Dec 8,2014
My adventures with specs
Since my youth I wore glasses for my distant vision. May be this inspired my
heart and head to look for things my eyes cannot see and so I ended up all
chasing all sorts of goals all my life! My adventures with specs had some
trying as well as amusing moments. In my junior college years, once I was going
for a student camp with friends and as we boarded a crowded train somebody
knocked off my specs and it was stamped upon by fellow passengers in
the usual rush in Indian railways. Without my specs I felt so lost that I
had to get off the train and miss the summer camp! Recently I went for a
meeting and landed the premises with only one glass in the frame as the other
one had felt off somewhere somehow and as I kind of felt like a one eye Jack! I
had to leave asap as I didn't want to be the joker of the day and so to go back
to fav optical shop in my neighbourhood! Again one morning I was asked to read
a portion in a daily devotional in a dimly lit basement conference hall. My
companions had patiently bore me out as I struggled to read from the 11 fone
size letters with the reading speed of an eighty year old! They had a good
laugh when I tried to explain in my usual 2 or 3 bullet points • my eyesight
had been rather used to reading only from electronic screen with adjustable
fone size and lightings, • am actually using my old specs due a strange kind of
fondness even though I had been prescribed a new pair with a new power some
weeks ago! I discovered that day that old is not always gold!
23 November 2014
Time Dumb Frequent Traveller
Reached airport today at 4 mistaking my 7:45
flight to be 5:35. This is quite a change for me even though a bit extreme -
remembering the many times I reached airports at the nick of departure time -
sometimes I got through because I had connecting flights, most of the times
they took pity on an innocent but not too intelligent looking passenger! I
remember boarding a flight as the last passenger where the engine had already
been running; another time when there was no time to book my luggages and
so two airline ground staff helped me to board with my luggages.
Talking of luggages I remember one time coming back from US having to forgo
some of my small baggages as only 2 booked luggages were allowed no matter what
the weights were. Also one AIDS conference in Australia I came back with all
the freebies and handouts I could collect - that far overweight my limit but
was permitted to carry as they are AIDS related materials - only to litter my
small office back home! There were other awkward moments - showing up at an
airport without an I card and all I had was my business card - and also showing
up at the boarding gate with my spouse with only one boarding card as we had misplaced
one! And to our utter surprise we were handed the missing one at the counter! I
believe in humanity as I survive on 'the milk of human kindness' that God
provides for a dumbo frequent traveller like me!
Nove 3, 2014
A time comes when you come to the stage of
managing life with less than a supple knee - when the synovial fluid and the
ligaments seem to be failing in their level of adequacy and efficiency, you
realise a few things you no longer can do without a measure of risks - starting
with the basics like using dessi toilet or yoga mats, managing stairs without
handle bars... The worst is that you can no longer bend down and kneel at the
tomb of your love ones if you happen to visit them or at the church pews or
next to your beds as you used to .. How quickly time flies..
Oct 29,2014
A typo or a spelling help in your computer
making a bizarre correction of the Paite words you use, a wrong propped up and
prompted name you wrongly add in your mailing list ... Forgetting name of a
long lost friend when you happen to meet suddenly ...bring in lots
of or ! Life is fun!
Oct 23, 2014
3rd day in the kitchen (when your better half
is unwell) - Dal isn't too sticky anymore,
Rice no longer burnt and pressure cooker takes
less effort to clean - no need to use steel wool to clean the black spots,
boiled vegetables are no longer dry but even have some soup to enjoy; still
can't quite manage multiple things at a time - hanging washed clothes to dry,
getting water containers filled and minding gas stoves all at the same time!
Still baby steps to take even in your mid sixties!
Oct 20, 2014
The anguish of a mother with a stillborn babe
... loss only the affected bore alone in silence ...
July 8, 2014
Concern for one another
The way we express our concern for
one another's well being is one of the most beautiful things in my community.
We greet each other by asking each other's well being e.g. dam maw? (are you
well or fine?) He, dam nangla? (Sure, how about you?) Nong dam u maw?(hope
everyone's fine back home?). He noula, nana dam zel zel umaw?( yes, how about
you - have you all been well). Even letter writing ends with wishing each
other's well being. Damtakin (be well) Damni ( May we all be well). Let's not
lose these kind of old-time greetings and preserve our age old cultural values!
