[This post may be taken as a belated response to the comment(s) made by a few people (oh who are we kidding? > let’s narrow it down to say, comment #2 in particular) on March 17, 2009 of http://www.misual.com/2009/03/17/barack-obama-is-31pc-irish/ regarding the purported dubiousness of Barack Obama's image owing to his err...mixed lineage, also referred to as ‘thlahpawlh’ in Mizo. In this particular comment, mixed lineage has most unfortunately, (to echo Blind Dayze's sentiments on the subject) been crudely associated with significantly reduced trustworthiness or in Mizo, ‘rinawm nep’. Other colourful options have also been underlined in some of the comments under the same link. As my post awaits moderation at the said site, i have gone ahead and posted it on MY blog].
Extract:
chawnghilh Says:
March 17th, 2009 at 8:18 pm
"Lai tawng chuan KAHPIAH, Zotawngin THLAH PAWLH … a dum leh var inchawhpawlh a nih miau avangin Artist huang atanga sawi fiah dawn chuan ‘Obama is GREY’ kan ti thei ang —GREYHOUND ni em lovin! Photographical takin ‘Obama is Monochrome’ a tih theih bawk awm e..
Tin, BLACK leh WHITE hi art lam atang chuan COLOR an ni lo ve ve a; kan Celebrity thenkhat, “Eng kawr rawng nge i ngainat zawng?” tia zawhna A DUM, A VAR tia chhang maiho hian Lemziakna Sikul an la dai lut hman rih lo tih a tarlang chiang!
>> DUM chiah lo, VAR chiah lo hi “an rinawm nep” tiin an lo insawi ve tho mai! Thlah pawlh an engemaw deuhva hnam tinin kan sawi ang tho hian!”
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Though one is very rarely inclined to wax offensive, comments like these can appeal to one's baser, more defensive instincts, making one quite favourably disposed to spout expletives of the foulest water, though preferably, one would perhaps want to rise above the mud and dirt and maintain an austere silence. But it has been decided that austerity, at this point, just does not cut it. So one shall do neither.
Ye-es, one shall soil one's hands a little by offering a few (to spurn a better word)... recommendations.
Think Tiger Woods and Halle Berry, Pushkin and Dostoevsky, Norah Jones and Bryan Clay, Marley and Hendrix, Alicia Keys and Harry Belafonte, Malcolm X and Ben Kingsley, Naomi Campbell and The Rock, Vin Diesel and Tina Turner. This is recommended for blogger chawnghilh (and his ilk)…though one is left in serious doubt as to whether this would be sharp enough to pierce, putting it bluntly, this surface of singular bluntness...will one succeed where Obama has failed to make a dent? Makes one wonder if perhaps the pure of blood are also thick of skin...not to rule out exceptions of course.
But let us proceed nonetheless.
So to continue with chawnghilh, his comments and the prescriptive recommendations, if he hasn’t heard of either Pushkin or Clay, of Malcolm X or Dostoevsky, it is recommended that he take the time to look them up. Their half bred lives have moved many a soul, sung many a song, told many a tale and run many a race - literally and otherwise, than many of the lives led by the so-called ‘pure’ of blood. Not that one is trying to make this in any way a contest. It is entirely up to him, but it would be appreciated if he were to take this as pure, unadulterated retaliation. Yes, it is rather hoped that it would have the effect of water on smoldering charcoal...or hybrid Nirvana to the hitherto insensitive mind.
It is also keenly prescribed that he exercises this freedom and one might go so far as to further advise him to test the efficacy of this exercise on the intelligence of his off-spring (though this may regretfully have profound, untold repercussions…as one shudders to think of what yardstick may be employed for this purpose). But studies have shown that such ‘exercise’ oft begets heightened intelligence and beauty – speaking largely in terms of future progeny...and yes, the intended albeit thinly veiled pun.
It is also requested of the aforementioned blogger that he kindly elucidate - to the few here who have been left yearning for enlightenment, as to what is meant by his rather embarrassingly prejudiced comment… “thlah pawlh an engemaw deuhva hnam tinin kan sawi ang tho hian!”, and what exactly is “engemaw deuh” and lastly, who exactly he means/includes when he says ‘kan’ in ‘‘kan sawi ang tho hian” (??!) This we ask of you because mentioning Obama and “engemaw deuh” in the same breath does not exactly prove the stupefying point you were trying to make...that is indeed, if you were trying to make one at all.
P.S. One would also like to add that monochrome photography yields a range of no less than 256 beautiful shades – otherwise called the ‘Grayscale’...or, at the obvious risk of sounding redundant, different shades of gray. But this is another very telling scent you’ve allowed us to pick up - that for some people out there, gray is just not a colour or an option (and perhaps not the most “happening” place to be). So to speak in figurative terms, it is either black Or white, and hardly ever black AND white. Tsk. Tsk. Dear chawnghilh (and ilk), I fear I am getting to know you all too well. Do remember that Monochrome basically means the resulting blend of many, many bright colours…and that gray can be beautiful - to the polychromatic eye.
