Chp 605. Home chef pop-up: CKP cuisine

So last Sunday, I took part in a home chef pop-up event organized by "The Secret Chulha Pop-Ups" at Prem's, Koregaon Park.

These "home chef" pop-ups are extremely unique and infrequent events where a particular cuisine belonging to a particular community are prepared and served to invited guests. Limited seating of course, so one must book in advance. This is the kind of food you'll normally not find at any restaurant. 

The first pop-up I attended here in Pune was of course my friend and renowned Assamese chef Gitika Saikia's event (which I blogged about here: Assamese food in Pune). It was there that I was introduced to the good people of "The Secret Chulha Pop-Ups", Richa and Sandy Singh.

Back then one of the things we discussed about was that, as somebody from the North East, it didn't make much sense for us to attend a North East food fest because (a) it was not a new experience for us, and (b) the cost at such events was usually high, considering we could make similar dishes at home anyway. But for somebody not from the North East, it was definitely worth attending such events.

As for me, frankly speaking, I was more interested in non North East related cuisines.

And so on December 20th last year, I was invited by Richa, founder and owner of "The Secret Chulha Pop-Ups" to attend the next pop-up. That pop-up was based on Parsi food by Villoo Anklesaria, and it was held at Euriska, just 10 minutes walking distance from my apartment. Unfortunately, I was already in Mizoram then, for my vacation.



I was really looking forward to such a Parsi cuisine, but there was nothing I could do about it.

The next pop-up after that was a Sri Lankan cuisine held on March 3rd this year. I was back in Pune by then, and I really wanted to go for that event too. Except, one very big impeding factor - I couldn't get any of my friends to go with me. Being an introvert, it's really difficult for me to go to such events alone.



Sigh, such a mouth-watering menu above… 

And so, with a heavy heart, I had to decline.

Last week, when Richa sent me an invitation for the next pop-up, I was adamant on going. But again, my friends weren't interested. And so I told myself, "You can do it Kima. You can do it alone. Just go in there, stand next to a group of strangers you've never met before, and just laugh whenever they're laughing and you'll slowly blend in". 

Richa also assured me that she would make me sit next to her friends.

The seating arrangement, unlike the earlier pop-up I had attended, was "community seating", meaning, people weren't going to be segregated into different tables and groups. Instead, it was going to be one large continuous table with everybody seated together. That made it even more terrifying for me.

But the menu looked awesome, and thus began a war between my stomach and my head. In the end, my stomach won.



This time, it was a Chandraseniya Kayastha Prabhu cuisine, also known as CKP cuisine, prepared by Anuja & Parikshit Vivekar. According to their description -

"CKP is a sub-caste in Maharashtra and the origin of the CKP community lies in the Indus Valley from Kashmir to Sindh. It is believed that in the 12th century the families migrated and settled mostly along the Konkan Coast. CKP food habits have an influence of Kashmiri cuisine which can be seen from the use of poppy seeds (khus-khus) in the traditional cooking. Having settled along the Konkan coast, fish, coconut, kokum, tamarind are an integral part of the CKP cuisine. CKP cuisine is known for its flavorful food and a very distinct taste and aroma."

Yummm, it was too good not to miss.

And so I arrived at Prem's around 9 PM. Unfortunately, Richa's friends weren't there. Fortunately, she introduced me to Dean Lobo, who also came alone. Dean was a journalist at Times of India, and we immediately hit off well. We sat together in the large community dining table and got ready to feast.

As we sat down, we all got our personalized invitation kit, which included a detailed description of every food that was about to be served…



See, that's what I love about going to such events outside my "comfort zone" - I get to learn so many new things. As I read the origin and history of the CKP community provided in the envelope above, I learnt that they were Brahmins. And yet, the CKP menu was rich in non-veg. Dean explained to me that since the community settled in the coastal region, sea food became one of their main staple diet, along with meat, poultry and eggs.



I was like, "wow". I mean I'm sure we all had our fair share of Brahmin or Tam-Bram friend who was brought up in a strict vegetarian environment but secretly liked to eat chicken with you when their folks weren't around :) But I came to learn that night that there was an entire Brahmin community that prepared awesome non-veg dishes!

Just as the food was about to be served, Richa's friend Susan joined us. She was late and her husband couldn't make it, but she entertained us well with her deep knowledge about food and different cuisines. She had organized Parsi food events as well, and was really interested in Northeastern delicacies. I told both Dean and Susan about giskaa.com where I used to order NE pickles and meat from.



The course started.

First up was the "Kheemyache Pattice" for starters.



It's basically a mutton kheema cutlet, and it was deee-li-cious. It tasted like no other kheema cutlet I had before. This one was special and very different, and believe me, I had eaten a lot of kheema, not just because my name is kheema Kima.



After that came the first main course - the "Sodey Bharli Vaangi". As a layman, I would describe it as "brinjal stuffed prawns". However, it's not as simple as that, and such simplistic description would do no justice to the complicated and tremendous care taken to prepare the dish.



