Chp 383. Sons of Anarchy - Season 4

Another great season of another amazing TV show has come to an end. Sons of Anarchy, definitely one of my all time favorite shows, ended two weeks ago. That means I gotta wait till September 2012 for the next season!

First of all, let me put up this big warning sign for those of you who haven’t watched Season 4 yet….

--- SPOILER ALERT ---

Yeah, I may love to troll sometimes, but I know where to draw the lines. I don’t want to spoil an awesome show for you.

Now coming back to SoA, I’ve been in love with the show since it came out three years ago. I’ve always been fascinated by 1%er (one percenter) Motorcycle Clubs like Hell’s Angels, Pagans, Mongols etc. I still remember painting a patch of one of these MC clubs on my brand new leather jacket using fabric paint back in school. That was in the early 90s. Many of my classmates were still playing with GI Joes then…

There was no internet those days but I got all the info I needed from a series of foreign magazines called Passing Wind or Pissing Wind or something like that which was all about the 1%er MCs (and also had lots and lots of pics of babes & boobs *GRIN*).

SoA is based on the 1%er MCs, and even though the names of the clubs and rivals clubs in the TV show are fictitious (correct me if I’m wrong), they are all (partly) based on actual clubs and events.

SoA is very much the Anti-Hero TV show, where the main characters are actually the “bad guys”, running guns & drugs, dealing in the flesh trade, treating women like property and prone to violence and even murder. The show beautifully depicts what being a 1%er MC is all about and has a loyal fan following among many MC enthusiasts around the world. With “Hell Boy” Ron Perlman playing the role of “Clay”, the President of the MC, I knew right then that this was going to be an awesome show.






Sons of Anarchy season 3 had a good ending, as I already pointed out in my previous post: Chp 354. End of a Season. Stahl is finally killed. The Sons go to prison to serve minimum time. And Tara found the letters JT wrote to Maureen, where he mentioned how he feared Clay will kill him one day because he’s trying to stop the guns deal with the IRA.

So there was suspense throughout the season – Will she tell Jax or not? Will Clay or Gemma get to her first before she tells Jax? How will Jax react if he learns his step-dad and mom killed his old man? Will Piney really tell the club about Clay’s secret? Will Clay have the guts to stop Piney, who is not just JT’s best friend but also the co-founder of SAMCRO?

And then there was the new added spice – the MC finally getting into the drugs trade, something that they voted to stay away from throughout the previous seasons. I wonder what the Nords would say to this, had they still been around in season 4, lolzzz.

And with the drugs came the Galindo Cartel. The whole club, especially the senior members, didn’t want to get involved with any cartel shit, but Jax eventually had to support Clay because he wanted to leave the club and Clay was his only ticket out.

But there are certain incidents in season 4 that I need to point out…

 

1. The “Black” Race Card

First of all, we know that the Sons aren’t racists. Juice is half Puerto Rican, Prospect V-Lin is chinese, and Hap looks pretty much latino or black. They have done their businesses with the 19ers (Blacks), Mayans (Hispanics), the Nords (White supremacists) and the Lin Triad (Chinese organized crime syndicate) to mention a few.

They are in extreme good relationship with the Grim Bastards (an all-Black MC), and when the Sons were in prison, the Black Guerilla Family (an all-Black prison gang) was protecting them from the Aryan Brotherhood (a White supremacist prison gang).

Apart from that, Chib’s ex-wife is of Irish Black descent, and hence naturally his daughter too. I even remember Bobby hitting it off with a hot African American chick in season 1 or 2 when the Sons went to Nevada to patch-over with the Devil’s Tribe.

So when you consider all these, I think it was really lame of the Sheriff to use the fact that Juice’s dad is black in order to blackmail him. I mean, I really don’t think any of the Sons would have cared if Juice’s dad is black or not. When Juice confronted Chibs about this “dark secret” of his, Chibs too just laughed it off, telling him that what really matters is what his birth certificate says, and that’s “latino” (hence conveniently not admitting whether the rest of the Sons will accept him or not if they know his dad’s black). 

