Chp 507. Mizoram versus Maharashtra

“A GOAL DAWN E!”

“A GOAL DAWN E!”

The sound of Mizos screaming out football chants in unison echoed across the large football stadium. “A goal dawn e” means “We’re going to score” and this is uttered during a corner kick or a free kick so as to intimidate the opposing team.  Except this time, the opposing team didn’t understand a single word and the stadium was in Mumbai. Yet, we shouted together because it was fun, and it encouraged our young players who traveled all the way from Mizoram to play a match against WIFA.

WIFA XI (Western India Football Association), consisted of a mix of Maharashtra Santosh Trophy Team players and the best players of various football clubs within Maharashtra including renowned senior players such as Steven Dias and Raju Gaikwad, and Brazilian internationals like Jose Ramirez Barretto and Roberto ‘Beto’ Mendes da Silva.

Yes it was a tough team, and even though it was just a friendly match, Mizos all across Mumbai came together to cheer for our state team. We wore red, the color of our football team, to show our support. Below is us preparing to go to the football stadium.

But how did it all come to this? Let’s take a brief look back at what happened three months ago.

In March 2014, the tiny state of Mizoram became the latest Santosh Trophy champion, India’s most prestigious football tournament. After Manipur won the title in 2002, Mizoram became the second North Eastern state to win this coveted title.

Mizoram is now the new Indian National Champion when it comes to football. Woohoooo. #SantoshTrophy2014

— Kima (@Mizohican) March 9, 2014

And the road to Mizoram’s victory was not easy at all. After beating local heavyweights Manipur, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh to qualify for the North East zone, the team went on undefeated to beat powerhouses Kerala, Maharashtra, Services, Uttarakhand, Tamil Nadu and Railways to clinch the title! Unbelievable.

Mizoram road to National Championship: won against Kerala 3-1, Maharashtra 2-0, Services 4-1, Uttarakhand 2-1, Tamil Nadu 3-1, Railways 3-0.

— Kima (@Mizohican) March 9, 2014

With a total population of just around a million, Mizoram, the second least populated state in India dominated the nation. It was a day worth remembering and celebrating. The state government even declared the next working day a state holiday and the returning team members were given a grand Hero’s welcome by the people of Mizoram.

Just last month, TSG 1899 Hoffenheim, a German club team currently in 9th position at the Bundesliga this season, travelled all the way from Germany to Mizoram to play an exhibition match against the team!!! Though this grand incident was hardly mentioned in the Indian media, the state of Mizoram was abuzz with fervor and everybody went crazy there. And even though Mizoram lost 3-0, it was a dream come true for every Mizo to watch many international players (who will be representing various countries in this upcoming World Cup) to play in our very own home town football ground!

Such is the craze for football back home.

A few days ago, I got a message from Tetea Hmar, the General Secretary of MFA (Mizoram Football Association), telling me that he’s coming to Mumbai with the team! Though I’ve never met Tetea Hmar in real life, we’ve known each other for a long time in the online world and we have a lot of common friends as well.

And so the word quickly spread within our Mumbai Mizo circle. Click on all photos below to enlarge. Most of the photos below are mine, with a few taken from Mumbai Mizo FB group, WIFA FB page, and Tetea Hmar’s extremely hard to detect Bluetooth :D

Three days ago, I was there at the arrival terminal of Mumbai airport, excitedly waiting for our Mizoram team to arrive!

Funnily, I was the only Mizo who could make it to the airport :D

Everybody else was busy with work and since they had already planned to take a leave on the day of the match, they couldn’t afford to miss work by coming to the airport as well. That’s the thing about us Mumbai Mizos (or a typical Mumbaikar for that matter). First of all, Mumbai is a very expensive city, so we do not have a large Mizo student population (the ones most likely to be present at such occasions) like other Mizo Associations in Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata etc. And secondly, due to the high cost of living, we have to continuously struggle and focus on our work if we want to continue earning our daily bread.

Anyway, I got the blessings of our Mumbai Mizo Association leaders to warmly welcome the team on behalf of the Mumbai Mizo community. Although it was just me alone, I screamed and shouted and yelled and cheered when they walked out of the airport. I was the photographer cum the handshaker cum the narrator cum the introductor cum the everythingtor. And hey, look at it this way - there are more people living in Andheri West than the entire Mizo population. There may be 1 million Mizos but there are 112 million Maharashtrians. So just one single me welcoming them to Maharashtra was equivalent to 112 Maharashtrians welcoming them :)

Just as they were about to board their bus provided by their sponsors, my friend Tluangboihi too arrived at the airport. So now, there were 224 Maharashtrians welcoming the team. What a grand welcome indeed :)

Late as she was, she still managed to take a pic with them. Typical Tluangboihi :P

The team getting into the bus…

The next day, we were all pumped up, excited to watch our team in action. Even though Mizo supporters were asked to wear any tee shirt that is red in color, some unknown person started spreading a rumor that everyone must wear red Arsenal jersey, and so a lot of people came in their Arsenal jerseys. Man, that person is so evil :D

We reached Cooperage Football stadium just before kickoff. Machhana, Charlie and the others from Mizoram House had made this giant banner for our Mizoram team.