There was a warning disclaimer given for this dish - 

"A word of caution - Sodey like all other varieties of dried fish have a punch or a sharp smell/taste which is not necessarily suitable for all palates, so give it a shot but don't be disappointed if you don't like it this time, eventually you might come to like it."

Hah, you're telling me, a Northeasterner to tread with caution? Me, who had braved Nghathu, Nghapih, Ngari, Akhuni, Bekang? I was definitely not afraid to try it out :D 

I gobbled up an entire stuffed brinjal in one shot, and it was PERFECT!

Below is a photo of the same dish we had that night [source: Cloves Catering]





Next came the "Kaalya Masalyacha Kombdicha Rassa". The chicken dish. The description said, "This chicken dish is a CKP specialty, and it is made using a plethora of whole spices which are roasted at low flame with a tiny drop of oil, cooled and grounded. Tell us if you can identify the whole list of spices inside".



I, the amateur foodie, took a bite from the scrumptious chicken dish, ran my tongue around the meat inside my mouth, looked up thoughtfully with eyebrows raised and confidently said, "Coconut. I can recognize the subtle hint of coconut in this dish". The chef came up to us and smiled, "Sorry, there was no coconut used in this dish" :D ouch! :)

But coconut or no coconut, it was awesome. 

After this came my favorite dish of the night - the "Maasyacha Kaalvan". It was the fish curry made from red chilly powder and tamarind. Very spicy for most, just spicy enough for me. And as suggested, it was best eaten with rice.



The fourth main course was the "Kolambichi Khichadi". It was a masoor dal khichdi cooked with prawns, ghee and coconut milk! Yummmm. 

I love dal khichdi, especially non-veg ones. For a Mizo, "chicken dal khichdi" is the closest to our Mizo traditional dish called "arsa buhchiar". Back in Mumbai, I used to order chicken dal khichdi from Sheetal Restaurant regularly, but here in Pune, I haven't come across a single restaurant that serves non-veg dal khichdi. So imagine my joy when prawns dal khichdi was served that night! And of course the unique CKP ingredient added in it made it even tastier.



Sadly, my stomach was already stuffed from all the chicken and fish served earlier, so I could only eat one serving. Soon, it was time to end the feast and we were served "Ninaav", which was a sweet made from chana dal, whole wheat and condiments.



I found the sweet to be a little too rich in jaggery, hence it was difficult to swallow, especially after having eaten so much. I would probably rate it below average. However, I'm not much of a sweets guy, so the host shouldn't feel bad that I wasn't impressed by the sweet. That's just me. Overall, it was a fantastic dinner! I would give 5/5 ratings to all the other dishes.

Now looking at all the photos I took with my phone above, you must be wondering, geez, you're one of those people who always take a photo of the food they're going to eat? You're absolutely right! :D …and it felt good being in the company of others like me that night :)







:D

Also, while I interacted with Dean and Susan on my left, the group that was sitting on my right, a couple of really sweet old people, probably in their 70's, politely asked me if I was a chef! Maybe they assumed I was a chef because I was busy taking photos of all the food I was eating, or they overheard me talking about Northeastern food, or maybe it was because I was fat. Nonetheless, it was flattering to be mistaken as a chef. I smiled back politely and said I was actually a mobile games developer. I guess there was nothing much we had in common to talk about from there :D

As we left, it was time for Richa and the organizers to have their fill. Here is a photo I took of them just before leaving. A standing applause to Richa and the awesome CKP team of Anuja & Parikshit Vivekar for preparing such a wonderful and terrific cuisine. Salut!



I'll end this post with a few other photos from the "The Secret Chulha Pop-Ups" Facebook page. We were the 9:30 PM batch, but the ones below were from an earlier batch before us at 7:30 PM. Just look at them enjoying the food with so much satisfaction.







Definitely, I would love to participate in such an event again, trying out new cuisines and delicacies.

Let me know if you are interested in participating in the next event in Pune as well, and I'll let Richa know. Cheers for now then.

Chp 604. Farewell Shahnaz

From the messages that I have received since morning, the body of my friend Shahnaz Kimi will finally reach Aizawl today from Vienna. Her funeral service will be held at 1:15 PM at her family's house at Chawlhhmun later today.

I still can't believe she's gone. Two weeks ago, I received the shocking news that she had passed away in her sleep. News weren't very clear back then on how exactly she passed away, but one thing was confirmed though, that she was no longer with us.

I met Shahnaz online when I first started blogging back in 2004. Look through any of my blog posts and you will see many of her comments. She was present everywhere in the online world as well, from izawl.com to zoram.com and zawlbuk.net. We spent a lot of time playing frivolous word games with other community members. Then came the era of misual.com and she became one of our most active members.

She was a regular at the comment section of misual.com whenever the post topic was about Mizoram, culture, photography, travel and racial discrimination.

