Living in Sim

First of all, Sim. As in Simulation. Not “sin”. Get your mind out of the gutter. And read carefully.

Day before yesterday, I was out and I had my crush on my head. Sometimes he pops in at weird moments. As crushes do. And I was thinking about something he said the other day when a truck passed me and I swear to the heavens – the truck had my name and his in bold Big Truck font, next to each other on the windshield, like a really bad, unimaginative decor. As trucks do.

It got me thinking about repeating patterns in life. Which is really weird if you start thinking about it. And it’s best not to. Honestly, I’d advise you not to. It makes you think things. Like a delulu testimony.

Some people call it manifesting. Some people call it witchcraft. Some people call it divine signs and answered prayers. A lot of us sci-fi geeks just wonder if it is us peeking behind the curtain, seeing into the Matrix, noticing the blueprint.

My sister plays Sims, the video game, and she has always been invested in it and the world she creates there. She talks about the Sims people and how she gives them nice jobs and nice social lives and usually very gothic wardrobe. It’s her aesthetic. Now imagine if somehow those characters were suddenly self-aware and she was their Creator God? 

Sci-fi has explored this theme many times. And always it’s deeply exploratory of human emotions and relations; always very thought-provoking. But also quietly unsettling. Off the top of my head, I can think of the movie Café which even had a god-like character in it albeit in the form of a little girl which to me was a very wise choice because you don’t normally think of a creator god or any god really that comes in the form of a little girl; usually paranormal little girls are scary and appear in horror movies. Café is an excellent movie; I recommend.

Then there’s Free Guy where a video game character – a NPC at that! – gains self-awareness! Very intriguing. Less comedy and more horrifying, Black Mirror has often explored this theme. There’s the obvious one with the USS Callister story; stories, I suppose; I think there’s two of them where an incel mad genius decided to create a VR world with DNA of real people but trapped inside the video game. Very sinister plotline. This also reminds me of Dwight Schrute in The Office where he plays Sims but he’s the exact same Dwight except he can fly, I think. He said he already was satisfied with his own life and it was overflowing so he decided to live two exact same lives – one real, one virtual. Less sinister than the USS Callister story but no less off for it.

These stories are similar to, but not the same as sci-fi worlds where there are worlds within worlds. In Love, Death + Robots, there is a very compelling little story called Ice Age of an entire world that happens inside a refrigerator and the same as or similar to our own timelines, but also at a mini scale and fast forwarded. Very intriguing. This theme is explored in Men In Black as well with an entire world inside a Locker and again an even tinier one inside Orion’s Belt, Orion being a cat and the entire mini-universe hanging off of his little cat belt. Again, our own world was a mini-universe from the POV of giant cosmic creatures; I think we were in their golf ball or something. Like the universe of The Who in Horton Hears A Who, which is not sci-fi but Dr Seuss is borderline sci-fi anyway. It might even be, IDK.

My point being that if you think too hard about this and allow it to consume you, you start going a little bit off. Because you start wondering if anything is real. You start getting a hit of Existentialism. Because human brains are designed to notice patterns. And if you gear your thoughts in this direction, the patterns keep repeating. No wonder so much of the 12 Zodiac Signs – even the Chinese annual ones – can hold true; there's not too many differences between us. We are just patterns that keep repeating. Souls that keep recycling, maybe. 

When I decided to get a dog, I got a beagle because I wanted something predictable. Just in case. Much the same is with humans. We are all very blueprint-based. Think of someone. Observe them long enough and you can start to spot patterns. You start to see people who’d behave the exact same way as they do until you get spooked because honestly, people who’ll never know each other, perhaps never even share a world because of temporal differences, are the same people, once you strip them of their drapes and only consider the core person within. How they would react to a circumstance, how they would interpret words and actions, how they just are. Blueprint-based. Only different because of the occasion of their births.

I suppose spiritually-, or even religiously-speaking, this is all about the Oneness of everything. How differences and all that is just Maya. How we are all supposed to be at Perfect Union with the creator god. It’s not even religion-specific. Most religions tend to teach this anyway.

In sci-fi, it’s just wrapped in prettier, fancier dressing and the pattern-spotting is just made weirder and that much more fun.

Kan Rante Thlarau [Pets and Souls?]

Dr Billy Graham leh Mother Teresa thlalak te hi kan naupan lai aṭang tawhin kan chhungkaw thlalak tarna apiangah kan tar ṭhin a. Nu leh pa te ngaihsan chu naupang tan pawh ngaihsan loh theih an lo ni lo. Ṭum khat ka nu in ka nau hospital ah a riah pui ṭhin lai phei chuan ka u nen kan “Bedtime Story” atan ka pa hian thawnthu bu a chhiar peih der si lo, Billy Graham biography min chhiar sak ṭhin. Theihngilh a har hle.

Dr Graham sermon “What happens to pets when they die?” [Kan ranvulhte hi an thih hnuah engtin nge an awm zel?] tih ka ngaithla fuh hlauh mai a. Hnuk ulh ṭeuhin ka ngaithla a, midang te pawhin kan in zawh fo ṭhin a ni a, share loh theih loh ah ka ngai a. A sermon a rei lo na in ngaithla hman lo a chhiar mai duh tan ka transcribe a, sapṭawng harsat deuh hlek tan a tlangpui thu ka han let bawk a.

Ran te hian thlarau an nei em? Vanah kan hmu leh ang em? Phut let awm lova min hmangaih a, kan tana rinawm em em, rinawmna awmzia min zirtir hial tu te thih hnu chungchang Zawhna ah hian kan Rinna in nghahna a tel ani. Dr Graham-a ngei pawhin kum 10 mi vel chauh a nih laiin a ui Rusty a boral a. Ṭah tak te in a ṭap a. A pa hnenah Rusty-a hi a hmu leh ang em, thlarau a nei ve em? tih a zawhna chu a pa chuan “Rusty-a kha Pathian siam a ni a, Pathian hian chhan awm lovin engmah a siam ngai lo” tihin a lo chhang a.