Mizos from all over Mumbai slowly started filling up the stands…

The players entered the field, warmed up, completed the formalities, and the match started! COMONNN MIZORAM!

As the sun set, the floodlights came on, adding more awesomeness to the experience. We shouted and cheered and jeered, keeping us all well entertained.

The place was an assortment of all kinds of Mizos, from the football fanatic Arsenal jersey wearing kind to the women extremely concerned about the humidity continuously spoiling their make-up :D

A view from the other side of the stadium, courtesy WIFA facebook page. Check out the stark contrast in the way spectators are watching the match :)

Even though Mizoram had already beaten Maharashtra at the recently concluded Santosh Trophy tournament, I’d just like to remind you all again that this was not the same Maharashtra Santosh Trophy team. Professional players like Steven Dias, Raju Gaikwad and the Brazilians greatly changed the momentum of the game. If only we too had the likes of Jeje, Dika, Mama, Robert etc. playing for our side :P In addition to that, our youngsters were not that used to playing under such a hot and humid condition (the recent Santosh Trophy which this team won was held at Siliguri).

But our young players played excellently. Valpuia managed to beat the goal keeper twice, only to be denied by the post on both occasions. And Biaktea’s excellent kick was blocked by the extremely flexible goalkeeper Harshad Meher. He made a couple of other really brilliant saves as well, and to me, he was the Man of the Match.

WIFA XI scored twice, one in each half. The first goal came from Linekar Machado, and his shot hit the bottom of the top crossbar but rebounded just enough to bounce across the goal line. Although some people watching from the other side argued that he was in an offside position, the second goal from Mohammed Shafique was a clear goal. No contention about it. Mizoram on the other hand, remained goalless. Some of my Mizo friends blamed those of us wearing Arsenal jerseys for the loss, saying our team ended up playing just like Arsenal FC - “Great passing skills and domination of the game but fails to execute the final goal score”. Haha. I’ll take that with a pinch of salt. :P

Overall we had a really great time, regardless of the final score.

Perhaps one of the best things Mizoram team achieved was bringing so many Mizos from all over Mumbai together. The Mumbai Mizo Association leaders jokingly said they had no idea THAT many Mizos were living in Mumbai, while the BMCF (Bombay Mizo Christian Fellowship) leader said the number of Mizos present at the stadium was five times the number of people who attend our weekly Mizo Church service :D

Well played indeed WIFA XI.

After the match, there was the usual pitch invasion. I am extremely honored to be the first person to jump over the fence and run inside (although the next day I ended up having muscle cramps all over my body because of that… :P )

Players receiving medals…

Here is Steven Dias, captain of WIFA XI lifting the trophy. Well played once again Steven!!!

If any WIFA association member is reading this, I would like to apologize on behalf of our community for disrupting the award ceremony. Yes some of our members posed with the players for group photo sessions even though the award ceremony was still going on, forcing the MC to time and again repeat or plead to the crowd. You’ll have to understand that to many Mizos, these players are heroes for winning the Santosh Trophy, and they just couldn’t control themselves being so close to their idols. Really sorry about that.

After the award ceremony, it was socializing time, as players and fans interacted with each other…

All in all, everybody had an awesome time. Ending the day’s event with a couple of comic strips :)

If you can’t read the above WhatsApp message, here’s an enlarged version…

So much fun indeed…

The next day, the Mizoram contingent was invited by their host at the ICE Award function, where they were felicitated.

Yup, that’s John Abraham in the pic above, who was a part of the function.

On their last night in Mumbai, I went over to their hotel to bid them goodbye. It was great meeting the players and looking at where they’re staying. According to Tetea, the entire team was staying separately, depending on the availability of rooms. So we moved around with this long list of names and room numbers across different floors, lolz.

I had a great conversation with Tetea, Maruata (Finance Secy) and TK-a (Treasurer) till 2 in the morning, talking about football, Mizoram and various other topics.

