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EastErn Mirror wEEkEnd supplEMEntEvEry saturday sEptEMbEr 29, 2012

EM IMagEs| aaron JIMoMI

photo speakChildren who have come to draw water from a water hole at Thanamir

village (also called Apple village) bordering Myanmar under Kiphire district seen playing amongst themselves as they wait for their turn.

The NBDA were im-pressed with the flavor of the hot and aromatic Bamboo shot pickles combined with King

chilly, green chilly, dry fruits etc the group created as part of their production.

This SHG from Darogapathar, Dimapur comprising of eight housewives and two widows aged between 30-50 also testify that growth and empowerment is not confined to economic sustenance alone but in the same foothold embraces on relationships amongst the women.

“Most of us hardly knew each other even though we were residing in the same locality. The formation of Orchid SHG brought us together; we have become a family…” Angangla, a member said.

SHG Orchid members are Mokokla Jamir, Sarila, T Akala, Imtila, Angangla, Alemla Phom, Bendangla, Pihuli, N Akala and Tainla.

Learning to stand together and support one another in tiring times is one valuable quality, the group says they have learnt and strive to inculcate.

“In times of need, financially or physically, we help each other out with the little amount we have saved from our production proceeds,” Angangla said.

As part of the SHG move-ment, Orchid SHG was formed during early 2009 with Rs 1000 collected from the ten members. Their journey began on a sales day at NH 29. With the thousand rupees invested in watermelon slices, dry fish and tea leaves, by evening, the group had raked in triple the amount as profit.

At present, the group has lit-tle over Rs one Lakh saved from

the income of their productions. This amount (group money) is loaned to people in dire financial need with as little as 3 percent interests.

Apart from pickle making, the group also sells dry fish, tea leaves and goes as ‘cooks for hire’ during occasions and events. But the specialty of Orchid SHG is the Bamboo shoot pickles.

“We have different bamboo pickles to cater to every taste buds- Bamboo shoot with green chilly, king chilly (Raja mircha), dry fruits, beef, chicken and lo-

The students visited the Na-galand Science Centre, Di-mapur where they received first hand experience on different scientific experi-

mentation. Their next destination was Rangapahar Zoological Park, which literally was an adventure for the students into the exciting realm of our flora and fauna.

Teachers Wekhem Zeliang and Oken initiated the trip with empha-sis on the importance of informal education while also highlighting the fact that wonders of science is ever more present in Nagaland too.

Maintaining that field trips are paramount as theoretical classroom teaching, particularly on subjects related to science, the teachers said such exposure broaden the mind and concept of students in the grasp for knowledge.

The important aspect of such

field trips is that students get to learn their subject matter in practi-cal mode. Sosang Yaden, Education Assistant Nagaland, Science Centre explained with practical demonstra-tion to the students the wonders of Science.

Akumna, a student of standard IX interacting with this reporter said field trips are a perfect gateway from the class room.

“Every school should organize field trips to refresh the mind of us, students from the mundane four walls of class room. We sometimes barely understand the contents of the text book, but perceiving it with the eye and doing it actually helps a lot,” he added.

Tiayanger, another student of class IX said other schools should also follow this practice of exposure trips so fellow students get a chance to explore the wonders of science

and beauty of our environment which will broaden the concept of science and bring more attachment to the subject.

Principal St Joseph School (SJS), Chumukedima Fr. Sabu Chenackal said such proactive step in the quest for knowledge by exploring the im-portance of science in day to day’s life is always encouraged.

To mould minds to perform to the best of their ability, one need to offer the very best in a stimulating environment, and we believe the journey of the students at SJS will be an enlightening and enriching one, said Principal Chenackal

While it is a known fact that the subject of science is not exactly the favourite among many learners here; teachers here felt that this ‘dislike’ can be turned into ‘like’ with such field trips which puts on a complete new perspective to learning.

cal chilly,” informs Sarilal, secretary of Orchid SHG.