To be honest, some members didn't gel well with her. That was because, being a "half Mizo", she experienced what most Mizos had not gone through in Mizoram – discrimination right at home. To some people, she was a gentle reminder that even though we may face racial abuses and discriminations outside Mizoram from other Indians, back home, a lot of us are no different. She was the counter to an accusation, the other side of a coin, the devil's advocate. And she was my friend.

The admins of misual.com loved her. When Lal Jo's dad passed away, she was one of the first persons to call him up to convey her condolences. When my father passed away, she was again one of the first persons to contact me. Such was her thoughtfulness and care for the dearly departed. It pains me to know I won't be at her home today to bid her one final goodbye.

I still remember how we used to argue about her choice of blogging platform. Back then she was blogging at LiveJournal, while most of us Mizo bloggers were on blogger.com or WordPress. I tried my best to convince her about how user-friendly blogger.com was compared to LiveJournal, but she was adamant and continued to stick with LJ. She called herself "old-school" and didn't want "change" :) She did create a blogger.com account later so she could comment at various Mizo blogs, but her blogging platform continued to be at LiveJournal (her last blog entry being May 2009).

She was popular at flickr too, as she was an avid photographer. She loved travelling, and she's one of the strongest and steadfast women I've ever known. She didn't mind traveling to some new place at some corner of the world, even if she was alone. She had toured Mizoram a couple of times too, putting to shame people like me who had not even "discovered" most of Mizoram. Being adventurous was in her blood.

Unfortunately, that is the same blood that many Mizos tend not to recognize as one of our own.

But in the short years that I've known Shahnaz online, I will say with utter conviction that I've never met another person who cared more about Mizoram and the Mizo people, yet at the same time trying to "fit in". Yup, sometimes she did bring up controversial topics for discussion, but the sad thing is, some of us ended up attacking her "identity" rather than addressing the issue at hand. But in spite of all that, she continued to love her home and her people… do you really think we are worthy of such love?

As her LiveJournal blog is aptly entitled "My Land And My People", today I mourn the passing of a dear friend who cared so much about us.

I may not have known her for a long time like her St.Pauls classmates or close friends do, but the few years that I got to know her online filled me with complete respect for her. I did meet her once in person, and that was a very memorable day. It was the day the good people from lawrkhawm.com invited the two of us for tea at Synod office, Mission veng. After that, we spent the rest of the day together and she was extremely lively and funny. We laughed so much that day.

Those smiles are now nothing but a memory. But one thing I will continue to do is to live by the principles of Shahnaz and keep fighting for the rights of the oppressed and minorities. To stand up against racial discrimination and abuses, regardless of whom the victim is. To seek justice for those persecuted in the name of religion or race. To be the voice of the voiceless and the support for the downtrodden. And doing so will I know Shahnaz is smiling down on me from above.

Rest in Peace my dear friend. I know you will be missed so much by your family and close friends. My blog will also miss your insightful and genial comments. And most of all, Mizoram is going to miss its daughter who cared so much about the people. Fare thee well.

Chp 603. When emotions overtake you

Boys don't cry. Or so they say.

These days, it is no longer embarrassing for men to admit that we cry too. Nobody can stop the tide of raw emotions from spilling over when the dam bursts. Crying is just what makes us who we are.

I'm sure we have all seen our fair share of movies where we cried. And by crying, I'm just saying it can be in any form, be it just a stifled sob and a slight difficulty in breathing, or a single trickle of tears flowing down your cheeks, or a ferocious and noisy wail of uncontrollable grief and despair, though I must admit, that last one, I would feel pretty awkward sitting next to such a person while watching a movie. :P

But the bottom-line is, most of us must have at least shed a tear or two while watching a sad emotional movie. Tell me you cried too while watching "A Walk to Remember". Tell me you cried too during that sad opening montage of "Up". Tell me you cried too watching Simba trying to revive his father. Yep, we all did. How about that moment in "Last of the Mizohican Mohicans" when Magua killed Uncas and Alice Monroe jumped off the cliff? Damn ninjas cutting onions.

Another movie that always made me cry no matter how many times I watched it again is "Hotel Rwanda", especially that scene when the foreigners were just about to leave with the special task force and suddenly, survivors escorted by missionaries arrived shouting "Wait!" and the soldier told the priest, "No Rwandans, foreign nationals only, sorry Father, those were the orders", while the song "million voices" played in the background... Ni ryari izuba rizagaruka hejuru yacu? Ni nde uzaricyeza?

What an overwhelming tear-jerking scene indeed…

Likewise, books can make us cry too. I confess it was tough trying to hold back a tear while reading "The Fault in Our Stars" (funnily though, I haven't watched the movie till now). "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini and "Half of a Yellow Sun" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie are two other favorite books of mine that transported me to a new abode of teary eyes. And of course, clichéd as it might sound, "PS I Love You". Love means never having to say you're sorry. At that moment, you just put the book down, utter "dayymm" as you wipe your eyes, but you know, in a very macho and manly way… :D



You don't even have to watch such movies or read novels to get "the feels". Just go to YouTube, search for "Emotional Thai commercials" and watch those short 3-minutes ads that are guaranteed to take you aboard the Feels train.

