Chp 813. To cum or not to cum

As of 5th May 2020, in Mizoram, you can no longer eat at cum restaurants.

I mean, what? Cum again?

:D :P



Well, let me get straight to the point, like a sperm swimming straight to an egg (couldn't help with that joke, and there will be many more in this post :P )

Recently, the Government of Mizoram, Tourism Department, issued a directive that the usage of the word "cum" is no longer permitted for all hotels and restaurants in Mizoram. Hence, "Hotel-cum-Restaurant" will now be known as "Hotel & Restaurant".

Here is the notification that the department circulated.



A bold directive indeed. So basically, if you want to eat at such restaurants, you can go there, but you cannot come there :P Reminds me of the Russell Peters joke, "Oh I'm arriving, I'm arriving!" :P :D

All jokes aside though, I do have a few questions. Now I'm not criticizing anybody in particular, so if you're one of the people involved with the Tourism department of Mizoram, please don't take this the wrong way.

First of all, as stated in the above official notification about the usage of the suffix "cum" not permitted anymore, well, "cum" is actually not a suffix (nor a prefix for that matter) as it lies in-between two words. It is a preposition to be precise. :)

Secondly… the usage of the word "motel". Urrghh. I mean it is not incorrect per se, but personally, I find it a bit weird and awkward to see a word of American origin on an official government circular in Mizoram. And "motel" is a pretty specific term too, I mean are we also going to point out Resorts, Inns, Guest houses, Lodges, Bed & Breakfasts, Service apartments, Boatels, Rotels etc while we're at it?

And finally, the most important point of all - there is absolutely nothing wrong in using the word "cum".

Ooopsie. :)

Sorry, Department of Tourism, but that is a fact.

Yup, cum is a perfectly legitimate word. I'm sure everybody at the Tourism department already knows this, but I'll just briefly explain the meaning of "cum" for everyone's benefit. The word is taken from Latin and it means "with". It is used to join two nouns, usually a profession or a characteristic of a person. Example, John is a plumber-cum-electrician. Mary is an alcoholic-cum-kleptomaniac.

It is also used to join two things or locations. Like for example, during this lockdown period, this room has become my bedroom-cum-office, or, I can't meet anybody because of the lockdown, so my computer has become my playmate-cum-girlfriend.

Ok that last sentence came out wrong on so many levels :D but nonetheless, it is a legit sentence structure.

Hence it is totally fine and correct to say such and such a place is a hotel-cum-restaurant. It just means that it is a hotel as well as a restaurant. If you travel by road across Mizoram, you'll find plenty of these signboards everywhere at the roadside, and they usually serve the best Mizo traditional cuisines.











Now, why did our Tourism Department suddenly object to the use of the word "cum"? 

If the reason was something valid, like for example they wanted to apply a uniform code of description for all establishments across Mizoram, then I would totally understand.

However, there is no standardized definition of a "hotel". The minimum number of rooms along with various amenities required to constitute a "hotel" differ not just from place to place but across different countries as well. Some hotels provide food, while others don't. Some have attached bathrooms and even Jacuzzis while others don't even have televisions or room-services.

In fact, various governing bodies and umbrella organizations across the world like the HOTREC (Hotels, Restaurants & Cafés in Europe), WTO (World Tourism Organization), ISO (International Organization for Standardization), IUOTO (International Union of Official Travel Organizations), Paris based IH&RA (International Hotel & Restaurant Association), India's HRACC (Hotel and Restaurant Association Classification Committee), CEN (Comité Européen de Normalisation) etc., ALL have different definitions and rating systems for a "hotel".

Hence, the very word "hotel" is generic and ambiguous. The only facility they seem to provide and have in common with each other, is that they all provide lodging.

Simple as that.

So what could be the reason behind this latest directive?

Well, if you take a look at the conversation between twitter user "Mizo zeitgeist" and the official Mizoram Tourism twitter handle as well as the Director of Mizoram Tourism, you might be able to make out why. :)



Yup.

The reason is exactly what you and I were thinking. :D

Because "cum" is also a slang for semen, and it can also be used to describe the sexual climaxing of both men and women, that is apparently the reason why the word is now prohibited! :D

I mean, seriously?