In fact, their pickles are so in demand that the NBDA made a deal with the group to supply these pickles produce to promote the produce. “We normally make 500-600 packets per month which is directly dispatched to the Bamboo agency, Sarila said.

Thanks to NBDA, the members got the opportunity to attend training on making pickles with bamboo shoots and also participated in the World Bamboo Day celebration at Kerala in 2011. Their Bamboo pickles samples put on display were sold out.

Seeing the dedication of this group in trying to uplift themselves, department of Land Resources, SBI also gave sup-port with some amounts.

The group have a sealing machine, weighing machine, utensils, all bought from income generated from sale of their products. Still unable to rent a production house, the members rotate each home for their activities.

Now four years on their journey, the

Orchid SHG members’ dream of bigger things- establishing a full scale indus-try in Bamboo shoot pickle production. However, financial crunch is the big barrier.

“If the State government can assist us on this business enterprise venture of ours, I am positive it will be beneficial to both the parties and of course, a proud moment for all to send our products la-beled “Made in Nagaland” to other parts of the state and country,” Mokokla Jamir, president said.

Orchid SHG and Bamboo shoot pickles:

SJS lays emphasis on field trips for comprehensive learning

Adjudged as one of the most promising Self Help Group (SHG) at the recently held World Bamboo Day 2012 celebration at Nagaland Bamboo Development Agency (NBDA), Orchid SHG is a testimony of rising up from the margins of mediocre economic empowerment.

Laying emphasis on field trips as an important tool towards learning, Class IX and X students of St Joseph School (SJS), Chumukedima went on an exposure trip to two science and ecological land marks in Dimapur.

Imti Longchar | EM News Network

Sedelo Nyusou | EM News Network

Group photo at Zoological Park

Teacher explaining to students Sosang Yaden, Education Asst, Nagaland Science Centre showing

practical science methods to students

Members of Orchid SHG at work in one of the member’s house

Mirror Plus2 Eastern Mirror | dimapursaturday | september 29 | 2012

“Monkey see monkey do”, so goes one adage. It comes from the understanding that monkeys imitate our actions. And the term “Aping” comes from the same root, and if apes are our nearest cousins, as Darwin and his cronies said, why not ape them after all? We

may as well imitate each other in order to maintain some semblance of affinity. Still then, it would be best if our relationship and similarity ends right there, but it doesn’t, in more ways than one. By the way, one thing that has puzzled me endlessly is, if we are really related to… ahem!... them, however distantly it may be, why do some people take so much offence when they are called monkeys or apes? Has it anything to do with the say-ing, “Familiarity breeds contempt”? I mean, are we too familiar with them now that we treat them with contempt?

We all know that a wannabe is a person who wants to be what he/she is not. Therefore, wannabes duplicate anyone they admire in order to satisfy their unfulfilled desires and to boost their ego. Such behavior, we are well aware, is popularly known as “Aping”. Aping is imitating, and imitating is cheap and tasteless and it neither is beneficial nor does it serve any useful purpose. Yet many of us indulge in aping as if it is our part time occupa-tion. In my younger days, apart from my regular college attendance, I was also an ardent Martial Art student. I loved the exercises and the Martial Art’s philosophy of self defence and of helping and protecting the weak. My idol was Bruce Lee of “Enter the Dragon” fame and I’ve watched all his films scores of times. I used to dress like him, walk like him, talk like him and kept my hairstyle like him. I also used to practice extensively and read every Martial Art book that mentioned him. In other words, I “Aped” him. Whether I looked like him or not is a different question altogether. And the outcome? The outcome of my aping Bruce Lee was that, firstly, I wallowed in my fantasy world for several years, during which time others must have looked at me as downright silly and stupid thereby, losing their respect and my credibility. Secondly, I fractured my leg during practice and had to walk with crutches. I spent the most miserable 6 months of my life with my right foot cast in plaster.

