Thatched House

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...

For tomorrow's weekly column in Eastern Mirror newspaper ‘Is facebook making us stupid?’ What kind of question is this? Isn’t this a more appropriate question for those who are not in facebook? For those who don’t know that there’s a whole new world in the social networking site? Facebook is the place where news breaks faster than satellite TV and it makes newspapers look ancient. From a war erupting in the Middle East, to the college buddy announcing his engagement, to the earthquake in Phek, to that pretty face who is having a boring day; facebook gets you all the latest updates. How can something which is as informative as facebook make anyone more stupid? Governments, universities, international and local organizations, common interest groups, top honchos, babus and netas, celebrities, aunty next door are all in facebook that it is becoming indispensable to have an account. Facebook is something that cannot be ignored as a time pass fun that young folks indulge in. Some good ...

OK. I have been keeping aside writing for a while. Good or bad, I now plan to keep this blog running. I say I love writing and think about it constantly; even read about it. But to become a writer, there’s no way to become one but to write . What has been keeping me from writing? First and not the most important, is work . Due to the Scrub Typhus outbreak in Nagaland, I have been very busy: travelling, reading about it, compiling data and analyzing it, and so on. Right now also I’m busy attending a training course in Vellore. But that is not to say that I don’t get time to write. Another reason and a more important one is laziness mixed with restlessness . To write requires a calm mind and a lazy mind strangely is seldom calm . Also why I put off writing is because I always try to write masterpieces, not that I have ever written one. I want my writings to be very good which many times keep me from starting . I think this shouldn’t be.  To keep a writing project on hold in t...

I wrote this for a discussion forum in facebook 1. If you don’t have anything to say, don’t say anything. 2. When you are about to comment, be careful to read all the other comments ahead of yours so that you do not needlessly repeat what has been said by others before. 3. When you are about to post a comment, especially on something that you disagree with; be careful to read even more carefully, so that you don’t misrepresent your opponent’s view. Worst of all is to contradict yourself and go round about yourself when no one’s arguing with you anymore. 4. Don’t use foul language or personally attack the person you are debating with and make it difficult for the two of you to meet in real life. 5. Going off topic may be necessary once in a while, but as far as possible, stick to the thread of the discussion. 6. Don’t complicate yourself by using high-sounding words that you are not comfortable with. 7. Let others know if what you are saying is a personal opinion o...

Humans love company of other humans and facebook provides a meeting place for peoples even if separated by distance. In that sense, facebook is a good thing. But I am getting fed up of nonsense comments, cheap debates, shallow quotes, oh-notice-me pictures, the-more-twisted-the-better videos, and self-obsessed status updates that flood the site. Everyone seems to be doing all sorts of things to get noticed and to be celebrated. To feel wanted and loved is natural but to be over-obsessed, yes, even addicted to oneself is a sickness. Attention-mongers we are. We all want to be stars. If other people don’t notice us, we feel like we have ceased to exist. I am no celebrity fanatic and correct me if I am wrong. I think Lindsay Lohan was famous, so she became spoilt, while it’s the other way round for Paris Hilton. Paris became famous not by virtue of any talent but simply because she was spoilt. Either way, to be a spoilt brat has even become a desirable thing; or the more spoilt one becom...

I find this social networking venn diagram to be quite fascinating. ADHD stands for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

We get these invitations to fight cancer, fight global warming, fight for animal rights, fight against child labor, fight against poverty, fight for world peace etc.; all online. Facebook is one popular site where you see people taking up righteous causes and showing their solidarity by joining a group or becoming a fan of some webpage. All they have to do is click! I don’t know what difference that makes to them or to the cause. One question that I constantly have is; ‘is doing good that ea sy?’ Far as I know, to do something good is very difficult. It engages your time and energy; it costs you something; something of worth. These issues that I have mentioned above are very crucial issues. Maybe I shouldn’t be too serious. After all, these people are just having fun or maybe they are useful in subtle ways, like sensitizing people; or atleast they are not harming anybody. But to take these issues casually like making some fashion statement (I suspect many are) can be a cruel thing. Can...