And so, those are the effects books and films can have on us.

I never expected a game to have such an effect on me!

So lately, as some of you may know, I've been playing a lot of games on Steam. Steam is a gaming platform that you can install on your PC, and through it, you can buy and play thousands of games while interacting with other gamers. Now one of the advantages of Steam is that, it has an achievement system, where people can unlock various achievements for different games. Since I currently own almost 300 games on Steam, my average completion rate is extremely pathetic, at just 28%. And so, in order to push my stats up a bit, I decided to play games with easy 100% achievement.

As I looked at the list of games that were easy to score 100% achievement in a short time, one such game that caught my eye was this 16-bit RPG game called "To The Moon".



I had already bought the game during one of the many Steam sales but never tried playing it. The only two reasons why I bought the game was because it was on sale (duh!) and that it had an "overwhelmingly positive" review, though I had no idea what the game was about. That fact that it had a very positive rating was enough for me to buy it.

To get a 100% achievement on "To The Moon", the only thing players had to do was to complete the game. And so I decided to play it...

Man oh man oh man...

What an effing game! Screw the 100% achievement; "To The Moon" was totally something I didn't expect at all. 



I spent 4 and a half hours to complete the game, and I did get the achievement after I reached the end, but by then, that was the last thing on my mind. I really didn't care about the achievement. All I cared about was the game story. What an absolutely lovely and awesome game!

As a gamer and formerly a copywriter for 5 years in an ad agency, one of the things I had always found lacking in most games, is the narration. 

"To The Moon" had of the best game narrations I had ever seen. The conversations were simple, funny and easy to remember, and you could easily identify with the main protagonists. But more than that was the story-line.

I'm not going to give away any spoilers, but the main crux of the game was about two "memory doctors" who tried to fulfil a client's dying wish of obtaining a particular memory. And so they traversed back in time through his memories trying to build that artificial memory. Dayyymm the things they went through and discovered...



Kudos to the amazing soundtrack as well that supplemented the emotions in every scenario. Now every time I listen to the game theme, I still get the chills.

As one reviewer aptly said, "This is not just a game, it is an experience you must feel". Amen to that. I rarely do this, but this is one game you MUST buy and play, especially if you are a sucker for emotional movies and novels.

Game link: Steam: To The Moon.

Currently, the game is available on Steam for 369 bucks INR. Like I mentioned earlier, I bought the game on sale for just Rs. 79, but trust me, it is totally worth the full price. However, if you still think the price is too much, then just "wishlist" the game on Steam and you will be notified the next time it is on sale, and when that happens, I really advice you to buy it.

I swear, you will not regret such an experience as this!

Damn, this game hit me right in the feels. But I'll stop talking about it now, lest I give away any spoilers, and that is something I definitely do not want to do. Just get your hands on this game and I bet you, you will cry your ass out. And don't go to Google or YouTube looking for this game's gameplay or walkthroughs. It will not be the same experience.

So cheers then until you play this game and we meet again :)



"Because one day... I'm going to befriend one of them."

Chp 602. Differences between PMCF and BMCF

As a former member of the MMA (Mumbai Mizo Association) for the past 7 years, I spent a lot of Sundays and other important occasions at the Mizo service held at All Saints Church, Malabar Hill. Our Mizo service was conducted by the BMCF, the Bombay Mizo Christian Fellowship, which is a part of the MMA.

Now that I am no longer a part of the MMA or BMCF, I just want to say I am forever grateful to them for reaching out to me when I was a lonely introvert living by myself, and making me feel right at home among strangers, who later became my closest friends.

After relocating to Pune last year, I am now a part of the PMCF, the Pune Mizo Christian Fellowship. And recently, I was finally able to take a break from my hectic work and managed to attend the Good Friday and Easter Sunday services conducted by the PMCF.

Although I still did go to office on Good Friday because of an important meeting, I rushed back home right after the meeting to change, and my friend Sanga picked me up for the Mizo service which was at 4 PM.

It was my first time at the Mizo service, which was held at St. Andrew's Hindustani Covenant Church, near Race course. Great service and great sermon. After the Church service, my friends dropped me back home.

Easter was a great day as well, and though I couldn't wear a suit because of the heat, I did manage to wear a vest at least. I was introduced to some of the PMCF and PMWA (Pune Mizo Welfare Association) leaders, and they all told me the same thing - "Hoping to see you at church more regularly" :) It's not that I'm lazy or anything, it's just that my work schedule is so hectic that sometimes I even work on Sundays, and even if I don't, it's the only day I can take a break so I like to spend the whole day on bed watching TV sitcoms or football reruns.

But yeah, Good Friday and Easter are the two days I never miss when it comes to attending church. It's also one of the few times I try not to look like the sloppy nerdy mid-life crisis bachelor that I am.

