Chp 483. Mizoram Elections - the great divide

So Mizoram Assembly Election 2013 is finally over, and after extensive coverage by the Indian Media franchise (sarcasm much), we now know Congress (INC) has retained their political power back home.

The final tally:

INC – 33/40

MDA (MNF + MPC) – 7/40

Others – 0/40

The result shocked many, because none of the leaders of any of the political parties other than INC won in their constituencies, and apart from that not even a single candidate from the extremely hyped ZNP (Zoram Nationalist Party) won a single seat! ZNP could be what one would say an equivalent of the AAP back in Delhi – not because of AAP’s agenda of rooting out corruption or a party formed out of people’s frustration with the government, but rather as a third choice for the people to choose between the two main political parties in Mizoram – Congress and MNF/MPC.

And yet, ZNP didn’t win a single seat.

If one was to go by the mood of the online Mizo presence, one would have assumed ZNP had already won the election. They fielded candidates who weren’t strangers to the public. Respected men from respected professions.  In fact, from many of the online polls conducted where people were asked who they’d like to see as the Chief Minister of Mizoram, from a list of Lal Thanhawla (INC), Zoramthanga (MNF), Brig T.Sailo (MPC) and Lalduhawma (ZNP), an overwhelming majority voted for Pu Lalduhawma. And yet, as we saw from yesterday’s result, he didn’t even win in the two constituencies he contested in.

That revealed a lot about us, I must say.

First of all, let me just say I’m no political analyst. I’m just a simple blogger in Mumbai seeing this whole election process from my own point of view. This is nothing but a personal opinion.

What I’d like to point out is, there is indeed a GREAT divide between Mizos who are online and those who aren’t.

As some people said, INC won because of their NLUP scheme. A majority of voters who voted for INC aren’t your typical internet savvy user. Well, typically speaking, your average internet user isn’t exactly the type who would require an NLUP scheme, but this is democracy, where the majority matters, and one cannot ignore the need of the majority.

Whether NLUP is good or bad for the development of Mizoram in the long run, I am not getting into that debate here. What I’d like to point out here is about the immense buzz created by ZNP in the online world. Facebook groups were abuzz with the ZNP wave, pages and profiles dedicated to various ZNP candidates were created on various social media networks. And this wasn’t any such “Cobrapost Blue Virus sting” types at all, this was done by people who volunteered for free. I personally know many of these people riding the ZNP bandwagon and they did this out of their own volition.

Sadly, most of these people I know are also staying outside Mizoram, hence making them nothing but armchair activists. And in the end, what matters the most are the people who ARE in Mizoram, voting. Pooof, burst the ZNP bubble.

Later, after so much campaign followed by such a shocking defeat, one of my closest childhood friends whose dad also contested under a ZNP ticket and lost, posted this status update…

Literal translation: The ZNP hurricane blew across Mizoram so hard that it blew away every ZNP vote :D

Though I feel sorry for him, it’s really nice to see him taking this in the right spirit. Wishing his dad all the best in the next election.

What we can learn from this election is that, it really doesn’t matter much voicing our opinion on Facebook, because the online world is not a reflection of the real world. If one needs to change anything, rather than wasting one’s time online, it’s better to go down right to the grassroot level and be there physically to make the required changes for the people.

This is quite different when it comes to Delhi. Before the election, the comment section of various news sites were flooded with AAP and BJP supporters. Congress supporters hardly made any noise. And as we all saw from the Delhi election results, BJP and AAP made that same noise with a good number of wins. The online-offline reaction is consistent in that case, but when it comes to Mizoram, we still have a long way to go to bridge the gap between the online and offline world.

My friend Benjamin here in Mumbai wrote this status update and I think he really hit the nail right on the head.

I guess what I found the most amusing about the Mizoram election results was reading all the comments regarding the Mizoram election at various news sites… Most of these comments were made by people who have never been to Mizoram or have no idea what life over there is like, but they will nevertheless run their mouths off.