May 14, 2014
Recalling a Chinese friend in Calcutta in 1988
A well built but small frame with a height just about the same as mine was Mr
John. We met in the church. He was with his wife and one small son and we got
into small talks and soon became good friends. He invited me to his
father-in-law Chinese shoe shop in one corner of Calcutta New Market. His
father-in-law was not a Christian even though John and his wife were. I became
a frequent visitor to the shop and every time I went there John and I would
chatted endlessly on matters related to our respective lives and our families
so on and so forth. He was a volunteer in a missions field in Africa and while
loading and unloading truck loads of literature and food items, he ‘broke’ his
back and had to return home. Since then he was helping in the traditional
family profession of his in laws in the city of Calcutta. Shoe making was an
art in which the Indian Chinese excelled and they have been making shoes that
are of excellent quality available for sale at a relatively cheap rates
affordable to college students and young professionals. He would talked of days
his team spent in Africa (I do not remember any longer which particular country
it was) and how good the Lord was to them in providing what was needed every
day. I would tell him about how faithful was the Lord in the remote areas where
I was posted, how I took the posting as a preparation to work as a missionary
one day and how in all circumstances we saw God’s hands. I would recount the
desire of our family to be in missions but that so far we had not yet found an
opening. I would ask my friends in Gideon International why God would not give
an opening and I would be told that till we hear a definite calling we were to
hold on faithfully to whatever God had allowed us to do as his own work and
only move on when we become completely sure of God’s leading to leave our work
and place.
By the way way I used to enjoy the 'Bongsung Puanpi' cleaned and cooked the
Chinese style!
May 11, 2014
Reflections on Mother's Day 2014
A tearful prayer of my mom as I set out to world
unknown to her .., a never dying love I have from my children's mom ... The
delight I see in my own daughters experiencing the unique and wonderful
mother's love in their lives ...,,
Lord thank you and bless them!
May 9, 2014
Remembering MUANPI
He was always with a smiling face
And also with very polite words
Never failing to greet an old friend
A regular church goer - I presume
An exemplary YPA member I can say
He used to be an honorary policeman too! Lamka will
not be quite the same without Muanpi!
Thank you Muanpi for what give to your fellow Lamkans - a better
world! Good bye as you go to even a much better world!
My regret - Not being there to attend your funeral today!
09.5.2014
April 9, 2014
Another day and another trip for an ageing traveller!
Trying to pull out smartly your flight ticket from your IPhone
you hit the wrong mail and up came a wrong ticket and the young security politely
told you to step aside till you find the right one!
At the hotel you were given an activated card to use for the
lift and your room and you accidentally deactivated it as you hold it too close
to your phone and you had to get help from a hotel staff
Before going down for breakfast you couldn't quickly find the
card holder and so you came down with just the card and then later you forgot
which room you had checked into - a real challenge as you returned back to your
floor and trying to remember which was your room!
You promise to meet a friend in another floor and you forgot the
exact number of the room whether it was 613 or 618 as both looked the same
anyway to your failing eyesight!
And in your return journey, history had a way of repeating
itself at the security as if your life itself had become wired that way!
As you reached home and started to climb back wearily to your
3rd floor flat, you couldn't but be thankful for your beloved's prayer for you
before you left home claiming the biblical promises!
Psalms 121:8
The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and
forevermore.
April 7, 2014
The amnesiac on the move again - this time to
Mumbai - alerting the guardian angels!
April 6, 2014
I believe in God who does miracles! The
miracles that happened to me are often trivial and personal as my faith in God
is often limited to my personal need. Another example of how God performed a
miracle in my life was about my clumsiness that happened 5/6 years back. Half
way to the Dumdum airport from Taj Bengal I remembered that I left behind my
flight ticket to Delhi in my hotel room. I told my co passengers in the hotel
transport but decided not to turn back as they were two high ranking
officials catching their international flights back to Sri Lanka and Maldives.