Of course I completely understand where Kurt Sutter, the creator of the show is coming from. He had spent a lot of time with different MCs doing research for this TV show. He wanted to showcase the fact that most of these real 1%er MCs are racially exclusive clubs.

What I really like about Kurt Sutter is that, apart from playing the role of Otto, the uber cool SoA member languishing in Jail, he also runs his own blog on blogspot.com and writes about certain events regarding the show. In his blog, he explains about this particular Juice incident. If you’re interested, click here: sutterink.blogspot.com: Black & White of MC’s to read. He was merely trying to bring out this exclusivity criterion that exists in many MCs.

Latoya’s article regarding this issue (How Sons of Anarchy got racism right) is beautifully written too. However, my beef with this incident is not on the actual racism per se (whether it is a part of the show or not, or whether it actually exists in real MC’s or not), but the fact that it’s really difficult for a loyal SoA fan like me who knows every character so well to think that the Club members would turn against Juice if they learn about his dad’s origin.

Characterization, my friends.

 

2. The 14th Episode Shocker

I was biting my nails and sitting at the edge of my seat for thirteen awesome episodes. And then came the final episode of season 4. Just when DA Potter was about to launch the RICO assault against the Sons, the Kings and the Galinda cartel, Romero and Luis appeared and revealed that they’re CIA!!!! Holy $hittt!

I mean, if the Galinda cartel had been working for the CIA all along, why did they not even try to stop Potter’s RICO operation before? Why wait until the last minute?

And yes, I can picture Benito Martinez to be a cop because of his “SHIELD” background, but Danny Trejo as a CIA agent? Seriously? That really puts Machete and Johnny-23 to shame.

And you know what? Apparently, THIS was what Kurt Sutter intended all along! In his interview with Inside TV, Kurt mentioned that the CIA is known to play war games and take sides when two big cartels are fighting with each other, so that they will have control over who controls the drugs & arms money. He was afraid people might catch that on, and this was when Inside TV asked Kurt, “Was that one of the advantages of casting Danny Trejo as Romeo? I don’t think anyone would think of him as being Government Issue.”

Yup, you had me fooled there too. Shocked me real good, Kurt. But somehow, it left a slightly bitter taste in my mouth…

 

3. Season 5: What lies ahead?

As the episode ends, we see Tara dethroning Gemma as the new queen of SAMCRO while Jax takes over the Presidency, the two of them becoming mirror image of a much younger JT and Gemma (or is it JT and Maureen?).

Jax now knows that his step-dad killed his dad, and is also responsible for what happened to Piney, Gemma and Tara, but he cannot kill him because he needs Clay alive to keep the guns deal with the Irish going. No Clay means no guns deal. No guns deal means the Galindo cartel (aka CIA) will stop protecting SAMCRO from the Feds, who have enough evidence to close down their entire charter.

He also doesn’t know that his mother and Unser are also involved in the death of his father. Tara knows this. Gemma knows that Tara knows. Season 5 is going to be interesting!

And we don’t know if Opie is pledging his loyalty to Jax (but 100 bucks says he will be).

Also, the girlfriend of Laroy, head of the 19ers that Tig killed, happens to be the daughter of Damon pope, the most dangerous and powerful gangster in Oakland. So there is definitely going to be retaliation from Oakland in season 5. Oh how I wish Damon Pope is played by either Samuel L. Jackson or Michael Clarke Duncan. Please please please please!

Apart from this, season 5 will definitely show more of cartel retaliations from the Lobo Sonora Cartel too.

Oh yeahhhhhh, I can’t wait!!!!! SoA FTW!