What I learnt from Tetea that night really surprised me…

So we all assumed Mizoram football team must have been sent (read: financed) by our state government or some semi-govt Sports Authority/Body. Actually, no! Mizoram or Maharashtra state had nothing to do with their travel. In fact, WIFA had nothing to do with it either. The only time WIFA was involved was arranging the match and playing with the team. Other than that, everything was organized by their sponsor called FEI (Freight Express International) Cargo Limited!

Curiosity got the better of me and I started googling. Now why would a private company spend so much money on this, without even promoting their brand anywhere. The only time I saw their logo was in the banner welcoming the Mizoram team at the airport.

Even if they were doing it to expand their business in the North East, it didn’t make any sense because they deal with Freight shipping and logistics, something that is ineffective in the North East with no coastal borders. And even if it was to promote their business, was it worth spending so much that would hardly yield any returns?

I mean, the money they spent was no trivial matter at all.

First of all, they paid for the flight tickets of all 30 members of the Mizoram squad from Aizawl to Mumbai and back. And then, they accommodated all of them at The Leela. MAN that’s the freaking Leela I’m talking about. One of the finest 5 star luxury hotels in Mumbai. When I was in my college basketball team and we traveled to a different city, we slept in the freaking college classrooms on top of the freaking hard wooden desks surrounded by mosquitoes. Even international teams do not get such royal treatment, that too especially for an exhibition match.

And yet here, our players had the time of their life, swimming in the gigantic swimming pool or tasting a part of luxury which is hard to come by again…

Not to mention their travel expense within Mumbai, including their food and drinks...

And hiring the Cooperage football stadium must have cost a lot of money too. On top of all that, Tetea told me they were gifted with a large amount of cash to further promote football in Mizoram!

Apparently, everything was because of this guy…

Ladies and Gentlemen, meet Mr. Pratap Nair, Founder and Director of Marketing, FEI Cargo Ltd. Tetea told me that one fine day, he was reading the newspaper when he chanced upon a small section announcing that Mizoram had just won the Santosh Trophy. He was greatly interested after that. In fact it was he who was giving out the awards at the stadium (refer above photo with Steven Dias). I would have never guessed that all this was just a private affair!

Way to go, sir! He’s now trying to promote grassroot level football development in Maharashtra, in association with WIFA, and I’m sure with the amount of interest, vision and capital he has, it will surely succeed.

It got me more and more interested and I read up further.

I found out that his son Mr. Abhijeet Nair was also a director (Finance and HR) in the same company.

At that moment, I was like “Holy $hit” because he was the same guy I met at the airport while welcoming the team. We chatted for a while and even exchanged cards, but since his designation was not mentioned anywhere on the card, I just assumed he must be some lowly executive assigned with the task of welcoming the team.

Dayyyymmm, he’s the director and possible heir to a really affluent private company! Such humbleness indeed! Respect. And he has my business card! :D :D :D

But then as I read further and further, I discovered that he had lost his mother, Mrs. Shailaja Nair, and there is a whole website dedicated to her to serve as a memoriam. In fact, the ICE Awards where the Mizoram team was felicitated, was run by the “Shailaja Nair Foundation”. She used to actively take part in various NGO initiatives like Cheshire Home, CRY etc. What a truly noble family. My condolences, however late it may be.  

Here is a big thanks to Mr. Pratap Nair and family for bringing the Mizoram football team to Mumbai. May God bless you all.

Chp 505. The Long Flight Goodbye

Death. How does one deal with it, especially when the deceased is in a faraway land and the body has to be transported back home for the funeral rites?

In case you’re curious, hope this post sheds some light. As more and more people from the North East come to this side of the country for better education or jobs, in this blog post I’ll cover how people from the North East currently staying in Indian metros meet unfortunate demises, and what happens when their bodies have to be sent back home.

Everybody wants to cremate their loved ones at their home locality. You’ve probably read quite a few news articles in the past where a “Naga girl was found dead in her apartment in North Delhi” or an “Arunachal Pradesh student met with a fatal road accident in Bangalore”. Ever wondered what happened next?

For most incidents like those, the bodies are not buried or cremated at that location. The families of course want the bodies back. And that is where various North Eastern Associations of that particular city play a very important role, because otherwise, nobody else is going to take the extra effort of sending that body home, after all, why should they. Transporting a body is not only expensive but takes a lot of effort as well and that is probably why there are many deceased bodies of Indian origin lying in UAE morgues for more than 3 years now.