But then, I wasn’t that jobless and had no time to respond to the negative comments… I mean, if we let our time and productivity be affected by everybody on the internet, we’re not going to progress at all. These two images still make me smile today :)

Today being a slow day and I happen to have some free time, I thought I’ll quickly round up some of the ridiculous comments I saw yesterday and day before yesterday… I cannot find most of those comments now, maybe they have been deleted or I’m looking at the wrong sites, but here are some of them…

I think it was at TOI where somebody commented, “Not surprising the Anti-Hindu Congress won, because Mizos are Christians. They don’t even allow Hindus to celebrate Diwali in Mizoram.”

This is partly true and partly a gross slander. Slander because the Mizo govt. had never banned anyone from celebrating their main religious festivals. Partly true because in Mizoram, all loud crackers and rockets etc have been banned permanently 24/7. Back when I was little, I still remember how we used to light crackers, bombs and rockets on Christmas and New Year. The Govt had banned that too, much to the disappointment of many Christians. So, the issue here is not the religion, but the fact that this loud noise pollution disturbs the old and ill, hence the ban.

Another person commented, “It’s high time Mizos wake up and stop these Hindu haters from coming to power. What are the other parties in Mizoram doing?”

This is so freaking funny, because currently, Congress is the most Hindu friendly party in Mizoram. The commenter had no idea what had been happening in Mizoram for the past few months, where the opposition MNF and MPC had been continuously protesting about the Chief Minister for putting a “tilak” on his forehead at a function, breaking a coconut at another event and celebrating Hindu festivals with friends. The CM calmly defended his action, saying India is a secular country where everybody should respect every religion. Many people also said one of the main reasons why MNF/MPC lost, apart from the NLUP, was that people were tired of them trying to play the Christian card in order to appeal to the masses, which apparently did not work.

And then of course there were the ground realities, like the fact that since Mizoram is a small state, a Congress win would hardly make a dent in the Centre. True, but then, the way these trolls stated it out can be quite insensitive to us…

I also saw a couple of comments like “NOBODY CARES” as the top most voted comment on posts related to Mizoram Election updates, which are now deleted. Kinda reinforces the fact that instead of bringing Mizos closer to mainland India, people are just alienating us further and further away.

This one is priceless…

Dunno why there is so much hate on us “converts”.  Urrmmm… does the commenter have any knowledge that long before the missionaries came and converted us, we ever NEVER Hindus? We were headhunters who worshipped spirits, the forest, the sun etc. Animists. We fought regularly with other clans and chop off the head of enemies which we then proudly displayed at our homes. The guy with the most number of heads was considered to be the bravest and most respected warrior in the village. The missionaries came and educated us and civilized us. Sure, if people hate us converts that much and want us to go back to our former beliefs and practices, I actually don’t mind that. Would be cool to be a headhunter once again! Urrrrmmm… may I chop off your head please?

:)

So that was it, my small observation with the Mizoram election. Wish I could comment on many of the other such comments about Mizoram Election currently there on the internet, but like I said, I’m not wasting my time every time somebody is wrong on the internet. Lolz.

Have a nice day, cheers.

Chp 482. November Drain

I was trying to figure out how I went broke so fast recently, and then looking at last month's archive, I saw this…

Dayyymmm, I guess I didn’t have such a boring social life after all… Hard Rock Café, Hawaiian Shack, Ghetto’s Pub, Zouk Bar, Blue Frog, Toto’s, Marriott Hotel, Pune, etc etc… in a span of one month…

This December, I’m definitely gonna go out less and save more, especially with investment declaration month lurking just around the corner! That ugly ugly monster.

This Christmas and New Year, I’ll be here in Mumbai only, away from my friends and family at home. Will miss them terribly, but at least I’ll be in the company of fine friends here in Mumbai.

This is probably one of my shortest and most meaningless post update ever, lolz.

Cheers. :)

Chp 481. November Rain at Ghetto’s Pub

Ok I’m quickly updating this before the month of November ends, lolz. Just got back from Ghetto’s, back in Town.

We hardly party in town, but tonight, my friends insisted we all go partying together on a Saturday Night since we haven’t done that in a long time.

“But but but, Arsenal’s match is coming up!” I protested.

