Chp 461. Russian escapade in Goa

Since yesterday, I think at least 50 of my Facebook friends have shared this article on their walls, many agreeing with it. When I read it last night too, even though I’m a guy, I could relate to it immediately because many of my female friends had gone through similar ordeals here in India.

The article I’m talking about is this - “India: The Story you Never Wanted to Hear” at CNN blog, written by an American student called RoseChasm, where she described about the horrible experiences she had during her short 3 months stay in India.

What is really sad is, such things do happen here. I’ve read the comment section where chauvinistic Indian men angrily and defensively comment, “Don’t exaggerate. Nobody masturbates at women in public, you should be ashamed of yourself for lying and giving India a bad name.”

Oh really???

You’re a guy so you’ve probably never seen a guy masturbate at you. Neither have I. But I’ve been hearing about such incidents from my female friends and cousins since… forever. Yes, there are indeed many sick men who do that in public.

Still don’t believe?

Just a few freaking days ago, there was a case of a man publicly masturbating in front of women traveling in the first class compartment of our Mumbai local. Here’s the link:

Mumbai rail employee caught pleasuring himself in front of female commuters on train

A 30-year-old employee of the Western Railway was caught pleasuring himself in public on the Churchgate-bound Virar fast local train at 8 am yesterday. He started masturbating after waving to grab the attention of women travelling in the ladies’ coach. He was arrested by Dadar GRP and will be produced in court today.

Yes they do happen. It’s not a myth or propaganda to taint India’s name.

Now the experiences Rose had to endure were extremely unfortunate, horrible and sad. Makes us all ashamed to be Indians. At the same time, there are also many instances where foreigners had a really great experience. That’s the thing with India. It’s a land of contradictions. You will meet both the Good and the Bad (and if you meet my friend Vaiva, then the Ugly too) here in India.

There are many articles online where foreigners have written about their wonderful and memorable experiences across India. But then, as is the case with most things, negative news usually overshadow the positive ones.

While going through the comments of the above mentioned CNN blog piece, I came across this comment by a user called technovite:

Well done, technovite.

His comment immediately brought back memories of those Goa vacation days. Yes, I too have helped a stranded foreigner, a damsel in distress, in the middle of the freaking night, and I didn’t take advantage of that situation. And I’m sure there are many other Indian guys out there who have done a similar thing too. The thing is, such activities never make it to the papers or blogs. Maybe the foreigners we helped didn’t bother to write about it or they weren’t as articulate as Miss RoseChasm… and even if they were, I don’t think many people would be interested in reading about it.

I still remember that night so well. April 12, 2010. Around 3 in the morning.

We had just returned from Goa Fest Abby’s Award ceremony, held at Cavelossim beach, where we, Webchutney, bagged three awards! We partied hard after that (GoaFest tradition), and by the time we reached our shacks, located at Palolem beach, most of us were sloshed or had passed out. I helped support two of my bosses Tarana and Meghna back to their shacks, and then saying goodbye to the others staying there, I made my way back to my shack, Big Fish, which was located around 200m away from where my bosses were staying.

Like I said, it was around 3 in the morning. The entire place was deserted and the bright moonlight was the only source of light. The only sounds that could be heard were the wailing of the winds across the palm trees and the waves thrashing the shores of the sandy beach.

Up ahead in the winding road, I saw a taxi stop. Somebody got down and then the taxi took a u-turn and left. As I passed that place, the person who just got down didn’t move. I couldn’t make out who it was as all I saw was a silhouette of somebody with a strolley.

As I passed that person, trying to mind my own business, a meek voice called out to me, “Excuse me please. Please help”.

I was like, huh??? And so I turned around and walked back to that person. She was this really cute foreigner, in the middle of nowhere, looking quite terrified.

She was holding a piece of paper. She looked at me in all earnest and said, “Russian. No English”.

I was like, “oookaaay…?”

She pushed the paper towards me with her trembling fingers and said “Help” once again. I looked at it, and there was a Russian name written on it, and the name of a Shack.

I pointed at the name on the sheet and then pointed at her and asked “You?”

And then she gave me this really sweet smile and said, “No no, friend.”

I was like, “Ahhh, you’re here to meet a friend called (name on the sheet) who’s staying at this particular Shack?” I smiled at her.

She gave me this extremely blank stare.