In India, transporting cremated remains via airlines is a little bit easier. Even though one cannot carry cremated remains in carry-on or checked-in baggage, one can approach the ground staff and they’ll do the needful. The problem is for those who are transporting embalmed Human Remains in coffins for burial at a different location. There’s a list of airplanes that can and cannot carry such remains.

What I’m sharing here may not exactly be what everybody from the North East goes through, but for this post, I’m just using the MMA (Mumbai Mizo Association) as an example to highlight the process of sending a body back to the North East.

I’m a member of the MMA. The Association tries to bring all Mizos who are living in Mumbai together and conduct various activities like Church services and fellowships, sports activities and other such events. It also tries to help the needy as well. And that includes the deceased.

Community plays a huge role in times of grief, even if one is a stranger to other members. That is the Mizo way of life, where we live by this principle and code of conduct called “Tlawmngaihna” (altruistic principle of putting others before oneself) which goes along the line of the motto of YMA (Young Mizo Association) – Help the needy (Tanpui ngaite ṭanpuitu a ni).

Recently, I travelled home to Mizoram from Mumbai. But this wasn’t a planned vacation, and I stayed only for 5 days in Mizoram since it was an impromptu visit. I had to go home suddenly because of an unfortunate event - a relative of mine who was undergoing her cancer treatment at Tata Cancer Hospital here in Mumbai suddenly passed away.

Nobody saw it coming. In fact, she was reacting so well to the chemotherapy and was on the road to recovery that her son and daughter-in-law who were staying with her in Mumbai went back to Mizoram. Only her youngest son, who’s much younger than me, stayed back to be by her side and do whatever was necessary like assisting and running errands.

And then suddenly it happened. She got worse all of a sudden, was rushed to the ICU, and by evening, she was gone. Just like that.

I was still in office when I got a call from my sister around 8:30 PM informing me of the sad news. I rushed to the hospital immediately. Other MMA members and leaders of our community were also on their way to the hospital.

And here’s one of the things I love about Mumbai. Our Mizo community shares a very good rapport with the management of Tata Hospital. Normally, only people with visitor badges are allowed inside the hospital after visiting hours. That night, the guards were instructed to let any Mizo inside (of course they didn’t ask us for our “Mizo ID cards” at the gates, they just let every North Eastern’ish looking people inside. Here’s one of the few times where racial profiling worked in favor of us).

Inside, there were a lot of Mizos already. Some of them were MMA members while the others were Mizo patients undergoing treatments in the same hospital. People were consoling the young bereaved son. Among our community leaders present were our MMA President Pu Lalmalsawma Pachuau (Malsawma), MMA Vice President Vanlalruata Fanai (Maruata), MSYM Sports & Culture secretary Charlie and our Mizoram House Deputy Resident Commissioner Pu Zaithanmawia. We started discussing about the next plan of action immediately. Back home in Mizoram, my relatives too gathered together to discuss the next step, and our two groups were in constant contact with each other over the phone.

Because the young son was too traumatized to travel home by himself and it didn’t make sense for his brothers to fly down to Mumbai, being the closest living relative in Mumbai, it was my duty and obligation to accompany him and the body till Mizoram.

To be very frank, u Thansiami, the dearly departed, and I didn’t get to spend much time together even though she was very close to my dad and eldest sister. I was away in a boarding school since class 3, and when I went home for my vacations, I never got to see her because we lived in Aizawl while they lived in Kolasib. But the one time I got to spend time with her was a very special moment for me, a moment I’ll cherish forever. Back during the days before Lengpui Airport, there was just the small Tuirial airport in Mizoram, and if we didn’t get a flight ticket there, then the next option was Silchar airport in Assam. When I was in class 8 (Tamil Nadu - 1995), I flew home via Silchar. Dad had sent u Thansiami along with a driver to pick me up from the airport. The driver, you know, was a typical Mizo :) Mizoram back then had just become a Total Prohibition state, so naturally, when he reached Assam, he as all glug glug glug everywhere. When they picked me up from the airport, u Thansiami told me how angry she was with the driver because he was pissed drunk and that it would be best if we stayed in a hotel in Silchar for one day and wait for the driver to recover. No way was I going to stay in Silchar for one more day when I was so close to home! I told her I could drive, even though the only driving I had done was short distance in Aizawl under the supervision of a driver or dad. And yup, that’s what I did! I freaking drove all the way from Silchar to Aizawl (with the sorry ass scum of a driver passed out in the back seat) when I was just 15 years old. I don’t know if I’m the youngest Mizo to do that, but that was one special moment for me, a moment I shared with u Thansiami. But sadly, that was the last time I saw her, and the next time I saw her again was at the morgue in Tata Hospital almost 20 years later.

