Apu and Mizo Maths

Apu said, “Chhiarkawp kan thiam theih loh nachhan chu kan number chhiar dan hi a diklo,” which is a very definite statement. As someone who doesn’t exactly count in Mizo often, it is something that does not naturally enter my head. His pet peeve was: Our counting system is faulty and even news reporters make this same mistake over and over again. ‘Sing’ and ‘maktaduai’ do not exist in the Indian numerical system. So when you say things like ‘sing nga’ or ‘maktaduai nga’, you are already communicating in a rather faulty dialogue.

I never quite followed because it didn’t seem to be erroneous. It was not something I was very interested in. But when he repeated it again in his gruff annoyed voice on August 11, 2011, I stopped and counted in my head the ‘Indian way’ as he put it. Or the decimal way, as I understand. He was right. It was not wrong. Per se. It just did not translate well. Hence faulty.

Take a pencil and paper and write down zeroes and count.

Not Sang Sawm or Nuai Sawm corresponding to Ten Thousand and Ten Lakh. That's Sing and Maktaduai.

Funny word, Maktaduai. It’s like: Hold on, too much moneys!

Of course, whether we say ‘sing’ or ‘sang sawm’, we’re still counting correctly. Still four zeros. It is simply that ‘sing’ exists in a system that is not accounted for in the Indian decimal system. It is purely Mizo and Mizo numbers are not compatible with the Market or the kind of numbers we deal with today. I doubt the old Mizo had to count to a billion? We already thought 10 Lakh a bit much.

Apu taught Arithmetic in Primary School. He thought language and terminology were points of contention. He always believed if we were taught numbers in Mizo at least till Middle school, we’d find Mathematics easier. That and we should change our numerical terminology. What do you think?