“Yeah yeah, you’re playing against Cardiff dude, I already checked. You’re gonna win anyway,” said J, a hardcore Chelsea fan. There was no point arguing with him because he was the only one in our group who knew about the Premier League as much as I did.

And so, reluctantly, I put on my party wear…

What I actually hated about partying with my friends tonight was not the fact that I was going to miss the Arsenal match. It was the fact that there were seven of us, six of them all couples, me being the lone single guy.

Yeahhh… that’s the stigma we mid 30’s singles face. Everybody concerned about us, everybody trying to “fix us up”…

When you’re in your mid 30’s, you’d know that a relationship isn’t just about looks or impressions anymore… It’s more about how intellectually compatible the two of you are, how much you can share and talk with each other for hours, the similarities and experiences you’ve shared together, the chances of spending the rest of your lifetime with that person... such things people don’t come across easily in this dog-eat-dog maddening corporate world.

So anyway, we left for Ghetto’s around 8, a bunch of Suburbians out to paint the Town red, lolz. I kept checking my phone for the latest Arsenal score. 1-0. Yessss.

One thing you should know about Ghetto’s is that the entire place is lit up by just UV lights… so women accidentally happening to wear black top with white bra inside is just… unfortunate and kinda hilarious, in a mean way. We all avoided white so as not to attract attention because this is how prominent you’ll be if you wear white…

As my friend S rightly said, “Ghetto’s is the Toto’s of town”, the music was great, and so was the crowd. It’s a place where mid 30’s people hangout, haha. Music not too loud, mainly classic rock, no dance floor, just a good place to chill and talk and laugh, and cost of alcohol cheaper than most other watering-holes.

The UV lights too really set the mood. Our glasses, with the stirrers…

And then suddenly, in walked this girl who probably was coming to Ghetto’s for the first time and she froze immediately, lolz… Talk about trying to minimize white, this girl definitely didn’t get the memo, hahaa…

I am not one of those creepos/weirdos who take voyeur photos of random strangers, but her face doesn’t show anyway, so hope that’s alright putting it here. Poor girl, her friends were teasing and hovering around her trying to make her comfortable the entire time while I’m sure she was pressing them that she wanted to leave :)

Meanwhile, at our table, my couple friends kept insisting that I hit on somebody, for who knew, I might meet the future Mrs. Kima that night, though my idea of a future missus was not exactly somebody I picked up at Ghetto’s, lolz.

And so the ladies dragged me to the bar counter where there was this cute girl sitting alone, and then coyly left me there with her.

The cute girl smiled at me. I smiled back.

“Sup”, I said.

“Sup”, she replied...

“Urrrmm… do you know Arsenal just scored three goals tonight?”

She walked away faster than Wilshere’s goal against Marseille last week.

Dayyymmm…

And so, back at my table, lonely me occupied myself with the interesting work of “writing” my name using the stirrers, hoping somebody might see it and be impressed. An ice-breaker prop.

Unfortunately, turned out, I was the only one impressed with my handiwork.

We ended the night by singing to November Rain played by the DJ. Come tomorrow, it’s December and Christmas fever’s gonna start kicking in! Looking forward to it.

Cheers :)

Chp 480. Chilling at Hawaiian Shack

To be honest, I really don’t like partying at Hawaiian Shack that much. And just so I don’t stir up a hornet’s nest (I don’t have the time and energy for a debate on race and morality), let’s leave my reasons at that -> just a person opinion.

But last night, after enjoying a good match of City thrashing Spurs (lolz), I got a call from my friend Bee whom I haven’t seen in a really long time. They were in Hawaiian Shack, and told me to come over. So I said, what the heck, and quickly put down my dumbbells and put on my party jeans :P

And how could one refuse an invitation from Bee when he was all decked up with a fedora last night! Lolz, here is Bee, dancing with his gurl :)

Met a lot of new people – Jenny, another Jenny, Amy, Sally (saizikpuii) etc :D What I really liked about last night’s party was that most of these guys and girls don’t drink… They’re one of those who can go to a club and dance their brains out without taking a sip of even beer. I know, it’s a loss for the establishment, lolz, but they prove that one doesn't need alcohol to have a good time.

