Health, definitely Wealth

Ruatfeli is down with fever since Saturday. If she could talk, she'd probably tell me how her head hurts, how bad everything tastes, and how stuffy her nose is. Instead, she expresses her illness by being irritable and fussy.

Since she tends to puke out all medicinal things, giving her even paracetamol is an ordeal. Seeing your little one suffering is the one of the worst things you would ever have to face.

The only silver lining is I'm reminded again of the value of health. What I take for granted everyday, to be alive and healthy, is worth much more than wealth. It is the most precious of God's gift. What good is wealth if you are too sick to enjoy it? The unluckiest people in the world are the diabetics and the hypertensives, especially if they have a sweet tooth to boot.

I remember other times when people would tell me their little one is sick, and after a while, hear that the baby is well again. It seems to us only like a fleeting disruption in their lives. But a sick baby means sleepless nights, struggling with feeds, the smell of medicated syrups, and their vomited versions. Your shiny little bundle of joy becomes an irritable, hot little bundle of unvocalized pain. You're stuck in a helpless abyss, unsure of what to do, wishing you could ease her suffering or bear her pain. You remember the times when your baby gave you the brightest smile in the world, or amazed you with a new trick she learnt. And you also remember with guilt, the times when you would feel bored, or resentful of the restrictions a baby places on you. And you know you would do anything, spend any amount, be bored a thousand times, just to have her well again.

Familiar faces

I went to a friend's wedding with some friends recently, and there was this guy who looked extremely familiar. I asked my friend who he was, and she said he does look really familiar, but she couldn't place him either.


So we racked our brains, maybe he worked at where we worked. Maybe he studied where we studied. Naah. But he looked so familiar. If we didn't say 'Hi', he might probably be offended. Could he be a relative?

And the answer finally struck my friend. He was a newsreader on one of the local channels. Thank heavens she remembered before we went and blabbered at him. I wonder if he ever gets total strangers talking to him familiarly.


The pleasure of being cheap

A neighbour sold me these shoes at Rs 200 a pair. I fell in love with the price.

It seems like a minor achievement to find wearable shoes at these prices when shoes cost Rs 1000 upwards at the Millennium centre. At the workplace, I learnt you can get them for Rs 150 at the market :) But I still think I got them at a bargain. I know they're going to be worn out in a hurry, but they satisfy the thrifty Girl Guide spirit in me.

With everything being so darn expensive in Aizawl, it's fun to buy anything at a bargain. It's as though you were outwitting the enemy. You could get yards of cloth at the secondhand market, get them stitched at a local tailor, and have instant 'designer' clothes, which nobody else will have.

I can never bring myself to buy a blouse at 1800/- which everyone is wearing anyway. You can never have the most expensive shoes, or the most beautiful clothes, someone will beat you to it anyway. It's better (or atleast I think so) to be presentably turned-out and save your money for more concrete things...whatever those are!