Thatched House

There are three simple things that Delhi can learn from me: I do not throw paper cups anywhere. If there is no dustbin nearby, I put them in my bag and properly dispose them later If I meet friends in a busy place, I do not stand in the middle and talk, blocking the whole traffic/footpath/corridor etc. I have 'sorry' and 'thank you' in my vocabulary. No offence meant

A strand of hair fallen on his shoulder caught my attention as he sat in front of my row. The person I’m referring to is none other than ‘the’ Dr. Denis Alexander, director of Faraday Institute for Science and Religion , Cambridge. That was when this silly thought came to me. I imagined myself picking up the hair and putting it in a poly bag like a forensic expert taking specimen. However, not to do any test with it, but like a cricket fan who just had an autograph of Sachin Tendulkar, to put it in a frame and show it off to friends and generations to come. It will be a proof that I met Denis Alexander and sat for his lecture. But that would be a silly thing to do. (Sweet nothing from the recently concluded short course on Science and Christian Faith. For downloading mp3 lectures, videos, photos etc, go to breaking barriers website.

Traditional footpath Rabbits. The mother plucks its own fur to warm the newborn. The mother would abandon her babies if fur from another mother is put here Christmas meat: After it was believed that smoked meat causes throat cancer, smoking of meat over the fireplace is very much reduced. Instead, people dry meat in the sun as this Mesulumi Youth Society Lock up :-) Each plank with the bull horns are carved out from the same tree

Traditional water pond, now converted into a modern one under NREGA. The old one was said to be spooky, and where during Siikriinyi, the men folk go early in the morning for ceremonial bath Local tea: Grinding of leaves in progress. After this, it is dried in the sun. Good that we are becoming self reliant in this, but it still doesn’t taste as good as Assam tea Thin snow over our house. Vepiilii commented, “Who dropped salt bags up there?” You have to know vepiilii to get the real punch of the joke The oldest TV set in our village, still in working condition The Pumpkins are a blessing from a misfortune. Some miscreants burnt up a huge pile of wood that mom and dad collected at Dachokiilii. The ashes were used to grow pumpkins which became so good, they were distributed to Kohima and Pfutsero ...

This article was written for CBCC Youth Talent contest, Jan 2010, and magazine of Chakhesang Students Union, Patkai Christian College, Silver Jubilee celebration, February 2010 In a society where everyone is a Christian nobody knows what it means to be a Christian. Jacques Ellul I am glad to have a friend who left the prospect of a six figure job for a cause which our society will not easily understand. He chose a path of foolishness out of a deeper conviction. He didn’t chase after unpopularity, but it came to him as he violated the norms of our society’s aspirations. He turned his back on a lucrative career when he realized that the road he was taking was only leading him to sell off his brain to the highest bidder in the market. Ask IIM/IIT Christian students; how many of them have plans to use their knowledge to serve people in obedience to God? So many of them have dreams of earning lakhs per month, owning oversized cars and mansions, and marrying beauty queens or guys wi...

It angers me to see our girls dropped off early in the morning half dead by some Yakubu or some !dille (ask a Russell Peters' disciple to pronounce that for you). Again it angers me to not have sufficient fiscal resources or the audacity of a Punjabi guy to take our girls out in the evenings. We the menfolk of the trans-Brahmaputra are to be blamed for loving our bottles better than our ladies. The sober ones chicken out and fail to be a man. But I've come to realize that it may not be all that bad to let our sisters out. For instance, I feel safer to travel by the Brahmaputra mail when crossing Lalooland because one of ours is married to that land. I don't know her personally but we have mutual friends in facebook. I already feel closer to Lalooji. Imagine what wonders it can do to have such connections in every state of India and beyond. If I should meet an unfortunate day and is about to be thrashed by the Biharis, I'll yell out the connections.

The Bible is the best selling book of all times. About 25 million Bibles were sold in the US in 2005. There are over 500 English translations and the Bible comes in varying forms. We have the Students Bible, The Grace for the Moment Study Bible, Women Bible, Brides Devotional Bible, Couples Bible, Cowboys Devotional Bible, Soul Surfer Bible, the colorful Rainbow Study Bible, Good News for Modern Man, Super-Heroes Bible, Outdoors Bible, Woman Thou Art Loosed Bible, etc, etc. They come in hard covers, leather bound, bonded-leather, imitation-leather, red letter edition, ribbons, special boxes, special message from Max Lucado and so on. It may not be long before we have customized Bibles, say one with personal autograph from Rick Warren? Nelson inc. got help from the fashion industry color reports to decide on the Bible cover color. The BibleZine drew inspiration from teen girls’ magazines. The sidebars of the Bible sharing beauty secrets as: “Have you ever had a white stain appear under...