Chp 382. Mumbai Mizo Association Sports Day

So, as mentioned in my previous post, here are some photos and video of our 2011 Mumbai Mizo Association Sports Day. Most of the pics are from Rossi and Beethugs Facebook album, so a big thanx to them. I’ve also edited a few photos *EVIL GRIN*

But first, here is the video I took that day. It’s around 12 minutes long, so why don’t you click on “Play” and let the video buffer while you go through the photos below?



First of all, I must say I was a lot more prepared than last year’s MMA Sports which also took place at the same venue. This time, I created a lot of personalized Google Map routes beforehand, and I could easily access the KML files from my phone’s GPS, like how to get to the venue via Western Express, via Eastern Express, from Mapuia’s house, from my house etc, and then how to go to Gokuls, Bandra, Vashi etc from the venue, making sure there are enough options so that we’ll never be lost again no matter where we decide to go.

[One of the route examples]

View Greenfields - Mumbai Port Trust Sports Ground in a larger map

As mentioned in my previous post, I participated in only volleyball and football, but I spent a good time capturing videos of other people. [voyeur artist in the making]

Below are some of the photos taken that day:

Our two groups – SAW PA Group and KHA PA Group, which for my non-Mizo visitors literally mean “That guy’s group” and “This guy’s group”. Lolz. But of course it can have a deeper meaning too… hehehe…



Here we are, assembling and starting the sports function with a short prayer.



Here is our traditional “Kawikah” game, where you have to hit the target using a special holding technique, a secret that has been passed down from father to son, mother to daughter, since the dawn of civilization, a technique similar to how a ninja would throw his deadly shiruken…







Though most of the members are young, a few of of us older folks really stand out… or should I say, jut out? I call this the Brotherhood of the Dulkiarzz.



Time for some volleyball now. Hehe, I’m loving it! :)














We won in volleyball. We also won the football match.



Later, we ended the sports event with prize distribution and group photo sessions.






Now, time for some fun… :D Here are a few photos I edited…











BONUS PIC (Showstopper, lolz)



Cheers :)

Chp 381. The Past vs The Present

Flashback 19 years ago. December 6th, 1992. I was in Calcutta, St. Thomas Boys’ School. We were playing basketball when our matrons hurriedly called everybody back to the hostel. Babri Masjid had just been demolished. We were told to hide inside.

Ok wait, that’s too much of a flashback.

Urmm… flashback 10 years ago. December 6th, 2001. Second Year Engineering College, PSG Tech, Coimbatore.

 
My diary, December 6th, 2001.

6:00AM: Waking up, to the sound of my neighbor softly playing a raga/bhajan from his room. I was up till 3AM this morning, completing an Electrical Lab assignment on Ohm’s Law. Being a computer science engineer student, I still don’t understand why we have all these other branches of engineering as a part of our course. Three hours of sleep is definitely not enough, but I have to go for our morning basketball practice…

6:30AM: Reach basketball court on time, just like any other morning. My teammates from various hostel blocks, including the day scholars, are slowly arriving at the court too. We groggily greet each other with a slight nod (and a yawn). Soon the team captain arrives, and he signals the start of our warming up session.

7:00AM: I’m panting and breathing heavily. We have just run 50 rounds around the two basketball courts, done a “shuttle-race” ten times and various other running exercises. By now I am truly warmed up. Now we will start other exercises involving a basketball, like layups from all sides and full court fast breaks.

7:30AM: Totally warmed up, I can now easily jump and hang from the basketball ring. A couple of teammates from 3rd and 4th year can do that too, but I am the only one from second year who is able to do that, which kinda makes me feel special. Now that we’ve done all our cardio exercises, it’s time for gameplay practice.

7:30AM to 8:15AM: We practice various gameplays, most of them involving our 7 feet tall centre Emmanuel from Rwanda. He, along with two other Rwandan exchange students Clement and Innocent form the basis of our starting five. I’m also in the main five. I play the shooting guard position, but if Clement, who is our point guard, gets substituted during a match, then I take over the PG realm. Hence, all our gameplays have to be practiced with Clement as the PG and then me as the PG, so that there is no confusion if either of us are playing or not playing.