Genesis 1:24 ah Pathian in ramsa chi tinreng a siam dan a in ziak a, awmze awm thlapin a siam a ni. Genesis 2:7 ah Pathianin mihring a siam dan a in ziak bawk a, a thawk khum a, thlarau nung a siam a ni. Genesis 1:30 ah Pathianin “thaw thei apiang te” – ramsa leh savate ei turin hnim hring chi tinreng a siam thu a inziak bawk a. Helaia Hebrai tawng a hman nefesh tih hi mihring leh ramsa te tan a sawi hrang lo a ni.

Pathianin mihring chu Ama anpuiin a siam, tih a ni si a, Pathianin nunna min pek hi kan ran te nunna nen a in ang em? Genesis 1:26 ah chiang takin mihring kan danglamna a in ziak a ni. Mahse kan danglam vang hian ramsa te hi thlarau nei ve lo, Pathian Chatuan Ruahmanna ah an tel ve lo ta tihna em ni ang?

Sam 36:6 te, Rom 8:19-21 te kan chhiar kawp chuan thilsiam zawng zawngte hian Pathian in chatuan min siamsak hi kan beisei a, kan rum ani. Hetah hian kan rante hi an tel ve lo thiang dawn em ni?

Thlarau chu enge ni? Cambrigde Univ. ah te zirmi ten ramsa chettlat dan an zir ṭhin a. Dolphin ten puzzle an khelh thiam dan te, sai rual an in sun dan te, uivulh lai ten mihring rilru an hriatthiam dan zawng zawngte an zir a. Ramsate hi ho mai maiin an nung mai lo, rilru te, ngainat leh huat te, hriatrengna te, dik leh dik lo thlengin an hrethiam a, an nunpui ve a ni. Science hian thlarau awm leh awm loh a finfiah thei lo a, mahse an pianken hriatna mai bakah engemaw chen in zir theihna ramsa ten an nei tih hriat hian kan khawvel experience dan te pawh in anna chen a awm, a tih loh theih loh a ni.

Pathianin Amah kan hriat na atan te, Amah kan hmangaih theih nan te Thlarau min siam sak chuan, ramsate hian kan Thlarau ang chiah a nih loh pawhin Ama ropuina lantir nan thlarau chi dang tal chu an nei mai lo ang maw? 

Kan rante an thih hian ran an thi mai hi a ni ngai lo tih chu ranvulh ṭhin chuan kan hre tlang a ni. Kan thinlung a khawih a, kan sun ṭhin. He natna leh tawrhna hi Pathianin keini leh rante inkara thuthlung min lo siamsak a ni. Thuhriltu 3:19-20 chuan mihring leh ramsate kan inna chu kan thi vek dawn a ni, tih a sawi a. Thaw thei chu thawk tawp hun kan nei vek a ni. Nunna leh Thihnaah kan in zawm a ni.

Sual sim tur nei ve lo, Ngaihdam ngai ve lo, an nih vangin ramsate hian Thlarau nei ve lo tura ngaihna kan nei ṭhin. Ramsate hi Pathian lakah an hel ve tlat lo. Mahse Pathian Chatuan Lalram ah an tel ve dawn lo tihna em ni? Thupuan 5:14 te, Isaia 11:6 te kan en chuan Pathian in Chatuan Lalram a siam ah hian ramsate an tel a. Ramsate an tel chuan kan ran lo vulh ṭhin, min hmangaih em em a, keini pawhin kan hmangaih em em ṭhin te hi an tel ve dawn lo em ni?

Bible chang ah chiang faka kan ran te thlarau chungchang leh thih hnuah kan in tawn leh dawn leh dawn loh thu inziahna a awm lo. Mahse Matthaia 10:29 ah te pawh kan hmuh angin kan Pathian hi hmangaihna-a khat, chawngzawng pakhat pawh hre vek, a thilsiam te ṭha ti em em tu ani. Lal Isua in Johana 14:2 a min tiam anga kan tana hmun a siam chuan kan nuna hlimna tam tak min lo pe tu te tan hian a siam ve tho lo maw? CC Lewis sawi angin Pathianin a thilsiam chungnung ber tana Hlimna a duan chu kan duhthu, kan duhthlanna ngeia Amah nena inthlunzawm hi a ni. Chutiang chuan kan rante pawh hi Duhthlanna keini anga nei ve thei lo ni mahse, anmahni level ah Pathian nen an lo in thlunzawm reng tawh zawk a ni mai lo maw?

Vanram chu mittui, na, thihna awm tawh lohna hmun tiin Thupuan 21:4 chuan min zirtir a. Pathian Ropuina in a thilsiam zawng zawngte a chhun eng a. Tun khawvelah pawh Pathian in duh taka a siam an nih chuan khawvel dawt leh ah pawh an tan hmun a awm ve tho dawn lo em ni? Vanramah chuan engkim siam thar a ni ang a, kan ran kan lo hmangaihna te kha lo thlawn mai lovin, a thara siam ṭhat, siam famkim a nih zawk a rinawm a ni. Engtin nge chutiang chu a awm ang tih chu kan hre lo. Mahse arsi leh chawngzawng te zawng zawng siamtu Pathian chuan a duan thiam a rinawm a ni.

Ran lo sun tawh te kan tawrhna hi a thianghlim a ni. Pathianin kan thinlunga hmangaihna a dah aṭanga chhuak a ni. Tawrhna ah hian kan mal lo a. Pathianin kan mittui te a hmu a. Sam 34:18 ah kan hmuh angin Pathian nen kan in hnaih ber lai a lo ni fo ṭhin a. Pathianah chuan thil ṭha engmah a bo lo a ni. 

