“Never try to destroy someones life with a lie when yours can be destroyed by the truth……….”
Being around with this tough time of COVID where people have to face lockdowns quarantines and situations where people are in mental or emotional distress. I thought of talking about the word “Defamation” as this is something that we might normally face while we start leaving with our friends or move to a hostel away from our home.
What does the word defamation exactly means: Defamation is typically defined as a false statement someone makes about you, which they publish as a statement of fact, and which harms your personal and/or professional reputation or emotional distress. One can give their opinions or make statements which they believe are true maybe about politics, geography or history that won’t be a slander statement. There is a Defamation lawsuit that protects an individual from filing a case for false accusations.
Here I am not interested in going deep about the law but I just wanted to point to the certain fact that we all in our daily life may have faced a situation where we are falsely accused or picturized to prove innocense or for self boosting or to avoid a situation someone or a group. This is common not just between friends but also family we might also have boosted certain situation and elaborated it to acquire more attention or for fun. But this is not the case when we talk about a person. Consider the case where the person who is been wrongly picturized comes to know about this, how much mental distress the person may face.
The fact is that we cannot change a person’s attitude but we can change ourselves, just change the way we think instead of thinking or living according to what others are comfortable with life the way you want to live your life. There may be a thousand bows aimed with opinions against you but if you live your life according to your choice that’s where happiness lies, let others say about you, let them criticize you just enjoy the gossips.
“Ships dont sink because of the water around them. Ships sink because of the water that gets in them. Don’t let whats happening around you get inside you and weigh you down.”
Inspired from an article recently published in an International Daily
Indian Express
2020 is coming to an end, with the virus remaining at its peak level; it does not care about race, color, nation, gender. The virus is here to show us that all humans are equal and fair. And the question is are we gonna remember this in the future??
This has been the strangest year. A year that made us aware of loneliness, which introduced us to a new world with face masks, anxiety, depression, and a lot. A year which taught the importance of mobile phones and social media with even our grandparents starting to use smartphones, the importance of using sanitizers, the list won’t end if we start looking at each and every aspect.
I feel this disease is more dangerous than AIDS which needs some kind of contact for transmission, but the strange virus can be easily transmitted without any contact and may be even through just talking. I still remember the time when the images came showing empty streets in Wuhan, China where lockdowns were made in effect. We still hoped that miracles would happen that the virus would ignore us. It didn’t! The virus became a worldwide threat with all the 195 countries in the world been affected that too with different phases.
Lockdowns were the worst part with people isolated at home, I could recall my uncle saying he hasn’t gone to town since last March and it’s been almost 9 months. Do people care less about life is the very next question that came to my mind? With no vaccines available the only measure taken were: face masks, social distance, and sanitizing. The weird thing is that people started being a rebel against all this and started gathering at streets with protests. There is a famous saying by Buddha ” You only lose what you cling to“. When restrictions were partially relaxed people ran into cities, parks, started organizing parties, this may be important, but above all life is more important that’s what I feel.
Talking about India, where I am from its been the worst, with never seen case of migrant workers moving to there home, with some walking for days and month and some dying before reaching home. Scientists are on full swing to find a vaccine, so one thing is for sure all nations are not united for this aswell. Rich countries buy more than they need, Politics still remaining the same.
With the virus at its peak, which started at the end of 2019 which is named as COVID 19, with the new variant of the same found at the end 2020, let’s hope that this does not be a cycle.
“Some beautiful paths can’t be discovered without getting lost” — Erol Ozon
This particular post here relates to a go back to the place where I was born and where my journey started almost after 10 years. This trip happened after I had decided to move to Canada after my graduation from college and it was to the northeastern part of India, Nagaland which is a hill vibrant state. It is a home for 16 tribes and all speaking different languages and the state which has its official language to be English.
Even though being born in this beautiful place, it is at this time that I truly explored the beauty of this place and so thought of sharing my experince. In order to boost tourism, most of the northeastern states including Nagaland require a permit for entry to the respective state for domestic travels we should acquire an Inner Line Permit to gain entry into the state. Fully excited I started the journey from my hometown which is in the Southern part of India, the state described to be as the land of God(Kerala) to the hill tribes of Northern Indian (Nagaland) which is approximately at a straight line distance of 1592 miles.
