“But we hear you take heads up there.” “Oh, yes, we do,” he replied, and seizing a boy by the head, gave us in a quite harmless way an object-lesson how they did it.” The above conversation took place between Mary Mead Clark, an American missionary in British India, and a Naga tribesman, and is quoted in Clark’s book, A Corner in India (1907). Nagaland is a tiny state in the Northeast of India: just twice the size of the Lakhimpur Kheri district in Uttar Pradesh. In that little corner of India live people belonging to 16 (if not more) distinct tribes who speak more than 30 dialects. These tribes “defy a common nomenclature,” writes Hokishe Sema, former chief minister of the state, in his book, Emergence of Nagaland . Each tribe is quite unique as far as culture and social setups are concerned. Even in physique and appearance, they vary significantly. The Nagas don’t like the common label given to them by outsiders, according to Sema. Nagaland is only 0.5% of India in area. T...
Yes.. this new year is to make mistakes and learn from it. :)
ReplyDeleteNice one :)
Only those who don't try anything new can save themselves from mistakes.
Delete"Falling into new traps and ditches.... Writing new stories, Discovering new voices"
ReplyDeleteso true Sir .. will stay away from new traps and ditches,but by the year end the traps will turn out as lost opportunities and the welcoming garden as ditches ! But then let's leave it for the next new year :)
Traps and ditches are inevitable to some extent. They can be seen as opportunities, however.
DeleteHappy new year.
How do you do that Sir? 'Language too renews itself like the proverbial phoenix' - and the ashes of meanings lost, re-interpreted, twisted create a fire in which it will burn and will be re-born.
ReplyDeleteI don't do it, Sunaina. It happens - that's the plain truth. Elsewhere you mentioned the dedication of my book to RSSB. I dedicated the book to them just because it is they who made me write those stories - most of them, at least. It is they who changed my way of looking at life. It is they who killed my old language and made me create the new language.
DeleteOur experiences can be tremendously transforming forces. RSSB transformed me so much that I had no choice but reinvent my language, the narrative of my life....
A beautiful poem :)
ReplyDeleteThank you.
DeleteFalling in ditches, learning from our mistakes and then committing new one... That's what proves that we are still alive. When we are dead, we don't commit anymore mistakes.
ReplyDeleteSo very apt, sir! Wish you a very prosperous New Year! :)
Exactly, Rakesh. When we are really alive, when we venture out in new ways, mistakes are bound to happen. Sometimes other people too will dig ditches for us, especially if we are on the path of success...
Deletehappy new year pictures 2016
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