And then it suddenly occurred to me, I had a freaking smartphone (Samsung Omnio Pro, this was before my Android days). Excitedly (but at the same time slowly, in order to not freak her out) I pulled out my phone, opened Google Translate and typed the same sentence above. Translated it to Russian and showed it to her.

She hesitantly glanced into my phone, read it, and then suddenly she grinned from ear to ear. She excitedly said something in Russian, grabbed my phone and typed in Russian, translated it back to English and showed it to me.

And just like that, I was in her comfort zone.

As we searched for her Shack together in the middle of the night (I even offered to drag her strolley along, lolz), we kept passing my phone back and forth to each other and laughing at what the other had written. She apparently landed very late in Goa because her flight got delayed and she still decided to go to Palolem beach at that hour because she had promised to meet a friend. I told her about how dangerous it was for women, especially a foreigner to be wandering alone at that time of the night and she said she didn’t know it was unsafe and that she actually thought there would be a lot of people partying on the beach :)

Finally we found her shack. I woke up the… shack-boy or whoever that person was supposed to be, and he went to summon the manager. When the manager came a few minutes later, I showed him the name of the person written on that paper. He shook his head and said there was no such person there!

When I translated this to her, she took my phone, did the Google translate thing and we asked the manager if there were any firang lady staying all by herself in one of his shacks, as her friend was definitely that person. He said there were three firang women staying alone, and of course we didn’t want to take the chance of waking up the wrong person at that time of the night/morning, so I booked her into one of his shacks so that she could find her friend easily in the morning.

As I walked with her inside her shack, using Google Translate again, I told her not to open the door for anybody once I leave, even if it’s the manager. She said she understood, and then suddenly kissed me on the cheeks. I blushed like hell and said good night to her.

When I reached my own shack, my shack-mate Jonathan Sreekumaran was pissed-off as hell because I had the keys to our shack (since we were traveling as an Agency, we were all on a shack sharing basis). He even did all his toilet stuff at the adjoining shack where other colleagues were staying. Of course he didn’t believe in any Russian damsel in distress “bullshit” so I told him I was actually helping our bosses back to their shacks because they were quite drunk, which was not a lie anyway.

I slept with a wide smile that night.

The next morning, we had to leave for Mumbai, so, the moment I woke up, I ran back to the other shack.

The manager greeted me with a smile and told me my “friend” had found her friend in morning. The problem was that her friend was staying in a shack under the name of HER friend who had left the previous day… ah complications. He told me their Shack number.

I knocked on their door meekly, heart pumping a bit, and when she opened the door and saw me, her face lit up. She hurriedly called her friend while speaking rapidly in Russian. Her friend, thankfully, could speak in broken English. I told her how foolish it was of her to arrive at that place alone at that time of the night, and her friend told me she had actually mailed her, asking her to stay for the night in the airport since her flight was delayed and that it was not a good idea to travel that late, but unfortunately she didn’t check her mail.

We talked for a few more minutes, and then I had to go because my bus was leaving.

And then she took out a camera and asked her friend to take a picture of us together. I too took out my phone and asked her friend to take a picture of us together, lolz.

Just before we said our final goodbye, I told her I blog and wrote down my blog address on her small notebook. Well, I really hope she visits my blog one day and sees this. I don’t even remember her name anymore. Here is the blog post I wrote of the goa trip mentioned above, except of course without any mention of my Russian escapade – GoafEST 2010 – Webchutney wins three

I have never mentioned about this on my blog before because I thought my girlfriend back then would get jealous! :D And also, of course, one should never “brag” about a good deed one had done, except in this case, I just thought it should be mentioned now, to prove technovite’s point and to tell people that everything is not all sex, rape and molestation over here in India.

Just as the Russian girl had a good experience, I’m sure there are many other cases like this across India too. Yes, what happened to RoseChasm was extremely unfortunately, but that doesn’t mean all of us are bad. There are many good men too, men who respect and treat women as sisters (Happy Raksha Bandhan by the way!). I really hope Rose’s article will not deter foreigners from visiting our country.

Cheers and have a great day.

Chp 460. Happy Independence Day India

A few months ago, there was this small incident here in Mumbai where a uniformed Policeman racially abused me and some of my Mizo friends with words such as “Kanchha” and “Kathmandu”. I wrote a blog post about it, which was picked up by First Post and I got immense support from people everywhere. All I did was merely invite the policeman for a cup of tea where I could educate him about people from India’s North Eastern states and clear his misconceptions about us. Instead, the DCP of Zone II Mr. Nisar Tamboli invited me over for a cup of tea!