The closest railway station and airport (in Nagaland) is in Dimapur from where you have to take a taxi for moving on to any other city. It is a 74kms travel by road from Dimapur which is the largest city of Nagaland to Kohima which is the capital of Nagaland and it is where my parents live. This is the toughest part because you have to resist yourself from throw up, as it is a zig-zag road and it takes almost 3 hours to reach your destination (Kohima).
Kohima is the second largest city of Nagaland, the climate here is usually cold and even during summer, the temperature does not rise about 30 degrees. Most of the traditional houses in Nagaland have wooden flooring in order to make us comfortable during the winter season as it is too cold and not everyone could afford a centralized AC. I stayed along with my parents who lived in a government-owned quarters as my father worked in the police department.
Things have changed a lot more multistoried buildings have come up, previously I could easily see my church (Kerala Christian Church), the Doordharsan Kendra and a lot from my place, but now interestingly we had a girls hostel straight in front of our quarters, blocking all the views.
Nagaland Food
The people here prefer to steam their food rather than frying it up. As I have said there are 16 tribes all of them have different styles of cooking food where is spiciness is more common they prefer more spicy food.
Some of the common food of this place is pork cooked with soya beans along with rice and chutney or pork cooked with snails and silkworm larvae and also curry with potatoes crushed along with tomato.
For me my mother cooked all those superb Kerala dishes it was a great experience for me as I started staying in the hostel from my 6th grade and now I am getting all those homemade food and nothing to do just relaxing (nothing to worry about because I am in save hand under the protection of my parents).
“One cannot think well, love well, sleep well if one has not dined well”- Virginia Woolf
Even though I am grown up now, my parents still don’t want me to go out alone to visit other places, so I had to wait for weekends to come so that my father will be off from work and we could all for an outing.
I started by visiting my school, but it was winter vacation, and schools where closed I didn’t find much change to my school though, they added up a basketball court and a new block was under construction.
Kohima War Cemetery
The Kohima War Cemetery was built in 1944 to mark the death of soldiers in the second world war. According to reports, there are almost 1420 burials of those who died in the Second world war. This is a place of great tourist attraction because it says about ancient history. This is situated in Garrison Hills so trekking is another specialty of this place.
Kohima Cathedral Church
My next spot was to the oldest catholic church of northern India another major specialty of this place is its 16 feet carved wood crucifix is one Asia’s largest crosses.
The expense of constructing the cathedral was taken by the Japanese people who wished to construct a monument for the Japanese Army who died in the Battle of Kohima during the second world war.
Raj Bhavan
Raj Bhavan is the official residence of the Governor of Nagaland. The major attraction here is Gnat aircraft presented by the AOC-in-C, the Eastern Air Command in 1991. In addition, there is a statue of Assam Rifles jawan helping a lady and her son.
Hornbill Festival
Also called the “Festival of Festivals” Hornbill festival is held every year from December 1 to 10 in Nagaland. This usually happens in Nagaland Heritage Village in Kisama which is 12kms from Kohima. The aim of this festival is to revive and protect the rich culture of Nagaland and display its tradition.
For visitors, it is an understanding of the culture of Nagaland and a chance to experience the food, songs, dances, and customs of Nagaland.
The other major attractions are the food stalls, craft works, the beauty contest, and also the night concert.
Stone Pulling Ceremony
The stone pulling ceremony is practiced by the Angami tribe. Traditionally performed only by men in full traditional attire to pulla stone weighing 12 tons to about 3kms. The top five wrestlers of the community stood above the stone adding some weight to the stone.
This ceremony is held as part of the Hornbill Festival, the ceremony symbolizes forgiveness, friendship, peace and reconcile, to mark the feeling that the village had before the coming of the gospel to the village.
It was so much fun and I could not beleive that one month has passed and its time for me to go back and start preparing to move on to the next destination i.e Canada which is the second-largest country in the world in area.
” The saddest part of life lies not in the act of dying but in failing to truly live while we are alive” – Robin Sharma
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