Career

If I could choose any career I wanted and support myself, I’d have been a full-time author. I’m not nearly talented enough or brave enough to risk it, so I became a civil servant. It makes logical sense this way. SWOT Analysis, I've since learned. I’ve always loved reading which is adjacent to studying and even though the latter isn’t remotely as pleasurable as the former, it has served me well enough for me to do well academically, so that’s a Strength. Weakness I got tons so let’s leave that be for now. Opportunity-wise, I got family that supports my academic inclination and I was in Delhi where I could pursue civil service coaching at my convenience. Threat-wise, I could not really afford to pursue most anything else.

So Civils it was for me.

I rant and bellyache, but at the heart of it, I know that if not for Civils, in this economy, and knowing myself, what else could I have realistically pursued? My interest is all related to the arts. I like painting and I like music and I am good at neither. I love stories and I enjoy writing but I don’t have the discipline to come up with my own stories and chase that dream. I adore Nature and hiking and trekking and I can barely stand up straight in a trail. So this is it. I never did a SWOT test on myself but I suppose my dad did for me and he chose Civils. And I just went along with it because it was a rational choice.

I mean, think about how lovely life would be to be a woman in a flower shop in Stars Hollow, going to work in a white bicycle with floral decorations on it, picking up a coffee from Luke’s on the way, wearing a pale blue frock and pink sunglasses, listening to Jewel in her florist paradise that also, let’s say for the heck of it, sells vanilla cupcakes and strawberry shortcakes? Divine. But that’s not real life.

I think about career options for kids a lot these days. Mizoram is changing fast and opportunities are not the same as it was in my day, which was not even all that long ago. Not even a decade. The economy now supports affordable living for local entrepreneurs like cutesy home bakeries, pretty beauty parlours, aesthetic barbershops, boutique-y seamstresses, fancy little cafés, customized crockery and what-nots, even aside from the traditional businesses. Of course, with recent events and ties to drugs-smuggling, the very term entrepreneur has come to be snarky and comedic in Mizoram context. Besides, there appears to be a number of these enterprises that spring up from people who have too much money and too much free time and Images on the line, not from being enterprising in and of itself. Nevertheless, the fact remains that these career options would have been unthinkable for many of us to follow it and still be considered not only respectable and honest work, but also a matter of quiet pride.

So now I no longer think of Doctor/Engineer, IAS, or pastor when people ask me of career advice. I give Civils advice if they specifically ask that of me, otherwise I volley back with: what interests you?

Which is what was on my mind when DC Hnahthial agreed to host a career awareness programme for kids. I was excited. I thought about age-groups and decided that High School (HSS too) kids are ideal because they’ve probably not thought about it much before and this is a good time for them to do so. I thought about who should speak to them and decided that the strength for this programme would rest on diversity. I thought: two government employees, two private business owners and two people from the digital age of content creators. I wanted the speakers to be people who could speak from experience. I wanted the programme to be multifaceted because I know from my own experience that as respectable as my job is, and as much as I do enjoy it from time to time, I know that it is not for everyone who cracks the exams, because if you don’t like the service, it hardly seems worth the status and the paycheck.

The day was dead humid and I was in formals all day. But I enjoyed the speeches of every panelist who spoke on that podium. I listened and took mental notes and I hope the kids did too. Even if all they got from that day was to do a SWOT test on themselves to figure out their next steps to be productive members of society, to abstain from alcohol and drug abuse, and to work hard in whatever road they ultimately choose, it would have been worth it. Those three were the recurring themes that day. None of us on the panel discussed our topics with each other beforehand; I myself as Host met some of them for the first time on that Hall on that day itself. But I suppose all of us thought those three things were important enough.

I learned about NEET exams and life as a government employed doctor in Mizoram from our CMO Dr R Lalsanglura. Of everyone else, I could relate to him the easiest because we follow a similar pattern – study, crack an exam, get a government job, be salaried. But I’d not thought of Science as a subject to study since I was in 10th standard; a lifetime ago. This was interesting.

I learned about following the route of family business and learning both from the job as well as enriching it further with formal degrees and building an increasingly illustrious social capital from Aaron Rosangzuala Ralte of RTP Holdings.

I learned about a small family-owned bakery that operated locally in 1961 when a couple learned from their white employers in Serkawn, building from that reputation using some good old elbow grease and learning to build a modern-day KT Bakery in 2018 from K Vanlalhruaia.  

I learned about expanding on particular interests and sticking to that with dedication, unmoving of criticisms and developing thicker skins to combat online trolling, seeking new ways to be even more innovative, learn from the audience and emerging from it all with a growing sophistication in online content creation from Ramboss.