Bee later removed his fedora, changed his tee shirt and joined us at the table.

Had a great time on the dance floor above too, where we all formed a circle and showcased our respective dance moves (y’know, the usual thing Mizos do when we go clubbing together, lolz)

Really great to have fun like that after a long time.

In fact we had so much fun that we decided to take the party home at closing time, going in a convoy of five autos (yeah it just occurred to me only after inviting everybody back to my place that there were a lot of us, lolz). At home we watched a few Mizo music videos, danced some more, laughed even more, until they all left around 4 in the morning. Saddam had a ball, running from one person to the other wagging his tail excitedly and getting pampered by everyone with all the attention.

And here’s the thing about me. I am really bad with names and faces. Sometimes I don’t remember the names of people I've just met, especially when I’m under the influence. And later when I meet them a second time (on a more sober occasion) and I don’t recollect their names or remember who they are, people brand me as “inchhuang” or “induh” or “intithei”, which are Mizo words for somebody who is proud, vain, self conceited etc.

Last night I made sure that would never happen as I took a video of all my guests, asking them to introduce themselves, lolz. And I will go through the video over and over again so I will not forget their names the next time I meet any of them, haha.

Damn you short term memory :)

Why am I blogging about this, you may ask. Well because it was a really unique experience for me. Apart from me and two other guys, none of the others in our group drank alcohol. Maybe I should start becoming more like them – party hard and yet live longer :)

Cheers!

Chp 479. Boomarang at Hard Rock Café

Way back in 2009, I blogged about “Stellar”, an awesome song by a Mizo band Boomarang, promoting the song on my blog for my readers in India and overseas. People who came across that song for the first time, absolutely loved it.

However I was disappointed that such an awesome song never made much headlines in the Indian music industry …

But justice was finally served. VH1 recently aired “Stellar” and just last week, this song was in the Top 10 of VH1 Countdown!

This also means that it is currently the only song by an Indian band to be in that prestigious list!

November VH1 Top 10  Countdown list:

1. Lorde – Royals
2. Eminem – Berzerk
3. Drake feat. Majid Jordan – Hold on we’re going home
4. Avicii – You make me
5. Kate Perry – Roar
6. Britney Spears – Work bitch
7. John Newman – Cheating
8. Lana Del Rey – Summertime sadness
9. Capital Cities – Safe and sound
10. Boomarang – Stellar

So yeah, I was definitely not going to miss their show at Hard Rock Café, Worli.

Many of my friends were already there when I reached the venue last night. Boomarang performed awesome as always, rocking the entire crowd. Some of their own numbers were really good too. They even launched their new album, entitled “Home”, which is an amazing song as well.

We really had an awesome time.

After their gig, I was one of the few privileged people to be invited up to the VIP stand where we had a one-on-one session with the band members. They were so uber cool and amazing, we ended up taking a lot of photos as well :D

The “board” that you can see in many of the photos above, is actual a giant replica of the album cover of their new album “Home”. After a few group pics, we were just hanging out with them, talking about music, common friends, upcoming gigs etc. Since it was the VIP area, I think alcohol was free, but since I don’t drink, I’m not very sure about that… :)

More pics we took… :)

Maruata was equally impressed with a display of pants that Elvis once wore, and insisted on taking a pic with it :)

For me, I had a great time not just because I got to meet the band, I also came across many friends I haven’t seen in quite a long time. I also completely forgot my dear friend Lucy works at Hard Rock Café, and she was everywhere last night, making sure all the VIP guests and VIP wannabes like us had a great time.  Here she is, sweet and charming as ever.

What a night it had been. Went home around 3 in the morning. Boomarang will be coming back to perform in Mumbai on 11th December, this time at Hard Rock Café, Andheri. I plan on attending that as well.

Here’s cheers to an awesome band, wishing them luck in all their future endeavors!

And do listen to Stellar if you haven’t yet.

Rock on \m/ (^_^) \m/

Chp 478. Game Conference at Marriott, Pune.