We sorted everything amicably.

But that was not the end of it! A few days later, Mr. Sadanand Date, one of Mumbai’s 26/11 heroes and the Jt Commissioner of Police, Law & Order, invited our Mizo community members for tea at his office!

We discussed about how we could create more awareness about the North East among our Mumbai police force. One of the suggestions Mr. Sadanand made was whether various representatives of the North Eastern states could participate at flag hoisting ceremonies held at Police Stations on 15th August. We agreed that was a good idea.

And then months passed by.

I was busy in my own world, working on my Start-Up FITH Media and also chasing my passport and Visa all over India. Frankly speaking, I assumed all that was forgotten.

And then a week ago, Maruata, one of our Mizo community leaders, received a mail from Mr. Sadanand Date inviting him and other North Eastern community leaders to take part in the flag hoisting ceremony held at three main Police Stations here in Mumbai – Malabar Hills, BKC and Chembur!

He immediately started getting in touch with other North Eastern communities, and in the end, managed to make an arrangement (in spite of the fact that he’s been running a fever till today!). The Nagaland, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh Association would take part in Chembur Police Station, Tripura, Meghalaya, Assam and Manipur Association would take part in BKC Police Station, and Mizoram, Assam and Manipur representatives would take part in Malabar Hills Police Station. He wasn’t able to find any proper representatives from Sikkim though.

Just to be clear, just because we’re all from the North East doesn’t mean we all know each other. Other North Eastern community members are as much of a stranger to us as other people from Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Orissa, Haryana etc are. That’s how diversified we are. Hence Maruata did a very impressive job of managing to reach out to such people.

And so today, 15th August 2013, our Independence Day, my alarm woke me up at 6:30 AM, something that I haven’t done in a really really long time.

Left home by 7:30, took the Bandra Worli Sea Link, and man, it was deserted!

We reached Malabar Police Station around 8:20 AM, just in time for the flag hoisting ceremony.

DCP Nisar Tamboli unfurled the flag and then we sang our National Anthem.

After the ceremony, we were all ushered to the DCP’s office, where other high ranking police officers joined us and we all had a long conversation about the different North Eastern States over coffee and snacks. I was really impressed with the two Assamese representatives Mr. Pradip Sarma and Mr. Susanta Dhar who knew so much about our North Eastern history, they did a very good job of informing the officers about our culture and heritage.

After around an hour of a very fruitful interaction, we all parted ways. All the police officers saw us off till the gate of the Police Station. We took a few photos there as well.

I hope it went well in the other two Police Stations (BKC and Chembur) as well, and I am looking forward to reading about the report from there.

I took a cab home back to Bandra after that, and then immediately went back to sleep, the shameless me, lolz. Last but not the least, I was wearing this waistcoat which was a fusion of our Mizo culture… just to press the point that such Mizo designs too deserve to be a part of India’s greatest function since we too are a part of India. Hope you like it.

Cheers (on a dry day) :P

Chp 459. Being an introvert in a Mizo society

One of the biggest misconceptions in our Mizo society is how we often confuse being shy or introvert with being "inchhuang".

The Mizo word “inchhuang” means somebody proud, conceited, snooty, vain, arrogant... Somebody who feels they’re so uber important or above your class/status that they consider it improper to talk to you in public...

...which is quite ironic because we Mizos probably have the most class-less non-hierarchical society here in India, where maids and servants dine together with their employers eating the same food, where a Minister plays table tennis with his driver and is thrashed by the latter, where everybody meets each other at an equal platform, where social gatherings consist of the richest rich working hand in hand with the poorest poor cutting vegetables and meat together for a grand feast... and yet “inchhuang” is one of the most overused words in our Mizo vocabulary.

I'm an introvert, especially when it comes to our Mizo society. I may be quite open in the online world but I’m shy as hell in the real world. I have serious people issue, I can't look at women (I'm not acquainted with yet) directly in the eye, I can't socialize in real life and I prefer not to be in a room full of strangers. I’m also a geek and I love doing most things alone.

