming as it once was. Most of my old flames have gone and gotten married. Two of them even got married on the same day. Talk about double whammies. I've met girls who claim to like me, but when the crunch comes, Im still here- alone except for an aquarium with a few fish donated by well-meaning friends. Had a cat too but after a couple of nights sleeping with HIM, I felt uneasy so I gave him away to a little girl"

So what's wrong with me? Im a relatively nice guy with regular features. One girl even proclaimed that she loved my hooded "drunk-looking" eyes and my "nibble-able" lips. (check profile pic for proof of authenticity). Now I wonder, was it just physical, what that girl felt for me.

And there was I, standing on her doorstep with my heart in my hands. And thats the saddest part. I dont trifle with emotions like some guys do. I've been told that I should play hard-to-get to pique a girl's interest, but I don't want to do that. Im a simple guy. I like you, you like me, lets canoodle, and thats it. I don't understand the point of "I like you, I pursue you, you pretend not to like me, I pretend not to like you, you pursue me, you like me", by the end of which I'll be so confused by the whole rigmarole anyway that I'll probably end up liking your ex boyfriend and pretending not to like him.   

Sometimes the errant thought gets into my head- is it because I'm half and half? I try to reject that line of thought because its unworthy of the few kind souls who have deigned to date me. But I do think about it- do some girls go, "Rootless, nomadic Hybridmos"? It's true in a way-  but not in the way you'd think. My family moves around a lot and so, while i call Mizoram my home, technically I don't have a place that I could truly call home. Which is why I want someone that I could come home to, someone in whose homey embrace this "hunter, home from the hill"  (chicks dig poetry) could lay his weary (and extremely embraceable) body down.

So here I am, a romantic failure. I've been told, "We don't do that in these here parts" when I tried to hold a girl's hand. Been given a chilly reception when I crossed the country to be with a girl. Been laughed at when I serenaded a girlfriend about to go home (Admittedly, the song was "I00 miles, a 100 miles, a 100 miles" but it was rendered very feelingly). Been told by a girl that her intuition tells her that I was subliminally pulling away from her and that I was just minorly infatuated with her. Chick-speak for "Leave me alone, el creepo!" :( 

But it's okay. I've come to accept that the spirit of romance is dying out in the female species. And I'm alright (he's alright, he's allriiight). I just gotta get out of this prison cell, and one day I'm gonna be free, Lord! I now leave you with this little song from Glee. Not that I watch it, being the He-man type. And not because girls will start to identify with me for referring to Glee (chicks dig Glee). But just because, well, just because. (He-man types dont explain themselves)