Back in Mumbai, the BMCF used to organize our Mizo service at All Saints Church, Malabar Hills. But recently, they had relocated to St. Stephen's Church at Bandra, which was bittersweet news to me because all those years I was living in Bandra, I had to go all the way to freaking Malabar Hills for Church, and the moment I moved to Pune, the Church location was changed to Bandra just 5 minutes away from my old apartment! Arrrrgh :)

Had I been still living in Mumbai, I think the BMCF might even appoint me as our Mizo service chowkidar :D :P

Anyway, here are some of the differences I observed between the BMCF and the PMCF services. Do note that my observation about the PMCF service is based on only two occasions - Good Friday and Easter, so it may not be a very complete comparison. Kindly do inform me of any wrong observations.

Here are the differences -

1. First and foremost, there were a lot more congregation members attending the PMCF service than at any BMCF services I had been to, due to the obvious reason that there are more Mizos here in Pune than in Mumbai.
   
   
2. Ushers at the PMCF were females and they wore those cute usher sashes to distinguish themselves from the rest of the congregation. They were also responsible for collecting the offerings, whereas at the BMCF, there was no dress code for the usher, who was usually a male, and there was a separate list of designated women who collected the offerings.
   
   
3. The PMCF St. Andrew's Church is much bigger than the BMCF All Saint's Church (though I haven't been to the recent St. Stephen's Church).
   
   
4. A big difference that hit me the moment I stepped inside the Church compound was the fact that we Mizos were the only North-eastern group at St. Andrew's Church. Back in Mumbai, right before our Mizo service at All Saints Church was the Zomi service. And so we used to pass each other every Sunday and greet each other as we entered the Church for our service while they had just completed theirs.
   
   
5. Congregation members at the PMCF were dressed much more casual than the BMCF. Most of the men at St. Andrew's wore simple collared tee-shirts and jeans or cotton pants. Back in Mumbai, Good Friday and Easter services were the two times I always used to wear a full three-piece suit, so did many other BMCF members. However, it was impossible to wear a suit in Pune last weekend because it was scorching hot! I sweated a lot wearing just my formal shirt and a tie. Hence it made complete sense to dress casually here in Pune.
   
   
6. Though it was not compulsory, men sat at the left side and women on the right side here at the PMCF service, whereas at the BMCF service, men sat on the right side and women on the left. Again, it wasn't compulsory at the BMCF either and families or group of friends could sit together on either side if they wanted.
   
   
7. There was also ample amount of leg space between the seats at Pune's St. Andrew's Church (the reason will be explained later). Back at All Saints Church, there were times when I ended up sitting in one of those seats with no legroom - I had to sit slightly sideways because my knees were touching the seat in front of me (which never used to bother my friend TBCa who would sit next to me and swing his legs up and down and still not touch the seat in front of us).
   
   
8. Regarding comfort, yeah it was much more comfortable at Mumbai's All Saints Church, with cushy netted seats, whereas at St. Andrew's, the pew was just a wooden plank, so my ass started hurting after some time. But perhaps that was why I didn't see anybody falling off to sleep, whereas back at the BMCF, many people including TBCa would start snoring the moment the sermon started.
   
   
9. Again, because of the heat, many of the PMCF members sitting inside the Church carried water bottles and you could see them drinking occasionally during the service. In Mumbai I don't think I can recollect anybody who had carried a water bottle inside the Church. And yes, I too drank from Sanga's bottle during the sermon, and boy was it refreshing!
   
   
10. At the BMCF, when the Church service started and the secretary made important announcements, he always asked those who were coming to the particular Mizo service for the first time (or after a long time) to kindly stand up so other members could get to know them. At the PMCF, at least in the two services I had been to, this didn't happen. Only those who had recently registered as PMCF members were asked to stand up when their names were called out (which was a huge relief for me because being an introvert, I definitely didn't want to stand up).
    
    
11. Sacrament - Back in Mumbai, even though the BMCF conducted all Mizo services, whenever there was a Holy Eucharist, the mass was conducted by the pastor of All Saint's Church, Pastor Victor Johnson. So the service was in English. Here at the PMCF service, Mizo pastors themselves conducted the service. Apparently, under the PMCF, there are three Synod pastors, two ECM pastors and 1 LIKBK pastor, and any of them could be appointed to conduct the next communion service. The PMCF Good Friday communion service I attended was conducted by the ECM pastors.
    
    
12. Another big difference was the way the communion was conducted. Back at the BMCF service, we had to walk up to the altar and kneel down, and the pastor then distributed the bread and wine to us. Once we were done, we got up and the next batch took our place. All of us drank from the same chalice too, one after the other, so there were some concerns about hygiene too. Pu David always used to make sure he was the first person to drink from the cup, and people used to joke, "Pu Davida kiss hnu vek kan ni". Here at the PMCF, the pastor and his helpers came to our seats individually and distributed the bread and wine one by one. That's why there was a lot of legroom space between the pews, so that they could come inside to distribute the communion.
    
    
13. The communion wine at the BMCF service was real wine. The communion wine at the PMCF service was just grape juice. I miss BMCF :P
    
    
14. PMCF used a projector during the service, displaying the song being sung on a large screen above, hence avoiding the need to use a "lyrics-prompter" while the song was being sung. I found this innovative method very efficient.
    
