Thatched House

Work is not a curse but toil is. God put Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden to work and enjoy the fruits of their labor. Work basically is therefore, not a curse but a blessing of God. Toil is a curse which is a result of men’s disobedience. The ground was cursed, thorns and thistles came up and since then, humans had to earn their livelihood by the sweat of their brows. Toil is a distortion of the blessing of Work. In Jesus Christ, the curse has been broken and we are called to do good works through his name. Many people think that in Heaven, we will work no more and instead, we will be playing praise and worship music all day long for eternity. When people think this way, I think they have in mind, what we call ‘toil’. Toil saps all our energy and sense of meaning. Vishal Mangalwadi defined toil as ‘mindless, repetitive labor that requires no choice’. However, God intends work to be a very fulfilling and meaningful activity. Mangalwadi poignantly asks, ‘Why are women i...

When we go out of the church, we brush our teeth and live our socio-economic and political lives. But while we are inside the church, these things are not talked about. Suddenly we put on our religious clothes and become different persons altogether, even though for a short while. The sermons can go on and on preaching about abstract things in the spiritual realm that has little resemblance with the realities of everyday living. The religious sphere becomes a private space in a corner and worship gets reduced to sentimental feelings just a little deeper than the guts. The church is becoming like a dinosaur which is getting extinct because it cannot cope with the times. Therefore, the call of the NBCC in the annual conference this year for the church to be more responsible in the society is a most welcome wake-up call. The NBCC asked the church to take up the cause of HIV/AIDS, Climate change, alcoholism, etc. However, instead of taking on a selec...

My name is Razuhii* and I know exactly where the sun rises. The sky turns yellow over the mountain, and then the sun appears in between the guava tree and the thatch house. Wait for minute. Now, it is in front of the house. It is time to go home. I washed my face, filled my pots and went home. As the water in the kettle started to rumble, I have finished cleaning the rice. I replaced the kettle from the fire place with the rice pot and added some firewood. With a cup of strong tea, I went round my house, strolling leisurely as I made a list in my mind of what I'll do today. Hmmm... I'll check the water channel to the paddy field, dig some fish holes and weave a new net at the water outlet. On my way back, I must remember to collect mushrooms for dinner. I fed my chicken and prepared my meal. After my early lunch, I packed my tiffin and whistling my favorite tunes I walked down to the paddy field which is on the bank of the Thikhapii River. In its lower course, the river is ca...

‘It’s just the Cold’, we say. We know we will up and about in a week. It goes away without any medicine. Most of the times, we don’t go to see a doctor but send someone to a pharmacy to buy some Cold ta blets. Some famous brands of these over-the-counter drugs are Sinarest, D-Cold, SumoCold, and NamCold. Some go for Crocin, Diclowin Plus, Diclomax, Sumo etc which are more specific for pain and fever; cough formulas like Grillinctus, Ascoril, Hatric3 are also used. The combinations and brands are numerous that no doctor can have all the names in one’s brain. If it is just Cold and fever, doctors usually don’t prescribe antibiotics but they are consumed widely and indiscriminately with/without prescriptions. Common Cold does not catch our attention like HIV/AIDS and Cancers. However, let us do some math here which may garner some awareness for this common condition. For calculation, I went to a pharmacy and noted the price of the common brands that are used in Nagaland. Th...

If population is a bomb, Nagaland needs to be very afraid. Here’s why. Every year, a new Australia comes to India. The meaning is that the population of India grows so fast that the size of the total population of Australia is being added into India every year. By 2045, India will overtake China as the most populous country in the world. Now, Nagaland has the one of the highest fertility rates in India (only next to Bihar, UP, and Meghalaya) and this is a cause of serious concern. This fertility rate of 3.7 against the national rate of 2.7 is not from the last Census, but from a more reliable source, the latest round of the National Family Health Survey III (NFHS III), 2005-06. Worse is that the State’s rate has not declined since the previous round NFHS II (1998-99) while the national figure has. Overpopulation is often linked with depletion of resources (food, ground water, etc), environmental degradation, unemployment, social unrest (e.g. youth bulge theory), illegal migration, co...

One purpose of folk songs that I was told by my Aunty goes like this; it is from a story. There was once a man who realized that he has not been good to his wife. But it’s not in our Naga nature to express apology or affection easily and openly. So, he composed a folk song which says, “One cannot change one’s ugly looks, but one can certainly change one’s bad character”, He changed and since then, he remained loving and caring to his wife. Folk songs are a medium of communicating things which cannot be expressed in normal conversations. My critic of the music remains (Ah, its repetitiveness) but I’m able to appreciate it better after hearing that story. There may be people who think that everyone likes Kenny Rogers (I know one such guy). If there's anyone who doesn't, he/she ought to love Rogers. When I was in Patkai, the vocational students used to organise Christmas concerts. But even if they sing difficult songs and classical music of the highest quality, very few would s...

In writing, anything is possible. As a writer, you can finish off the hero in the middle of your story by throwing him into a cave of one and a half eyed monsters. You can create a fantasy world like Narnia, make people laugh and cry at the same time, or transform a society forever. My love for writing began when my dad asked us (me, my brother, and sister) to write an essay every day. Though I always have the passion, I had this fear, ‘what if I’m the only one who enjoys my w ritings?’ I had bad experiences when I was a co-editor of a newsletter of college students’ fellowship in Imphal. Thank God I did not stop. Writing also became an escapade and a compensation for not being able to speak well. In a NCF-Delhi camp, I shared my testimony starting with, “even as I am going to speak, I have written it down”. This is not the story of an accomplished writer but an amateur whose effort is starting to pay off; many thanks to the Eastern Mirror for this breakthrough. There see...

