Chp 741. Amosa Prayer Cell 2018

For those of you interested in knowing, the Pune Mizo Christian Fellowship (PMCF) is divided into different Prayer Cell groups, based on their locations. A Prayer Cell group acts as a spiritual community support system where members meet once a month at one of the member's house and a prayer service is held, along with special prayers, counselling, testimonials etc., followed by a group dinner.

I belong to the "Amosa Prayer Cell" group which includes Mizos living in Koregaon Park, Mudhwa, Keshav Nagar, Viman Nagar, Chandan Nagar and Kalyani Nagar. Last year, I was able to participate only twice, and so as a part of my New Year's resolution, I said I would be more active this year, and eventually, I was there in six Amosa Prayer Cell meetings this year :)

Tonight too, there's going to be a PMCF Christmas Eve program held at Lt. Col Isaac's quarters, and our Prayer Cell group will be performing a skit and a few song numbers. That's the reason why I missed the last three Amosa Prayer Cell meets as it was about practicing for this event and since I couldn't participate due to work commitments, it didn't make much sense going for the meet. But other than that, my attendance this year had been almost 80% present, so I am happy for that :D

The first Amosa Prayer Cell meet I took part in this year was on 28th July, held at Pu Hriata and Pi Margaret's house.

We had a good turnout, and for dinner, Pi Margaret made this awesome sawhchiar, a Mizo delicacy, along with freshly fried Puri.

Later, my friends Hriata and Margaret dropped me home.

My second Amosa Prayer Cell meet was on 10th August at Pi Pari's house. Pi Teresa was leading the service.

Last year's Prayer Cell leader Pi Remruati couldn't help posing during the prayer service.

Pi Pari ordered this amazing Chicken biryani in bulk from a nearby restaurant. Super yum.

Pi Remruati and Pi Genevieve enjoying the dinner...

We posed for a group pic after that...

My third Amosa Prayer Cell meet was on 12th September, again held at Pi Pari's place. She had a really convenient place for such a gathering as her house was secluded with a large parking space in front, and if we didn't fit inside her house, there was the attached hall right next to her house in the same building. We held our Prayer Cell meet there. I was one of the firsts to reach and so I helped with arranging the chairs.

After the prayer service, it was pic time. Pi Gloria was quick to jump in the frame.

Yummy biryani as always :D

My fourth Amosa Prayer Cell meet this year was held at our Prayer Cell leader Pi Baby's house on 25th September. We had a good turnout indeed.

Aputea, who is a chef, spent the day preparing this awesome Chicken dish along with dal and other items.

My plate. Yummm :)

My fifth Prayer Cell Meet was held on Diwali day - 7th November, at Pu Vincent's place. As it was a holiday, the turnout was very good, and I saw a lot of new faces as well.

It was an Epic dinner, ranging from Vawksa rep and Bawngsa to other Mizo delicacies.

Pi Jacqueline, Pi Debbie, Pi Remruati and Pi Margaret enjoying the food...

And finally, the sixth and last Amosa Prayer Cell group I went to was on 21st November. It was again at Pi Pari's place.

Along with the Chicken biryani, I also contributed my Naga Chilli pickle, which arrived in office that day (I go directly from office to these meetings, with my office clothes, bags etc).

Yumm fruits.

And so, those were the Amosa Prayer Cell meetings I took part in this year. What I love the most about these meetings, is not the food (in case that's what you're thinking). I really love the testimonials and sharing session from the members, and some of them really have a deep learning that makes you contemplate a lot on your life style.

So here's to Amosa Prayer Cell group. Now I gotta get ready and watch them perform at tonight's Christmas Eve function. Until then my friends, take care.

Chp 740. The 2x Spicy Noodle Challenge

So last night, I decided to do the "2x Spicy Noodle Challenge".

First, I bought the specific noodles from a Korean store here in KP. Tears rolled down my cheeks, not because of the spice but because of the price! They freaking cost 150 bucks each!

I boiled the noodles as instructed.

And then I added the spicy garnishes and served myself a plateful.

And just like that, I finished the spicy noodles. Yum.