What a busy weekend this had been. We, as in FITH Media, took part in our first ever Game Developers Conference, and man was it exciting and awesome as hell!

Since none of us had been to such a conference before, we didn’t know what to expect. We’re not even a year old Gaming Company, unlike many of the popular gaming studios who were taking part in the conference… would we be sidelined, would be we just a shadow in a sea of experienced players?

But we’ve come a long way in this short span of just 10 months. Two of our games, “Nikal Padi” and “Where’s My Cat?” were nominated for “Best Indie Game of the Year” Award!!!

And so we booked our tickets for NASSCOM Game Developers Conference (NGDC) two weeks ago. Since our games were nominated for an award, we could even avail of a 1000 rupees discount on our NGDC passes too! :D

As the agenda for the 2-day NGDC event was released, we looked at the extremely packed schedule happening simultaneously…

So many good talks by prominent people in the gaming industry were taking place at the same time, ranging from fund raising techniques, In-App Purchases, Tech workshops, Design workshops, Legal consultation, Mentorships, Indie game practice etc etc., and so we planned our participations carefully …

“Sumeet is attending this and this, Satish will attend this because it is important for him while Abhilash will attend this, then Shrey will join him for this, I will attend this and this, and then Jordan will attend this with me and then we will all meet up to attend this together…” and so on….

OH HOW WRONG WE WERE! Lolz

Since we were one of the finalists for “Best Indie Game of the Year” award, we were given a “stall space” to showcase our game to the public. Even though our stall was right at the end, it was truly an honor to be given that space at such an important event. We decided to utilize that to promote our other games as well. We made posters of “Where’s My Cat?” and personalized cards of all our games, so that people could easily download our games directly using a QR Code reader.

FITH = Fire In The Hole

Initially we thought any of us who were not attending a seminar would man the stall. We’ve never been that mistaken, lolz! The amount of people who came to our stall was so overwhelming that all of us had to be present continuously the entire time! All of us spent at least 80% of our time showcasing our games and explaining who we were, how we started the company, the type of games we’re developing, our offices, our future plans etc etc instead of attending the seminars. Man, that was crazy! :) But it was sooooo worth it, having met so many people we could network with to enhance our growth and quality of upcoming games.

I know, I know. It was our first time. We didn’t expect that at all, and it was so much fun.

Another thing we didn’t expect at the NGDC was the CosPlay! I’m a CosPlay fan, but there is a difference between a “Game DEVELOPERS Conference” and a “GamiCon/CosPlay” event. The latter is where you’ll find the CosPlays, the former is where you’ll find all the nerds and geeks discussing about programming languages and game engines/platforms.

But lo and behold, there was this really cute CosPlay girl on Day 1.

At first I thought her friends must have played a mean prank on her by telling her this was a Game Cosplay event and not a Game Developers Conference. But again I saw her on Day 2, mingling with the people and CosPlaying as cute as ever.

Eventually I took a pic with her :)

Turned out, she’s a huge CosPlay fan, a professional CosPlay model, and she was hired by NASSCOM for the event! Man, such an awesome profession. She goes by the name Niha Novacaine professionally, and here are a few photos from her FB page (posted here with her permission of course).

Yeah she definitely did make the NGDC more glamorous. Do like her FB page! ^___^

So how did we end up here and how was our entire Game Developers Conference experience starting from the very beginning? Here’s how it went -

We left Mumbai on Thursday evening around 6 PM. We took turns driving the Grand Vitara, as the distance was more than 150 KM. Got stuck in traffic IN Mumbai, as the day happened to be Muharram Ashura, so there were traffic jams everywhere, and by the time we finally got out of Mumbai, it was almost 9 PM!

Stopped at a Mc Donald’s in Panvel for dinner, and came across a type of burger that didn’t exist back in Mumbai McDee outlets – a burger called “Smoked Chicken Supreme”, which had two chicken cutlets and two slices of salami, and the bread was very different too.

Our verdict – Too bland.