    
15. During a group prayer session, back at the BMCF, the person who prayed the longest, ended the prayer loudly so that the rest of the congregation could hear him/her and respond with an "Amen". At the PMCF, after sometime when the group prayer was starting to die down, the speaker (or prayer leader) ended the group prayer by praying over the mike.
    
    
16. After Church, back at the BMCF service, the congregation would get up and leave one by one from the back and walk outside straight to the refreshment counter. At the PMCF, the same thing happened, but once we were outside, two separate queues were formed, one for the men and the other for the women, both leading to two different refreshment counters.
    
    
17. Back in Mumbai, tea was always served as a beverage. In Pune, it was juice. As somebody who doesn't drink tea, I immediately fell in love with this part of the day :) Plus it was very refreshing to drink chilled juice in that sultry and hot weather.
    
    
18. Once people were done with the refreshments, office bearers of the BMCF would go back inside the church if they had a committee to attend. In Pune, they had "standing committees" where office bearers of the PMCF stood in a circle right there at the refreshment lawn itself and discussed whatever was on the meeting's agenda.

So those were the few differences I noticed between the PMCF and BMCF. All in all, I had an amazing time and it was a great experience being with my own community in such large numbers. I truly hope people understand the value and importance of sticking together. This is a message I would like to pass on to my dear brothers and sisters in Mumbai. As I was a member of the MMA for the past 7 years, I still feel very attached to the group, and I'll continue to pray that no such divisions or misunderstandings creep in among its members. United we grow, divided we fall.

As I looked around the church complex and studied the happy Pune Mizo community, I couldn't help but laugh at the similarities among the people. I found a version of our BMCF u Maruata among the PMCF members, you know, a tlangval senior whom everybody seemed to know and deeply respect. I found a version of Pu David, a version of Pu Malsawma, a version of Pa Zaia, a version of James, a version of Babie Saizikpuii, Fela, Charlie, Ben, TBCa, Maliani, Kuri and so on. And finding such similarities kinda made me feel right at home.

Perhaps the only version I couldn't find was that of my dear friend B.Ramhluna, you know, a successful bachelor who came to church in a car filled with women :D Because I noticed a lot of PMCF members had their own vehicles. Most of the women too came in their own scootys, hence making it unnecessary to be picked up or dropped.

Yeah I know, it's hard to end a post without taking potshots at my friends :D

So until we meet again, cheers. God bless the MMA and the PMWA.

Chp 601. Reaching the 250

Needless to say, the fact that I haven't updated my blog for a month shows how busy I've been lately. Last month, I broke our company's record of coming to work for an ENTIRE month. Yup, that included the four weekends in the month of February as well!

The one day I didn't go to office last month was on 10th, but that was because I had to travel to Mumbai for a client meeting (the celebrity who invited us over to his house). So technically, that still counted as being present at work :P

Now I'm not going to bore you with what I do at work, but in this post, I'd like to cover one of the biggest stress relieving factors I've been experiencing the past few months, and that is playing games.

You might consider that ironic - Why would somebody who spends every day, from 8 AM to 10 PM developing games, finally gets to sit and relax by… playing games? Well, that's the difference between being a Game designer and being a Gamer. When I'm at work, I do just my work. But when I'm immersed in a game outside work, I just enjoy the flow. I don't need to think about the user onboarding, the core game loop, the level design, the game economics, the retention and monetization strategies, the branding and promotional campaign etc etc… I. just. enjoy. the. freaking. game. :)

Recently, on Steam, a very popular online gaming platform, I managed to reach the "Game Mechanic" milestone! That means I now own 250 games!


[click on above pic to view more details]

"Owning" a game at Steam refers only to games you have actually bought. It doesn't apply to F2P (free to play) games, unless you have bought the retail licenses of those F2P games as well. I'm just a "1 Years of Service" badge owner at Steam so yeah, it may look like I've spent a lot to own 250 games in such a short span of time. But actually, I didn't. 

I mean, yeah, I did spend quite a lot, but I only buy games when there is a sale going on. So the actual worth of all the games I currently own is much much more than the price I paid for them. I may be a noob in terms of Steam experience, but many of my friends who have been on Steam for 6-8 years gave me a very important advice - "NEVER buy a game on Steam unless it's on discount. And believe me, it WILL be on discount one day".

And so I wait for the best weekend deals…



the bundle deals…



the franchise deals…



the publisher weekend offers…



…and when there is no good discount available, I utilize the discount coupons I get when I craft a new badge.




And so thanx to all that, I am now the proud owner of 250 games on Steam. Do I regret spending money on games? I actually feel good about it because of all those years I used to spend downloading pirated games. This is my way of paying back to the game dev community. Now that I too am a game developer, I totally understand the hardship and sweat one must toil in this industry. Like I mentioned in the very beginning of this post, I didn't even get a single day's holiday throughout last month.