8:15 to 8:45AM: We divide into two teams and start a match. As usual, Clement is in the opposite team. And again, when it comes to man-to-man, we take on each other. He is stronger, faster and a better ball controller than me, but I can jump higher than him. That is the only reason why I am selected in the University team too because having a ball controller who can jump almost as high as the forwards and pivots is not only rare but definitely gives an edge to a team when it comes to rebounds.

8:45AM: We are warming down now. That means 50-100 sit-ups, and stretching exercises.

10:00AM: Reach class, with a late pass from our sports director so that I don’t get marked absent. I try not to sleep during class, especially the boring ones.

12:30PM: Lunch break. Going out with my girlfriend to this new Punjabi restaurant near our campus.

1:30PM: Back to boring class schedules.

4:00PM: Done for the day. My friends Paolo, Johnny and Thomas are going for a new English movie that has just released. I can’t go with them because I have handball practice.

4:30PM: Reach the handball court. We practice for an hour. The captain is really impressed with my improved diving throws but at the same time cautiously tells me to be careful as it’s really easy to get injured if I play that way. But me, I’m riding high on the adrenalin and loving it.

5:30PM: Handball practice is over so I quickly run to the football ground. The football captain is a final year student from the North East, so as usual he allows me to play with the college team. I play the defense position (right back) and give our strikers a good challenge.

6:30PM: The football practice match is over and their coach calls everybody for feedback on their performance, which is a cue for me and a few non-team members to leave. I run to the basketball court. As usual, I get the evil eye from my basketball captain for being late but he doesn’t shout at me because he knows I’m the sports director’s favorite as I am a crucial member of our unbeatable handball team. Anyway, I didn’t miss much as all they did so far was cardio.

7:00PM: We start our evening practice match under the floodlights. It’s me versus Clement again. The match is more grueling than the morning practice session, and my girlfriend along with her classmates sometimes watch me play from the adjacent girl’s hostel, so I put in more effort (and style, lolz). Double team, double fake in the air, alley-oop, downtown jumper, fade-away shots, coast to coast and all that jazz.

8:00PM: Match over, we warm down as usual. Another 100 sit-ups, and then I run to the volleyball court where the college team is still practicing under the floodlights. They usually let me play too, unless they have a tournament coming up.

9:00PM: I have just taken a relaxing cold shower. I am now going out with Paolo, Johnny and Thomas for dinner, and we’ll probably be talking about Gopika, Priyanka and Indira. Hehehe…

11:00PM: We reach hostel just before the deadline. Now I will do a couple of assignments, read a few chapters, and then tomorrow, this same cycle of extreme fitness endurance repeats again.


-------------------------------------------------

 
My diary, December 6th, 2011.


I am sitting in office, every muscle, tissue and joint of my body aching. I still find it difficult to walk, sit, get up and lie down. I even took a leave from work yesterday (Monday) because of the immense pain. In fact, I was bedridden for the past two days (Sunday and Monday).

Why? Because on Saturday, I went for our MMA (Mumbai Mizo Association) Sports Day event, and participated in Volleyball and Football. I played just two games in Volleyball, and was the goalkeeper for Football. We won both the games of course, but my body took a big hit for merely playing that much.

Ten years, just ten years, and see the vast difference! Daymmmm!

Ten years from now, I dread to think where I’ll be (if I’m still alive by the Grace of God).


-------------------------------------------------


Will update next post with photos and videos of our MMA Sports Day… Cheers… and ouch*

Chp 380. Do you do these things too?

 
Just how different are you from others? I’m sure there used to be a point in time when you thought you were unique because you used to do things differently.

Then came the internet and it brought people from all over the world closer. Forget the famous “six degrees of separation” theory, Facebook now claims that everybody is just 3.74 degrees of separation away from each other!

Apart from social networking sites and a host of discussion forums and community sites, humor sites like 9gag.com are where people share their daily unique experiences… and suddenly, you realize you’re not so special and unique anymore because there are also many others just like you.


