An Appreciation of Bamboo

There are no bamboos east of Keifang, I was told when I moved to Champhai back in 2017. I had no idea what they meant because I had never heard of such a thing as no bamboos in Mizoram. The idea did not compute.

It turned out to be largely true, though. How weird is that? Bamboos are so intrinsically a part of Mizo life I had just assumed it was everywhere. I even wrote a term paper on bamboo flowering in Uni because it was that unique to me that Mizoram could be bamboo-less.

But even bamboo-less Mizoram was not totally Zero Bamboo. Not all the bamboos flowered and died, even in 2007. Some variants remained and all the bamboos did not die of old age. The same with Champhai. We still had bamboo, just not a lot. And the forest green was largely because of trees, not bamboos. And when we picnicked by the river, foraging for firewood become a little bit difficult because you actually had to use wood. But we still ate bamboo shoots. And we still used bamboo for buildings. One man even used bamboo instead of iron rods for his concrete building and it became a hazard when the bamboo rotted. Long story.

Side note: do you know how I dont need to google the year bamboo flowered in Mizoram? Because there was a novelty song that came out that had this lyrics: "Sanghnih pasarih mautam Zosports," and it's stuck in my head. Not because of the term paper I wrote back in Uni.

When Cyclone Remal hit Chhimphei Range, I decided to trudge through three mudslides to get to Aibawk from Aizawl – one near Muallungthu and two between Tachhip and Aibawk. In the Muallungthu one, people had made their way on foot before so they had left halvened bamboos on the mud. Atop the mud, that is.

Now I like bamboos. I like their shape and their colour. I like the canopy they leave on the ground, especially on merry little rivers. I like bamboo cooking... and this is a three way street: use it to make fire, use it as a vessel, and cook the shoot! I like bamboos in a stew, with pork, in a salad, pickled, or fermented otherwise. I like bamboos.

Bamboo is awesome for its many many usages, primary of which, I now felt, in the Muallungthu slide, was the gentle springiness, enduring plasticity and amazing elasticity of bamboo that allowed it to bear the weight of full-grown people carrying considerable weight atop a river of mudslide. And just bounce back! In the Tachhip ones, we sometimes slid in about knee deep into mud which made it difficult to trudge across. People had left logs behind, sure, but those tended to roll over sometimes and often they become too heavy so they sink. Taking us with it. Not very fun. And energy depleting.

Always it is bamboo to the rescue for Mizoram. Eat the bamboo. Wear the bamboo. Live in the bamboo. Build with the bamboo. Save with the bamboo. Float on the bamboo. It’s all bamboo.

What an awesome grass, bamboo!