Finally after a long drive (and two near-death experiences!) zig-zagging in and out of lanes at 140 kmph on the long Mumbai Pune Expressway, completely guided by Google Maps GPS, we finally reached Pune. Stayed at a friend’s house, where we were welcomed by Laphroaig and other really awesome single malts.

Slept peacefully by around 3 AM.

The next day, we made our way to the Conference venue: JW Marriott’s.

The place was packed! People everywhere, interacting, networking, socializing, setting up stalls etc etc.

We set up our stall too, by putting up a large banner Where’s My Cat and our FITH Media logo as well.

Jordan kept our visitors well entertained too, though he would only showcase our games to the fairer sex! If any important CEO or game producer of a reputed gaming company came to our stall asking for a demo and if that person happened to be male, then Jordan would quietly walk the opposite direction. Bastard :)

We measured our stall’s success with the number of new business cards we got. Jordan measured his with the number of new phone numbers he got. Kids…

Lunch and tea/coffee intervals were always packed. Well, with more than 1000 delegates not just from different parts of the country but from overseas as well taking part in the conference, this was not surprising.

At the Award ceremony, we didn’t win :( HUEBRIX by Noodlecake Studios deservingly won the Best Indie Game of the Year Award.

But we weren’t that disappointed, considering the number of people we met and exchanged cards with – Consultants, Co-founders, CEOs, Art directors, Tech heads, freelancers, students looking for internships, Publishers, Marketing managers, Business developers and Investors, including people from renowned companies like Disney, EA Sports, Reliance, Amazon, Microsoft and Ubisoft, not to forget all the Who’s Who of the Indian Gaming Industry.

On a personal basis I got to interact both online and offline with many people and even became Facebook friends with Founders/Co-Founders and other prominent people in the Indian gaming industry like Kinshuk Sunil, Yadu Rajiv, Manas Gajare, Anup Sarode, Swapnil Kadhav, Abhinav Sarangi, Jikku Benn, Asar Dhandala, Ravi Korukonda etc etc… including the ahemz... CosPlay model Niha Novacaine! :D

We ended that night with Beer, Biryani, and some random DJ :)

On Day 2, we skipped the awesome lunch served at the conference and saved our appetite for Burger King’s delicious beef burgers! We continued manning our stall, and attended 2-3 seminars individually.

Before leaving, we also tried out many of the new gadgets and game devices people brought to the venue. I didn’t take any photos of those as I was too engrossed in the games, but here’s one set Jordan took of me. This interactive game was really fun and cute, and it had this totally catchy beat too!

We left the Conference after that. Next year, we’ll be back :)

At Burger King, they were out of Beef Steak burgers when we got there, so we had the next best thing - their King Beef Burger Supreme burgers. Definitely the best beef burger joint in India! :) And the quantity was not only HUMONGOUS, it was really affordable too, at just 60 bucks a piece! Why aren’t they opening a chain in Mumbai, why why why????? :(

We left for Mumbai after that. We stopped on the Expressway to enjoy the beautiful idyllic sunset in the distant horizon…

More photos of the beautiful romantic sunset… *sigh*

Sumeet drove on the way back, and we were doing extremely good, hoping to reach Mumbai by 8PM.

And then the tragedy happened.

After passing the second Toll gate after Lonavala, our car broke down!!!!!

Turned out, we were out of engine oil, and so some of the guys walked back 2 KM to the nearest auto service shop, bought engine oil and hitched a ride in a delivery van back to our location.

But even after filling it up with 2 liters of engine oil, there was still something wrong with the car, making a loud TAK TAK TAK noise continuously. Some of us called up people we knew who were auto experts and finally it turned out that one of the pistons was broken because we were running without engine oil for quite a distance!

We had no other option but to call for a Tow Truck. It took more than an hour for the tow truck to reach us.

We travelled at 20-30 kmph after that, and this was what I was staring at for 5 straight hours. Arrgghhh so much torture.

The total cost of towing came to 5000 bucks. Finally reached home at 3 in the morning. Dayymmmm what an adventure it had been! :)

Other than the misfortune towards the end, I am really looking forward to doing this again, taking part in other Game Conferences and networking with others. What a weekend!

Cheers!