Maybe that is why I’ve been blogging for almost 10 years now. To me, blogging is an outlet to express my feelings since I’m not able to do that in the real world. And most bloggers would agree with me on that.

I once tried socializing with complete strangers here in Mumbai, and that was when I decided to take part in Indiblogger’s Anniversary Meet, where I even got to meet Gul Panag and took a pic with her. But I felt awkward the entire time. Other than that, the only other times I socialize with strangers here are the occasional Coral Networking dinners conducted by i2cook where we meet new people and try to network with each other over exotic cuisine, and the only reason why I participate at such events is only because i2cook is run by Pawan and Meg, two of my dearest friends since Hyderabad days.

In our Mizo society, we have a lot of social gatherings, and sometimes I wish I was just a lizard at such functions, quietly being on my own at my own little corner. We have this thing called “mitthi tlaivar” where the youth of a particular locality gather at the house of somebody who died that day in their locality, and they sing songs the entire night till dawn to keep the grieving family accompanied. I participate (whenever I’m home for a vacation) if and only if my cousin is also participating. If he’s not going, then I don’t go. If he’s going, then I sit next to him the entire time till dawn breaks. The same with “ruaitheh” and other functions. I go only if my cousins or a handful of childhood friends I grew up with are going. Otherwise I stay at home.

The same with wedding ceremonies. One of my dear friends N got married recently, and I went for her wedding. After the wedding, we had the traditional photo session, where different groups were called out turn by turn to take a picture with the happily married couple. When it was the turn of the “bride’s friends” (mo thian), I didn’t know any of her other friends, so I didn’t step up. She even actually called me out from the Church’s steps to come for the photograph, but I just froze. That’s how bad I am among strangers.

Hence if you see me feeling uncomfortable and not speaking to anybody at such events, don't say mean stuff like, "A va inchhuang em em, tumah pawh a be duhlo, en pawh min en lo etc" (Look at how arrogant he is, not speaking to anybody).

It's not about "duhlo" (don’t wanna). It's more about "thiamlo" (don’t know how to). Remember there are quite a number of people like me who are very shy and introvert’ish... not everybody's like you... I know how open our Mizo society and culture is, but you should also be aware that not everybody goes through that same ultra bonhomie phase.

Maybe instead of passing scathing judgmental remarks, you can take an attempt to make things comfortable for such people by approaching them and starting a friendly conversation... Just my two pence :)

We really should do away with this negative outlook and judgmental opinion about people who don’t interact with others at our Mizo social functions. It is definitely not because of “inchhuang” or “induh”. Try walking in our shoes and you will be amazed at the introverted solitary and lonely life we lead.

Think about it.

Chp 458. Bye bye Chile

31st July, 2013 – That is the date I’m supposed to report at Moneda 921, Santiago, Chile, to start my seven months program at Start-Up Chile, a world renowned Start-Up Accelerator. 1577 companies from 68 countries applied and only 100 were selected. The program comes with 40,000 USD (24 Lakhs INR) equity free funding, a capital that we very much needed.

Today, 30th July, 2013 – I’m sitting in my room. In Mumbai. India.

No, I’m not taking a super fast direct flight to Santiago from Mumbai tonight. All trips require at least three layovers, with around 25-38 hours flight duration.

Yes, you must be aware of all the things I did the past two months running from pillar to post, getting all my papers, identifications, passports, police clearances, medical checkups, Visa, travel insurance etc in order. I even went for dental checkups, had a molar extracted, had another molar root canalling, in case I get a toothache in Chile as it’s expensive over there. Bought new clothes, new sets of disposable contact lenses, new glasses etc etc.

I even posted this photo from Delhi right after I got my Chilean Visa approved, dressed in my traditional Mizo clothes, all set and ready to spread some Mizo love in Chile.

But once I got back to Mumbai, a few developments came up and after a long talk with our Co-Founder Sumeet and the director of our company Sidharth, we finally decided that it would be in our company’s best interest if I don’t go!

So… yeah, with a heavy heart, I sent them a mail announcing my withdrawal from the prestigious Start-Up Accelerator program.

Before you judge me or lecture me or anything, here are a few reasons on why we decided to withdraw. I’m making them as short and concise as possible:

1. We have decided to allocate some of our funds on R&D as this is of utmost importance in an ever-developing industry and platform as ours. Apart from that my Co-Founder and I need to focus our time and energy here in India looking for more investors, which is a common issue faced by most Start-Ups.

