Health is Truly Wealth

When health fails, everything else seems to deteriorate. But because it comes for free, we tend to take this most precious gift for granted. We do not often see how being healthy is essentially the first important step towards living a dream. It is actually the only thing that gives sense to any ordinary day.

Without health, we are reduced to nothing but a mere weak mortal, who can really do nothing much. Even with brilliant thoughts and ideas brewing inside the mind, we cannot put them to use. Henri Frederic Amiel has said, “To feel keenly the poetry of a morning's roses, one has to have just escaped from the claws of this vulture which we call sickness.” True indeed, we cannot wholly enjoy the beauty of nature when in sickness just as we cannot fully share the simple joys of living with others. It becomes a strain to talk or even listen when you are sick.

Even the most exciting plans take a backseat, because then, you also realize that without that vigour and energy, all the plans you’ve had in mind are of less significance. How fragile our lives are! Without physical wellbeing, we would be just accompaniments, unable to play our roles in its fullness, or sometimes, restricted from any human activity at all.

We could dream so many dreams and make so many plans, but at the end of the day, it’s really the quality of the deeds we do, that counts. And when I say quality, it goes back to our health and starts from where our energy carries us. It is truly the process of being wealthy. Because when we lose our health, everything degenerates. And it takes more than what it took to break, to actually build ourselves again.

Health, as I understand, is also one of the keys to happiness. I cannot imagine being happy when being ill. It breaks you down, not only physically but mentally and emotionally. But perhaps, sickness also comes as a reminder for us to slow down, or to tell us that life is so fragile. It can break down anytime and take us away to a more enlightening place perhaps. To give us a little more time to think and look back.

Sometimes being ill is also an opportunity to learn. We can, in no way, be truly grateful for good health if we never experience illness. I think it is the optimist’s perspective to be grateful even in sickness, because it helps you understand and makes you appreciate health even more when you have it.

But it is also true that we should take care of ourselves because they say, even “health is in your hands.” I suppose balancing everything in life is the key. To be judicious in work and leisure, just as somebody has said, “It is essential to maintaining quality in life and work.” 

To Mom, With Love

My brother once jokingly remarked that even if Mom planted something upside down, it would still grow. We used to laugh over it, but it is true that my Mom’s love for plants and flowers is enormous, that it seems magical to see anything and everything grow at the touch of her hands. If we couldn’t find her anywhere else, we always knew where to get her. She would be in the kitchen garden, lovingly tending to vegetable plants or totally engrossing herself in the numerous flower pots at home.

Sometimes, one of my siblings would say, she loves her garden more than she loves us. That, of course isn’t true because we also know deep down that her love for plants is just one of the many manifestations of her love for us. She has always led the exemplary life even if it means we, her children are still short of the rich values she taught us through her simple ways.

But, because of her, we are what we are today. I am glad that at least we have learnt not to waste our food because she has always strongly insisted that we should never waste the grains of rice being served on our platter. She has taught us the judicious use of everything that our hands get hold of- money, clothes, materials, just anything at all. It’s like she would always find a purpose for something we have stopped putting to use.

When I was younger, it didn’t seem so much of a miracle to see all the love that Mom puts into every tiny detail of what she does. Now, I actually see and wonder at her strength, her passion and endurance, her patience, just her unconditional love that surpasses everything else that is ugly.

I never knew home would feel completely hollow if she wasn’t around for a single day. That, we would run out of ideas about what to cook for one single meal and then I wonder how she manages to make every meal so sumptuous for the rest of the many 300 something days in a year. It’s like all the fresh vegetables, meat and other spices keep following her around and desert us, as and when she goes out of station.

With Mom, nothing seems impossible. The fact that she is a carpenter’s daughter is even more convincing when she puts a carpenter’s tools to use. Yes, she has been instrumental...actually no, she has been the driving force in not only building the house we live in today but also making it a home. It was her idea to choose a site in the outskirt about 30 years ago when my parents moved to Kohima. Who knew then, that the residential peace we have around our place would be so priceless today?