Today, we see a rampant aping phenomenon that has saturated our society, especially, with the generation Z. They replicate Hip Hop culture, Emu culture, Fashion culture, tattooing, Rock culture, body piercing, punk, Saggin’ and Baggin’ and many other unhealthy practices in the guise of youth culture. Even satanic worship is creeping into our society in such subtle ways that we are unaware of it. I understand that it is only natural for the youth to want to follow the latest trends in fashion, music or lifestyle in general but it might be prudent they for them to try to see if a new trend they wish to copy is harmless, useful, suitable or practical despite the fact that it is in vogue. For example, Sagging is a very popular fashion in the west. We see many young people in Nagaland also Saggin’ and Baggin’, which, (according to my limited knowledge as far as fashion is concerned), simply means wearing baggy pants at their butts level, show-ing their underclothes. Every time I see them dressed like that, I Can’t help worrying it might fall around their ankles anytime. My point is, what is the purpose of wearing pants like that in a place like ours where one has to climb the near vertical footpaths everyday? I’ve watched , with chagrin, young people attired in Saggin’ fashion trying to wriggle up the precipitous footpaths of Kohima like Mudskippers. (Mudskippers are small fishes found in muddy mangrove forested sea shores where they wriggle from one mud hole to another when the tide is out). Why self-inflect punishment? I would like to not only question the logical of such wisdom but also wonder if they know the suggestive meaning of dressing that way?

There are many other ways in which we ape the west or whatever, very often without ever considering what we are aping. What I am getting at is, do we have to ape at home, in the street, in the church as well as in the gov-ernment? At the government level we have aped somebody, may be south India, in Coffee Plantation, the remains of which blunder we see even today. Then came the Sugar Mill project at Dimapur which was followed by the Nagaland Paper and Pulp industry at Tuli.(Since there were so many mega projects like this, I am confused which of the two preceded the other) Much later came, of course, projects like the Riverine Fisheries and others and the latest was the Smart and High Tech number plates to protect and safeguard the automobiles of Nagaland. I spent nine days running from pillar to post trying to get it done and spent around 3,000 rupees. I thank God my car has not been stolen, simply because it is not worth stealing, but many others’ have been stolen. Has anyone of them recovered with the help of the high tech number plates? I am inclined to doubt in the highest degree because we neither have the means nor the tools to trace, tract or detect the stolen cars’ high tech smart number plates. In my view, only two things resulted from those projects. Firstly, a few people made crores of rupees and secondly, those colossal failures must have flung us backward by decades in many ways . I see an element of random aping in the above enterprises.

Remember the Mughal Emperor Muhamed Bin Thuglak’s misadven-tures?. The above mentioned projects must have cost the State’s exchequer a humongous amount of money, may be not in the scale of Muhammed Bin Thuglak’s wastes, but still a monumental loss.

The Church is also not lacking behind as far as “Aping” is concerned. In the name of relevancy, we ape the latest worship style, latest praise and worship songs, latest style of preaching, latest futuristic church buildings even though church attendance is diminishing by the day. The congrega-tion wants the pastors to preach like those Tele-Evangelists, prancing, shouting and pacing the podium as if a tiger in a cage, preaching prosper-ity theology as if all our troubles will be gone at the snap of the preacher’s fingers, if we accept Jesus as your Lord. If the pastor is unable to do so then he has no Holy Spirit and it’s better to stay back home and watch God T.V. Do we have to ape even in the church? Does it glorify God and is it healthy for the church? I think it is worth pondering.

All these craze of aping, be it of the west or other developed countries reminds me of a true story that happened in the state capital. A man from a particular village and tribe,( village and tribe name withheld for fear of getting rejoinders) came to Kohima to visit his relative who was a rich and high government official. They lived in a very big and modern mansion like house and fed the guest the choicest of food but the relative feel very mis-erable. Even the toilets were fitted with European commodes only, and in the cold Kohima climate it was impossible to sit on it. Therefore, one fine morning the village man climbed up the European commode to do what everybody does sitting on a commode. The only difference was that he climbed over it and squatted on top of it as is the usual position in the vil-lage. The man was a heavy weight and the commode broke and crumbled under his weight. In the process the sharp porcelain edges so severely cut his private parts that he received 46 stitches. Thank God something worse didn’t happen. My question is, is Indian commode not good enough?