After that, I made one more 2x Spicy Noodles.

I finished that too in 5 minutes.

Then I cooked the third packet...

...which I also ate almost immediately.

I finally cooked the fourth Spicy Noodle packet.

Gone in 60 seconds.

And so, there, I did the "2x Spicy Noodle Challenge", having four of them in one go. What is the big deal about it, I don't know. To me, it was "mehh". Was I not doing it right? :D

Cheers.

Chp 739. Betting on Horses

One more point to tick off my bucket list - to go to a race course derby and bet on horses!

So the other day, I spent the better part of the day at Pune Race Course, also known as The Royal Western India Turf Club. It was a special invitation from an expat who was currently in India and who happened to be a member of the Club. Actually it was my friend Rini who was invited, and I went along as her "plus one".

Though I was extremely hungover from the previous night's drinking session (I was at home watching Narcos Mexico marathon by myself until I passed out), when Rini called me up the next morning and asked me if I was interested in going to the race course. I immediately said yes and got ready because I had always wanted to visit the place… plus it would make a good topic to blog about :D

Yeah you can see how hungover I was that afternoon when we reached the location :D



Oktoberfest was also going on at the venue, so there were lots of craft beer everywhere.

Since the person who invited us was a Club member, it was easy for us to enter the premises. Mobile phones with camera had to be left at a locker outside, or else we had to pay extra to carry our phones with us. We did the latter. We were also given special colored bracelet-badges to wear, to indicate that we were guests with permission to carry our phones with us.



After a few more craft beer at the private Club section, I was starting to feel fine again, and so we headed to the horse betting section. This section is open to the public (entry fee charged) and one need not be a Club member to enter this area.

Our host generously explained to me all the process of how the betting system works.

First, we looked at the handbook, also known as the Cole racebook.



In that book, all the races of that day were listed, along with all the horses taking part in each race. The information also contained the name of the horse's parents, the history of the parents, the owner, the breeder, the jockey, including the jockey's name, age, weight, height, color of jersey and crest symbol.

The booklet also listed some very important information like the horse's performances in previous races, and what distances were those particular races etc., as apparently there is a big difference between even a 1000m race and 1100m race!

We headed to the pre-race viewing section, where the announcer over the mic called out each horse one by one and they paraded around the gallery. They were led by their respective stableboys. Once everybody had a good look of the horses, the announcer called them out once again, and this time, it was with their respective jockeys riding them.



As everybody studied the horses deeply, I too tried to act as if I was a professional gambler who understood horses and I started gesturing to the horses and calculating with my fingers in the air while mumbling "E=MC²" now and then :P

As the horses left the arena and made their way to the race track, it was time to place our bets!

All the bookies immediately started listing out the odds for each horse, based on many parameters from the Cole racebook. They scribbled those odds with chalk on a board in front of their counter, and people roamed around from one bookie counter to the other to see which bookie was giving the best odds for the horse they were planning to bet on. The higher the odds, the larger the payout, if that horse wins.

Our host told us to go to any counter as it wasn't going to make much of difference as most of the odds were similar, and with the amount I was planning to bet, a few points variation was hardly going to make any difference :D Those small differences in odds mattered to those who were betting lakhs and crores of rupees.

And so there I was, placing my bet! :D





There were different types of bets, like if you go for a "Win", it means you get back the entire amount you bet (minus 10% tax) along with a high payout (based on the odds) if your horse comes first. Betting on "Place" means you win if your horse comes first, second or third, any of the three, but the payout is low. And then there are "Quinella" bet, "Perfecta" bet and so on.

I went for a "Win" on my chosen horse.



We all moved to the public gallery to view the race after that, but it was too crowded, and so we went to the Club's private area.

And then the race started! The commentator was non-stop shouting on the mic as we looked at the giant screen and cheered. Initially, since it was my first time, I felt a bit awkward shouting out my horse's name (which happened to be "Steppenwolf") at first, but our host quickly told me people shout out the name of the jockey to cheer and not the horse's name :D and so I switched to shouting "NEERAJ, NEERAJ!" quickly.







