Saturday, March 13, 2010

The Day We Danced the Streets into History



Friday, March 12th, 2010. What a day it was. And you had to be there in person to savour the euphoria, exuberance and carnival atmosphere of it all. Chapchar Kut it was, traditionally an agricultural festival during a short layoff period in the heavily laboured lives of our ancestors and always celebrated with a work hard, party harder attitude. Considered a heathen custom with the advent of Christianity, and ousted from practice. Also no longer applicable in today's largely desk-bound Mizoram, especially in the urban areas, except as a governmental cultural holiday. This year, the powers that be decided to take a leaf out of neighbouring state Meghalaya's flirtations with Guinness records and arrange the world's biggest and largest ever gathering of the traditional Mizo dance, the cheraw.

When Mizos get high on something, we don't do things by halves. Everyone gets into the mood, young, old, rich, poor. We tend to all want a piece of the action and have our say, whether positive or negative, helpful or completely irrelevant. Friday was Christmas, New Year's Eve and FIFA World Cup final day all rolled into one. From 9.30 am, the AR Grounds where the main function was held, began to bring in participants for the dance. By 12 noon, on the streets, where the dancing was to spill over out onto, vehicles disappeared: traffic was closed and rerouted. People took over. Endless processions of dancers in traditional gear and excited revellers in everyday wear walking towards the Lammual.

We had been informed the dancing would stretch from Sikulpuikawn in southern Aizawl to Chanmari kawn where I live. I had thought I'd just walk up the couple of yards to our locality's buzz point and take in the action from there. But then my neighbour whose teenaged son was to beat the bamboo staves said the dancing was supposed to begin a lot further away. Disappointedly I decided to watch from my brother-in-law's place bang in the middle of the bazar area. I also took my much maligned camera along.

By the time I left the house, all the dancers were arrayed on the streets with bamboo staves in place ready for on the spot rehearsals. There were bull horns tacked on high posts all along the way for the music feed. The sound was tinny and unimpressive though. And the crowds. Oh, the crowds. They filled the sides of the roads so you had to jostle your way through. Some watched from rooftops and high-rise windows. There were waves of them walking south. Waves walking north. Incredibly, even during the actual official Guinness performance, there were still waves moving north or south!

I squeezed southwards too, thoroughly enjoying the ambience. Everyone smiling, excited, expectant, animated. The dancers took breaks in between rehearsals, eating hurried lunches, prepacked soft drinks, ice lollies. Most were school children who'd been practising since the beginning of the school year. Many of them looked of pre-pubescent age. Under the bright March sun, they sportingly swayed and skipped and weaved in and out of the bamboo in tandem. Hundreds of photographers, some with sophisticated expensive equipment, some with rather rudimentary cellphone cams, snapped pictures and shot videos by the truckload. Carpe diem.

And what a day. Certainly the poor will remain poor, the rich will stay rich. Life will go on much as before. But we created history and gave ourselves an unforgettable experience on a beautiful, sunny day when our hearts were collectively one. The day we took colour and movement and music to the streets in the name of culture and a place in Guinness. And most importantly, I was right there in the middle of it all, wooohooo!!!




14 comments:

  1. I wish i were there in Aizawl on that great occasion! Congrats to all the(My)Mizo dancers and organizers. Interesting reports and nice video capture! Please add some pics from your hi-fi digicam. I love still photograph!

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  2. Lung te pawh a ti leng alawm le. Mid 90s vel lai khan YMA Hnamlam intihsiak a awm thin kha (an la ti reng em tunah?) lammualah hian kan va inpalkhu ve nasa thin alawm.

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  3. Really good! I think more than trying to crack some record for the Guinness Book it would be better to revive your old customs and traditions. Revive them and really make them vibrant and make them a part of your lives. If a nation and its people loses its culture it loses its soul. Like Japan you can be modern but still retain the old values and culture. Best of luck.

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  4. thanks for the post. while it is hardly 'being there', it does help...

    i like "Certainly the poor will remain poor, the rich will stay rich. Life will go on much as before. But we created history and gave ourselves an unforgettable experience on a beautiful, sunny day when our hearts were collectively one." very well said.

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  5. azassk, stills added. Sorry but I didn't have time for it last night. I wanted to blog about it ASAP so I posted without the pics.

    aduhi, an la ti thin in ka hria. Not sure. Ka tel ve ngai loh vangin ka hre lo pawh a ni maithei. Solakia te hi ka hlawhchham tawp mole haha.

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  6. Loch, there's a not so little issue called religion aka Christianity involved here. Most of our traditional culture was based on heathenism and I think we'd all rather risk compromising on our cultural souls than lose our actual souls for eternity.

    baruk, my favourite line is the last one - "most importantly, I was right there in the middle of it all"!!

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  7. lovely pics - probably the best of the lot (and there are quite a few out there by now). the vid's also quite good.
    you're right about the 'not so little issue called religion aka Christianity'. and you've nicely encapsulated our typical mentality in your second sentence. of course our traditional culture was based on heathenism because the gospel had not yet reached us then. which is no reason to be ashamed. just as keeping those traditions alive surely is no reason for us to actually lose our souls for eternity. because they are part of who we are, a part of what God meant us to be...

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  8. Achhuanawm khawp mai, kan hnam incheina te hi cultural Fest khawi maw laiah pawh hian kal mah ila, arawn ang mai hian kan sar vawng zel nia. Camera te leh lian a han veh/hmeh phei hi chuan a nalhna a zual.

    Saptawnga han ziah hi a tha ve hrim2 bawk, Khawvel record kha ni ve miau a.

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  9. plats, thanks for the very kind remarks. I'm not terribly proud of my efforts but they are mine so I'm proud of that hehe. Yes, I think the problem with most indigenous cultures is the conversion issue. But I also think we're not doing too bad in sifting and retaining the more positive aspects of our culture. And culture, when you really think about it, doesn't exist in isolation but is actually secondary to the people. Just like language. As a people evolve and change with the times, their culture (and language) would naturally follow the graph.

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  10. sawmtepui, camera lian leh te kha chu mi in min diriamna thilah ka ngai a, sawi lan loh a fuh zawk ang. Rawng lar tih hi chu kan hnam incheina rawng a ni miau a, mawi kan ti a ni mai a, hnam/mihring hnufual lam apiang hian rawng lar an uar tih i lo notice ngai emaw? Mihring changkang apiang hian rawng sober/neutral lam hi an uar thung a. Mahse tih leh ang, traditional costumes hi a colourful hlawm tlangpui tho mai.

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  11. A rawng sen lampang leh dum hi siam a harsatloh avangin tribal lam hian an uar a, mahse nalh ka ti tho2....

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  12. cheraw hi nalh ka ti vak lo ....chheih lam hi nalh zawk ka ti

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  13. When cheraw was first introduced to the world at large by the new Mizoram Publicity dept back in the early 70s, it was usually accompanied by the term joie de vivre. I've found that every time the cheraw is performed, people sit/straighten up and seem to watch breathlessly. Definitely the piece de resistance in our repertoire of folk dances. Chheih lam is a bit too tied up with drunken carousings to me.

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  14. Apart from the sheer grandeur, it must have been so euphoric. Must've been great to see all these live & savour the atmosphere. Thanks to the good pics, we too get a glimpse.

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