Thufingte 12:10 in min zirtir angin Pathian thilsiam zawng zawngte chungah ngilneihna lantir tur kan ni. Kan hriatthiam bak thil ah te pawh Pathian ring ngam tur a koh kan ni. Kan ranvulhte an thih hnu awmdan tur engmah chiang taka hriat kan nei lo. Mahse Pathian rinawm, hmangaihnaa khat leh Ṭha kan nei a ni.

A thuk zawka ngaihtuah phei chuan kan ranvulhte thlarau neih leh neih loh kan in zawh hi keimahni Thlarau chungchang zawhna pawh a ni tel nghal a ni. Pathian engkim ngaihsaktu kan ring em? Kan zawhna te, kan tawrhna te, kan beiseina te hi Amahah kan nghat ngam em? Kan ranvulhte thih hnu awmdan turah Amah kan rin ngam chuan keimahni awmdan turah pawh kan ring ngam ngei ang.

Johana 3:16 hi mihring te tan chauh a ni lo a. Pathian in a hmangaiha a Fapa a tirh nachhan ah hian khawvel zawng zawng a huam a ni. Kan rante hi accident a kan nuna lo lut an ni mai bik lo a, kan tih duhdah tur pawh an ni lo. Pathian thilsiam te an ni a, A hmangaihna leh Tlanna thu ah an tel ve a ni. Kan thlarau te hi a inang em tih ai chuan kan hriat tur chu: Pathianin a siam a, Pathianin a hmangaih a, an tana Pathian remruat chu a ṭha a ni. Engtik ni ah emaw Chatuan Ram kan thlen ve hunah chuan kan rante duh taka lo siam tu Pathian chuan kan ngaihruat thiam piah lama Hlimna in min lo hmuah a rinawm em em tlat a ni.

Poem 1 The Rainbow Bridge tih hi ranvulh tu te zingah a lar hle a. Kan ranvulh thi ta te thlarau hian he Chhimbal Lei lehlamah hian hrisel leh hlim takin min lo nghak a ni, tih a ni a. Chutiang chu Vanram a ni ang em, chu kan hre lo. Mahse kan hriat chu kan Pathian hi Intawhlehna siamtu Pathian, Pathian engkim siam thar tu a ni. Beiseina nen kan rante hi kan theih tawpa hmangaiha Pathian ring mai tur kan ni e.

A sermon pum hi a rei lo a. YouTube ah What happens to pets when they die? Billy Graham tihin a zawn mai theih a. Ngaithla mai hman lo tan sermon transcription ka han dah nghal e:

Friends, have you ever looked into the eyes of a faithful dog, felt the gentle nudge of a cat, or heard the joyful chirp of a bird and wondered what happens to them when they leave us? What happens to these creatures who brought light to our darkest days, who’ve loved us without condition, who’ve taught us what it means to be loyal? I stand before you today, my heart stirred by a question that echoes in the quiet moments of loss. What happens to our pets when they die? Do animals have a soul? This is no small matter for it touches the very core of our faith, our love and our hope in the God who created all things.

Let me take you back into a moment in my own life. I was just a boy, no more than 10 when my old hound Rusty passed away. Rusty wasn’t just a dog. He was my shadow, my confidante, my friend. When he died, I wept as only a child can – raw, unashamed tears. I asked my father, “Will I see Rusty again? Does he have a soul?” My father, a man of few words but deep faith, looked at me and said, “Son, God made Rusty. And God don’t make anything without purpose.” Those words stayed with me. And today I want to unpack them with you, to wrestle with this question that stirs our hearts and challenges our minds.

Let’s start with the word of God for it is our foundation, our light in the darkness. In Genesis 1:24 we read: For God said, let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds, livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds, and it was so. God didn’t just toss animals onto the earth like an afterthought. He spoke them into being with intention, with care. And in Genesis 2:7 we see God breathe the breath of life into man, making him into a living soul. But wait. Don’t miss this. In Genesis 1:30, God gives every green plant for food to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life. The Hebrew word here nefesh translated as soul or life is the same word used for both man and animals. 

Could it be, friends, that God’s breath of life flows through our pets just as it flows through us? Now I know some of you are thinking, “But Preacher, the Bible says man was made in God’s image, animals weren’t. And you’re right. Genesis 1:26 makes that clear. Humanity bears a unique stamp, a divine reflection of God’s mind, will and creativity. But does that mean animals have no soul, no eternal place in God’s plan? Let’s not be so quick to close the door. 

Psalms 36:6 declares: Your righteousness is like the mountains of God; your judgements are like the Great Deep. Oh Lord, you preserve both man and beast. God preserves the beasts. His love, his care extends to every creature. And in Romans 8:19 through 21, Paul writes that all creation, not just humanity, waits for redemption, groaning for the day when it will be set free from the curse of sin. If creation itself longs for eternity, dare we say our pets are excluded?

Let’s pause for a moment and think about what a soul is. Is it a spark of consciousness, a capacity to feel, to love, to choose? If so, who among us can deny that our pets have something special within them? I think of a story I heard about a Golden Retriever named Max. Max’s owner, a fire-fighter, was injured in a blaze and fell into a coma. For weeks, Max refused to leave his bedside, lying there, eyes fixed on his master. When the man finally woke, the doctor said Max’s presence, his unwavering love had somehow stirred his recovery. Tell me, friends, doesn’t that sound like a soul at work? Doesn’t that reflect a heart that knows loyalty, devotion, even sacrifice?