(Rev Dr Toshi Langu is an Associate Pastor at Ao Baptist Church, Kohima and has an inherent interest in illuminating the intrigues and foible of the

versatility of human life through writing. The writer can be contacted at - langutoshi@yahoo.co.in)

To Ape or Not to Ape

Story tELLEr

Little Meeva and Her Bulbul

- by Agnes tepa

- rev Dr toshi Langu

Reality CheCk

Bli

ss b

y H

arry

Blis

s

...when you’re the cream in my coffee.

coMIc fuN

MIrror tIME pASSACrOss1. Certain, steadfast3. A word used in the N.T.

that is synonymous with “kingdom”

6. A well-known, bluish-white metal, easily melted and very mal-leable

8. It was prophesied that Abraham’s descendants would be as plentiful as the _____on the seashore

11. “Therefore if your en-emy is hungry, feed him, if he is thirsty, give him a drink, for in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his _____”

13. Past tense of see15. What Jesus did in the

Garden of Gethsemane before he was arrested

17. One of the men that Moses left with Aaron to help the children of Israel while Moses went up on Mt. Sinai

19. The second child born into the world

20. Next to the last book in the New Testament

22. Great-grandfather of David

23. The seventh month of the Jewish calendar 1 Kings 8:2

25. A solemn vow28. Will most people go to

Heaven? “Narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are _____ who find it” Matthew 7:14

29. In Heaven, God will wipe away all _____

31. His brother was Asher, mother was Zilpah

32. We are to ____ and make melody in our hearts to the Lord

33. “Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the ____ of life”

35. “______, Father, all things are possible for You. Take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will.”

37. “For whoever desires to ____ his life will lose it”

40. This high priest had two corrupt sons, Hophni and Phinehas

41. “For Christ is the _____ of the law for righteous-ness to everyone who believes” Romans 10:4

43. Pulled up water out of a well

44. “We are unprofitable

servants. We have done what was our _____ to do”

DOwn1. “A harsh word _____ up

anger” Proverbs 15:12. This book follows 2

Chronicles3. “While the earth remains,

seedtime and harvest, _____ and heat, winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease”

4. “But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully ____ you, and persecute you”

5. “If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole _____”

7. Son of Omri who reigned in his place after his death

8. “How _____ are Your words to my taste” Psalm 119:103

9. Opposite of “yes”10. Opposite of “down”12. “The lamp of the body is the

_____” Luke 11:3414. The height of the window in

Noah’s ark16. Your tongue devises

destruction, like a sharp ______, working deceitfully”

18. Paul came before Caesar here for judgment

21. This is the moisture on the

grass in the mornings24. Tenth book of the

Minor Prophets26. When he heard

Haman’s decree, Mordecai covered himself with this

27. After the flood, he settled in the area of Egypt

30. His sister was Miriam34. Happy, joyful36. A winged, flying

creature38. Eve’s husband

39. Pilate knew that the Jews had handed Jesus over to him because of _____ Matthew 27:17-18

40. Partake of food41. Nathan told David the

parable of the poor man’s little _____ lamb to help David see his sin

42. A 24-hour period; “So the evening and the morning were the first ____”

MAny VArieties Of DAnCing

Answer in next issue of mirror Plus lAst week’s Answers

BALLETBALLROOMBELLY DANCERBREAK DANCECELTICCHARLESTONCHOREOGRAPHYDISC JOCKEYEXERCISEFLEXIBLEFOX TROT

HIP-HOPIRISHJAZZLESSONLIMBOLINE DANCEMAMBOMOVESORCHESTRAPARTNERPHYSICAL

POLKAPRACTICESALSASQUARE DANCESTEPSSWINGTANGOTAPTURNTWISTWALTZ

trivia: in 2006, this was the world’s most popular television show. it was rated in the top ten television shows in 17 different contries.