2. We are not a 2-3 people Start Up. We have already employed 15 people across two cities, and as Co-Founders, we need to keep their welfare above ours. Of course I would LOVE to be in Chile and network with other awesome entrepreneurs and gain from their experience (and also visit the beautiful Andes and drink Pisco among other things), but I cannot just leave my responsibilities and employees back home hanging and probably facing a setback in the next few months while I’m rocking the scene down there.

3. Start-Up Chile does not sponsor our employees working back here in India, as it gives provision for local Chilean employees (contractors) only, or if our people are based in Chile (but there's a limit). And even if Start-Up Chile does reimburse the operational running cost of my team in India, the reimbursement model does not work in our favor because the money comes only after 3-4 months. We do not have the luxury of time.

4. The initial amount of capital I’ll have to take with me to Chile (around 4,00,000 INR since it takes time for reimbursement to come) including flight tickets which now cost a whopping 2.5-3 Lakhs one-way, was also a bit of a problem. Already having spent so much the past two months getting my papers, passport and visa in order (not to mention flying across 11 sectors!), I now have no other option but to take a loan, and personal loans are not approved if the company we’re working at is less than a year old. We are just 6 months old. This is not a very big problem as there are always ways to get that amount, but the point is, even if I do get that amount, we'd rather spend that 7 Lakhs right now on R&D and other verticals we're currently exploring rather than have it reimbursed 4 months from now.

5. Another nagging thought was the time difference. Like I said, we're a 10+ team, so it is obvious some will have to be in Chile while others remain in India. We looked at the amount of time we can actually work together at the same time, and that window is too small. Suppose both groups work from 9:30 AM to 10:30 PM everyday, then we can all be online together for just 3 and a half hours in a day. This can will affect our productivity. Of course initially we were willing to take this risk, but considering all the other points above, this suddenly became a valid reason to withdraw.

Hence, having discussed all this with our Co-Founder and the director of our company, and considering the current scenario, we finally decided that it would be in our best interest if we withdraw from participating in the 7th batch of Startup Chile.

Of course I sincerely regret all the opportunities I will be missing, and I am very much aware that this will haunt me for the rest of my life, but the timing is just not right for now. If only we were able to maintain a steady cash flow for the next few months, then I would have taken the first flight to Santiago. As Romeo laments, “I am fortune’s fool”.

Lesson learnt. And maybe this is a good thing. After all, what is a Start Up that doesn't make any mistake? :) Start-Up Chile works best if you’re a one man, two men, three men Start-Up venture. Or if you employ a large number of people and their financial situation back home is stable for the entire duration of your stay in Chile. We've come to learn that the hard way, having wasted so much time and money chasing paperwork.

But hey, let’s be positive here. I now have a valid passport, a valid driver’s license, a valid Electoral ID card and a valid Residential Certificate because of what I was doing the past two months, and if another opportunity like this arises, I don’t have to go through any more bureaucratic red-tape nightmare.

And let’s not forget the fact that we were selected for a world renowned accelerator program! That in itself says a lot about us. Maybe we’ll apply for other Start-Up accelerators that is more economically feasible to us. The future still looks bright for us.

And hey, I can still go to Chile anytime for the next 365 days as the duration of my visa is one year. A vacation would definitely do me good, maybe sometime in December? :P Who's with me? :)

Cheers. Here’s to the Pisco (Chilean brandy cocktail) that I will now not get to drink :(

Chp 457. You know what I did last month

It's been exactly a month since I decided to stop trying to apply for a passport from Mumbai and flew straight home to Aizawl and start my application from scratch using my home address for all documentations. 16th June 2013 I flew home with a heavy heart. And as of today, 16th July 2013, I have achieved the following -

- got my new Voter's ID card

- got my new birth certificate

- got my new driving license

- got my new ST certificate

- got my updated residential certificate

(Trust me, all the above require a lot of additional documents in order to be processed)

- got a joint bank account made with my mom's account

- got copies of past one month water bill from PHE office

- got copies of past one month electricity bill from P&E office

- got affidavits stating Vanlalruatkima, Vanlal Ruatkima and V.L.Ruatkima are the same person

- got six other affidavits for other various reasons

- got police verification certificate from Dr. Franklin, DC of Aizawl

- got second police verification from the SP of Aizawl himself

- got special request letter addressed to head of RPO, Guwahati

- flew down to Guwahati

- applied for tatkaal passport at PSK the next day with RPO letter

- after a long wait at counter A, B and C, they finally accepted my application

- flew back to Aizawl

- passport arrived in a week!