Below are a few things I do “in my own way”. Tell me if you do the same too…


Distance - I always measure the time and distance between two places I regularly go to, by the number of songs I have listened to on the way.



 

Alcohol -  I keep track of how much I’ve been drinking by the number of ice cubes left in my ice tray, or the duration of an ongoing live football match if I am watching one.



 

Security camera bomber - Whenever I see a surveillance camera when I’m at an ATM or Jewelry store or 5 star hotel or any other place, I always make a face at the camera. Not the stick-your-tongue-out kinda expression, but more of a cool, gangsta, one eyebrow raised “Yo, wassup” kinda nod. And then I try to imagine how the guard at the other end must be reacting had he been watching me.



 

Wrong direction - So you are going to some place and you suddenly realize you are walking in the wrong direction or the wrong street. Do you just turn around? Well, as for me, if there are people watching me (or I think they’re watching me, especially if those “people” are the pretty kind), then I just keep walking in the wrong direction, then act as if my phone is vibrating, pick it up, speak, and then turn around towards the right direction.



 

Porn - Yes, like any other normal hot blooded male out there, I too sometimes watch porn. But I always organize my Porn folder, neatly categorizing each video according to the genre it belongs to. Also, I hate going through a friend’s porn folder where all his videos are mixed and jumbled up.



 


Of roaches and lizards - I know many of you freak out when you see cockroaches and lizards inside your house. When I see a cockroach, my first instinct too is to smash its brains up. I’m no sadist, but those damn spawns of Satan will be bothering me sooner or later. But when it comes to lizards, I leave them in peace. Why? Because they mind their own freaking business, that’s why. In fact, sometimes I even name them.



 

The awkward disconnect - Yup there are times when I speak on the phone when I’m around people and the line suddenly gets disconnected or the reception is not clear, instead of shouting “Heellloooo, helloooo… can you hear me nowww?” like one of those people, I awkwardly (and politely) end the conversation even though I know the person on the other line cannot hear me.



 

The Naked Chef - Since I live in a cozy 1BHK apartment all by myself, sometimes when I’m at home alone during the weekends and not at a friend’s place or when I’m not having any company over, I love spending a quiet evening all alone, cooking, naked.



 


So… how many of you do these things the way I do too? :)

Chp 379. Comic Strip: Autroll-rickshaw!

Had an EXTREMELY hectic week. I have been camping in office since Wednesday morning till now (60 straight hours and still counting…) due to work. Hence, hope you’ll understand if I update my blog this week with just yet another comic strip…

Chp 378. Trolling misual.com :)

Another week, another comic strip update, this time using popular memes and rage faces. This is a true incident that took place on Friday. Funny as hell, well at least to me. Lolz. I hope you enjoy this strip as much as I enjoyed making it. :)

And of course you can see a video version of this entire comic strip here. Just wait for the player to finish buffering…

Cheers :)

Chp 377. Lonavala: Revisited.

Nothing like a relaxing weekend at quiet and peaceful Lonavala, though it was no longer quiet once we got there, if you know what I mean. Hehehe… anyway, I’m in the mood to do just a rage comic strip update for now, so here you go. :)




:) True story :) I’ll add our photos later.

Chp 376. GPS: How it changed our world

Remember those days not so long ago before the age of mobile phones when you’re supposed to meet your friends but they’re not there yet, and you didn’t know where they were? You would either wait for some more time or simply go somewhere else.

Remember a few years ago when mobile phones started becoming affordable and everybody started having one? When your friends were not there at the rendezvous point, you would simply call them up, and they would tell you that they’re almost there… and of course you had no idea whether they were lying or not.

Today, with most of my friends, it’s just a matter of switching on Google Maps on my Android device and checking on Google Latitude to see where all my friends currently are (or recently were).

And that had made life a lot simpler. There had been many times when this service had truly helped me out and made a lot of things easier for me.

