Thatched House

One purpose of folk songs that I was told by my Aunty goes like this; it is from a story. There was once a man who realized that he has not been good to his wife. But it’s not in our Naga nature to express apology or affection easily and openly. So, he composed a folk song which says, “One cannot change one’s ugly looks, but one can certainly change one’s bad character”, He changed and since then, he remained loving and caring to his wife. Folk songs are a medium of communicating things which cannot be expressed in normal conversations. My critic of the music remains (Ah, its repetitiveness) but I’m able to appreciate it better after hearing that story. There may be people who think that everyone likes Kenny Rogers (I know one such guy). If there's anyone who doesn't, he/she ought to love Rogers. When I was in Patkai, the vocational students used to organise Christmas concerts. But even if they sing difficult songs and classical music of the highest quality, very few would s...

In writing, anything is possible. As a writer, you can finish off the hero in the middle of your story by throwing him into a cave of one and a half eyed monsters. You can create a fantasy world like Narnia, make people laugh and cry at the same time, or transform a society forever. My love for writing began when my dad asked us (me, my brother, and sister) to write an essay every day. Though I always have the passion, I had this fear, ‘what if I’m the only one who enjoys my w ritings?’ I had bad experiences when I was a co-editor of a newsletter of college students’ fellowship in Imphal. Thank God I did not stop. Writing also became an escapade and a compensation for not being able to speak well. In a NCF-Delhi camp, I shared my testimony starting with, “even as I am going to speak, I have written it down”. This is not the story of an accomplished writer but an amateur whose effort is starting to pay off; many thanks to the Eastern Mirror for this breakthrough. There see...

It is a good thing that Nagas are increasingly becoming aware of their health. Some of the people are very well informed, now that a lot of health information is just a click away and many newspapers reserve certain space everyday for health news and tips. Diagnostic and treatment facilities are getting more sophisticated each year. Disease patterns are also changing over the years. Tuberculosis is not the dreaded killer disease anymore, Small Pox is wiped out from the world and even Nagaland has achieved and maintained the elimination rate of Leprosy. These infectious diseases are giving way to non-communicable diseases like cardio-vascular diseases and cancers. With the antibiotics revolution, many of the infectious diseases have become treatable while non-communicable are on the rise, largely because of change of lifestyle, diet, and change in the physical and social environment. However, this disease changing trend is not clearly demarcated, not least in Nagaland. The world has...