P.P.S. If we take this point a tad further, the symptomatic condition ‘Monochromacy’ also means total colour blindness – the complete inability to distinguish colours…more food for thought. One is compulsively led to think...‘now doesn’t that ring an awfully familiar bell?’ And while delving into the recesses of one’s memory, the mind is allowed to wander for just a bit…and pop forth a juicy, tempting question: What would happen if we, or at least the few of us who find it beyond ourselves to take in too much “colour” at a time, were all Monochromatic...??
...with this last afflatic spurt, our rusty old bell finally hits home with startling clarity. Old Hippocampus and her sisters tremble with the once forgotten, newly remembered, resounding clang of ....World Peace!
Disclaimer: The addressee is requested to kindly not be misled...by this seemingly innocuous conclusion, into taking this as a peaceful, conciliatory post.
Still awaiting for updates... can't breath... can't eat... can't sleep... when art thou going to update your blog? :-(
- Sandman.
oopss... "breathe" :D
@illusionaire: Thanks so much for the encouraging, tho wildly exaggerated prod :) I suppose a blocked blogger needs a prod now and then. I'd begun to think my blogging days were numbered.
I (and all six of my senses included) lie in wait to trap any clear, inspired bolts of raw, unfiltered thought that might chance our way...will definitely keep the blog and you posted :D
I wasn't encouraging you... :-) Somebody like you who writes that well don't need any encouragement. You already have it in you.
Reason I asked you for an update is... because its pretty much like the drug abuser who had his first dose and is now begging the pusher to give him more. Its like an addiction :) So do update soon.
And hey, I am updating the Mizo Bloggers Directory so I would really appreciate it if you can come and register. :-)
Yes long time no post in this blog...Illusionaire a.k.a Sandman is the man who i credit for making me start my own blog....not that he told me to blog but reading his entertaining+informative posts...i got inspired to start...although i dont post so much...
..... speechless... will you write my dissertation for me? :D
Why is it that the people who REALLY need to read posts like this do not? Like the time they banned "The DaVinci Code" in Mizoram, and I asked around and most of the supporters of the ban piously said they havnt read it nor did not want to read a novel so "Anti-Christ". How dare we make judgements on things that we don't even know about?
Yes, I have heard the snide remarks about cocktails. "An phakar, an rilru a kawi,an rilru a phir, blah2". They are PEOPLE, and not racial representatives.
Don't know if you'll even see this, but I couldnt pass by without putting my two cents in. Now let them say, "Pachuau ania, Pachuau hmeichhia chu an kawlh duh".
lol. yep i know...its a longgg post :D brevity isn't one of my strengths..more's the pity! thanks a ton though. could prolly give that dissertation a try if the Only requirement was length! :D
wrt the snide remarks, funny thing is, i sometimes can't blame them (damn. must be gettin old..or tired of it all) but i suppose distrust and pain come easy when a beloved sister/aunt etc. ups and marries a stranger..that too from a race as hated and alien (for mizos) as the vai's. but i Do wish they treated the union with respect.
like blind dayze just wrote on his most recent post, "hnam chian (thu ah) 'Kan pi leh pute kha hnamah lo chiang viau se chuan.. Kristian ah an lo inlet duh miah lo ang' tihte ka lo ngaihtuah vel..." - couldn't have put it better myself!
my post did get published (thanks to the kind admins at misual) and this is the link in case you ever get curious bout how it all turned out. not my proudest moment(s) in there so don't say i didn't warn you!
and 3 hoots for headstrong Pachuau wimmen! :)
lolzzz, read the misual comments. it is hard to get into a rational discussion out there, especially with a topic as fire-starting as yours. And it is easy to go in with guns blazing- I don't blame you for that. Thing with misual is that, if ur more comfortable writing in english, some of them criticize you for "betraying" your language, and when you write in Mizo, they criticize you when you make the slightest mistake- "Mizo tawng pawh thiam thalo". And for some, thats a bigger issue than the issue your'e writing about.
I sometimes think we're taking "hnam feeling" and Kristianna too far. It would be far too easy to go the way of the Nazis and the Taliban. Its hard to draw the line between passion for a cause, and fanaticism for it. Huis, I'm now done with being serious today.Great read :))) Zo takin, vawiin hman nuam aw :))
Have to emphasize- "SOME" :))
:) weekend hman nuam le!
btw, would you be interested in translating some of the misual posts into english? in case you haven't seen this post on misual...its a free for all kind of thing...open for anybody interested. do look in at this link for a sample of what able folk like you could do to (re-)introduce what it means to be Mizo in today's world. we're still finding out bit by bit as we go along, lets make it real for more people out there :) what say?
Interesting...but... I have done some translations during my MA course, and I sucked at it.I tend to get a lil long-winded with the translation of the words, so that the real meaning gets obscured. I've seen the discussions regarding this,and am all for it. Lemme take a rain check on me getting into it, k? Am not ruling it out, am just not too sure of my capabilities...You'd be really good at it, though.