Answer:

To answer the trivia question, look for a word or phrase that is hidden in the puzzle, but not in the word list.

Little Meeva was a fair-haired girl. She had brown eyes and was very fair. Her freckles often went unnoticed because her glowing yellowish hair gave her a radiant look. Perhaps that

was why she was called Meeva, when translated in her native tongue meant enchanting tail. She had no tail, of course, because she was just an or-dinary girl.

Meeva was not a pet person. She found cat litters and urine particularly disgusting and she couldn’t stand the craps of puppies. She even once killed a kitten by accident. But that didn’t mean she was a rude girl. She was a good girl, all in all and scored A’s in school.

Although she was not fond of pets and never really owned one, little Me-eva always thought her Bulbul didn’t come to her by accident. This is how her Bulbul story all started.

Meeva’s cousin Revi, once, on his way to Ko-hima, found an abandoned nest with an aban-doned Bulbul birdie on the wayside. He picked it and gave the nest with the bulbul to little Meeva to play with. Little Meeva was instantly moved seeing the tiny bulbul abandoned by its family. She immediately made a home for the bulbul and took her in as her roomie.

From day one they got along very well. The little Bul-bul would sleep in a paper-box-home made by little Me-eva and in the morning if little Meeva didn’t wake up in time, the little bulbul would come close to her bed and chirp sweetly until she woke up. That became a delightful way to start off the day for little Meeva.

When little Meeva went downstairs to eat, she would carry her bulbul along and never let it out of her sight

for she thought there were notorious cats everywhere in the neighborhood and she feared if they set eyes on the bulbul they would mercilessly kill it.

Little Meeva initially didn’t know what to feed the bulbul with. But slowly she discovered that it was fond of roasted corn chewed by the little mistress. And the bulbul gorged on it whenever little Meeva fed it with corn.

Days became shorter for little Meeva and she always couldn’t wait to get home after school to see her little

bulbul. Her nurturing instinct as a girl was in full operation as she took care of the little bird. She

was so happy that the bulbul came into her life.

However, it turned out, one fateful morn-ing, when little Meeva was at the breakfast

table that the evil eyes of a black cat was upon the little bulbul. Little Meeva was totally caught

off guard, when the moment she rose from the table to grasp a glass of drinking water, a black cat out of nowhere, pounced on her bulbul. The poor bulbul cried out in pain and little Meeva was quick to come to its rescue. The cat was chased away after it was given a heavy beating. But the little bulbul was wounded

and little Meeva tried her very best to nurse it back to health. The little bulbul showed signs of

improvement and little Meeva was hopeful that her bulbul would be completely well again.

Nonetheless, one morning little Meeva woke up realizing that she was not awaken by her bulbul with its usual sweet chirps. So, she jumped out of her bed only to find her bulbul lying cold and stiff in its paper-box-home. Little Meeva speechlessly held her dead bulbul for some moments and de-

cided to give her pet a decent burial in her mother’s flower garden. Little Meeva’s little

heart was broken that day but her little bulbul cre-ated room in her heart for more love and she never forgot her bulbul though it was gone.

Inviting short story writers. Through this page, Eastern Mirror aims to

provide a platform for Naga writers to exhibit as well as hone their writing skills. Let the

readers be provoked through your art of story telling. Interested writers can

send their materials to easternmirrorplus@gmail.com

cAMpuS BEAt

Mirror Plus 3Eastern Mirror | dimapursaturday | september 29 | 2012

Y NYouthNet

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fOr MOre reCipes Visit Our fACeBOOk pAge @exOtiC sChOOl Of COOking

(L) Vizho Thakro and (R) Diethozo Thakro

Vizho Thakro (2nd left) with Zowe Madrigal