Sunday, December 09, 2007

A December Caboodle


December, almost the end of the year already. And Christmas season bigtime. Not the greatest time of year to be broke. I went to an atm to check my balance last week and found I had the princely sum of Rs 9.54. Ouch.

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As beautiful as the origin of Christmas is, it's amazing how our largely hedonistic concept of what it ought to be like is so off-tangent with its beginnings. Most people seem to think Christmas is a time to let rip, literally and metaphorically. Little wonder there's so much pressure and tension, and SADs run rampant. Expectations and reality just don't seem to gel at Christmastime when people seem to be more selfish, grasping, and self-indulgent. On the surface, we all seem to open up a lot more, like a friend of mine once remarked in January, "Why's it that everyone goes back into their shells as soon as Christmas is over?" Maybe I'm just being overly cynical but maybe that opening up is just some subconscious maneuver to get a piece of the action.

And then there's my eternal grouse.... Christmas Eve, that ethereal night of songs like O Holy Night and Stille Nacht was probably silent and holy centuries ago; today it's the night of the most raucous noises and sounds equalled only by December the 31st.

Phew, feels good to vent.

~~~

Lately I've been working on a new project that suits me to a tee. I was born to a culture and a people credited with being the second most literate group of people in the country which accounts for us having a fairly sizeable heritage of literature. Unfortunately it's mostly all in the vernacular and while it's all rather simplistic and elemental, I had the bright idea of bringing it online in translations, what with cultural studies being what it is today. Part of the inspiration came from a good online friend who appears to be a larger-than-life figure to everyone who knows him in person (take a bow, Pu Epis :)) He got me wondering if I could make some meaningful contribution online and just about the same time I came across this book The Heart of the Matter featuring stories from the North East...

And so was born my Mizo lit in English blog. Had to make do with a blog since I know nothing about making a proper site and anyway right now I'm more interested with its contents and trying to track down people I know who write/wrote creatively in English. Most beat about the bush claiming they haven't written in aeons and all their old stuff is gone with the wind (which I personally don't buy for a second but then I wouldn't want anyone to lay eyes on the atrocious rubbish I wrote once upon a lifetime ago myself either).

Margaret who appears to be about the only active translator around has been just amazing - generously and tirelessly providing me with material and urging me to try my hand at translations too. Which I most certainly promise to do. And then there's Mona. This girl is a living, breathing genius. I tell her she ought to be in academia, giving literary seminars all over the world and instead she tells me she's tired of the "deconstructing King Lear's grey hair" routine. Not to worry though, the crystal ball in my mind tells me we'll have a few print collections of her mindblowing poetry in the forseeable future and kids will soon grapple with her writings in bastions of higher learning :)

The process of putting Mizo stories and poems online has also brought me to a new appreciation of Mizo art. I have this notion that every post has to be accompanied by an appropriate image and the more Mizocentric the better. I've been freely dipping into our foremost artist Tlangrokhuma's online art gallery and wishing more Mizo artists would make their work available online. And not just paintings either but sketches, photographs and other graphic arts. It'd certainly help display their skills and talents, besides giving them a good excuse for getting online.

~~~

24 comments:

  1. The first thing I did on reading this post was look up "caboodle."

    That is such a great idea, the online translated stories thing. We as a people have a great collection of stories that will be forgotten if not preserved in some form. And the idea of putting it in English is an excellent one. Hope it's a great success.

    About Christmas and New Year, I do agree that it has become just another excuse to party and show off to the world how much cash you're willing to blow on useless things.

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  2. Thanks, ambs. I'm just surprised no one thought of this online translated thing before. But then most Mizos seem to view the Internet as a place for idle chatting and (porno)entertainment and not much else, so people who don't really even know what the Net is about snigger knowingly at net junkies.

    Guess what, I never heard of caboodle before either. I wanted some snazzy careless-sounding synonym for collection and made use of dictionary.com, and bingo!

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  3. Hey J, just found your blog today. Late as usual, that's me. I look forward to reading all your writings.

