Chp 490. Hello 2014

Hello first blog post of 2014. Yes I am so looking forward to this New Year! First of all, our own mobile games development company FITH Media just turned ONE YEAR OLD today. Yes, we’re still surviving and kicking, biyaaaatch! :)

When we started this company exactly a year ago and announced that we would not be operating in a “studio model” (that is, make games for brands or other companies according to their own whims and fancies) and that we would instead me developing our own IPs (Intellectual Properties), many skeptics told us we would not even last a Quarter in this cutthroat world. And look at where we are today! We have solid funding from a bunch of awesome investors, even got selected for the prestigious “Start-Up Chile Accelerator” programme, published 6 Android games with over 9 million downloads in total, raked in an impressive revenue from Ads and In-App Purchases, two of our games were nominated for NASSCOM’s "Best Mobile Game of the Year", and we still have a long list of games to develop that will definitely rock the gaming world later this year!

Apart from that, my blog will be turning 10 years old this year! Trust me, being a consistent blogger and publishing around 50 blog posts per year for nine straight years isn’t that easy at all! Can’t wait for that moment to come :)

So today, to celebrate the New Year, I spent the day with my Mizo community here in Mumbai.

Met up with Fifi and Henry at Bandra, and we all proceeded to Mizoram House, Lower Parel, in the evening. We took the Bandra Worli Sea Link, and I had never seen such mist at that time of the day… Was truly a spectacular sight…

What all of us were looking forward to, was the return of Pu Bika, deputy resident commissioner of Mizoram House, who spent Christmas in Mizoram and who promised to bring back awesome “pork stuff” from Mizoram for New Year.

And yes, he kept to his word!

There was the oh so awesomeeee “vawk lu bawl” which, urrrrmmm… is a special Mizo delicacy made from Pig’s head, sesame seed and a few other ingredients… The dinner queue was long…

Here’s the food I had… yeah, envy me peeps! :P

Maria Hmaii with her plateful, looking not so ecstatic that I captured a pic of her with her plate :D

Mapuia left his home at Powai much after we left Bandra, and yet reached way before us and was already eating by the time we queued up. How did he do that???? Perhaps, being a tlangval senior with years of experience in Mumbai, he knew shortcuts and unexplored alleys that we didn’t?

Here are a few pictures of our menu…

Awesomeness is what it was! Mannnn haven’t had food like that in ages. The rest of the menu included “Zikhlum satui a chhum” (cabbage boiled in meat broth), “Bawng sa” (beef gravy), “Vawk sa leh ar sa chhumpawlh” (boiled pork and chicken mixed together), “bawng kawchhung” (beef insides :P ), “Sangha fry” (Fish fry) and “Zawngtah bawl” (crying monkey chutney mix? :P ).

Here are a few pics I took of the respective dishes once everybody had their fill…

Beef curry - 

Boiled chicken and pork mixed

Vawk lu bawl – “Porkpourri” (as cleverly suggested by Aduhi) or “Pig head mix” as suggested by other Facebook friends, lolzzzzz.

…and banana dessert, for digestive purposes :)

Here’s Mapuia, hiding his face from my phone cam because he knew I was going to post this later tonight anyway :P On the extreme left is the beautiful Mumbai bride Teii. Her husband TBC had gone off to drop Zambawihi at her place for the night… :D :P

Kuri Chongthu and I decided to take a picture of each other right at the same time, like one of those Western cowboy quick draw moments :) Unfortunately, the pic I took of her was only “white brightness”, of her camera flash. Here's the pic she managed to take of me. She won this time :(

Another pic of me that Kuri took, enjoying the awesome “I kill you pig head vaipa mix” :P Behind me is the lovely Lovely.

I’m so impressed with Maliani, who showed not even the slightest hint of hangover from her awesome New Year Party last night :)

And here are the other pics I took tonight… Pu Malsawma and family.

Sitting comfortably with full stomachs :)

I actually walked up to them and asked them if I could take a pic of them because they were all looking so gorgeous sitting in the corridor by themselves, and they kindly obliged. See, that is what I love about our Mizo community :)

Dee Knyte and Hmaii Hauva struggling with the Mizoram calendar, trying to figure out the name of the months written in Mizo :P

A truly awesome dinner. And that too at just 150 bucks per head. If this could happen everyday, I so would go to Mizoram House everyday! :)

After dinner, we were all supposed to stay back and sing for praise and worship, but unfortunately, I had an important meeting so I had to politely leave… but seriously, that was a truly awesome dinner! Kudos to the Mumbai Mizo community leaders and Pu Bika!

Happy New Year. Kum Thar Chibai vek u le! :)