I learned about taking an art form such as comedy which is not usually seen as a formal trade among the Mizo, studying it with deeper interest, realizing what the people wanted, creating stories that deliver punchlines at a pace that increasingly limited attention spans of today could consume, and delivering exactly that to them in a format that is digestible from Mastea Rinkson.

I don’t know what the others learned but I liked what I learned. And this is my deepest thanks to the people who responded so positively to my request to have them on my panel. I learned from them a good deal. Interacting with them over lunch and a cold coca-cola later was enriching. I believe they expanded my worldview and that was wonderful.

Careers are boring shit that are always necessary evils, whatever paths we ultimately take. But for what it was worth, I am grateful for the event DC Hnahthial hosted on May the 27th 2025, the people who made it successful and the lessons I learned from it.

In Pursuit of Happiness

What is this life if, full of care, the poet asked, we have no time to stand and stare? It was true in 1911 when W H Davies wrote it to begin his muse on Leisure. It is true today. We just forget to stand and stare every once in a while.

Navigating life is difficult. We are no islands, just thriving on our own in the middle of oceans. We are social beings, interacting with multiple people and seemingly endless varieties of beings and circumstances. But however social we are, there is a part of us that yearns to find meaning and contentment that does not rest on us being social. That indefinable something that is ours alone. Although I suppose indefinable mostly because there is no one stop solution that fits all, and all of us define it in our own ways – the pursuit of happiness, so to speak.

In a close-knit and community-based society as mine is, it is hard to find the courage to define this happiness for ourselves. Most people are extremely eager – zealous might be a better word – to define it for us. Get married, get a child, get a job, get a house, buy some land, buy a car, a bike, an iPhone, gold jewelry… endless lists. Like we have been sent here on earth to fulfil an already-defined role the way Mario is programmed to go on a quest to defeat Bowser and his ilk and rescue Princess Peach.

But are we Mario? And if we are, who is Bowser and where is Princess Peach? We grow up to find that we are no Marios, there is no Bowser and Princess Peach is an illusion. Ecclesiastes was always right: everything under the sun is meaningless. It has always been up to us to define what meaning we choose to assign to things, people and situations. To Life itself. Choice: that’s what it always comes down to – from Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden to Apostle John in his nightmare of a revelation.

To be or not to be, as the bard would say.

I think it was that mood-killer Nietzsche who warned us to be careful while fighting monsters that we do not become one ourselves, because when we gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes back into us. As young men, we fight injustice and inequality with society (and religion usually) as our weapon of choice and the Abyss stares back quietly at us and watch us in the process become that very institution which we fought. Sometimes the years reveal this in people; sometimes even Age never uncovers this veil. What is interesting is that sometimes we may not even be actively fighting monsters but just abiding with society’s biddings to avoid conflict so much so that we get to a point where we become as one with it, losing our own selves in the process. This is perhaps the part where we start obsessing with others, measuring ourselves and our worth solely against theirs, hating the Freedom we think they have, needing to have them acquiesce and be one of us, misery loving and desiring the company. The Abyss doesn’t just stare back; it winks.

Ecclesiastes says there is nothing new in this earth, that what once was will be again. I think this is very true of Life. The more things change, the more they remain exactly the same. We have always wanted to belong, and we have always wanted to come into our own. To find a balance, I would say then, is our alchemist’s gold. Like Santiago would find, when you want something bad enough, the whole Universe would conspire to help you get it. But you need to define your Purpose and start the journey, be that Andalusian shepherd boy who travelled to Egypt to find treasures. There are some adventures you must undertake alone, helped and aided by your support system very much yes, but essentially alone. That sweet spot between being a part of the System and being your own Self at the same time is a delicate balance. Unfortunately, I find this to be a battle most of us in Society deem not worth the fight or the hassle.

We lose ourselves in the system, think we are bigger than we are, or smaller than we are. Yet we do not introspect and our self-awareness becomes limited to a Mirror Image alone of how we think other people see us. We stop to stand and stare at the places in the woods where squirrels hide their nuts, forget to gaze for long at streams full of stars in broad daylight, like skies at night, never pausing long enough to watch the smile in people’s eyes reach their lips. Finding ourselves is a time-consuming and life-altering process and we can get by OK without any true measure of self-actualization so a lot of us don't even try. Ever consumed with the need to be who we think people want us to be, we forget to be us.

To paraphrase the poet again, a poor life this indeed is if, full of care, we have no time to stand and stare.