Back in the hospital, Pu Malsawma pulled a lot of strings and along with Dr. John, they achieved the impossible – we got all the death certificate and paperwork in order by midnight.  Such bureaucratic red tape usually takes more than 10 hours, but the persistence of our MMA leaders and kind consideration of the hospital staff guaranteed its quick execution. The body was sent for embalming immediately in a hearse and three groups followed the vehicle in Maruata, Pu Malsawma and Pu Zaithanmawia’s car to “John Pinto” a renowned funeral home.



The remaining group from the hospital went back to Mizoram House to pack up their belongings. Another group under Machhana and Charlie worked on another impossible task of getting us flight tickets for that following morning. It was 1 AM already.

That is what makes our MMA a very effective association - no matter how few we are, we work together and every task is divided among different members, well coordinated by the leaders so that we can achieve our goal.



At the funeral home, the body was taken inside for embalming. With the assistance of our senior leaders, the son selected which coffin he wanted for his mother.



Meanwhile, another group of MMA members from Mizoram House reached the funeral home with the best clothes of u Thansiami that they could find, so that the undertaker could dress her up in them.

By 2:30 AM, we were done, and we all went back to Mizoram House. We also got confirmation that Machhana and the others managed to get us two tickets from Mumbai to Aizawl. Our two tickets came at a whopping cost of Rs. 80,000 since it was a last minute deal, but cost was not a factor right then.





Back in Mizoram House, we conducted a short prayer service where our MMA VP and also Chairman of our BMCF (Bombay Mizo Christian Fellowship) Maruata read passages from the Bible and delivered a short sermon.



Our MMA President Pu Malsawma also officially handed a “Mizo puan” and Rs. 2000/- in the name of the MMA as a mark of condolences. This practice is known as “inralna” in our Mizo community, and I have written more about this in my earlier post (Mizo Customary Funeral Rites).



There was also an open box displayed where people put Rs 100 - 500 depending on their financial situations, as a way to “ral” the grieving member. Pu Rala from Mizoram House Welfare delivered the closing prayers.



After the service, the others continued helping with the packing while Pu Malsawma dropped me at home. It was almost 4 AM then.

The moment I reached home, I opened my strolley, chucked in whatever clothes I could find and then left for the airport again in an auto. By the time I reached the airport, the others had reached. Maruata along with other members of the MMA and well wishers from Mizoram House saw the two of us off.



Regarding the coffin, everything was taken care of by the Funeral Home. We weren’t allowed access to the body once it was embalmed and enclosed. They took up the responsibility of transporting the coffin to the airport, clearing all the paperwork involved and moving it to cargo, and we could only access it once we reach our destination. This was done so in order to prevent any felonious activities like smuggling or transporting contraband stuff inside the coffin.

Our flight from Mumbai left at 6 AM. There were a couple of hiccups regarding our tickets but I guess it’s not necessary to mention them here. Both the station managers at Mumbai and Kolkata were kind enough to understand our situation and allowed us to fly. Landed in Kolkata around 8:30 AM. Left Kolkata around 12. Landed in Aizawl around 1 PM, where my cousins were right there at the runway strip waiting for us as we stepped down from the plane.

More people cried as they hugged each other, and it was only then that it occurred to me what took place the past few hours. Man, everything moved so unbelievably fast. Amidst all the hectic running around and frantic planning, I even forgot to tell my own family that I was on my way home! Fortunately, my cousins and aunts told mom about it.

Back at the airport, there were around 50-100 relatives waiting. Cousins, aunts, uncles, nephews, nieces, the entire Zabanga Clan and their extended family were there. Once we got hold of the coffin, there was a short prayer service conducted within the airport premises.





From Lengpui airport, most of our relatives then drove to Kolasib where the wake was to be held there. The rest of us went home.

The next day, the entire group from Kolasib again drove back to Aizawl with the body where the funeral was to be held. During the entire event, from the moment we started planning our travel in Mumbai to the moment the Kolasib party reached Aizawl, our entire cousins (and nephews/nieces) network was continuously active on our WhatsApp group, sending updates and sharing photos.

Finally, the convoy from Kolasib reached Aizawl…











A final funeral service was held in Aizawl and then we made our way to the cemetery.



















All in all, from the deathbed in Mumbai to frantic calls and hectic planning to uncertain flights to Kolkata and then to Aizawl followed by a trip to Kolasib and then back to Aizawl where she’s finally laid to rest, all in a span of less than two days, had been an incredible ride. And a big thanks to the Mumbai Mizo Association for all their involvement in making this possible.

RIP u Thansiam.