Most people will not laugh at that word or find it derogatory, only juvenile delinquents will do so, you know, people like me! My mentality level has stopped maturing since the age of 16 and I still laugh when I see words like "penis" and "boobs", but that's not how most people are.

And I am pretty sure somebody, say, U Liana from Keitum village or Pi Ṭhuami from Tongkolong who run their own "Hotel-cum-restaurant" outlets aren't even aware of the English slang meaning of the word "cum".

Well, congratulations, now they will. :D

Because now they're definitely going to ask why they are being told to change the names of their establishments. They probably spent a lot of money putting up those signboards too. I would loveeee to be around while the Tourism department people are trying to explain the reason to them! :D

By trying to erase the word "cum", has the Tourism department unnecessarily landed itself in a… sticky situation? :D It must be a pretty heavy load to unburden. :D Will they succeed in doing this, or will they just be… shooting blanks? :D Man I can't stop with the puns, I told you I'm such a juvenile :D

But I agree with what "Mizo zeitgeist" said in the above tweetversation.

I was brought up outside Mizoram and I spent most of my life roaming across India. I had seen MANY establishments that used the word "-cum-" too, and even though I didn't take any photos then (because I never thought the day I defend the word "cum" would actually arrive), here are a few results from a quick google image search:

Here's the typical Hotel cum Restaurant.



There's even a Family hotel cum Restaurant.



Then we have the Restaurant cum Bar.



A Bar cum Family restaurant.



Even a California Restaurant cum Bar :P



A Dhaba restaurant cum bar.



A Classic bar cum restaurant.



A Restaurant cum Lounge bar.



And so on…

Suppose I open a restaurant and name it "Cu", and later I add a bar attached to the restaurant, does it become a… Cu-cum-bar? :D :P :P

So yeah, it is quite common elsewhere to see establishments using the word "cum".

Now for argument's sake, let us open the floor up to some questions you might have. Some of the comments I have seen my friends make are:

Yes, the word may be correct, but other places around the world do not use it.

Well, I haven't travelled around the world to know this, but even if it is true, why change it to fit into a norm? The beauty of travelling and exploring new places is to see new cultures and practices, things you don't see at your own home town. Let these tourists come and see the unique concept of "cum" in our state, which will make it even more interesting for them. :)

True, but some tourists laugh when they see such signboards.

So what? Let them laugh. It simply means that they have something unique to remember our state by. And by the way, if we're going to cater to the whims and fancies of a minority of our tourists, what about the majority of our tourists who want alcohol to start selling in Mizoram again, are we going to change that for them as well? *badumtsss* :D

Ok but, many of these hotel-cum-restaurant places in Mizoram do not even have places of lodging, so the inclusion of the word "hotel" is misleading.

I agree, and that is something the Tourism department can look into. However, I would also like to add that there are many restaurants across India with the prefix "hotel" which is actually just a restaurant. Hotel Saravana Bhavan is one such example, it was one of my favorite vegetarian restaurants back when I was studying in Tamil Nadu. There are now more than 100 Hotel Saravana Bhavan outlets around the world, with a revenue of INR 2,978.24 crores (USD 430 million) in 2017, and yes, Hotel Saravana Bhavan is just a restaurant, not an actual hotel.

Likewise, in some of the remote places in Mizoram, according to people who had travelled there, they said that an outlet with a "Hotel" signboard simply means the place serve "meals" whereas an outlet with a "restaurant" signboard means it serves afternoon tea snacks, and so an outlet with a "Hotel-cum-Restaurant" signboard is a place that serves both meals and snacks. Interesting huh? :)

And so, these are the few pointers I wanted to say regarding this matter.

The assumption that "cum" is an embarrassing word to use is wrong. It is a… wrong conception :D  We need to… impregnate our mind with better thoughts, penetrate it with more tolerance. The Tourism department might have reacted too quickly, probably a… premature ejaculation of opinion :D  (Jizz, I think I just broke my record for the most number of puns used in a single post)

Only immature and childish people like me will joke about it or make a meme out of it. For example, my dear friend Darliansanga runs his own restaurant called "Uncle's Diner" at Mel 3, near Zampuimanga Thlân, Lunglei road.



