Thatched House

As he entered the salon for a shave, Pyarelal *, Bholenath *, and Sukharam * wished him, ‘Good morning sir’, ‘Good morning sir’, and ‘Good morning sir’. I couldn’t turn to see who is entering as I was having a haircut. All he uttered in reply to the barbers’ rapid fire Good mornings were, ‘mmmm’, ‘mmmm’, and ‘mmmm’.  He ha d a commanding, b ass voice. After a quick shave, he offered to pay with another 'mmmm' but the barbers refused to accept the money. He said, ‘Hojaiga?’ and left. While paying for my haircut, I asked my barber, ‘who was he?’ . By then, I was already thinking of writing this post . He asked his colleagues but none of them could give me any detail. I don't know if he was an important man or a munnab hai . he had a sidekick too. He was at least a very important man to the barbers. He was king of the barber’s shop this morning.  *I don’t know any of their names.

If you have any dark secret and you want to let it out. If the world has misunderstood you and you want to clear things up. If you want a shoulder to cry on because your ex-gay partner turned out to be bisexual. If you are so happy and want to jump on the couch. Go to Oprah

I have for long thought of constructing a Body Mass Index (BMI) machine and donating it to my former school. It’s no surprise that other people already have built it. There are coin-operated BMI machines (see photo). What I had envisaged is not an electronically operated machine. I was thinking more in the line of wood carpentry. There will be a weighing machine fitted to a stand to measure height. By the side will be an information board which will display the mathematical formula for calculating BMI and also information on what to do if BMI is not within normal limit. That’s it. Sadly, I am bad at drawing and can’t even post a picture of the concept.    BMI is basically a measure to test if you are normal, too fat, or too thin for your height. It is calculated as weight (in kg) divided by square of height (in metres) Simply put, BMI = kg/m 2 Let’s not complicate things further. Simply use this online BMI calculator (click here ). Insert the required information ...

It was late Wednesday afternoon when I was returning to Kohima with sister after dropping my brother in college at Zubza. I was driving and I didn’t see them. I hardly see anything other than the road when driving. My sister saw them, two women who looked liked they need a ride home. We drove passed them by about 200 metres when we decided to turn back and ask if they need a ride. We picked them. They had gone to the field and were waiting for any bus or truck. They weren’t expecting smaller vehicles to stop for them. They are from Jotsoma village which may be about 15 kms from where we saw them. We couldn’t reach their village but they were very grateful that we could drop them at the check gate. From their bags, they gave us a huge bunch of bananas and a pumpkin. We refused. They insisted. There was a friendly physical fight. We didn’t want to take as they’d gone so far from the village and should n ’t give away that much. But they pushed the car door and didn’t let me open it. I...

Have you ever dropped a loved one who is going on a long journey and felt like crying? You see him/her wave from the window and you already start to miss him/her. You feel the tears coming up your chest but you control yourself knowing you are an adult now. Then the bus leaves and you see the sign: 'DON'T CRY I WILL BE BACK'. kakakakaka. And a small baloon blows and explodes in your nose.

Sharing at Annual Youth Day, Chakhesang Mission Centre Church, Pfutsero, 29th December, 2012 Not for those who have been following this blog or reading my newspaper column. It is repetition......except that each time we speak on the same topic, it comes out a little different every time. Many people have a love and hate relationship with facebook. But hate it or love it, or both, it has changed the way humans interact with humans. It has redefined the meaning of human relationship to a large extent. You can know so much about another person without having to meet face to face. You can know how she’s feeling today, what curry she had this morning, or what makes her angry, without having to ask. You may also project yourself to be a person who is very different from who you really are. You can manage what you want people to know about you and what you don’t want to show. Here’s a song called ‘Online’ by Brad Paisley, a country singer "Online" I work down at the pizza p...