I once had to meet an old school friend. He was staying in Ghatkopar, in an extremely crowded and congested residential area that had a lot of bylanes and narrow, winding, diverging, converging, convoluting alleys. (If you are from Delhi, imagine it to be like the heart of Munirka). With the help of Google Latitude, he didn’t even have to come all the way out on the main road to pick me up. I could easily find my way right up to his building by simply following the directions on my phone between his current location and mine.

And this doesn’t even have to be only between two people who have GPS on their mobile. My friend Alejandro too stays in one such locality called Kalina here in Mumbai, which has a hell lot of bylanes and alleys. The first time I went over to his place, he picked me up from the main road. Once I reached his apartment, I simply “starred” my location, memorizing it on my Google Maps. After that, I could easily go to his place simply by following the direction to that starred area.

Or take for instance the time we went to Goa from Mumbai in a couple of vehicles. When you’re on a road trip in 3-4 vehicles, it is never possible to drive close to each other all the time, especially when the journey is around 700 km long! Amit simply forwarded us the Google Maps directions (KML files) to our phones and we were all in-sync with each other, making sure all of us were on the same (and correct) National Highway.

After that it was just a matter of checking our phones now and then to find out who was where and who was falling behind and who had stopped to puke. It’s even more useful when you have to stop after dark for dinner on a Highway/Expressway that you’re not familiar with at one of those many roadside dhabas, and you want to eat together with all your friends from the other vehicles.

Yes, (almost) gone now are the days of incessantly calling up your friends, “Where are youuuu now? And now? And now?” every 5 minutes or so.

I find this whole GPS based social networking service especially useful when it comes to work. Since I’ve known most of my colleagues for more than three years now, we’re pretty close to each other. So I have most of my colleagues on Google Latitude. And that’s a really good thing. If there is a project deadline coming up or need a team member to be present for a conference call with client and they haven’t reached office yet, all I have to do is look at my phone and I’ll know if they’ve almost reached office or not.

Sometimes, just one look at my map and I’ll know what’s going on in office – “Oh that guy had gone for a meeting at that client’s office. I hope the meeting is going on well”, “WTF, that girl said she’s sick today so she couldn’t come in. Then why the hell is she currently at a competitor’s office building? There are no hospitals there!”, “OMG, that girl and that guy are together at that bar at this time of the night! I didn’t even know they were seeing each other!” and so on…

But the best part is, it can save your ass too. You wake up late one day. You look at your phone frantically. Google Latitude. Boss is still at his place. Phew. You close your eyes for a few more minutes. Boss is on his way to office and almost there – you jump out of bed immediately and rush to work without even brushing your teeth.

Lolz.

By the way, do not just randomly add friends or accept invitations on Latitude if you don’t know the sender properly. It is NOT Facebook or Twitter, where people merely stalks your status updates and photos. On Latitude, people will know exactly where you are all the time (a function which you can switch off of course), and such information can be harmful to you if it falls in the wrong hands.

In the US and elsewhere, there are already many cases of houses being robbed after burglars got information that the owners were away, through the very owner’s twitter updates! Imagine what such people could do if they have your Latitude info? *sends a shiver down one’s spine*

But like I said earlier, latitude is really fun if you use it properly. There are advantages and disadvantages too. Like, if you are planning to give a friend a surprise birthday party at his house, you can easily know when he is approaching home using latitude. However, he too can check his latitude and wonder why the hell all his friends are at his house with his wife.

Like I said. It’s fun :)

There was even one time when I was shopping at Oberoi Mall, and I casually checked latitude to see which friends were nearby. One of my friends was in the very same mall! So I decided to surprise her, but the problem was, there were around 4 floors in the huge mall complex, so I didn’t know which floor she was on.

I got it wrong the first time. Fortunately, I guessed it right the second time. Snuck up behind her, placed my palm around her eyes and said, “Guess who?” Fortunately, she guessed it right the eighth time.