Science, too, has something to say here. Researchers at places like Cambridge University have studied animal cognition – how dolphins solve puzzles, how elephants mourn their dead, how dogs sense our emotions with an almost uncanny precision. They found that animals have complex inner lives, with feelings, memories and even a sense of fairness. Now Science can’t prove a soul but it sure points to something deeper than instinct, points to creatures who experience the world in ways that mirror our own.

If God gives us souls to know him, to love him, could he not have given animals a simpler kind of soul, one that reflects his glory in its own way? But let’s not stop at Science or even Scripture. Let’s look at the heart of the matter: the love we feel for our pets!

Who here hasn’t been comforted by a purring cat during a lonely night? Who hasn’t laughed at a puppy’s clumsy tumble, or marvelled at a horse’s grace? Our pets teach us about God’s love – unconditional, forgiving, constant. 

When my Rusty died, I didn’t just lose a dog. I lost a piece of my heart. And I know you felt that too. That pain, that grief is a testament of the bond that God wove between us and his creatures. Ecclesiastes 3:19 to 20 reminds us: for what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath. We’re connected, friends, in life and in death.

Now I hear the sceptics. Some say animals don’t have souls because they don’t sin. They don’t need salvation. Fair enough. Animals don’t rebel against God like we do. But does that mean they’re excluded from his eternal kingdom? Revelation 5:14 paints a different picture. And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and under the sea, and all that is in them saying to him who sits on the throne and to the lamb be blessing and honour and glory and might forever and ever. Every creature, friends. In heaven, the lion and the lamb lie down together as Isaiah 11:6 promises. If God’s new creation included animals, why wouldn’t it include the ones who’ve loved us and whom we’ve loved?

Let me share another story. A woman named Sarah wrote to me about her cat Whiskers. Whiskers was her companion through cancer, sitting with her during chemo, purring through her pain. When Whiskers died, Sarah was devastated. She asked, “Will I see her in heaven?” I told Sarah what I’m telling you now. We don’t have a definitive verse that says your pet will be in heaven. But we serve a God who is love, a God who sees every sparrow that falls (Matthew 10:29), a God who delights in his creation. If God prepares a place for us in Heaven, as Jesus promised in John 14:2, could he not also prepare a place for the creatures who brought us joy? CC Lewis, that great Christian thinker, once said the happiness which God designs for his higher creatures is the happiness of being freely, voluntarily united to him. Maybe our pets in their simple, bubble way are already united to him.

Let’s talk about heaven for a moment. What do we know about it? It’s a place of no tears, no pain, no death (Revelation 21:4). It’s a place where God’s glory shines so brightly that every corner of creation reflects his beauty. If animals are part of God’s good creation now, why wouldn’t they be part of his restored creation then? I picture heaven as a place every good thing is made new, where the love we shared with our pets isn’t lost, but redeemed, perfected, eternal. I don’t know exactly what that looks like. But I trust the God who made the stars and the sparrows to make it glorious.

Now I want to speak to those of you who’ve lost a pet. Your grief is real, and it’s holy. It’s a reflection of the love God placed in your heart. When you mourn, you’re not alone. God sees your tears. Psalms 34:18 says the Lord is near to the broken-hearted and saves the crushed in spirit. He’s near you now, offering comfort, offering hope and that hope is this: Nothing good is ever lost in God. 

The love you gave your pet, the love they gave you – it’s not gone. It’s held in the hands of the one who never lets go. But let’s not just look backward. Let’s look forward. What does this mean for us today? It means we are called to cherish the pets we have now, to treat them with kindness, to see them as gifts from God. It means we are called to extend that kindness to all creatures, for as Proverbs 12:10 says: Whoever is righteous has regard for the life of his beast. It means we are called to trust God with the mysteries we can’t fully answer. We don’t have all the details about what happens to our pets when they die. But we have a God who is faithful, who is love, who is good.

And here’s the deeper challenge. This question about animal souls isn’t just about our pets. It’s about our own souls.

Do we believe in a God big enough, loving enough to care for every creature? Do we trust him with our questions, our grief, our hope? Because if we can trust him with the fate of our pets, we can trust him with our own eternity.

John 3:16 doesn’t just apply to us. It reflects a God who loves the world – all of it, enough to send his son to redeem it. So, friends, as we stand here today, let’s hold fast to this truth: our pets are not accidents, they’re not disposable. They’re part of God’s creation, woven into his story of love and redemption. Whether they have souls like ours or something different, we can rest in this: God made them, God loves them, and God’s plan for them is good. And when the day comes that we cross into eternity, I believe with all my heart that the God who made Rusty, Max, Whiskers, and every creature you’ve ever loved will surprise us with a joy beyond our imagining.

Let me close with this. There’s a poem that I heard once called The Rainbow Bridge. It speaks of a place where our pets wait for us – healthy and happy, ready to run into our arms. I don’t know if that’s exactly how heaven works but I know this. Our God is a God of reunions, a God of restoration, a God who makes all things new. So hold on to hope, love your pets fiercely, trust God completely. And one day, in that great getting up morning, we’ll see the fullness of his love for us, for our pets, for all creation.

Will you pray with me? 

Heavenly Father, we thank you for the gift of animals, for the joy they bring, for the love they teach us. Comfort those who grieve. Give us faith to trust your plan and fill us with hope for the day when all creation will sing your praise.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0UZCT05wvY

Performing Society

The price you pay for rock and roll is, as the song goes, people try to sell your body and soul. A few weeks back, my mum and I talked at length about performative actions. Something about the talk reminded me of Just An Illusion.

Anyhoo.

LSR Sociology with Dr Anjali Bhatia taught me Doing Gender¹, a paper that argues that we “do” gender by performing what is essentially stereotypical behaviours, both masculine and feminine, in society. Which is why a trans-woman has to constantly perform her “feminine” traits as opposed to a biological woman who doesn’t necessarily need to be “feminine” to be a woman. Bottom line is we play our set-roles in all our social interactions.