Ps. I'm not trying to get all preachy or sanctimonious on you. If you wanna continue downloading free pirated or modded games, hey that's up to you, bruh. I'm not judging you in anyway. But if you do come across an extremely good game on torrent, especially one that had been developed by an unknown Indie studio, it would be nice if you could purchase the game or make IAP (micro-transactions), just to show your support to them.

After my last blog update about Steam games [November 2015: Bitten by the Steam sale bug] when I bought the Valve Bundle, I went on a couple of more shopping sprees :D 

I usually buy bundles. Buying a bundle is very effective for a new Steam user like me because, it's very likely that I don't have any of the games in that bundle yet. But to a seasoned Steam user, there's a good chance that he or she is already in possession of some of the games in that bundle, hence making the Bundle offer useless.

Here are some of the new games I have bought recently.

How many of them are you too playing, and which is your favorite?

[Click on all pics to enlarge to a new window if you want to have a clearer look at the titles]



As you can see from above, "The Cave" is one such game I downloaded via torrent a long time ago. Beautiful game, great concept and intriguing level designs. I bought the game this time just to show my support to the developers.

Awesomenauts is another game I think most Dota players will like. It's a 3v3 platformer version of Dota, with different heroes and upgrades. As I'm not a Dota fan, it didn't excite me that much, plus there is no concept of "team match-up balancing" factor as in Team Fortress 2. I was in an online match on a pub server when my two randomly selected teammates either disconnected or rage-quitted. Instead of balancing the game and making it 2v2 from 3v1, I was given two lame-ass bots as teammates.



As you can see from above and below, I really love games with great narrations. To me, that's one of the first things I look for in a game. How deep is the plot, the concept, the progression. I like playing mindless hack-n-slash games too, but at the end of the day, the game that I truly enjoy is the one that just takes me on a journey. A good game is something that should make you feel like you've just read a great book. 



I really am not fancied by rich graphics and sfx that also require top end processors and RAMs. An exception to that would be "The Talos Principle". It is one of my favorite games so far. Beautiful rich graphics, more than just playing the game and solving interesting puzzles, I am thankful for the awesome experience the game is giving me. If I was to recommend one game to you from this post, it would be this.

Lately I've been playing a lot of co-op games too.





I've also bought games I already have on my mobile phone, like Hexcell, Hook, Lyne, Super Hexagon etc because I like those games, and they also have steam achievements and steam trading cards :D Steam achievement is a great way to track your progress (and also boast to others about your performance). Steam trading cards let you craft badges, which levels up your Steam XP. Currently I'm a level 27. :)



My only complain about these "small" games is that, most of them do not have the ability to sync your progress across different systems. I have Steam installed in both my home and office PC. When I play TF2 or a campaign on Torchlight, I can easily continue my progress when I go to office or vice-versa. But sadly, smaller games don't have that option. I gotta play all the levels again, even though it shows that I have already unlocked the achievement (from the other PC). 



Perhaps one of the weirdest games in my recent collection is "Shower with your dad simulator". The very name itself is WTF. And it is weird and funny as hell. There are different types of challenge modes, and much as it is fun and "different", I realized a lot of my colleagues had stopped sitting next to me in the cafeteria after they saw me play this game in office, lolz.



There are a lot of games I haven't installed yet. As I said before, I buy the games only when they are on discount. I also try to make sure they have an "overwhelmingly positive" or at least "very positive" review from other Steam users.

Right now, I am reliving old memories again. I recently purchased the Age of Empire bundle, which included all the AOE, AOM and RON series, along with the Total War bundle which included all the Total War games, the Company of Heroes franchise, and the huge Eidos Anthology pack which included all the Lara Croft Tomb Raider series, the Thief series, Deus Ex series, Hit Man series etc. That was definitely my biggest bundle package after I bought the Valve Mega bundle last year.





As of today, I am currently stuck in mission 4 of the "Joan of Arc" campaign of AOE II's "Age of Kings" game. And believe me, I've played all these games a long time ago, but I used to play most of them using cheat codes. Now, I cannot use any cheat codes if I want to unlock Steam achievements, and so that really brings in a new gameplay experience for me. Remember woodstock, pepperoni pizza, bigdaddy, marco, polo, cheese steak jimmy's? I still do to this day, hahaha. But yeah, I won't be playing like that now.

Hence a campaign can easily go to 2-3 hours without cheating. Which I guess is a good stress buster for me :)

So do add me on Steam, I have also gifted many games to my friends :) My steam id is Mizohican. Cheers y'all. 



  

Chp 600. Pune - A year ago and now

Today, exactly a year ago, I thought it was the end of me when doctors suspected I had the dreaded H1N1 swine flu virus.

20th February 2015 was a Friday. Back then, I hadn't moved to Pune yet, so we would travel from Mumbai to Pune on a Monday morning, spend the entire week in Pune, and then head back to Mumbai on a Friday evening. We were accommodated at our company's guesthouse during our stay in Pune.