As a doctor, I prescribe medicines. But I’ve never cared enough how much the prescription is going to cost my patient. Also I’ve not understood how it feels to be a terminal patient or family of one. I still remember; ‘cure may not be possible but we will try for palliative (supportive) therapy’, my professor said about my brother. After that, there was a season of desperation, sleeplessness, exhaustion and hopelessness. In that situation, God had not forgotten us; your help was a godsend which man cannot repay. Thank you. Now I know to some extent how you must have felt when your beloved passed away. My brother has completed treatment and he’s up and active; continuing in his academic career and restarting a new life. And I think I’ve become a more sensitive doctor. Thanks again and God bless you and your family. RIMS, Imphal, 2006

What joy is this?  Can Heaven have more?   (This is the most painful piece I've ever written...because it talks of highest joy...written in a time of deepest pain)

O my Sunshine Shadows are lengthening As you fade from the horizon

Reality bites me to silence  Each time I try to call out your name

We were pulling each other’s legs, a friend and I the other day. I made fun of her bad habit of taking unwanted substances which does not go well with her interest in attending Bible studies. She was quick to point out that I’m a typical Naga Baptist. I knew then what she meant and I felt that I’ve been put into a box which does not truly define me. I’m a Naga Baptist but I’m also not a Naga Baptist in ways more than being so. Some people may think I’m a Conservative while some may think I’m Liberal. But chances are; I’m more liberal than the Liberals at some and more conservative than Conservatives at certain other things. Not only in Religion, some people may take me as a leftist because of some things that I said while I do not consider myself to have such a political stand though I endorse many of what the Lefts say. It is not possible to say everything we are all the time, so it is inevitable that we will be mistaken and be put into boxes that we do not like. If I say I believe t...

10 books i like to read after my course: 1.Conversion of the imagination(Richard Hays) 2.Resident Aliens (Stanley Hauerwas) 3.Surprised by Hope (NT Wright) 4.The Call (Os Guinness) 5.Rich Christians in an age of hunger (Ronald J Sider) 6.The Mission of God: unlocking the Bible's grand narrative (Chris Wright) 7.Subverting global myths (Vinoth Ramachandra) 8.Mistaken Modernity (Dipankar Gupta) 9.Exclusion and embrace (Miroslav Wolf) and 10.Matters of life and death (John Wyatt).

I’m more comfortable in writing; so, even as I am going to speak, I have written it down. Like any other young Naga’s fantasy, I dreamt of becoming a music star but I ended up becoming a medical Doctor. I went to Patkai Christian College, Dimapur and not Science College, Kohima for the sake of music in Patkai. I got into medical college but I wasn’t interested in it at first because somewhere along the way while preparing for medical entrance, I wanted to become a writer. In Patkai and medical college in Imphal, I was involved with the Evangelical Union. After completion of internship, I came to Delhi to work and prepare for PG entrance exam. I worked in Hindu Rao Hospital for one year in Orthopedics. That was the season when I actively engaged with the Evangelical Graduates Fellowship, North Delhi. Within six months, I learned more about God and the Bible than my seven and a half years in Patkai and medical college EU even though I attended a lot of Bible camps and served in the execu...

A disclaimer: In a time when a crackdown on plagiarism is thrust forward and copyright violations are increasingly seen as serious offences, it becomes difficult for a guy like to me to say anything at all. What I learn is mostly from others and original thoughts are minuscule. So here I stand and give credit to the One who is the giver of all knowledge to mankind, and a big thanks to all those people who passed it on to me. Hehehe...Now don't accuse me of plagiary or copyrights violation. What does it mean that humankind (ah, very gender sensitive word) is created in the image of God? I have come across answers from different preachers and books but this one by Stanley Grenz in ‘Theology for the Community of God’ is my favorite. There are three positions concerning this matter that he cites: 1. The Structural View. This view says that we bear the image of God, all human beings: it is something that we “possess”. It is inherent in us being human beings and it characterized by our...

'Lost without you' by Jaci Velasquez was one of my favorite songs....until recently when I came across 'Lost without you' By Delta Goodrem. They are the same: same music, same lyrics...well almost same lyrics. We come across one song sung by different artists at different times. For example, Ronan Keating sings a lot of songs which are not his original. I don't have a problem with that. 'You raise me up' is a very versatile song sung by numerous artists in different contexts. It can be a song between lovers, song about human solidarity, or a gospel song about Jesus raising us up. That's still fine. But what we find here in 'Lost without you' and 'Lost without you' by Goodrem and Valesquez is different and quite unsettling. Who copied who? The fact of the matter is "Lost Without You" is a pop ballad written by Bridget Benenate and Matthew Gerrard, produced by Gerrard for Delta Goodrem's first album Innocent Eyes (2003)(wik...

Innocence

One of the many books that I want to have is ‘The Art of Reading Scripture’ by Richard B. Hays and Ellen F. Davis. The book is too costly and it is not published in India. But I’m glad to have an MP3 lecture by Hays on the book and here’s a summary (or dictation:-)) of the main points in the MP3 with a few personal inputs. To read and interpret the Bible faithfully is important because: i. It is not possible to read Scripture without interpreting it. Consciously or unconsciously, we are always interpreting the Bible as we read. It is important that we learn to do it and do it well because our interpretation tends to be influenced by our social and cultural baggage, educational background, denomination we belong to, etc. ii. The nature of the Scripture itself: that it is both human and divine. The error is more towards treating the Bible as a book fallen from the sky, unpolluted by human hands, thoughts or language. He made a list of inadequate approaches in reading/interpreting Scrip...

Evolution and Theology operates at different levels: The first talks about our chronological origin while the later about our ontological origin. The two talks of different things and cannot be contested. Therefore creation vs. evolution is a non-debate. But yes, Evolution and YEC is the issue in contention. To take the Bible as a science textbook believing in its inerrancy runs into problems within the text itself, e.g. genealogical precision (Genesis 11:12 cf. Luke 3:35). Nature of science is such that a theory’s in place until refuted by another which better explains the phenomenon under study. No better theory has come up to refute evolution than the criticism of its loopholes. The above point doesn’t mean the acceptance of evolution in spite of its weakness just for want of a better theory. The ever growing evidence and the landslide consensus among scientists testify to it being a theory and not a hypothesis. The proportion of Bible scholars vouching for a literal interpr...