It is convulated but so many times we act the way we believe others think we ought to. Very Charles H Cooley and his Mirror Theory. Society is made up of us so it is up to us to ensure it survives, thrives, and evolves. Worshiping it instead, as happens IRL, leads to fundamentalism.

Now don’t get me wrong. Service to society is good. It is, as Julia Zahra croons, the price you pay. Society gives us so much. We always have to give back. We might not like the people we perform for, but we do it because it is reciprocal; they probably don’t like us either. But together, doing what must be done, we maintain society. And Society protects us in turn. Again, reciprocal.

And that’s on performing societal services. My big issue is with performance toward societal Image. Even here, Image is not particularly bad, per se. It is what separates the rice from the chaff. Especially in terms of symbolism, it holds a lot of value. But we take it too far. It becomes all-consuming, reducing us down to an Image.

I think the problem is when in trying to Look Good, some of us exhaust all our goodness to Society and only have reserves of waste left for our own. Children grow up without the warmth and discipline of their parents in their own homes. There, yet, not there. Youths are celebrated for “service” to Society yet perform no household tasks or filial duties because they are there, yet they are not there. What good is that? We need to ask what we contribute to the people who love us and depend on us and want – and deserve – our time. Our lives and actions should not be possible to be reducible to empty performance. But it happens because our energy and our time are finite resources. Something has got to give. 

A wise person prioritises.

My years in government service have taught me that we need to pay more attention to the actual tangible things that affect us – EPIC, Birth Certificates, Tribal Certificates, Land Lease Certificates, or the schemes that enter our very homes like MGNREGS, Golden Card, JJM, Soubhagya... No one knows my village more than me, or at least they should not. What is my village good at, what is interesting about it, who can help me achieve my goal, what could hurt my village. SWOT, you know.

I always think about how progress cannot be imposed but must be grounded, if not altogether organic. But as far as I have experienced, people are not even curious to know what river they get their water from. We do not know what government schemes or non-governmental interventions enter our villages. We do not care for the policies that are being perverted in our names. It remains easy to pull the wool over our eyes. An entire herd of sheep’s worth of wool, I’d say. Because we let it.

As long as we look good. We are so invested in keeping up appearances and holding impressive, even largely empty, titles that we become empty vessels making much noise. And I do mean much.

To be fair, this obsession is not even a Mizoram-specific problem at all. Log kya kahenge? they say in Hindi. Let the log say what they will, though. Right? What will people say? People will never stop saying. We can’t spend our one life, sacrificing all that we hold dear to us at the altar of keeping up with the Joneses. We have to develop substance, be responsible, also probably try to live just one step below our means. When I was pursuing MBA, my professor was very fond of saying that. I liked it. I have kept to it.

In the end, it boils down to one question: What is the price we are willing to pay for Image? Is the deal good? Anyway, my mum said I should blog about this. 

Hence. 

I also introduced her to the Mandela Effect so it is possible I return to that one of these days. That should be more fun than this.

¹Doing Gender – Candace West and Don Zimmerman.

Bring Back the Wow!

Sometimes my sisters and I marvel at how non-enthused kids these days are. If you ever watch New Girl, remember how Schmidt angrily spits out, “Youths!” to express his immense disdain? That’s become us.

I sound so old but back in the day, people seemed much more enthused to experience things. People putting up Christmas Decorations in the streets? Oh My God we have got to see that! Entering a new restaurant and trying out a new dish? Wow this looks so good! Visiting a new park? I’ve wanted to go since forever! First plane ride? I am half-terrified, half-eager… all-around excited! The Statue of Liberty? Sunsets? Full moons? Shawarma? Stepping out of a vehicle out on to modest little villages we don’t often travel to? Stirring giant vats full of sugarcane juice to turn it into jaggery? We don’t get to experience this often at all, this is awesome!

Maybe it was just me, or my sisters, but I doubt it.

Recently though, I feel like people are so cool they’ve stopped caring. They’ve stopped being wowed. They are no longer impressed by anything, even large-ass rubber dinosaurs in the middle of a mall. 

Speaking of malls, recently I was at Noida and a friend and I walked past a Tim Hortons at a mall and I just stopped in my tracks. I’ve ever only seen Tim Hortons in movies and TV shows. I have not eaten donuts in a long time and I don’t truly crave sweets very much anymore; I can even go days without a sweet tea these days. But a Tim Hortons was something I had never tried before and only seen on screen and I was damned if I didn’t go in and try something even just to see what the fuss was all about. 

I was not disappointed. Tim Hortons do make excellent donuts. Add that to a really nice Canadian rustic vibe setting, and wow, I was on HIMYM heaven. My friend indulged my excitement and we both enjoyed donuts and drinks. Then she accompanied me again to Def Col market where I’d once used up my pocket money on Opera Pastries and rainbow cakes. Bakery heaven. I am sure there are other pastries better than that and I would love to try them and I’ll be excited again. But for me, Def Col has always been it and I am happy to have been in the company of someone who understood that for me.

See there are some people who don’t get excitement like that. They think it kiddish. Perhaps it is. But to go through life never experiencing that kind of childish joy is something I feel is sad. Beyond what I can explain.

It's not even about things being fancy although a lot of it is precisely that. Something other than the ordinary, the mundane, the everyday. I get excited over seeing fireflies along the banks of a river at dusk. I get excited over old-fashioned multi-coloured sticky sweet corn steamed to perfection because we don’t see them all the time anymore. I get excited over seeing a zawbuang last week crossing the road just close to Sateek (or indeed last year near Tuipui D). I get excited over picking freshwater snails along the River Tiau, under a brilliant full moon, laughing into the open sky. I get excited over projects people would find silly and ridiculous. Ah feck, I get excited over new stationery.

