Thatched House

Young people have become very negative, our leaders in high places say. But the gospel of positive attitude which they preach is actually Blind Positivity. They want their followers to close their eyes and say that all is well. Having a positive attitude is admirable. But you look to your left, right, front, and back and what do you see? Does the evidence of the present situation foster an attitude of positivity? Our leaders think that they can scold you ng people to obedience. But kids have eyes and minds. The spirit of negativity is the making of the leaders who have failed us. Now, rather than old leaders blaming the young people for becoming so negative, it is time for the young people to tear down the towers of lies.  Government of India, don’t bail us out of our financial mess. Let the last remaining road turn from potholes to river-beds. Let the transformers burst to flames. Let the last bridge collapse and be washed away.  We pray for safety ...

Officials from central government (GOI) and regional office had a program with a farmers group in Nagaland. I did not attend the program but I was told when I sat with the same farmers for another meeting recently.  In that program, the officials from outside heard the plight of the farmers and offered to help through financial support to their work. How the farmers replied to that offer is something which needs our attention. They replied, 'DON'T SEND US FUNDS. THEY WILL NEVER REACH US' . It was not that the farmers did not need the money. But their reply said it all. They have lost faith in the State government. What they were saying is : the central government will sanction the money, the State politicians will take their share, the departments will have their cut, and some connected people (contractor, relative, party worker) will pocket the left-overs with fictitious documents.  That same group of farmers are now trying to search market on their own to s...

Let me share another thought (with my church WhatsApp group). Again not because anybody asked for it😆. It is about the typical special songs presented in the church by Ciezo Mepus (colony fellowships). My idea of a special song in church is that it should be presented by someone (or a group) who is gifted in music, and ideally by a good musician who loves the Lord. And frankly I don't have much taste for the typical songs presented by various colony fellowships. Many of the songs sound like unfamilar Dieliekevi (hymnal) songs and quite a number of them are self-composed and in local dialects. There is a similar pattern about them that from the first line, you fairly know how it is going to be (with exceptions of course). I think many young people will identify with my feeling expressed here though out of respect for elders we may not show it. I wish that special songs get better musically, and hopefully they will with the passage of time, but I have come to some kind of unde...

'Your underwear is our underwear'. This is the most creative slogan that Nagas have come up with in a public protest (in Zunheboto some years back) against extortion and molestation of women by a UG group. In a magazine article called ' Wages of war ', the detailed rates and means of extortion by various Naga underground groups were documented. It was estimated that the collective revenue of all UG groups is about Rs. 1300 crores annually. Not a rupee of this goes back to, say, maintenance of even 1 inch of road in the State. Where does this money go? Surely it doesn't need that much amount to negotiate peace with government of India. The source of money to fund the palatial buildings and luxury cars in the posh suburbs of Dimapur belonging to UG leaders is not hard to guess. But the above slogan goes deeper than that. It says: 'Not only your house, your car, or the luxuries that you enjoy, that underwear which you are wearing right now is also paid by us'....

When we say that the public is also to be blamed for messy situation we are in, does that mean that the baby girl who was born last night in a remote village in Myanmar border is also to be blamed?  Let's be specific. 'Public' is a heterogeneous group with angels and demons and every type in between. Generalizing the blame is not just for those who are not corrupt yet suffer for someone else's faults. Blaming the public is a favorite prop politicians use to legitimise their ac tions.  But let's face this truth: Politicians are homogeneous in so far as corruption is concerned. By virtue of their power and position, the magnitude of one's corruption is larger than that of a hundred corrupt public. Therefore, let us be specific as to who is at the root of the problem. If what they say is true that what they accumulate goes back to the people during election, what about the mansions they build? Do those palaces ever go back into circulation? Do th...

Rhododendrons at Tsazu I browse articles on entrepreneurial skills and things like ‘how small changes can improve your life considerably’ and one common advice I find is this: Early to bed and early to rise. This goes out even to people who say ‘but I am a night person’. The advice comes with this practical guide: set your alarm 30 minutes early. If you wake up at 6:30 am, then set it at 6 am. I think this advice is important because we follow Indian Standard time which is set in Allahabad. We might be 1 hour ahead of it. At 4:30 am, it is bright already here. We may be losing around 22,000 minutes per year of day light, which translates to 365 hours or 15 days approx. Bangladesh, which is west of us is ahead of us by 30 minutes! This advice is said to be for the busy person as well who never has enough time (and work into the night). There is hardly time to meditate or think of matters that matter eternally. I was also reading about the person who wrote the beau...

In this month 2 years ago, my wife and I - then a newly married couple – took a trip to Kizari village to attend Mission Week program.     We knew the road till Lanye river beyond which we have not been. We took a turn from the highway and started on a small road which could easily end in someone’s paddy field. Therefore, it was such a relief to see this sign board which says ‘Way to Tizu Bridge, Tuzatse’. ‘Take the kaccha road just after the stone crusher. But as you reach a junction, don’t go all the way up to Lozaphuhu village, take the turn which leads to the Tizu River’ we were advised.    We reached a good stretch and along a bend, we stopped to take rest. As we looked back, this (photo) wa s the road we came from. I thought we would come back through this road, but that was not to be due to some unforeseen event which was to unfold. I wonder if we would cross this path again. But we will never do so again in the same s...