I quietly prayed for a miracle asking God to send it - swishing - from the
hotel room to my suitcase and believing it I quietly settled myself ! At the
airport I started to check my suitcase but couldn't quite find it. So the first
miracle - the security personnel at the gate invited me in after seeing me
desperately fumbling with my suitcase for sometime. Second Taj Bengal staff at
the airport checked with the hotel housekeeping who recovered my ticket and
arranged to send it to the airport with the next consignment of their departing
guests. Third, as my flight had to depart before it arrived, I was issued a
boarding pass by Jet Airways staff and by the time it reached the airport I was
already aboard the flight! They even sent me the stamped ticket through a Delhi
passenger in the next flight who couriered it to me the next day! Small but
sure faith to cover my failings is all that I have and certainly not the 'move
this mountain' kind but it's good to have faith even if it's only large enough
to cover you ....
April 5, 2014
Mangngilh' or 'forgot' is one word that's
worrying me and my family when I travel. A week ago I went off to an important
meeting before heading to another city by the evening flight for a meeting the
next day! All of a sudden the world crashed with both my laptop and my phone
battery going dead. I had 'mangngilh' my laptop cord at home and took a dead
plug for my mobile charger! I hadn't noted down my PNR nor even the hotel where
I was booked for the night! And worse still I never memorised any phone number
except our landline at home! Thank God I managed to board the flight and also
reach the hotel and best of all managed to come back home safe!
March 27, 2014
Mom was a hmar speaking diehard belonging to hmar
lusei or hualngo or chhakchhuak and our relatives from her side speak hmar or
mizo or hualngo depending on where they live. My dad was a Paite speaking
Ngaihte but there are also many belonging to our clan using other dialects -
simte, tiddim, zo, thadou, mizo. By the way I use only 'lamzang Pau' while my better half speak a dapzarish Lamka Pau which is a bit more like her dousel mom's rather than her father and father's family that use the l'ousau' - ngawnnbung-mulanuam variant of Paite!
March 3, 2014
reflecting the past from the wrong side of
sixty - you suddenly realize how fortunate you have been to be in good health
and working without any major health problems al these years…..
Dec 31, 2014
preparing my year planner for 2014
Cornelius, Peter and Me
Cornelius Captain of an Italian Regiment
He and his family - devout and God fearing
Giving generously to those in need and also praying
to God regularly
He had a vision and distinctly saw an angel of God who called
out his name '
He was told his prayers and gifts came up as 'memorial offerings'
He was also instructed to take steps into areas hitherto unknown to him
Peter a fisherman turned leader was given a symbolic message
To do beyond the confine of his own traditions and understandings
He obeyed and proved that God has no partiality
Me, will prayer be as a regular important item in my year
planner for 2014?Would it include striving towards becoming a devout God
fearing family?
What regular acts of mine might go up before God as 'memorial offerings'?
What if the divine plan include a step outside the comfort zone?
Dec 30, 2014
interesting
to look at the profiles of Forbes' 100 world's most powerful people(from S
Dutta's posting) - the youngest being 29 and many over 60s even up to late 80s
… not that we are looking to be influential … but reminding the young ones they
don't have to wait and the older ones we needn't think of retiring too early
…..
Dec 30, 2014
Just
met two friends who on completion of their assignment with us in the NE went
for their MPH in Amsterdam and Liverpool. Kingson now works with UNICEF in
Arunachal Pradesh and Moses with IIPH (PHFI) Shillong. they remain good friends
of EHA.
Dec 29, 2014
As we were praying with friends in Teen
Challenge Manipur - to be touched in the inner man by the transforming power of
Jesus - who died and rose again, we felt Him to very near us. We pray for God
to new birth to make new people, we pray for his salvation so that we become
victorious …. an hour to remember ….. simple words … simple prayers .. simple
acts of body language -- they need your support …..
December 1, 2014
December 1 is World AIDS Day with the theme of
'zero new infection'. when will we see this happen? What it will take to see
this. Meeting young innocent people still being infected, still dying - is too
painful. Two mothers I met recently cannot breast-fed because it was consider
safest for their babies if they don't! Both are just about 20 and one has
co-infection with TB - that too military TB! The smile on their faces and their
pale and frail bodies will be very hard to forget! How can we can ensure they
at least get proper care, treatment and support for themselves and their newly
borne babies?