Life does not always go the way we want. We don’t get the jobs we wished we had. We don’t get the posts we hoped to fill. We don’t stay in houses we wanted to live in. We don’t even stay friends with people we thought we’d be with forever. But that can’t bring us so low we don’t look forward to anything again. The sun keeps setting but also always ends up rising again. Tomorrow is always a new day. New people enter our lives. New happiness replaces old memories. New joy erases what we once mistook for elation. Life keeps on keeping on.

And in all this, I find it just a touch disappointing to be so jaded (or pretend to be that deadened?) that things don’t thrill you. I’ve seen sunsets and full-moons and I’ve yet to tire of it; indeed, I have never failed to be impressed. I’ve been to fancy events and Las Vegas and been suitably dazzled. I’ve been moved by music and art and I love being stirred thus. I’ve enjoyed roadtrips filled with music and people I love, or even like. Don’t waste time being so cool you don’t get to enjoy what Life can offer you. Life is actually filled with a million little wows and every wow just seems to lead to bigger wows.

Bring back the wow. It makes life so much better even when things are mostly shit around you.

Governmental Conspiracy Theories

I like a good conspiracy theory, me. Feed me one of those “the US government has a secret underground facility where they house aliens and alien artefacts and it is called Area 51” stories and I’ll believe you and immediately think of Roswell and the men in black. I am gullible, I freely admit. Tell me lies, I don’t mind. As long as the story is good. 

But if you start with something promising and then end with a lame “the government keeps it a secret because if word gets out, it is too powerful”, is when my attention wanes.

Some time back, I was educating myself on this weird hippie culture theory on how the earth was a simulation and we all had been volunteers who had chosen – pre-birth – to be born to our parents (who we had chosen, too). That Life is something like a lesson or a game and we keep learning with each incarnation. The whole everything everywhere all at once quantum thing. I was very intrigued. Exhausted, but intrigued.

The plot was lost, however, when they said this was all proven by some man who could move out of his body and let his soul travel in the astral plane.

Don’t get me wrong. They didn’t lose me there. I was still very invested. I had read and done my research on astral projections and demonology and Satanism after reading a book called “He Came To Set The Captives Free” by Rebecca Brown as a kid. (Been properly scared too, by the by). As long as the astral travelling was reasoned out with demons and Garden of Eden and the Heavenly Battle, I was still very interested. Self-aware gullible, as I said. Also, great hook on this story, just ask Hollywood – amazing spin-offs and fanfics.

The greatest difference between fiction and non-fiction, as they say, is that fiction needs to make sense. Reality doesn't always make sense. But fiction must. In that framework, even the most Murakami-esque works need to operate on a set of well-defined parameters. The outrageous must have their boundaries. Logic is necessary for fiction to work. Hence what I said about conspiracy theories. Make it as wild as you can, just back it up. And tell it well. If your story must involve the government, make sure it doesn't include an all-powerful government, the kind that is perhaps run by Heaven. And if you remember, even the bureaucracy of Heaven produced Lucifer.

So it was that I closed my research the moment they started saying the man who could astral-project was taken by NASA and they tested him and he could correctly tell them what the weather was like in whatever co-ordinates they gave him. That he could even go to Jupiter and count the rings there. But then NASA got spooked because he was proving astral projection was real and it could be taught because all humans could do it if they knew how to. Because then, prisons would have no hold on humans anymore. And the government could no longer control us.

As I keep saying, when the government gets involved, everything becomes sus.

Not because this could never be untrue. That the government might very well not want this shit out, I can believe. But assuming something of the government that it simply is incapable of is problematic for me. The government is not some super mystery entity. It is filled with people like you and I. If all this stuff happened, there will be leaks. Definitely there will be leaks. Besides which, if such a thing existed, it is basically X-Men territory so of course there will be leaks. Even without people like you and I.

This line of thought assumes something basic: that we can take people at their words, and that working for the government suddenly makes everyone super tight-lipped. Not just that, the government is also usually made up almost entirely of bumbling idiots, in all its many headed glory. It is one thing for a section of it to stay quiet. But what of others? People truly underestimate the buffoonery of people in general.

That great wit Douglas Adams said, and I quote: A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools. Something about this piece reminds me of that. What a great man! Gone too soon.

Moving on, it is however interesting to think that we don’t expect the government to be competent enough to, for example, build good roads and provide sufficient electricity and shit. But suddenly when it comes to astral body projection, they are super efficient about it? And mind, it’s not just once. This is supposedly a "capability" so that assumes there are many people who can do it, or that we can train people to do it. I really am all for believing that shit like this is possible. But let's not involve the government please.

I know all of these are examples of the US government which is not my government but a government is a government whether it is the US one or the India one (or the Mizoram one, under which I work) or the Vogon one, from Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Whatever differences different set-ups have, bureaucracy has a way of levelling out a lot of basic things. Also governments are run by people and people are people. Whatever cultural or temporal differences we have, there is a universality to us that bureaucracy often reveals. And I chose all these examples because I very well can NOT give examples from my own work.

I stand by what I said. Feed me lies and I shall believe you. But let’s not get carried away with government conspiracy theories. No government is that competent to contain Dr Strange level magic. No government controls its servants that efficiently. If genetically altered superhuman mutants and Stranger Things happen, there will be leaks. 

Until then, we look to Sci-fi.

109 Ramhuai

H/No 109 West Kidwai Nagar, New Delhi kha ka pa service laia a quarter awmna a ni a. Khami in aṭanga lehkha zir ho kha kan imaginative vak lo nge, kan groupchat hi 109 ni deuh thawr mai a. Puipunni ah pawh 109 tihin kan in zawng mai zel a. Mizo film 109 nen kha chuan kan in kungkaih lo.