That Friday morning, I started feeling unwell. In case some of you might forget, January - February - March 2015 was the peak of the unfortunate H1N1 outbreak in India, with the worst affected states being Gujarat, Rajasthan and Maharashtra. The swine flu outbreak claimed more than 2000 lives in India, so yeah, it was scary to live in regions where contamination was high. It was even more scary to fall sick at such places.

My friends and I were supposed to head back to Mumbai that Friday evening. But when I started getting the chills and running a temperature, I told them I wasn't in a condition to go back to Mumbai, so Dev, Tanmay and Hemant went back to Mumbai without me. Three other friends - Sumeet, Abhilash and Pratik, were staying back in Pune for the weekend so I wasn't alone at the guesthouse.

But in the evening, I got worse. Apart from fever and chills, I started becoming delirious. Sumeet rushed me to the nearest hospital, where I was immediately suspected of being infected with H1N1. I was admitted in one of the wards, hooked up on various IVs.

I'll forever be indebted to Sumeet, Abhilash and Pratik, because after they admitted me in one of the wards and I had passed out from all the medications, they were about to go back to the guesthouse. But as they were leaving, they overheard one of the doctors talking to one of the nurses, who described the ward I was in as an H1N1 isolation room! It was then that they found out the other patients in my ward were all H1N1 positive! They were pissed as hell, because I wasn't a confirmed case yet, it was just merely a suspicion. They stormed me out of the hospital that same night and took me to a much better private hospital. You can read the rest of my hospital ordeal in my blog post link above.

Had they not taken me out from that isolation ward that night, even though I was cleared of H1N1 later, I think I could have been infected with it. Much thanks to my friends indeed!

While I was recovering in the guesthouse, I had unexpected visitors. First, it was my flatmate from Mumbai who drove all the way to Pune to see how I was doing. And then there were these two Mizo guys, Lalrinpuia and Remruatkima, who's the secretary of PMCF (Pune Mizo Christian Fellowship).

And that is what I really love about our Mizo community. As mentioned earlier, I hadn't moved to Pune yet as I was still living in Mumbai, and so I didn't know any Mizos in Pune. And none of the Mizos in Pune knew about me. However, these two office-bearers of the PMCF heard from people in Mizoram that there was a Mizo dude currently being treated on suspicion of H1N1 in Pune, and so they searched high and low to find out who I was. Finally, from one Facebook mutual friend to the other, they managed to trace me and paid me a visit!

Gotta love our Mizo society for that :)

Today, a year later, I am now a proud resident of Pune. Though I still haven't interacted much with our Mizo community, I now have my fair share of Mizo friends here in Pune. It's really hard for me to meet new people because of my hectic work. I spend most of the weekends in office as well, especially since we're almost about to launch our next big game.

Our next game is going to be huge and awesome, I promise you that, because it revolves around Salman Khan. That's an open secret so I don't have to be discreet about it. However, there's another celebrity we've just tied up with, and I don't think I can talk about that yet. But the other day, I along with the top management of our company went to meet him. And dear Lord, my knees fell weak when he shook my hand!

I mean, it's one thing to meet a celebrity. I've lived in Mumbai for 8 years before moving to Pune, so I have seen my fair share of celebrities, especially since my apartment was at Carter Road, Bandra. It's just another day if you bump into Aamir Khan or sit in a restaurant a few tables away from Amitabh Bachchan. Feels awesome to ask them for an autograph or a selfie together. But to be actually invited by a celebrity into his own house, is a completely different feeling!

And so we woke up at 5AM, left Pune by 6, reached Mumbai by 9:30 and waited in front of this celeb's house, whose gate was guarded by 5-6 cops inside. There were surveillance cameras everywhere. Most visitors (I mean the few who had an appointment) were frisked and x-rayed, but they didn't frisk us because we were vetted by a very high authority. There was a police van stationed right outside his apartment too. Inside his house, along with the cops, there were many private security personnel as well. He had his own private receptionist and secretary, along with an entourage of other household staff. 

We walked into his private office which was in the basement, where he greeted all of us warmly. He offered us tea and coffee. And then we talked about our game concept and proposal. Even though the meeting was just for 15 minutes, he was so into our concept that he ended up interacting with us for 2 hours! Finally, another secretary had to come in and remind him that he had some other agenda. Overall, he really liked our game proposal (not to brag, but it was my concept :D ) . He shook our hands one more time and left. I never expected a person of his stature to be so down-to-earth and humble. What an incredible man indeed.

Once our Salman Khan game is released next month, that's the next project I'll be working on. I feel blessed to have such an interesting and exciting future ahead. But alas, that comes at the cost of my social life. It means there's no time to hang out with friends or meet new people.

At least I'm glad I'm not lying in bed drowning in antibiotics and other medications like last year :)

So cheers, and keep watching this space for more news on our upcoming game.

[Pic - A photo of the sunset as I walk across a bridge over the Mula Mutha river. The bridge connects my office in Kalyani Nagar to my apartment in Koregaon Park.]