I believe her love for us that has been translated in several ways over the years has reaped fruits today. She has endured the excruciating pain of working so hard, so we could all study. Yes, the seven siblings, who would otherwise be nowhere had she not taken extra care (as she does even today) to make us what we have become. She has allowed, and encouraged us to pursue what we wanted in life. At least for me, I know that I am living my dream. My other siblings seem content in their respective fields -two of them as doctors, and the rest as an engineer, educationist, and one into accounting, so I know they are happy with what they have become too. And I think our little successes and triumphs are definitely fruits of her labour because she has toiled so hard for the comfort that we have today.

When we were growing up, she made sure that we learn and experience working in the fields. I remember visiting my grandparents in the village especially during summer breaks and joining them in all the activities, that till date, we are still familiar with throwing of seeds, planting them on terrace fields, harvesting or carrying paddy home.

If supermoms existed, then she isn’t short of being one. The woman behind all the things we learnt and the skills we picked up, was a school teacher and a government employee later, but she never forgot her roots that is embedded with culture and dignity. Yes, she had paddy fields that she passionately tended to, even after we moved to Kohima, and she weaved most of the traditional attires that we own just as she knitted our every school uniform sweater back during our school days. Like that wasn’t enough to keep her busy and occupy her mind, she reared pigs, and showed outmost care for our pets at home.

I thought she would have lesser things to do after she retired from government service. But that hardly happened because she still finds 101 things to do. It amazes us because she’s got her hands full everyday. The road home after a long day or a long journey is always comforting because we know that she will be waiting at the end of the day. It’s just the feeling of her presence that makes home so warm and special, and no words can quite express the joy that comes from having such a mother.

I know for a fact that every mother is special for so many reasons. The measure of a mother’s love always amazes me. I wonder how they do it- how they endure so much like they actually find pleasure in it. Their patience amazes me- the patience with which they groom and bring up a child. A single child, let alone two or more, and just how efficiently they play their roles as mothers. Here’s to our amazing, amazing mothers, who make a difference in our lives everyday!

Life is too Short

I sat with my colleagues talking how quickly time flies. They agree that when we were younger, time seems to move slower- so leisurely lingering that sometimes it felt like it wasn’t even moving. That we couldn’t wait for our summer breaks or weekends to crawl up so we could holiday and play all along.

Those days, everything seemed permanent. Like school would forever go on and we would be excitingly terrified of exams every semester. Like college days would last and the friends we made through high school and university would always remain. Those days it felt like even the precious passing moments were never fleeting.

That, from our own little closets, we viewed life differently, although with passion, zeal, hope and dreams. With anticipation for a good future. For a life that’s made of a decent job, home and comfort. Then, we thought we knew life. That we would have plenty of time to spare for all the people we’ve come to know, and mostly for those we love. Didn’t we also think we would never, ever lose them?

Many of us would perhaps recall our younger, teenage days as the best days of our lives. Mostly because they were devoid of pain and we were considerably truer to ourselves in many ways. Except that we didn’t realize, time is the only constant thing that keeps ticking and moving whether we laugh or cry, smile or frown, help or hinder, contribute or destroy, share or take away, curse or bless somebody’s life. 

One day you wake up and realize that nothing lasts forever. That sometime or the other, you are bound to lose something or somebody in life. And the older you grow, you start to battle a busy life. It only gets busier and busier that you begin to wonder where did all the time you thought you would have, disappear.

Too little time and too many things to do- too many people to visit, too many thoughts to share, too many plans to accomplish, too many places to see, too many families to bond with…just too many things, but too little time.

Life is, in reality, too short for all the things we want to do. It is too short to waste it on unnecessary discourse, to throw opportunities away when it comes knocking at your door and to let its precious moments get consumed by hatred, quarrel or dishonesty. Life is too precious for us not to care, love or withhold kindness when you can and politeness when it demands.

It is too precious for us to waste it any other way because someday or the other, whether we like it or not, it’s going to fade anyway. And the only thing that is going to matter in the end is how well you have lived, and not the positions you have held, the kind of people you associated with, the luxury you enjoyed, or the wealth you have garnered.

In the end, life is simply how you make of it that is going to decide what your life is. And so, it truly matters how you carry yourself and deal with people with that gentle human spirit from where you stand (regardless of whether others consider it important or less important). That your best is seen even in all the little things that you do, and that you shower kindness along the way because it’s one of the few gifts we are free to share or hold back.