It is a good thing that Nagas are increasingly becoming aware of their health. Some of the people are very well informed, now that a lot of health information is just a click away and many newspapers reserve certain space everyday for health news and tips. Diagnostic and treatment facilities are getting more sophisticated each year. Disease patterns are also changing over the years. Tuberculosis is not the dreaded killer disease anymore, Small Pox is wiped out from the world and even Nagaland has achieved and maintained the elimination rate of Leprosy. These infectious diseases are giving way to non-communicable diseases like cardio-vascular diseases and cancers. With the antibiotics revolution, many of the infectious diseases have become treatable while non-communicable are on the rise, largely because of change of lifestyle, diet, and change in the physical and social environment. However, this disease changing trend is not clearly demarcated, not least in Nagaland. The world has...

Today is the most boring day, so let me tell you a story which kills. I have not thought of it yet, but let me invent here and now. There was once a boy named AK47 who was super-multi-talented. He makes people doubt if God is indeed just. He does things with ease and speed. Teach him anything new and he will pick it up and beat you in your own game. He disappoints students, sportspersons and musicians who labour hard to make it because all these skills come naturally to him. So, friends who were jealous of his talents kidnapped him one day and ripped off his intestines. No, no; that is not how the story goes. No wonder his friends were jealous of his giftedness (something like Salieri and Mozart in the movie Amadeus) but they did not kill him. Let’s let him kill himself. Let’s say, like all people, AK47 has his weakness. His Achilles Heel was the result of his being gifted: He became proud and lazy. Booh! Boring story. Now we know where the story is heading; the plot is predictable. Ho...

There was a mad person who was very wise in his own eyes. People simply tolerate him out of pity while he lectures about anything and everything. He carries a briefcase as he roam in the village acting like an educated person carrying some important papers. He talks about all the VIPs he brushed shoulders with and the degrees that he received in the college while he was in Kohima. He said he has the certificates in his briefcase. People did not bother to check what he was carrying; in fact they knew he has never been out of the village. This went on until the man started to terrorize the kids in the village primary school with his wisdom. It got worse when he demanded to preach in the church on Sunday mornings thereby, disrupting the worship services. The villagers have had enough; so, they had a meeting and decided to stop him from giving unsolicited lectures. But how? One Gaon Bura (GB) proposed that the man be locked up. However, since the man has no family, who will feed him? Bes...

:-) The first Saramati Apple Festival was held at Thanamir Village on September 29 with Dr N. Benjong Aier, Mission Director (TM-NE), Directorate of Horticulture, as the chief guest. Apple Store The Festival was organised by the Department of Horticulture in collaboration with the Nagaland Missions Movement (NMM) and Thanamir Village Council. Sale. Sold Out within an hour Yummy In his speech, the chief guest pointed out that the apples in Thanamir Village came as a gift of God, a gift that grew out of friendship between an Army personnel and J Yungbokhiung of Thanamir Village. He has urged for a partnership among the villagers, the NMM and the Horticulture Department to develop apple cultivation so that the present state of apples being used for personal consumption could be turned into a rich source of income for the villagers. The Department has already provided few thousand apple plants last year brought from Himachal Pradesh which are also doing very well. He e...

Nagaland has the highest incidence rate of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) in India. Though mouth cancers are common in India, NPC is rare except among the specific ethnic groups like the Nagas. The incidence rate of 4.3 per 1, 00,000 population in Nagaland falls under the intermediate category while the highest incidence rates are found in southern China (10-20 in males and 5-10 in females). In most parts of the world, the incidence is less tha n 1 per 1, 00,000 population. Though this is a serious health concern for the Nagas, it doesn’t get sufficient attention in the national scene, similar to its political struggle. There has been a lot of research done in China and South East Asia but Nagaland gets mentioned only on a passing note. As far as I know, apart from hospital statistics, there are only two researches done in Nagaland (One by P.K Chelleng et al, titled 'Risk factors for cancer Nasopharynx: A case-control study from Nagaland, India'; published in National Medical J...

Some people who are concerned for me think that I run after trouble. One fine very early morning, I was going for a walk around Bayavii hill in Kohima. I saw nice cars parked outside the homes of the residents. This thought came to me as I admired a fine one, ‘who wouldn’t want to have this car? Yet, I’m running away from it!’ It was in early June 2010 when there was much pressure on me and frustration in the family because of my decision to go to a remote area to work. It was not that I didn’t know what I’d be missing. It was not that I didn’t count the cost. I’m aware of the money I can earn as a Public Health personnel in some other places. I’m aware that I blew up a golden opportunity by brushing aside the good political connections. People envied my chances. I don’t need to be reminded that my marriage prospects are not as good after my decision. I knew my family needed me to be near after being away for so long. Just to clear the air that I’m not reckless and running after troubl...

Among others, Some celebrities and church groups go to ‘backward’ areas and click pictures with dirty children. They go there as ambassadors of some relief program or on a short mission exposure. Moved by the situation there, they come back, challenged, and I suspect, feeling good about themselves, pleased with what they have done. Those pictures become prized possessions to show off to friends, used in sermons/lectures or uploaded in facebook. I admit I also enjoy such experiences, when I come back exhausted but feeling proud of what I have done. But I don’t feel good to have such photo sessions and I’m here to tell why. I chose to work in a less privileged area where people are poor and help seem far away. This decision brought me ridicule and honour, some call me a ‘fool’ some a ‘hero’. Every day, I have the privilege to come across poor people; not only in their poverty, but also in their time of sickness. As I take their hands and examine their palms, I get a glimpse of the live...

Clicked on 16th July 2010 The first tree, since 1981 Fruits from the first tree, smaller yet sweeter J. Yungbokhiung at Pungro CHC MO quarter Thanamir Village Fruits in 2009 clicked by Tangit Longkumer Apple Saplings at Thanamir