And yesssss, Steppenwolf… I mean, Neeraj, came first!

It was at that moment that I truly understood how chronic gamblers felt. The adrenalin rush was super AMAZING, especially at that very last moment your horse speeds up from third place after saving on energy to overtake and clinch the title.

The whole race lasted just under a minute or so, but the experience was awesome. After that it was another 30 minutes of the same horse parade and betting before the next race begins.

We went back to our bookie's stall to submit our tickets and collect our winnings.

Rini was betting on the same horse that won, but she was playing safe and went for "Place", and so she won just this amount…



Meanwhile, since I was betting on a "Win", this was the amount I won :D



Truth to be told though, this was what I posted on Facebook. In reality, I never won any of the other races again after this. I kept losing and losing. Overall, I actually lost more money than I won.

Our host told me stories about the number of friends he knew who had lost entire family fortunes to this gambling addiction, and to me, that was a really good wake up call to never continue this again. But yeah, it was good to experience this at least once in a lifetime.

We eventually had some of the Oktoberfest snacks at the Club area…



…and then we headed home. I think it was quite worth it. A day well spent. Hope you found this blog post interesting. Cheers for now. :)

Chp 738. How To Make Eromba

A quick blog update on how to make an utterly delicious Northeastern dish called Eromba, also known as Iromba, a popular Meitei ethnic cuisine.

I asked my Meitei friends which is the correct name, Eromba or Iromba, and they said since it is an anglicized name from their local language, some spell it Eromba while others spell it Iromba, and either is fine as long as the first letter is phonetically pronounced [iː].

Even though Eromba is a Meitei dish, it is also popular among other Manipuri tribes and even across many other North Eastern states as well. We Mizos too love it. The Meiteis really know how to make a kick-ass dish.

Under the guidance of my good friend Chef Siami, this is how we made our version of Eromba.

First, wash a couple of potatoes really clean and then boil it. After some time, throw in some freshly sliced bamboo shoots along with a couple of Naga King Chillies to spice it up (because potatoes take longer to be boiled).

Meanwhile, take a couple of fermented river fish (Ngari) out from your fridge.

Fry them on a pan with maybe 1 tbsp of oil and once it is cooked, grind it up. For those of you not used to Northeastern culinary, this is going to have a super pungent smell :D

Take the grinded Ngari paste and add chopped cabbages to it, along with some chopped onions and garlic. You can use beans instead of the cabbages too. Mix it up real good. If the bamboo shoot is cooked, add it to the mixture.

Finally, take out the boiled potatoes and add it to the bowl. Add other condiments like salt and chilli powder to it. Add some chopped coriander leaves to it to enhance the taste.

Now mash it all up real good!

Remember I told you to wash the potatoes real good before boiling it? That's because you can now use that leftover water used to boil it to add to the mixture so that it becomes this semi-liquid paste. This my friends, is Eromba!

Of course there are many variants to this. Some of my friends add pork to this delicacy, while others modify it according to how they want, and overall, it is such an awesome cuisine. But the way we have made it just now would take just around 30mins to prepare. And it went well with all sort of food!

So there it is. Eromba, in all its glory. Bon Appétit my friends. Cheers.

Chp 737. Lemon Tree Pickles

Home-made Product name: Lemon Tree Pickles.

Made by: My dear friend Kareen Tamang.

Pork Pickle - ₹ 180

Beef Pickle - ₹ 200

Having known Kareen personally, I can assure you that these pickles are of the finest quality and prepared in the utmost hygiene. She makes them in batches depending on the number of orders, so feel free to place your order.

Just keep in mind, the meat are diced and not shredded. They are preserved in oil base so you can store them up to a year in your fridge. Every piece is carefully and delicately prepared because of the limited order.

Also, Kareen doesn't use any of the readymade masalas like Baro masala etc to prepare her special pickles, she even prepares her own masala. So even though she's from Mizoram, the pickles are not going to taste like the typical homemade pickles others make back home. They are not spicy either, as in super North Eastern taste Naga Chilli spicy, this is something even your kids can have, and if you want it spicy, then just have it with chillies :)

You'll have to pay for postage though. For me, to get it delivered from Mizoram to Pune, it cost me just ₹ 165 so it was well worth it. Happy was I the day the package arrived in office! :D

Her pickles went well with any dish, and this is why I want to promote it.