Since he himself cooks the food in his restaurant, and suppose he tastes them before serving it to the customers, does that make him a… cook-cum-taster? :D

See, I make stupid jokes like that all the time. But this should not be taken seriously by the Department of Tourism. Serious people do not even consider it as a joke.

In fact if you graduate from some of the top Universities with good marks, you'll be a magna-cum-laude which means "with great honour" or a summa-cum-laude which means "with highest honour". Some might find these words to be funny, especially "cum laude" in Hindi :P but then, they don't care if anybody laughs at them for that. And nobody is banning the use of those words.

So yes, as my final cum puns, I'd just like to say, just as how some people practice the withdrawal  method before they cum, maybe it is not too late for the Department of Tourism to withdraw this directive too? :)

Because at the end of the day, making people in the hospitality sector change their name when their business is already suffering due to the lockdown would be quite an… anti climax.

Just my thought. Like I said, these are just my personal opinion and if you're a part of the Tourism department, please don't take this personally.

Until my next update then, cheers everyone.

*exits blog to the soundtrack of The Beatles song… Cum together… right now… over me… ewwww* :D :P

Chp 812. Quarantine in Mizoram

Today is Day 44 of a Lockdown in India, and Day 47 of a Lockdown in Mizoram.

In fact, it doesn't even feel like a lockdown anymore here in Mizoram. I mean, movement of the general public is still restricted of course, but compared to the first 30 days of lockdown, as you can see from my past blog updates, things are relatively so much better now.

Public transports are starting to function again, most offices are operational, shops are open, even restaurants have started delivering food again. But most important of all, that immense fear and tension we all felt at the beginning of this bizarre and twisted nightmare are no longer there.

Much credit goes to the people and all those involved in preventing the spread of this CoVid-19 pandemic.

One main reason why most of us are so relaxed now is because there had been no new cases in Mizoram since Day 1. Even our lone positive patient slowly recovered and was moved from the ICU to the Isolation ward and finally to the High Risk ward where he is currently staying as a negative patient!

Yup, Mizoram is finally a CoVid-19 free state.

For now, that is.

The danger is far from over, we need to keep taking the same precautions as before because this invisible monster can be lurking at any corner, ready to pounce on unsuspecting prey at any time. Yes we may have won the first round, but this is definitely not the end of the fight yet.

Take any boxing movies for example, all those Rocky series, or even martial arts movies like Karate Kid or Bloodsport. In the final fight scene of the movie, the villain always wins during the first round. And then eventually towards the end, the hero fights back and beats the villain in a dramatic fashion. Don't be that villain. :)

And now, with the state borders open again and Mizos who had been stuck across India are now allowed to enter Mizoram, we have to be extra careful. Even the official Mizoram mCOVID-19 app shows the number of "Govt. Quarantine" amount jump sharply from 200+ in the last few days to 2111 as of today!

By the way, whoever designed this app, well-done! As somebody who had spent many years developing mobile games and apps, I REALLY love the UI/UX of this app, as it is super simple, minimalistic and very "tunlai" in terms of design aesthetics and usability. In case you haven't installed this app on your Android device yet, you can do so by clicking this link.

So with the number of people returning to Mizoram increasing more than 10 times in just a few days, all Government Quarantine facilities across Mizoram are functioning at full capacity. It had been a common sight to see buses like this in Mizoram too the past few days.

The other day, I was busy blogging when I saw one of the buses in our CCTV as well.

It had just dropped a batch of travelers at Tourist Lodge Chaltlang, which is one of the Quarantine Centres in Aizawl.

In Kolasib district, there are currently 14 Government Quarantine facilities, and these include Tourist Lodge Kolasib, SIRD Hostel, DIET Kolasib, Regional Sports Training Centre, Tourist Lodge Vairengte, Education IB Vairengte, Kawnpui HSS, Polytechnic Thingdawl  and PWD IB Bairabi to name a few.

All images below courtesy my cousin Mapari Khupchawng @ Kolasib.

At Siaha Quarantine Centre, my dear friend Emmy Ci Lawbei too had a pleasant experience staying there, and you can read about her video update at The Quint website.

All images below courtesy Emmy.

Emmy shacked up with another girl she met for the first time. The Quarantine Centre was at the District Panchayat Resource Centre building, Meisavaih, Siaha,

Food was served to them inside their respective rooms.