It is so direly important to be human, to appreciate life and to share all its precious gifts; to grow and be a blessing in whatever way we can, wherever you are placed, because time never waits for us. It never stops for us to undo the things or take back the words we have said.

We have only one chance, one childhood, one youth and one life. But somebody however has rightly said that if we do it right, once is enough. And we must truly make the best of what we have, the best of whatever comes our way and the best of every opportunity to share life’s rich blessings with one another. 

You

Suddenly you revive all the sweetness I'd forgotten; 

long cherished dreams surfacing...

the little gestures I stopped looking for. 

You revive the long forgotten song in my heart,
and I'd be a fool not to give it a try.

That Little Thing called Love

Few things in life are permanent. Like love that never fails when everything else does. Love, that can raise you up and lift your spirits when you feel like you are down the drains. It is the only permanent thing in this world that is quite enough to help you get through another day.

Because love changes you in ways more than one and makes you want to be a better person. It gives you a chance to accommodate the needs and dreams of another person other than yourself, and allows you to extend greater kindness that you never knew you’re capable of.

Love extracts from us, a will that is stronger than we can imagine; courage that lies buried inside of us until somebody special comes along and we are capable of daring and risking. Such power that it engulfs us with the passion to take the road less traveled, even if it means losing some less important trophies in life because the prize you’re holding on to, is worth much more than all other things.

Such a little word used too often, but absolutely the most powerful thing that can transform your life, shape your destiny and reap you a lifetime of happiness if only we knew the power of love. But how does this beautiful mystery work? Love, that many of us fail to understand when it starts to hurt and we begin to question. The amazing fact is that all other emotions are fleeting and never ever permanent. We may feel anger, fear, pain, shame, hurt, or anything else that isn’t love but they never last.

Love is that extraordinary emotion that is capable of erasing all the things that can injure our souls. For the simple fact that a word said, or a deed done out of love can magically conquer a hurting moment, is proof enough that love is the greatest gift we can share with people around us.

If in silly, little instances of love, we can already find happiness that’s capable of surmounting the ugly circumstances, then, there is nothing that love cannot do. For change, progress, development, and for our ultimate quest for life, which is happiness, love is all we need. For when love surfaces, all other things like cheating, unfaithfulness, hatred, jealousy, anger, revenge, etc squander.

Yes, they say Valentine’s Day is for lovers. But I am sure this doesn’t mean love is confined only to those couples who claim to have found their soul mates. Because then, love would be flawed and limited. More importantly, because love is for everyone, especially those who are willing to open their hearts and accommodate somebody else’s happiness, simply by way of sharing and that somebody doesn’t necessarily have to be your so called soul mate. 

Nonetheless, let our love for that special someone or love for our people, our society, our land and our own selves be reason enough to make us agents of change. The kind of change, that we all aspire for…but can only come from love. 

A New Chapter

Our lives are akin to books filled with episodes of experiences, which, they say come from lessons learnt along the way. For everybody across the world, a New Year marks the beginning of many things and events that goes around throughout the year. It is a time where we make up our minds and resolve to do, or not to do things.

The dawn of a New Year is a special occasion for many people because it is also looked at as an opportunity to begin afresh, which is why making new year resolutions has also become a consistent tradition that continues to draw interest. The good thing about it is that resolutions only carry the finer things that we wish to add to our broken lives.

In other words, no matter how badly broken we are, somewhere deep down, each one of us desire to become a person of worth. The New Year gives us this golden opportunity to mend our ways, even if it means we are trying to do it out of tradition.  

Starting today, I believe we have set our goals, or at least thought about defining some of it and that, through the year, we will endeavour to accomplish them as strong as we remember to keep it intact in the first few days of the year.

May the steps we take today mark the beginning of a new chapter and just as we fill the first few pages with renewed zeal and enthusiasm, may we continue to press on towards the goal that we may define in our own simple ways, but always with the spirit of goodwill that motivates oneself to rise higher and grow as a person.