Imaginative vak lo e, tih lai chuan kan tui zawngah hi chuan kal na tak tak vek hi kan ni hlawm a. Zeldin hi kan group hobby a ni bawk a. WhatsApp hi a lo ṭha khawp a. Inhmuh khawm tak tak hi a awm ta lo chung hian Mizoram syllabus thar ang te hi chu angle hrang hrang atangin nileng ṭhak ṭhak pawhin kan lo discuss ve vek ṭhin a. Sawi chhuah tlak vak phei chu an ni ngai lem lo a. Tlak lohna chhan pawh eng dang vang ni lovin thutak khuka khuk pui tham engmah kan rel chhuak ngai lo.

Ramhuai, aliens leh sci-fi hi kan tui tlanna ber an ni a. Mahse kan tuipuia kan buaipui ang hu hi chuan encounter kan la nei ngai lo. Neih phei chu a hranpaa han chak viau chu kan awm chuang lo a.

Hetiang vang hian Hnahthial ah min post-na lehkha ka dawn khan ka rilru ah thil 3 awm zinga 1 chu Pangzawl dai shrines ho va en, kha a nia. Mahse National Highway kawng zauhna ah an lo ti chhe tawh tih min lo hrilh a, ka ngaihtuah zui ta lem lo a.

Tun hnai tê, Independence Day leh audit leh DM&R leh Polling Station rationalise leh probable L&O leh MCS exam conduct leh Revenue office function ṭan tih vel a rualin kan han ngaihtuah takah chuan ka rilruin tlanbo na a zawng deuh nge, Pangzawl dai shrines ho hi ka vei tet tet a. Pangzawl North VCP Pu Siamtea nen kan in bia a, min hruai a peih hmel a, va en ngei ka tum.

Pangzawlah hian hman deuh khan zan khat riakin kan zin a. A tukah Lunglei lam kan pan tur hi shrines ho awmna ṭhin bulah hian kan ding a. Gypsy hnungah ka chuan vang khan a hmaa ṭhu ka nau kha, “Saw lai ah sawn monument 3 an awm, thla va la lawk teh,” ka tia. A chhuk ve mai a. Kei ṭawngthei lutuk ta khan, “Hmanah ramhuai a awm ṭhin an tih vanga an sak ania,” ka ti ta hram pek a nih kha. A rang a rangin a lo lut leh a. Kan kalpui te an lo tlan leh tawh si nen Pangzawl dai shrines thlalak ka neih loh phah ta a. Mahse kar hmasa khan Thiltlang VCP Pu Rindik-an thlalak hlui min zawn sak a, ka nei leh ta hlauh. Ka lawm hle.

109-a discussion hi lak tlak a awm lo, ka tih nachhan pawh ramhuai topic ah hian example ka han pe ang a. 

1. Ramhuai miin an hmuh hian an khawsik hluah ṭhin a, eng vang nge niang? 109 chuan ramhuai temperature hi a hniam ve hrim hrim ah a ngai deuh a. Anih loh vek chuan ramhuai miin a hmuh laia a adrenaline rush kha a hmuh tawh loh hnuah a rilru leh taksa in a zo lo a ni thei.

2. Ramhuai in min hran khum laiin lo muhil ta ila, a hrang tho ang em? 109 chuan if a tree falls in the forest, does it make a sound? a ti.

3. Ramhuaiin min hran khum lai kha lo hre lo ta ila, kan khua a sik tho ang em? 109 chuan kan ngaihven theih hun an nghah ve mai a ngaih hmel, kan ti.

4. Ramhuai te hi an hranna hmun pangai pelin an hrang thei em? 109 chuan bureaucratic posting ang deuh hian kal theih chin an nei in a ring deuh a. Ramhuai hi tlansan theih chen a awm ve a ni mai thei. An hran khum berte hi an pem bo daih hian an jurisdiction pawn lamah an umzui ngai lem vak lo.

5. Ramhuai indo ah Reiek an chak loh avangin kum tin Tlawng hnenah Reiek Huai ten Human Tribute an pe ṭhin tih hi lei leh van indo nen a in zawm em, bâk a tel na kha? 109 hian kan hre thawi deuh a. Chungleng leh Hnuaileng indo zawk ani a, bâk tel na chu. Lei leh Van indo chu tlemin a Catholic rim nam deuh, Lucifera leh Michaela te lam chan. Pearly Gates-ah Petera awm vang maia Pialral sentry-ah Paula a awm ve emaw ti kan awm ve lo hlauh; Pawla leh Paula lam dan in ang miau hek, an dem vak theih hran lo. Helam chu kan sawi thui ta lo. Kan hre vak lo. 

6. Ramhuai ho tan hian chakai hi an ar ve ami? 109 chuan Tlingi leh Ngama te story ah mi nung ram leh mitthi khua thil te a inverse vak kha a hre kar a. Chakai chhit ho pawh khawsik ta vak te an awm ṭhin bawk nen. An ar a ni ber, chu kan ti ngam lo na in, water spirits ho ran bik te chu an ni ve mai thei, kan ti. Lasi hovin sazuk leh sanghal te an ran bik ang deuh hian. Chakai hi ramhuai ho ar a nih chuan ar tak tak hi chu ramhuai tan chuan T-Rex an ni mai thei bawk. 

7. Ramhuai man te hi an rimchhe kher zel. Hei hi 109 chuan ṭul kan ti vak lo. Hmanah Pasighat ah ka pa post laiin Arunachal ho ramhuai hlau lutuk in khanghu hmun hi ramhuai a awm emaw an tia, an suat chiam tawh. A va ho tak. An ṭawp ve hrim hrim vangin thlarau sual hi an rimchhia ni mai thei a. Ramhuai neutral te chu an rim a chhe hran lo aniang. Lasi te pawh rimchhe vek se tumahin an zawl duh lo ang.