- since it’s tatkaal, police verification to SP and CID arrived 2 days later

- personally went and pushed them to hurry up with the verifications :)

- CID understood my situation, they verified me in half a day

- they handed me their verification in a sealed envelope

- SP office too understood, gave me my Police Station verification form

- ran to Bawngkawn Police Station, requested them to hurry too

- Bawngkawn Police Station investigated me and finally verified me

- ran back to SP office with the Bawngkawn PS verification

- SP office handed me their verification in a sealed envelope

- flew down to Guwahati the next day with both CID and SP sealed envelopes

- filled more forms and Xerox copies
- submitted the two verifications at Guwahati RPO the next day

- got my Police Clearance Certificate the next day, stamped on my passport

- went for medical checkup the same day, did ECG, HIV test and Hep-B test

- got my results the next day, woohoooo I’m HIV negative :P 
- got my medical clearance certificate

- flew back to Aizawl the next day

- got my health insurance, required for the Visa application

- it was a wrong insurance, so next day got a TRAVEL Health Insurance

- finally submitted all my documents and applied for a Visa

- now I am finally relaxing, waiting for my Visa appointment

- in between all these, three of my neighbors (u Ziaka, Pa Zahlira and u Chama’s mum) passed away, may their souls rest in peace, and is traditional, I tlaivar’ed on all three nights and spent time at their houses. And of course there were also the “we haven’t seen you in a long time, let’s have a dinner party” occasions, playing regularly with a local basketball team I’m currently co-sponsoring, and many other family commitments.

So looking back now, I can’t freaking believe it’s been just a month since I packed my bags for Aizawl. It felt like at least three months. My friends lauded me for achieving the impossible.

Hmmm… well, time is indeed running out for my Start-Up Chile program, and even if I don’t receive my Visa in time and have to forfeit my participation, I must say I am still proud of what I managed to achieve in just a month’s time.

Once again, a big thanks to Muanpuii Saiawi for putting a good word for me at Guwahati RPO, and to all my family and friends who helped me along the way. The best part is, I managed to push most of the people without pulling any strings because as Dr. Franklin advised me “Influence hian limit a nei ve a, a bak chu nangmah a i zu in hai chawp a ngai ang” (There’s a limit to the number of things you can get done through family and political influence, you’ll have to struggle on your own for most of the part).

And I did just that. At most of the offices, I mentioned the reason why I was going to Chile and it felt really good to see them, strangers, feeling proud of my achievements and hence putting my papers on the highest priority. The Mizo connection I guess.

Right now, I don’t know if I will be going straight to Delhi directly or first get back to Mumbai, it all depends on my Visa appointment date, but whatever be it, I will be bidding goodbye to Mizoram until I come back from Chile (IF I DO get to go to Chile). So here’s to all the great moments experienced in the past one month. Love you Mizoram. Cheers.

Chp 456. Mizo Bloggers Meet v3.0

While I waited for my passport (which was recently dispatched via speed post) I made myself useful at home and also caught up with a couple of friends.

Just recently, I took part in my third Mizo Bloggers Meet in Aizawl and I really had a great time.

Like any other Bloggers Meet, even though you’re meeting people for the first time, if you had known each other for a long time online and gone through their blog posts regularly, when you finally do meet, there is nothing awkward at all – it’s as if you all knew each other personally for a very long time.

And so I met bloggers Njldst, Puipuii, Vered, Gisele, Andy and Tluanga for the first time. Father Sphinx was the only person I knew personally from before (he and I go way back, and by that I mean aizawl.com and zoram.com days, when mIRC was popular).