There were doctors on-call the whole time, ready to check them for any medical ailment or if they require a drip etc.

The government even provided them with free WiFi to keep them company during the day, as they were not allowed to meet other quarantined members. But they could get stuff delivered to them from their families outside the gate.

Food was served twice a day, and there were times that they got non-veg as well, though not in great quantity, but still very impressive for a state-run facility.

Overall, it was a pleasant experience for Emmy, and she thanked the state government for everything.

Meanwhile at Beraw, the Tourist Complex is used as a Quarantine facility.

All images below courtesy Muantea Chinzah.

With the sudden rush in new incoming travelers recently, people are now accommodated at the halls since all the rooms are full. Compared to Emmy's experience above, things won't be that comfortable, but so far, everybody seems to be hanging on, and I guess the thought of seeing your loved ones soon keep all these people sane.

The food served at Beraw is also simple, but definitely edible and filling.

Even other people have commented on the quality of the food, like this one guy spoke about how his friend came home from Manipur and was really impressed with the food considering it is a state-run facility.

As he mentioned above in Mizo, his friend's emotions were really touched because all the workers struggled so hard to give them warm and healthy food while running the risk of catching the virus from any of them. He was moved to tears by their altruism.

This other lady below too commented that she was astonished to find out that the cost of a meal was quite cheap, considering how much effort had been taken by everybody else to cater to such a large group of people.

We have a saying in Mizo: "An sawi khi chu ka leh dan a diklo na in ti hian hnamdang ho in lo chhiar ve rawh se" which means sacrifice of oneself for our fellow Mizos.

The place she is talking about is the Tourist Lodge Chaltlang Quarantine Centre, which is like 10 minutes walking distance from my house.

You must have all seen videos of other Quarantine Centres across India, some of them unfortunately in poor conditions. There were even some videos of people escaping from their Centres! Thank God we haven't seen anything like that in Mizoram so far. The general mindset of the Mizo people is unselfish and caring, and that makes me proud of my community.

Yes sure, the food served may not be ideally that great, especially for those who are used to eating rich and opulent cuisines outside Mizoram, but it is more than enough to fill a starving stomach, not to mention that it is rich in nutrients as well.

But I am so grateful that in our case, when my niece came home to Mizoram, the lockdown hadn't started yet, and so she self-quarantined in my room, as I mentioned in this post The Importance of Quarantine.

I never got to update my blog about her, so here's what happened in our case.

On 31st March 2020, my niece finally completed serving her self-quarantine period. After remaining inside her room for 14 straight days where all meals were served to her inside the room, she could finally step out of the room!

My sister even recorded a video of her stepping out from the room for the first time, lolz.

She could finally start cooking and washing the dishes, which was a big relief for me as well :D

It felt so good to have her dine on the table along with the rest of our family.

Later that day, a doctor came to check up on her, as it was a formality required to sign off the self-quarantine. Every person serving a self-quarantine in our locality had been registered at our Local Council office and the LLTF sent a designated doctor to check up on such people when their self-quarantine period was over.

I was outside standing in a line to collect free vegetables from our LLTF when that doctor visit happened, so I don't have any photos of that visit.

After a few days, we were summoned by the LLTF to our Local Council office to collect the self-quarantine completion certificate for my niece.

This is the same room where Duhawma, our Chaltlang tlângaupa, whom I mentioned in my previous post "Information System in Mizoram" sits.

Once the paperwork was cleared, we went to our Health Sub-Centre which is just 2 mins walk from the LC office to get the final sign-off.

The doctor on-duty gladly signed the certificate and gave it to us.

Thaadaa, my niece is now a certified self-quarantine completer! :D

I just wanted to take you through the whole process to show how organized this whole structure is. There is no question of anybody trying to cheat the system or bunking quarantine because, (a) nobody wants to do that, and secondly (b) we are a small community where everybody knows everybody, especially neighbours, so it would be pointless to try and cheat.

Likewise, I am sure a similar process is being followed at all the Government Quarantine Centres as well, and it really feels reassuring for the rest of the population to know that. Here's to all the government and voluntary organizations helping in managing this process.

Cheers for now.