May the good resolutions we make today not only last a day, a week, or a month but the whole year through until we learn to keep the old bad habits behind, ready to take on another challenge. May the goals we set for ourselves this year not only be confined to ourselves but that, in trying to reach them, we may also carry with us the joy of living and the spirit of forgiveness, without which, the value of life is incomplete.

May we become perfect ambassadors of love, peace and joy and willingly extend these gifts to someone who may need it! To exemplify the life we wish to see around us and be the leader of our times, a trendsetter of good deeds and of rich values. Not to be ashamed of taking the road less travelled, to pursue what is right and to guard it with your life.

As we begin a new chapter in our lives, may we be the living hope for our children and the kind of people whom they can really look up to. And more than we write our own chapters, may our names find spaces in the books of those we touch as we live from day to day.

And may we never fail in our human duties to shower kindness along the way as we set out to fulfill our dreams, our aspirations, our plans, our visions and all that we’ve hoped for this year to bring. 

Time has wings

I really couldn't wait to grow up! 

You know, have my dreams accomplished, 

and live my life just the way I'd planned.

But it seems I grew up too soon (or so, it seems)

And it's not the same I thought it would be.

I realized time has wings.

No, wait! I'm getting older everyday...

and life has become too busy-

When, all I'd hoped for, was a day I could be free.

A day I could leisurely spend and watch the sun go down...

But I'm running after time everyday!

It gives me a good race and I can't beat it sometimes.

Well, most of the time...

I am breathless, I want more time!

More time, not only for work, for social obligations...

but more time for friendship & simple things in life.

For leisure, for travel, or simply to spend time with family.

Time grows wings, it keeps flying higher to the skies...

I wish I can hold it and keep it caged in my custody.

I would grow enough roses, its scent, sufficient enough to fill the air.

To Women, the Beautiful Species!

She carries her strength in places they never knew existed; in the confines of adversity where hope fails and fate twists. She is the image of beauty; the wonderful creation of God, whose natural gifts blesses a home.

She is the face of love that naturally fits into a child’s life. Traits so inherent in her from small, girlish days, it stays with her through and through. She is the love’s eye that cares for simple, little things in life. That she sprinkles kindness in the steps that lead her. And she enjoys affection as much as she loves giving.

She is the symbol of the softer side of humanity that her touch has the power to heal. Hurts and wounds that find us in many circumstances and leave us yearning. She is the song, the perfect music that fills many empty hearts, and she, carries with her, a heart that cries easily, but always because she cares too deeply.

For people, for strangers, for children, for things miles and miles away. She’s always got emotions running high on her, and she could break, melt or fall easily but never leaves without giving.

The measure of her love is not in the stretch of her legs, not in the years of formal education that she pursued, not in her outer appearance, the make ups or clothes that she wears, but in her heart that so often find things to love.

And that, it is extended to flowers that grow in her hands, greeting a home each new day. It is felt in one two many ways, in our everyday meals, in just an extended hand that reaches out and touches our lives in several ways.

She is the image of immense strength, the strength that really enables a home to run on perfect, normal terms. That, all the household chores rest on her shoulders, and even though she may be a working professional and a mother or a sister, she carries it off well.

That it surprises men how she does it in her absence; she is a superwoman on many grounds, filled with too many emotions but knows just how much is enough to make another heart feel lighter.

She, the beautiful creation of God, how a little of her smile can lift the gloom! And the world would be an empty vessel without her.

To all the Beautiful Species called Women, who have the ability to change the world, whose strength will continue to make a difference (although it often goes unnoticed); to Women, whose faith can build a child’s dreams, and whose hearts will always carry love in all the ordinary places.

To Women, who are our mothers, sisters, Aunts and friends; To the amazing species who run our homes and never complain; who will listen and always be there to hear you out, women who care too much and feel too deeply; May they continue to fill our world with beauty, beauty that itself is a gift from God. 

Friends Forever

I remember making my first friend in Kindergarten; how in sheer innocence we held hands and walked to school together. And then my neighbourhood playmate, from whom, I probably started learning Tenyidie.

One can never forget special ties that result from playing, learning and working together- friends you’ve made in your childhood, in high school, in college, in your work place, or in all the unassuming places.