So if you want to order the pickles, call her on 9774798831 and place your order.

For those of you in Aizawl, she'll also be available at Barista, Zarkawt, if any of you want to spend a one-on-one time with her regarding the pickles.

So enjoy folks. This is a really good product! Yummmmm. As one of her regular customers from Delhi Jesleen testified, "Our marriage was going through a rough patch, we were about to give up on our nuptial promises, when suddenly we came across Kareen's pickles, and suddenly it was honeymoon night all over again with Rob, multiplied a thousand times over!"

Such is the wonder of Lemon Tree Pickles. So order away, folks.

Cheers!

Chp 736. Turn To Page…

Throwback Tuesday, because Throwback Thursday is too mainstream :P

Ok this blog post is for the old-timers out there :D I'm gonna mention the names of some novels and let me know if they ring any bells...

The Secret of the Knight's Sword

Danger on Ice

The Feathered Serpent

Secret Cargo

The Alaskan Mystery

The Missing Money Mystery

Ding ding anyone? :)

For those of you who grew up reading "The Hardy Boys" and "Nancy Drew", you might recognize some of those titles. Even I had forgotten their names, and I had to google and got the names from this page - Nancy Drew & Hardy Boys Be A Detective Paperbacks

Those books were special because unlike their regular detective novels, they followed the "Be A Detective" format where you had to make a choice based on what just happened to go to which page you thought would be the next part of the novel. Oh yes, those, if so and so is so, then go to page 17 but if you think so and so is so, go to page 48 types. Ah the suspense! :D

The ultimate goal was to reach the page with the correct ending. And if we made a mistake along the way, there was no freaking way to back-track (unless you were writing down all the page sequence one by one), and so we had to start all the way from the beginning again.

And I am sure some of you youngsters might be gasping, "What? No auto-save feature? That is such a bummer!" But yeah, remember, us 80's kids grew up playing Super Mario Bros and if we ran out of lives at world 8-4, we had to start all the way from world 1-1 again, and we did it without complaining!

I remember playing reading similar "Turn to page" novels too based on G.I. Joe characters, and many a times, I turned to a page where Cobra Commander ended up killing my Joes, lolz.

The reason why I suddenly want to talk about this is that, the other day I was just doing some R&D on a genre of mobile games called "Choices". As a game designer, it is vital for me to keep myself up-to-date with all the different types of games hitting the market and look at the ones that are top grossing and figure out why they are top grossing.

And as I played the different "choices" games on my phone, it occurred to me, Dayymm, I used to play this same game on a freaking Paperback!.

So, yeah, I did feel like a dinosaur :D

Anyway, this is one good example of how a medium may change with technology, but the concept remains the same if it is good enough.

But I really do miss those paperback days. Suddenly, Nancy Drew heard some footsteps coming from the terrace above. She was alert and slowly slid out of bed. The night was dark but the pale moonlight lit up the staircase. Slowly, Nancy took a deep breath and: (1) Grabbed the baseball bat to arm herself - Turn to page 57, (2) Removed her clothes and moaned in ecstasy - Turn to page 69.

Ok ok, I think I might have gotten that last part mixed up with some other genre :D :P But yes, it was indeed intriguing for us to try and solve the novel.

Even back then, we used to cheat, but it was a big pain in the ass trying to cheat the system, lolz. We would first scan through the entire book, searching for the page with the correct ending. Once we found that page, we then looked at the page number and again scanned through the entire book to see which page was directing the reader to go to that particular page. And we repeated this slowly one by one until we reached the first page of the book! Phew! Talk about reverse engineering, lolz.

And you want to know what else is shocking?

