Chp 539. The Best and Worst of times

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,

it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness,

it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.

            - Charles Dickens. A Tale of Two Cities.

Even though this famous introduction from the classical novel was describing the contrasting era and lifestyle between London and Paris during the French Revolution, I just couldn’t help but think of these famous lines after what happened to me last week. Last Sunday was definitely my “best of times worst of times” moment this year. Something awesome happened, only to be followed by something awful!

The MSYM (Mizo Student and Youth of Mumbai) which is a part of our Mumbai Mizo Association (MMA) conducted its annual story writing and poetry competition open to all MMA members.

For months, many people wrote and submitted their original articles. I too decided to participate, keeping my fingers crossed. The article I decided to submit was a story I had written earlier, entitled - “Chemtatrawta, according to Ludlum”.

The story revolved around Chemtatrawta, a very popular Mizo folktale character. However, the twist was that the story was written in the style of Ludlum :) I used to be a HUGE fan of Robert Ludlum (RIP). I had read all his novels way back in school, and was crazy about Jason Bourne (and puleeeze, the movies starring Matt Damon came NOWHERE close to the awesomeness of the actual fictitious character).

All submissions were sent to Mizoram where selected University scholars and PhDs reviewed each and every single entry vigorously. The names were blotted out so as to keep everything anonymous. Once they all agreed on the result, they sent back their ratings to the MSYM.

And so, on the day of the prize distribution, I attended the Mizo Church service where the winners were going to be announced.

I was sweaty and fidgety, hoping to clinch at least third place. The MC came up to the mike and announced the winners, starting with third place. 

It wasn’t me. Round of applause.

Second place, my heart skipped a beat as the MC announced again.

It wasn’t me. Another round of applause.

And just when I was about to give up on everything, the grand winner was announced. *drum roll* Chemtatrawta did it! It felt so amazing winning the coveted award (with a prize money of 2000 bucks). It definitely made me feel really proud as I went to collect my award.

Here are the winners of the coveted contest - the three winners of the poetry writing competition on the left and the three winners of the story writing competition on the right.

Didika, one of the best Mizo football players today currently playing for Mumbai City FC at the ongoing Indian Super League was our guest of honor, and he distributed the coveted prizes of Best Male sportsperson, Best female sportsperson and Best football player at our recently concluded Mumbai Mizo Association Annual Sports Day that I blogged about earlier.

And then of course some of us wanted to take a few more photos with the legendary Didika :)

That continued even outside the Church…

By the way, our Mizo Church service does not get over that late, as you can see from the darkness behind us. It’s just that our service on that particular day took longer than usual due to the award ceremonies, and also because my dear friend Benjamin who’s also the MSYM Secretary, delivered what was supposed to be a quick 5 minutes sermon and stretched it out to 45 minutes :D

Anyway, yeah, that was my “best of times” moment right there, having won the coveted award.

A few of us then decided to go and celebrate…

And that was when the “worst of times” happened to me!

On my way home, I somehow lost my precious Samsung S4! :(

By the time I reached home, the phone was no longer in my pocket. The auto driver and I searched the whole auto thoroughly, but it looked like it fell out from my pocket and then out of the moving vehicle!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

So many blog posts I have written dedicated to my S4. In fact, most of the photos and videos I have posted on my blog the past one year were taken from my S4. And it’s only recently that I finally finished paying off the EMI (I bought it for a whooping 41,000 on the first week of its launch itself!). Reading through this old post of mine only made me feel worse - Mizohican: My new S4.

And now it’s goneeeee! :'(

Well, at least one concession was that since it fell off from my pocket at moving traffic and not stolen, the chance of another moving vehicle running over it and smashing it into smithereens was high, so I don’t have to worry about any of my personal data falling into wrong hands, not that I’m saying any of them were scandalous… :P

And so, after days of regret and self-pity, I brushed myself up and went and bought the Oneplus One, currently considered to be one of the most powerful smartphones in the market in terms of physical specs today. It is still not available to the general public and one needs a special invitation code to buy this limited batch. I’m still trying to get the hang of it, and will post a review on my next blog update.

So that was my best of times worst of times moment. What a rollercoaster ride indeed!

:-(