The amazing fact is that you don’t agree upon becoming friends in an instance of meeting a person for the first time. But along the way, you get connected and you eventually realize they are special people, holding special places in your heart.

That’s how we start bonding with friends, who, sometimes become larger and bigger than family. And for reasons too sweet, I am sure, at some point of time, we had also sworn to be friends forever, or perhaps thought in our minds to keep this bond alive come what may!

But it’s also true that some of them go away, but not without leaving a trace behind. And yet there are some special few who continue to stay, those we also choose to keep for life. They are not only fair weathered friends, but people we rely on. People, who make us feel at home, people who let us be just the way we are, people who have won our trust, those we remember in our times of happiness or sorrow, in need or in pain, in disappointment or in joy, people we can be casual about with; they, who are part of our lives in such significant ways.

These are people who see us through, who touch our lives by simply being there, who are there to listen, to share, and to talk with.

How can we forget them who give us a new zest for living everytime we are down? Those, who pick us up from the drains and tell us we are worth and deserving of all the good things in life. Who, you just know would be there for you anytime of the day or night, who make you laugh, sing and dance, and one, who wouldn’t trade you for any wealth in the world!

Our friends will always mean something special to us. Friends from long ago and friends from today, friends we’ve lost to death, to distance, to time or circumstances, friends we have kept regardless of anything at all, friends from the store, from the streets, from the neighborhood, friends from being school mates, college mates, university mates or workmates, friends from good times or difficult days, friends, in whatever form they may come, they have a piece of our heart.

And deep down, we know “they” make all the differences in our lives. And that’s why, friendship is worth celebrating….it is the spice of life! Friends are the flowers that bloom in all the seasons; they are the ones who make the rough patches in life worth going through, and although, some of them might be out of reach today, they have, all the same, added joy to living.

Because in whatsoever way or time they come into our lives, they leave imprints behind, and for some special reason, for a smile, a hug, for lending an ear, a hand, for lifting a burden and adding a measure of happiness, they become our friends forever, not necessarily defined by time, but deep feelings of the heart. 

"Tired"

26th May 2010: I’m tired of reporting, tired of running around at all insignificant places, tired of hearing the same speeches over and over again. I’m tired of seeing the same old faces, propagating the same messages of development and more development with nothing much being done in its aftermath.
I’m tired of wondering every time if this is really as good as it can get.

I’m tired of sneaking into other people’s businesses when they’d rather keep it to themselves, tired of seeing their disappointment to find out that I don’t represent the sought most newspaper in the state, I’m tired of the phony respect they give me in places that I couldn’t help but go out of duty.

I’m tired of people who think they can buy me off (buy my profession off to be precise), tired of them who fail to see I’m living a part of my dream, tired of them who think Journalism is a last resort because we couldn’t find anything better to do, I’m tired of opinions, tired of sick mentality and narrow minds, I’m tired of shallowness.

I’m tired of people telling me “it’s not worth all your hard work” and how they sometimes come close to convincing me that there are better things more fulfilling than a dream.

I’m tired of the ways of desperation people seek for publicity, how they want to tell the world of their every deed of charity (Why can’t they simply do it silently? I mean God knows the good they’ve done…and isn’t it enough that the needy have received it?)

I’m tired of false promises, tired of faked smiles, I’m sick of Ministers who can’t even read a written speech properly, tired of them campaigning alongside irrelevant occasions. I’m tired of biased opinions, tired of mentality that is SO stuck in our thick heads and minds.

I’m tired of speakers expressing “I hope this institution will provide many officers, doctors and engineers”. Does the world really belong to people who hold these professions?

I’m tired of trying to make people happy, tired of trying to explain how and what it means to follow a dream and be happy with it, I’m tired of elders telling me “there’s nothing like government job”.

I’m tired of people without appreciation, tired of them who overlook when they need to really look.

I’m tired of the dry state status of Nagaland, I’m tired of seeing ourselves making fool of ourselves, tired of the publicized number of seized liquor, appearing frequently but doing not a single good to any of us.

I’m tired of cheap alcohol talks.

(This write-up is a result of one-of-those-days when i felt extremely disappointed in the functioning of things around me. The thoughts pass away but sometimes, personal dreams combined with societal concerns make you want to give it all up)