Just for old time's sake, I looked up the above mentioned Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys novels on Amazon, thinking maybe I might just order one or two books to walk down memory lane with. And you know what I found out? They are ridiculously expensive! :D

The Alaskan Mystery paperback costs a whopping ₹ 12,170 while Danger On Ice paperback is available at an even higher cost of ₹ 14,012!!! At least the paperback version of The Secret of the Knight's Sword is relatively cheaper at ₹ 6,424/- But still, those are some really exorbitant prices!

So, yeah, how many of you have read such type of novels back then? Did you enjoy them? Lemme know. Cheers!

Chp 735. The Unsung Heroes

Many of us Mizos live hundreds and thousands of miles away from home, and yet, we always manage to make a home out of where we live. Whether we live in Delhi or B'lore or Mumbai or any other place, that place becomes our home away from home.

And that is why wherever we go, our Mizo "tlawmngaihna" follows us. Because that is what makes us Mizos.

I have lived all across India, at different cities and towns from North to South and West to East, and at each location, our Mizo community had always been there for the people in times of happiness and sadness. Chhiatni Ṭhatni we call it. If there is any suffering like the sad demise of a member or a member's relatives, our Mizo community will be there to ease away the pain, even if people may not know who that person is.

I've had my fair share of "Mitthi tlaivarpui" wherever I have settled across India, and it is our Mizo tradition of gathering at the Hospital or the Morgue or at the dearly departed's house and staying there through the entire night till the next morning when the body is to be sent back home to Mizoram.

Even though we may not know who the person is, it comforts the near and dear ones of the victim with our presence, and this is not something you'll commonly see among other Indian communities.

This week too, Pune Mizos experienced another sad incident, with the unfortunate demise of one of our young members. At just 25 years old, he was gone too soon.

I was already tucked in bed and about to sleep when my phone vibrated. It was Christina. She told me about the sad news and that she and Sanga were heading out to the hospital. I called up Zama and Krossi, and the three of us too went to the hospital in a short while.

By the time we reached KEM Hospital around 1 in the morning, the place was already filled with Mizos from all over Pune.

To cut a long story short, we stayed at the hospital through the entire night while our community leaders were busy arranging the death certificate and air tickets to send the body home along with his family members.

Technically, many of us didn't do anything really helpful that night, but what we contributed was our presence.

At around 7:30 in the morning, once all the papers and red tape were cleared along with the embalming and NOC certificate from the police, we had a short prayer service at the hospital grounds and then the body was sent in an ambulance to Mumbai, since only Indian Airlines is allowed to transport a coffin.

As everybody dispersed, I saw how tired and sleepy most of them were, but it really made me feel proud to experience that at least around 50 of us managed to turn up. And that is what I want to talk about in this post.

First and foremost, a big shout-out to the student community who, in all earnest, would be missing the following day's classes because of the impromptu vigil. You guys rock and did exactly what every Mizo is expected to do. You are the heroes of our community.

And then there's the working class like me and others who turn up on such occasions, including all our community leaders. We too gave it our all, but after all these years of experiencing this, I think there is one sector that had never been given any credit. The unsung heroes of our Mizo community. And those people are ironically not Mizos.

I'm talking about our bosses. Our reporting managers. The Spa manager you had to call late in the night to inform him you won't be able to turn up the next day because of the incident. Or your Voice Trainer at the BPO where you work. Or your agent at the 5 star hotel where you sing. In my case, I had to inform my Producer and Production Head that I won't turn up the following day. And they all understood.

Working in the Private and Corporate sector is not easy, we cannot just not turn up for work the next day without a valid reason, especially if we have important meetings and appointments scheduled. And it is these amazing bosses who understand our community that I really want to appreciate tonight.

Even when I was working in an advertising agency back in Mumbai, be it when my boss was our Copy Head or when it was our Creative Director, initially it took them some time to understand this Mizo tradition of ours, but they had never stood in my way. And in a way, they also got to learn about our Mizo practices and how close-knitted our community is.

So cheers to all the wonderful bosses out there. To you, the unsung heroes, it may just be about approving a last-minute leave request, but know that you have played a really vital role in the greater scheme of how our Mizo community functions.

Rock on. I raise my glass to you all. Cheers.