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  4. Hey Platty, welcome welcome. Better late than never :)

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  5. Like the first comment above, 'caboodle' was quite a googly. Hey, I wanted to commend you on your project and hope you'd have a book version too. I could help explore publishing options.
    Oh, some of the quirky politically correct notions of the season here: it's 'Happy Holidays'-no Christmas. Also, Santa goes 'Ha ha ha', not 'Ho, Ho, Ho!'...i guess you dont mess around with the oldest business in town!

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  6. Philo, of all the people around here I'd have thought caboodle was a word you have for breakfast every morning :D
    Thank you for the thumbs up with my project. Right now I'm only just starting out with it so I haven't thought as far ahead as a book version yet. You know, just the other day I was talking about all this with a friend here and she was saying she really wished someone would come up with a book of Mizo folktales in English specially written for children with proper pictures and good quality paper. Maybe you could help there?
    About the oldest business in the world, I'd always thought it was the other one that was considered the oldest :P

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  7. camera i neih that hmel tlat! i pic post hi a nalh e:-)

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  8. w00t! nice title .. te tih tur em ni..

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  9. azassk, cam chu nei tha hran nang...cam hnunga ding hian ka zir mai mai alom :P

    lexx, title han tihah header hi maw? Ka siam ve mai mai anih hi hehehe. Tak tak a nang mi thiam bon, TVah poh interview nei pha ngatin min han banai sak hi chuan thil ropui tak te poh kan an ve tak hi tiro? :)

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  10. "caboodle" sounded familiar, but I couldn't quite recall what it meant...nice choice. I worked with Mona for a short while..yeah she's great. She's also a good cook, makes a great pot of "Aa bai" (ask her what that means!!)

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  11. Daydreambeliever, nice nick that. Thanks for dropping by. Yep, I'll definitely ask Mona about that...had no idea she's a great cook as well. Hope you're trying hard to convince her to go into print too :)

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  12. East or west Miss jay is the best :-) I thalak hi a fiah thin lutuk a nia. Fiah deuh deuh a lak hi a thalo haha..

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  13. amuan, phian chauh mo? hmph!

    sawmpui, a latunu hi ka fiah em a, lak fiah loh theih poh ni lo. Hei phei hi chu ka photosop thiam zz ka apply a inchung bal deuh hi ka ti fiah lo ve nasa lom hehe

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  14. Ka sawi duh lo i thin a rim palh ang. Keichu ka chei danglam phallo reng reng ka thlalak ve ho chu hehe.chei tha tawh suh nangpawh , a ngai ngai khan min han hmuh tir thuai thuai teh, a hlutna a bo chuanglo mai ni loin a hlu zawk

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  15. A duplicate kan siam mai lom. Chei zir nan chuan mahni thlalak ngei a zir hi a tha

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  16. Egai awwww!!!! Nangpawh hi duplicate i ni hial lo maw? calliopia ori zawk hi chu thil dang a lo ti daih mai anga hahahha

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  17. been a bit busy off-internet (enuff, don't continue on this :P)...really wanted to read dat new blog of urs, haven't haf da time till now.. :(

    yea...i knw datz not a valid excuse :( ... anywayz...ill read it...i WANT TO read it...

    watz all this talk about caboodle?...am too lazy...can sumone plz copy/paste the meaning of caboodle?

    thanks in advance...

    :D

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  18. caboodle (noun)-
    any collection in its entirety; eg. "she bought the whole caboodle" [synonym: bunch]

    There you go, lazybones. "a bit busy off-internet" with the stripper pole in your bedroom ami? :P

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  19. thanks

    :D

    stripper pole?...wat stripper pole...hehhehehhe

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  20. Ka dul a ni lo e aw, dula dul a nih hi. ka hmang mai mai a lom

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  21. Lal rambo, the pole in your bedroom with you curled all around it with nothing on but your new red Carlton London shoes. Oinch.

    lalmuan, tu dul poh ni raw sek sek a kiar reng reng!

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  22. Nia a kiar deuh, a pu khuma vang vek hi a lawm

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