Change

Nothing is carved in stone. Even if it was, there is no guarantee that something stronger than stone would not break it. The Iron Curtain crumbled, Myanmar may yet be free.

But when it comes to little things, for people like me, who take comfort in the familiar, changes are always regarded with a certain dread. I prefer the tried and tested restaurants, the old familiar songs, the company of old friends, the same flow-chart to life’s tests, and I like the well-trodden roads. I like the certainty of knowing what I can and cannot do, and to a certain extent, I appreciate the restrictions that society puts on us, so that we cannot do everything that we want to do. This could sound extremely restrictive and could very well be the antithesis to progress. But in things that don’t have serious repercussions, I like being stuck in my well-loved rut. Listen to Keane’s ‘Everbody’s changing’.

You say you wander your own land
But when I think about it
I don't see how you can

You're aching, you're breaking
And I can see the pain in your eyes
It's as (if) everybody's changing
And I don't know why.

So little time
Try to understand that
I'mTrying to make a move just to stay in the game
I try to stay awake and remember my name
But everybody's changing
And I don't feel the same.

You're gone from here
Soon you will disappear
Fading into beautiful light
'cause everybody's changing
And I don't feel right.
Everybody's changing, And I don't feel the same……

Postscript: I wrote the post trying to focus on the changes in language, the use of short forms, the vowel-less words, the now-validated obsolence of the hyphen, even some Mizos wanting to replace 'T' with 'Tr' etc(My dad should have taught me how to type it). I wanted to protest about it, but I sounded so feeble, and I got distrated by Keane's song, so none of the original thoughts went into the post. Just so you know :)

Cars et al

Have you ever noticed how many people have 'Ram', 'Om' and the like written on their car windows? Or whenever they get a new vehicle they do 'pujas' and they have that ribbony thing on their car hood for a few months?

I just wondered, we Mizos are supposedly very strong about our religion, but how many of us in Mizoram have 'Jesus' or 'Isua' etc written on our cars? How many of us hand over our cars, houses and other possessions to God even by a small prayer? Many Christians here in Delhi (and other places) have 'Jesus saves' or some such pasted on their cars. I know it's probably not a very important issue, but it's just a thought, are our material possessions kept separately from our spiritual side? Maybe we are just not too showy about how we feel, maybe it's not a very cool thing to do, maybe we don't think it's all that necessary. But for some reason, it feels kind of nice when I see Jesus' name anywhere, even on the back of a car. It's just a thought :)