I turned up five minutes late. The meeting was supposed to start at 7pm. I reached the venue at 7:05. I took this photo at 7:45. Yup. I guess punctuality is lost in most people :)

So anyway, here are the peeps who made it that day –

Michael was as interesting in person as his blog. We tried to pronounce his blog name “Njldst”. Not surprisingly, only those of us who were a bit tipsy managed to enunciate it perfectly. Like me, he was also brought up in Tamil Nadu (maybe the only difference was that his family settled there, whereas I was brought up in a boarding school). And of course it felt great to finally meet another Mizo who had an English Tamil accent :)

Vered was just as I expected – mischievous, playful, witty and full of life. Since she lives in an isolated place outside Delhi, she wasn’t exactly used to all the fancy lights and glitter of an urban lifestyle. In fact, when we went for a ride after our dinner, she thought the parking lights of our cars were disco lights, so she started dancing right in the middle of the road. The video is at the end of this post :)

Puipuii – She apparently lives somewhere in Durtlang tunnel. When you pass through the tunnel, if you see some strange kid climbing the walls of the tunnel, just wave and smile at her. That’s Puipuii. Don’t mind her. But if she starts growling at you from the wall, throw stones at her, she’ll scoot. She was the reason why we drove to Durtlang after our dinner to feast our eyes on the “best” view in Aizawl, according to her. Ah, more on that further below.

Father Sphinx needs no introduction. He had been mentioned more than enough on my blog so I’ll leave it at that. He’s the mawng.com guy. In Mizo, Mawng means ass, and com (kawm) means dig. So you figure it out why he’s a mawng.com. Don’t believe me? Type mawng.com on your browser and see where that leads to.

Father Sphinx brought his friend Tluanga along. He’s also a regular blogger, blogging about different topics. Nice guy, he was also another person who had never met any of us before and yet decided to turn up. That’s the kind of person I admire, because we Mizos (including moi) are known to be quite introvert’ish when it comes to socializing with somebody new.

Andy showed up really late because he had a jam session. He’s the vocalist of Scavenger Project, one of Mizoram’s leading rock bands. He’s the rhymester among us, updating his blog with soft penetrating poems (that rhyme). In other words, he was the emo of our group that night :)

Since he loves to rhyme so much, here’s a limerick (a-a-b-b-a):

I met a dude called Andy,

And boy was he all dandy.

He mimes and croons like Mick Jagger on dope

And when he does those, all we can do is hope

he doesn’t flash us his pink panty.

And finally there’s Lal Khiangte. Formerly known as Gisele in the blogosphere, but now known as “Miss Remruati”, she’s a lecturer at Mizoram University. She came to the meeting with an agenda – to get to know more about Mizo bloggers, interview us and do some research and shit. I made sure that didn’t happen and sabotaged her every move :D Yeah, comon, it was a night to enjoy, socialize and let our hair down, not a night of academics and surveys. She’s much sweeter in real life than her blog, and small world, she’s the younger sister of a very dear junior of mine from college! I really do owe her my time to discuss about her research and paper, which I will definitely do so in the coming days.

And so there we were, the seven of us, at one of my favorite restaurants in Aizawl – Octangle, sharing and laughing our way through the night amidst the beef steak, sliced pork and Nasi goreng. It was a night to remember. Kudos to Mahmingi, the owner of Octangle for serving us the usual extremely scrumptious appetizers and main course dishes.

Here are some of the pics that night:

L-R: Me, Michael, Puipuii, Lal Khiangte, Vered, Father_Sphinx, Andy and Tluanga. The bill came to around 2k, which was not bad at all, considering the amount of fun we had.

We talked about ourselves and what we do, about the things we love and hate. We discussed about blogging and Mizoram, and how it is a very powerful and much underrated tool. We shared our opinion on various matters and argued too on a few.

Vlog – we discussed about vlogging, and even though the trend had died down, we wondered why there had been no Mizo vloggers till now. And then Michael brought up a very valid point – why is it called vlogging? By his justification, since “blog” is derived from “web log” and they took the last letter to construct the word “blog”, shouldn’t “video blog” be called “olog” instead of “vlog”? Good point Mikey boy, here’s a cookie.

And then, true to the tradition of socializing in Mizoram, we went for a ride after dinner. Yes, the famous ride culture. Puipuii suggested we drive to Durtlang to enjoy the breathtakingly beautiful Aizawl scenery.

And so we did. This is what we saw from the best Aizawl view point in Durtlang –

Lolz, yes, it was that misty. Visibility was less than 5 meters. Here are some screen grabs of a video I recorded from my phone.

And of course, as promised earlier, here is Vered doing her moves on a heavily mist covered Durtlang road, lolz.

Great people, great time, great night, looking forward to such get-togethers again.

Cheers.