Thatched House

Message posted in church WhatsApp group Good morning every one. I went this morning to speak in a youth camp (Japfuphiki Chokri Khriesarü-ü krotho) which went horribly wrong. Spoke in Tenyidie to over 1000 campers without microphone. Nothing can go worse than that. I had a blackout at the start from dehydration and langauge black-outs in between. I had a conversation with Dr. Cho-o after the program which got me thinking when I went home. During lunch, I kept thinking and my wife thought that something is wrong. So, I typed what I thought and sent to Dr. Cho-o and that is what I want to share here as a way of venting out on an imperfect morning. Postmodernism rightly diagnoses the problem of modern Enlightenment. It problematizes the confidence and undermines the arrogance of the Enlightenment (that we can do without God and determine our own destiny). But postmodernism as we have found is only useful in so far as to give a right diagnosis of its preceding ideology. It has only...

In the midst of hot debate about Urban Local Bodies election with Women Reservation in Nagaland and its connection or lack of connection with Article 371A of Indian Constitution, I wrote the following for a WhatsApp group: I don't always agree with my father. I have heated arguments with him but at the end of the day, I love him. I still think I am right and he thinks he is right, but we love each other. He has his experiences and I have my experiences. I want to convince him and he wants to convince me to believe him. We both cannot force each other, but I have learned to live with the tension, and stay united with him. After all, he is my dad. Learning to live with that tension is what I would call 'maturity'. Tati is a one stringed musical instrument. I would want it to remain one-stringed. But to build a music career in this time and age, I would want my son to take up a six-stringed instrument rather than a one stringed. I would do what I can to preserve the ...

A message for my church  WhatsApp group CBCC’s and our church’s year theme ‘Righteous Living’ is proper and timely. It is something that each of us can relate to because we all are in need of righteous living for ourselves, for our church and society. In this, we are all somewhere along the road and none of us have arrived. The way things are in our lives and in our society, we are in need of righteous living more than any other thing.  One of the major benchmarks of how righteous or unrighteous our lives are is measured by our attitude towards money. And if we get this right, we will get a lot of other things right. There are other things but this attitude towards money will be a very important checkpoint. Sexual immorality, alcoholism, and drug addiction are easy to condemn while greed is often a weak spot for many Christians. This is where things can become so confusing that we can come to think that the love of money is actually a Christian virtue, that som...

We have tribute bands who sound and dress like the originals. And there are those people who sing cover version of hit songs of old and new.  Tribute bands and cover songs can be quite popular. We had in Nagaland a couple of years ago, someone who looked just like and sounded like Bon Jovi. There are some Asians who sing hit songs and have millions of views in youtube. There are people who can sing like the superstars, or even better that one person can imitate multiple stars or multiple types of music.  But in the end, I think, 'why can't these super-talented people launch something of their own?' Yes, many of them will not become as big as the stars, not for lack of talent but for opportunities. But why should one become popular and continue to live so by way of imitating someone? They may make it big or they may not; but if they try to launch their own music career, they will have lived authentically, originally. I don't mean that no one should sing cove...