Aizawl, capital of Mizoram
Hi Mates! Cibai!
In Mizo language, hello is ‘cibai’. ‘Pu’ is Mr. For ladies, it's ‘Pi’. So over here, you can curse as much as you want, and people actually acknowledge with a smile, and curse you back. Kima is a pretty typical Mizo name. Imagine how you’d greet Mr Kima in Mizo.
The monsoon isn’t here yet but there’re heavy downpours once in a while. The weather is unpredictable, sunny one moment, strong winds and heavy downpour the next. The flights into Mizoram are even more unpredictable. Planes can’t land when weather is bad. Planes can’t land or take off when there’re technical problems (which happens pretty often), even when the weather is absolutely wonderful!
Monsoon or no monsoon, I don’t think I’d be getting out of this place anytime soon. First thing my boss did when I arrived here, was to conveniently announce to the entire known world in Mizoram, that I’d be the new Works Manager (huh?). Now, isn’t that so sweet of him? Apart from introducing a hundred and more new tasks and responsibilities into my peaceful life, he’s expecting me to head almost the entire team of people here (guess boss has finally got the idea that I’m enjoying life too much in Delhi).
I am currently stationed in Aizawl, the capital of Mizoram. Aizawl is beautiful, from afar. It’s built over a few hillocks and is visible for miles and miles around. The main areas of town are on the top of the ridges of these hills. Houses are built on stilts into the slopes of steep hills. Churches dot many prominent spots in town as Mizoram is 95% Christian. There’s no legal alcohol, nothing opens on Sundays, no cinemas as far as I know and the biggest shopping spot is equivalent to the local mini-market in Malaysia. The nearest decent cinema (not nearest maybe, but the easiest to access) would be in Calcutta, about 1.5 hours by flight or 3 bloody days by bus & train from this place. Guess Revenge of the Sith would have to wait, ….sigh.
Driving into Aizawl is a wonderful experience. The roads are narrow and some of them look like they’re 45 degrees steep. The road goes up, then takes a 180 degree turn in the opposite direction, going further up. Buses and trucks spew out tons of diesel fumes trying to hike up these steep and narrow roads. Rows of vehicles frequently have to reverse en masse to allow the opposite row to pass. All very exciting and ‘orderly’, and going everywhere takes at least 1 hour with about half of the time being stuck trying to reverse or to make way or something else.
Apart from Aizawl, Mizoram is totally pristine. Rows upon rows of hills, not a piece of flat land in sight for miles and miles, narrow winding roads that cut thru the sides of the hills, bamboo forests, hill villages, eating dinner & chit-chatting by candle-light and watch fireflies flit by (when the power goes off, which happened almost every day until we installed a generator at our house). Now we have to contend with a thousand and one different types of bugs, mostly moths of all sizes and colour attracted by our bright fluorescent light.
Entertainment is watching tv, playing with the house dog – watching it chase after giant crickets, jungle cockroaches and huge green insects (till they’re half dead – hehehe), killing giant mosquitoes, taking chloroquinone pills to keep us malaria-proof, experimenting with different ways of killing leeches and other types of bugs, reading any reading material that comes along and waiting for the bloody internet to connect or to load something, ...anything. Weather is usually pleasant here. Water here is from heaven (rain) or from the river (of course we boil it thoroughly). Cooking gas comes in cylinders, which we need to queue up for hours and hours to get any.
Food here is simply superb ..for a true-blooded meat-eater like me hehehe. There’s pork (yummy), beef (finally), mutton, chicken, fish and dog (a delicacy here). Our cooks are pretty good here. The restaurants outside aren’t really that many or good.
Mizoram is at the southern tip of North-East India, wedged between Myanmar and Bangladesh. Mizos are of Tibeto-Burmese descent. They’re more akin to South East Asians, looking something like Myanmese (meaning I can pass off very comfortable pretending to be Mizo, if I don’t open my mouth). Their culture, though deeply influenced by Christianity, is also more akin to South East Asia, they’re crazy about football (unlike Indians who’re nuts over cricket), their music sounds like Thai or Pilipino music, unlike the tabla-laden music of India. Heck, if they didn’t tell me this was India, I wouldn’t have guessed!
Anyway, a few days ago, boss told me to prepare to move my butt again, this time to Haulawng (pronounced ‘how long’), about 180km deeper inside this forest of a place (or about 9 bloody hours by road, if road conditions are good). Ahhh, more pristine jungles, more primitive lifestyle, what more can I ask for huh?
Our office building, Zemabawk, Aizawl
My office in Aizawl, Mizoram