:P

Here is another such “Mother of God!” moment. One day, I dropped my niece who was staying over at my place for the weekend at the train station. I then went to meet another friend, and my niece and I ended up crossing each other at the exact freaking location! I will describe that in true 9gag style.



Yup, true story bro. It kinda freaked me out! All in all, GPS has really made my life more interesting than ever, and I wonder what the future holds for this feature…

Cheers, and have a great weekend. I’ll be in LONAVALA again for this weekend, having *le good time*, so GPS me there :D

Chp 375. The Malady that is Mizo Idol

2000+ years ago, gladiators lined up in an arena and vowed, Ave Imperator, morituri te salutant (We who are about to die, salute you!) And then as they fight each other to the death, the crowd would go crazy, shouting for more blood and gore.

Today, the battle axe had been replaced by a guitar, the trident replaced by a drum set, and the combat skills of a warrior replaced by the vocal cord of a singer. Yup, I am talking about the ongoing Mizo Idol in Mizoram. Different battleground, same audience.

Today, the winner of Mizo Idol 2011 will be announced. Will it be Biakmuana or Lalthuthaa? The winner of this “grand honor” depends on who gets the most number of sms votes. Yes the format is exactly similar to American Idol and its many spinoffs across the world.

And so, people are going crazy, not just voting for their favorite Idol but convincing (and harassing) their friends and relatives to vote for that person. There are many instances of people actually taking their friend’s mobile phone to vote without their acknowledgement! Others are buying new sim cards just to cast extra votes. There are even stories of some rich dudes here and there buying 3000 new sim cards or so just to vote for a particular contestant. And of course the rumors started spreading like wildfire… that guy is a drunkard, that girl is carrying an illegitimate son, that guy is secretly gay, and so on…

Before I carry on any further, I would like to state that I have no personal grudge against Zonet, the network that had been conducting this show for the past many years, or LPS that had conducted similar shows before (Mizo Youth Icon). If at all there are to be any reason for this “attack” on them, let me state that I have interviewed the host of Zonet Mizo Idol Zonuni and she's a very friendly and sweet person, and my only dissent with LPS would be the fact that we both bought the first batch of Wagon R in Mizoram, and we both happened to buy the same make, model and color, so every time I went home and drove around the city, people thought I was from LPS. That’s a very trifle issue indeed, and like I said, I would like to come clean first, since we Mizos are so fond of finding an excuse about why one person is criticizing about something.

Now, even though I am not interested in the ongoing Mizo Idol, I’ve been following it quite closely. Not that I intended to. But when most of your friends on Facebook are Mizos and you also happen to be the admin of a very popular Mizo community site, it’s really difficult not to know what’s going on. Of course I have more important things to do in life than let who becomes the next Mizo Idol dictate my life, you know… But nevertheless, I get all the newsfeeds and gossips.

And that’s what hurts me a lot.

We all know what happened when Sinate was still in the competition. On Facebook, the whole issue became a case of Mizos versus Hmars, each side spitting heinous venom on each other that makes you wanna puke. Kinda reminds you of the Huti-Tutsi conflict in Rwanda. It was no longer about who had better talent on the microphone. Suddenly everything was about ethnicity and roots.

Death threats were freely given to different members like parking tickets and people started glorifying their “terrorist groups”. The ethnic slurs and abuses overflowed from either side like an absentmindedly neglected pan of boiling milk. Actual addresses and locations were disclosed openly, challenging those who made the threats to see if they had the guts to stick to their death threats. Facebook accounts and groups were hacked and counter-hacked.

From a silent observer’s point of view, it was a tad funny, but one couldn’t help but admit how seriously we took a mere singing competition to be!

Comon… seriously? We come from a land of musicians where almost every next person you see can sing or play the guitar, and we are allowing this mere contest to disrupt our integrity and harmony? The fact that we’re still not mentally matured and prepared for a multi-ethnic multi-regional competition of this proportion was suddenly obvious.

