Thatched House

I know someone whose vocabulary bank is thin and he’d struggle to find the right words. We get his intention before he struggles to complete his sentence. When one has rich vocabulary, even if one starts a sentence ‘on the back foot’, to use a Cricket metaphor, one can come around and complete it well. But that person does not have that benefit. Mine is also not rich when it comes to knowing names of plants, fruits, and animals. So, let me call this flower plant as Christmas flower. I wonder if that is the name. Last year, it bloomed during Christmas and gladdened our hearts. This year, we are planning to grow it even more. So, this was what we did when I went home for the weekend. But let us first go further back to November 2013. It (Pic 1) was starting to bloom by late November. Pic 1: November 27, 2013 On Christmas day, it was in full bloom (Pic 2). This was clicked by my brother as I was in the village to celebrate Christmas wit...

at tzazu, dec 31, 2013 It is 7 th January 2014, 12: 45 AM and I am wide awake. I’m tired of trying to go to sleep. Worse is that on 6 th January, I updated my facebook status as the day being the most boring since the world began. I woke up early at Pfutsero and drove to Kohima to attend office for the first time this year. It was cold, silent and no one was in the mood to work. After being away for about 20 days, my house was dusty. I was exhausted, partly because of driving and partly because of a kind of emptiness inside. When you are leaving home after a long stay, that happens I suppose. I have worked hard this winter at home. The hardest was the day Mom, Dad, and I fell trees at Tsazu mountain in order to build a farm house. I had blood blisters bursting in my palms. I was excited with the idea of a farm house and the plans I have there for 2014. But yesterday (and now), I was lazy and irritable. When I came from work, there was no electricity and it was cold. Now, to top ...

It is freezing cold here at Pfutsero. There were reports of snowfall last month (December 2013). And cold weather can be incapacitating. People from warm places dread the climate and do not plan to visit during winter. But not so for people who make their home at Pfutsero.  How do people at Pfutsero go on living? As someone who was born and brought up at Pfutsero, let me share some survival tips. They are not in any particular order. 1.        Rather than wear one thick sweater/jacket/shawl, wear several layers of clothes. There is a scientific principle behind it. Person A sleeps with one blanket which is 3 inches thick; while Person B sleeps with two blankets each of 1.5 inches thickness. Which one will be warmer? They are of the same thickness (3=1.5+1.5). But due to air being trapped in between the two blankets (which retains heat), Person B will feel warmer. 2.        It is not just the temperature bu...

Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, "This is the way; walk in it." (Isa. 20: 31)   A Compass is a navigational tool for finding directions. It is particularly important for sailors at sea. At sea with no land at sight, looking for directions will truly be a challenge. Even if you start at the port in the right direction, the waves of the sea will have turned the ship within no time. And for a long sea voyage, a slight change in angulation can take you to a very different destination. You won’t find many travellers at sea to ask for directions. One can be lost at sea with no trace of dry land and all resources on board running out. This is an uneasy illustration as I have never been at Sea myself. I hope what I said is fairly accurate. But we all have seen a Compass somewhere. Some people have it on their wrist-watches or car dashboards. Adventurers carry it with a map in the city or thick jungles so that the...