Sunday, February 26, 2012

Winter trips, etc.

Summer’s already on its way and my blog still looks at winter, slow coach that i am! Anyway, it’s been good times though i’m a bit tardy at updating blogs.
My nephew in Aizawl got married on 20th December. So my daughter flew in on 18th, we left together on 19th and landed there in the evening. What with the joy of meeting siblings and others, we got healthily hungry and gorged on the rarely-come-by Mizo food. Yum yum!

Wedding next day. Missed the official family photo with bride and groom as i was busy talking with an old friend. My little camera conked out on me so i couldn’t take any pics. Daughter, sisters, nieces, sister in law and i posed for what would have been beautiful pictures in our dressy tops and puans, shot by brother in law’s brother in law. I was impatiently waiting for the copies when news came that there was no photo to be seen as bro-in-law’s bro-in-law’s camera’s memory card was run over by a vehicle. On getting news of the disaster, though i greatly miss the photos, i couldn’t help laughing my head off as the accident was so unique.

Starting the wedding night, i was down with tummy upset for a few days probably due to over eating. But i had company in my misery. Bro-in-law’s bro-in-law whose memory card later got run over also suffered the same fate, hehe!

Christmas was in Chaltlang, we stayed in my brother’s place. Just before the community feast, my friend’s sister in law died so i couldn’t join it. Big loss(es). And then we went to my parents’ old village. A nostalgic, lovely trip that deserves to be blogged about all by itself.

On every trip to Mizoram, i love to comb bookshops. But time ran out this time and i could only do one, in a hurry. I bought the novel 'Zodinpuii', and was shocked to find that the author was dead and that he was the son of Pi Vanramchhuangi, whom i interviewed for our organization just two years back. I also got 'Mianglo Sulhnu', a recently published collection of Mizo short stories, that i was looking for. So far i’ve read only ‘Kutdawh Puia’ by TS Khupchong. The theme is interesting, dealing with love of a different kind than the usual favourite, the sexual one. The execution too is pretty okay, especially considering the writer’s age; he’s only 22 plus according to the bio-note. It’s hopeful that this guy will make great contributions to Mizo literature.

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Early Feb, another few days’ trip to Bangalore. It was really good but a bit too short; lots of things to do and lots of friends to meet. Got to ride the Metro there for the first time, pretty cool. Friends, family, etc were simply great.

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My book, 'The Messiah', to be published by GLS, has gone to the press. I’m quite excited about it.