Everybody should know by now that this popularity contest method of voting an Idol had never been fair. Remember Adam Lambert [American Idol finalist 2009]? Everybody knew he got the best freaking voice then, and yet he didn’t win because a large majority of “conservative” Americans didn’t vote for him as he was gay. To me, he was the true idol then.

And now we have the Mizo Idol Finals today. One guy representing Northern Mizoram and another representing Southern Mizoram. And of course some people started campaigning for their respective regions. “Screw talent, stick to your regional loyalty!” seemed to be the mantra of the day.

This reminded me of what my dad used to tell me many years ago. I am a Hrahsel [Saza], but dad didn’t allow me to officially use Hrahsel in my name because he said being a Mizo was more than enough and he felt all these habits of using one’s clan/tribe’s name to identify themselves only caused further disunity in Mizoram.

True dat.

If you really look at this whole Mizo Idol phenomena and how people are taking it so seriously and personally, you too will laugh at it. Is it really worth fighting with your own brothers and sisters about who becomes the next damn Idol? A man-made designation? That too designed by a television network for its own profitable gain?

It is always natural for humans to try and be in an inclusive group. If a group of Punjabis migrate to London, they will most probably move to the Punjabi section of the city, where people speak the same language and eat the same food. Similarly, people from the northeast are known to stick together in mainland India. If a Mizo moves to a new city and there are no other Mizos nearby, he/she will most probably try to stay in an area where there are Nagas, Meiteis, Khasis etc. As more Mizos move in, he/she will then move to the Mizo area. At the end of the day, we just feel more secure and comfortable being with our own kind. There’s a thin line between that and racism or xenophobia.

Speaking of exclusivity, take a look at what is going on in the online world. During the times of Orkut, Mizos created a group called Maharashtra Mizos, which comprised of Mizos working or studying in Maharashtra. Then as more Mizos started moving in, the group got divided into Mumbai Mizos and Pune Mizos. After that, Navi Mumbai Mizos group was created. Even in the Mumbai Mizos group, it further broke up into Andheri Mizos, Santa Cruz Mizos etc. Being in a group that is as inclusive as possible is always in our human DNA, regardless of who we are. You can even take a look at the sports groups in Facebook. First there was the Mizo Basketball lovers group. Then that went city-wise and we had Bangalore Mizo Basketball lovers, Delhi Mizo Basketball lovers, and that can even be divided up further more.

Similarly, being an admin of misual.com, we are no stranger to exclusivity. And that is something we never permit in our site. We have seen it happened all too often based from our experiences – Mizo mIRC chat rooms rivalry, zoram.com vs izawl.com, etc. we have seen them all. And we don’t want to see it happen again.

Even if you take a look a different Facebook Mizo groups, be it about Mizoram news, IT helplines or medical assistances, there will always be people who vowed loyalty to one particular group and immense enmity towards the other group.

Admit it. We love to be inclusive. It is in our nature.

So taking all that into consideration, is it really a good idea for ZoNet or LPS to conduct  these types of events? Whatever be the outcome, most people are always going to stick to being as inclusive as possible, rather than recognize actual talent.

What is the point of it all then?

I am not demeaning the past winners of Mizo Idol or the new winner who will be crowned today. Trust me, that’s not my intention. In fact I would like to congratulate today’s winner and all the other contestants in advance for their talent and performance so far.

My main objection is rather with the system and process of voting. Yes, working in the advertisement industry in Mumbai for many years now, I know all too well how an audience participation event increases the ratings and viewership of a TV show. But if you consider everything I have mentioned so far, do you really think it is worth going through such an ordeal when the price we have to pay for that is so much higher?

Eventually, if you think about it, it is just a form of entertainment, designed to keep us preoccupied from our otherwise mundane life. An entertainment in an arena filled with abusive ethnic slur and regional slur uttering audience that does nothing but create more divisions among us. The question is, are you not entertained? Are you NOT entertained?