8. Mizo ten faifuk hian thli a ko, kan tih hi Arunachal ho chuan thim tawh hnua faifuk chuan ramhuai a ko, an ti thung a. Pasighat ah ka pa awm lai khan tumah thim hnuah an faifuk duh ngai lo, tih a sawi ṭhin. Chinese anime Mushishi ah khan Ginko khan hei hi a va tawng ve a. Ramhuai ko thei naupang a lo awm a, a faifuk khan ramhuai a ko a, a control thei a. Midang ngaihah chuan thli control thei angin a lang. 109 chuan kan thawnthu te NE dang leh China lam te nen lo inmil leh fu ṭhin hi a fascinating kan ti.

9. Motor, esp bus, accident na velah hian hrang an sawi hnem thei sia, engatinge leimin naah hian an sawi vak loh? 109 discussion hi a sensitive deuh a, hei chu redact mai ang. In lo zeldin chhunzawm ve atan.

10. Kawnpui dai ramhuai/hrang hi an sawi nasa a, 109 chuan fiah a chakawm kan ti a. Mahse fiah tih lemah, YouTubers ten zuk fiah se, video in capture se, en a chakawm. Kan u pakhat, tunah chuan pastor ni tawh phei chuan: Mahni chauha 2W a tlan chuan Kawnpui daia "Isua hming kan lamin ramhuai an tlanchhia" tih lo in tar hian min thlamuan aiin min ti ralkhel zawk, a ti. 109 agrees.

H/No 109 WKN ngei maiah khan zan khat chu Member1 khan zanreiah online games a khel lauh lauh a. Chutih laiin Member2 in chempuiin sazu lian mangkheng, rattrap ban ang chi a tang, bengchheng lutuk kha phun bul bul chungin a lo vawhlum. Member1 khan earphone aṭangin sazu ṭê thawm leh mihring phun thawm leh vaw chawrh chawrh ri kha a hre riai ruai a, midang an mu vekin a hre sia, a hlau deuh a, a va en thlithlai mai ngam chiah lo deuh a. Member2 lah khan a chem a silfai a, a mu leh mai bawk a. Member1 in a enkual ngam meuh chuan light a in off vek, mi zawng zawng an mu leh tawh. A computer a shut down a, a khum ah “rei deuh ka ṭawngṭai ringawt,” a ti. 

Chu bak chu ramhuai experience kan nei tam vak lo. 

(Dik tak chuan a zawna zawng reng ta chuan kan ngah a, mahse ngaihbel tur story ho hi a ziktluak vak ngai lo a. Mi bula han sawi tur khawpa ngaihnawm kan la tawng lo. Tawng lo mah ila pawi kan ti vak lo.)

August Friends

It is good to have friends. That will be an understatement that I will not try to expand on too much because being friendless is the worst, and one can never truly capture the absolute blessing that is having a friend.

There are adjective friends. The ones that require a little description, a little qualifier – school friend, college friend, work friend, church friend, you get the idea. They’re not bad friends. They’re not lesser friends. They’re just incidental friends, you could say.

Sometimes incidental friends lose their adjectives over the course of time or an ever-growing closeness. They become simply friends. Over time, they become family-adjacent. In Mizo society, especially for women, they can become family in the event of a wedding by them partaking of brideprice. In Hindu society, rakhi.

It is easy as adults to develop frenemies. Part-time friends but also part-time enemies. It is just something that happens. Childhood friendships tend to be quite pure, mostly because there is not a lot of things children can do for each other. But as adults, especially with regards to work and even general living, you swallow up your pride and prejudice and just make nice even with people you don’t like. Transactional friends, you might say. A wise person has a lot of friends, true, but that particular brand of wisdom might not be very comforting in the end if they never developed or nurtured the non-transactional friendships along the way of acquiring more powerful friends.

There are bad friends. Of course there are. Your mum probably warned you about them. You might be them. Still friends, but not very good ones. They’ll judge you. They’ll betray you. They will always one-up you. You know those friends, right? Whatever the situation, they have it better or worse than you, or they at least know someone else who's got it better or worse than you. The friends that are determined to convince you they live Life superlative to you. They won’t show up for you. Trying times will always show you who they are. A wise person will not keep grudges in public but will always remember exactly when these friends did not rise to the occasion. You probably also will know when you were a bad friend. If you care to admit to it.

August friends, on the other hand. Ah, bless them. The very best of the lot. August because we’re too old to be BFFs. It is surprisingly not the length of friendship that define their worth. Although they do say if you’ve been friends for more than ten years, you’re probably just going to stay friends for life. The friendship version of the seven-year itch, if you will. There are friends – and one will never have too many of them – that will be the kind of friends poetry is written about. It’s not about a person being a Saint. It’s more about how they make you feel. We all need that person that will never judge us, that person who has seen the absolute worst of us, and still choose to see the absolute best of us instead. Life is hard. Friends make it easier. I choose August to describe them because of them being that grand, and also because in India, we celebrate friendship day in August. Kind of fitting.

Also, about the ten years, if you’ve been friends with someone for more than ten years and if those ten years cover college, you’re probably too far deep to cut ties anymore. They probably know too much at that point. But whether you’ve been friends for two summers or two decades does not really matter. When you click, you click. Everybody needs that person who will accept you as you are, warts and all. The kind of friends who will be your friend not because of who you are, but even in spite of who you are.

Good friends are heaven. Everything about religion is something we take on in Faith. We believe it to be True. If it turns out we were wrong, well, oops! But even then, if we had friends along the way, I guess we have had Heaven all along.