Chakma Phrases.. haha

When was the last time I visited my family in far away Arunachal? This is a painful question because destiny seldom unites me with my parents and birthland. Opportunities are very few and far between. During a visit in 2005, I gave prime attention to listen and catch common proverbs and phrases used by a native Arunachalese Chakma; here's a few gems LoL!

• prasansa goi le - huji naw awna, ninde goi le - monot doog now gorana
• issue gon hudo-hudi naw goojso
• jaguno jinis aani arunachalor namsing-gate-to phar go rei naw pare harab oi de (jagun=town on ap/assam border, jinis=goods, namsing-gate=name of border checkpoint)
• medera goot sil mela dile, nijoo heiyet goo uri pore gideh
• nari jatto Buddhoyo bujinapare, melagoon bari raak, phooljamuro saan (bujinapare=unable to comprehend, phooljamuro=cobra)
• mele goone sobono jinis se ni yo ma-gon, sennot tei rajayo burei naw eh-je (sobon=dreams, raja=king)
• jei shangma salaang goile u ossot, sei shangma punopok siri degele yo, habibo
• baaro aat baaj, sher hotta dileh, hanow hum nei, bana darbo (baaj=bamboo, darbo=firewood)
• soojo mu, huroloh mu! (sooj=needle, hurol=axe)
• bek darani hariloba, mui hungara tem hudu (darani=claws, hungara=crab)
• moh mobile-phonan puroon oiyeh, hisshunoi, chakma hodani tibire hodadi naw sunile abho! (puroon=old, hodani=language, tibire=tripura language)
• eh-dukkho dellot rong di patteh, yen gotteh hi eddok bej oiyeh deh! (dellot=grain pulses)

Did they make sense :-)?

Bodhi Tree and Blue School Bus

Our school was unique in ways more than one. It provided more than a desk, pencil set, textbooks and teaching staffs. It was our home. We were a family of 300 plus boys and girls hailing from Brahmaputra valley, Khasi Hills and Lushai Hills.

When I sit back and ponder over the school days, I am strongly drawn towards the Bodhi tree and School bus above anything else. I could see that the Bodhi tree is standing sprightly with a bountiful of glossy spring leaves and the School bus next to it, bathing in the golden sunrays.

It resonates in my memory the sacred silas and chantings we offered under the candle-lit canopy of the Bodhi at dawn and twilight hours. The Bodhicariyan community portrayed a picture of devoted, peaceful, progressive dhammic unit at such hours. We prayed for happiness of all beings on the face of the planet. From a Buddhist perspective, the Bodhi tree stands for universal free spirit. It is joy, it embodies rejoice in cultivation of awareness and compassion towards one and all. Our dhamma teachers taught about wholesomeness and being skillful (kusala) and encouraged the practice of anapanasatti to devoid the minds of delusion and negative thoughts.

The school bus was a brand one in a blue coat. It was a palpable object of pride for the entire Bodhicariyan community though providence seemed to play a joke on it. Our school bus did not ply around collecting and dropping school-kids to their school gate; instead, it had our educators and administration staffs riding on it everyday thru out an academic year! During my days as a resident-pupil, it used to carry out four sorties every day ferrying the teaching staffs, delivering hostel rations including fresh vegetables, sacks of rice grains and etc. It rolled upon uneven, dusty carriageways winding across paddy fields, wetlands and several villages where it was uncommon to find any other vehicles. The school bus was indispensable just like one of the organs in our body.

Visit Bodhicariya portal located at : http://www.skskolkata.org/

World in the puddle

We had a sprawling courtyard to the front of our bamboo house. Our family used the soft afternoon hours sitting on the open courtyard. I was a kid, kidding around my father’s knees. Our house was nestled in the farthest north-eastern extent of India bordering China & Burma. The Himalaya bounded us from the north, east and west. On a clear day, breezes combed our rice fields and the snow-clad mountainous peaks rose to lofty heights head-butting the cumulus clouds. The surrounding hills were covered with dense, thorny, impenetrable tropical vegetation due to the fact that our region received a heavier dose of rainfall than the greater rest of India.

In the region I was born, the heaven pours rain earlier than anywhere in India. My poor tiny feet always skided on the wet earth! My younger brother and I would dare the warnings of our parents and topple over each other body in the next moment. One or the other between us would sometime spill tears in pain. We were miserable, invariably.

We suffered the rigors of falls & skids on the courtyard, quickly collected ourselves and dashed to the local school’s ground. All other kids from the neighborhood came to mix and merry. We had fantastic level of energy in our little bodies. We could jolly tear down from one goal-post to another and still wanting to sprint one more race. You will notice that energy and intensity in your municipal parks with today's kids as they release their energy outside the classrooms when you involve them in any kind of physical activity. Kids enjoy maximum fun in open spaces.

Now, it is also very important to comment on the nature of the rainfall. Rainfalls are very heavy. They are typical torrential downpour that continues unabated for cruel hours. They are accompanied with bolts of thunder and lightenings. From the position of our village, a typical downpour to our north meant spelled a lot of trouble for the people dwelling south including us. The rivers would bloat and swell to a demon-size and broke away embankments, hutments and irrigated lands. Trails of destruction meet one's sight in the aftermath of the rainfall. Too many uprooted trees, arthritic bamboo groves, carpets of twigs, leaves and fruits along the roads. There's more. The hills appeared dull as if stripped of their might like a mass of forlorn buffaloes. Gradually as the sky picked color and sorted away the dense clouds, bird songs fill the air and the hills turned blue as if magically; blue hills upon blue hills resembled children in uniform going to school. Flocks of wild geese will also appear in the sky. It was a heavenly sight to see the white geese rowing in neat formation silhouetted against the blue hills. They were ease, calm, serene, united, disciplined and synchronized. What a lovely sight on earth! Could anything be amiss? Yes but for rainbows! Rainbows are elusive as the auroras but when they appear, they paint a picture fairer far! A rainbow was so natural to blossom in our sky. At times, they blossomed in a merry pair. Children of the Chakma tribe point to the rainbows and say that God is at work funneling water from one side of the mountain to the other or one bank of the river to the other or from a bigger river to a smaller one! As a child, I could feel the pulse of the changing surrounding. Do I imbibe that pulse today?

There is a funny part of me related to the puddles formed on the courtyard: a deep fear of falling into the puddle-worlds. It was purely quixotic of me to shirk upon finding a sky & clouds & my own reflection!!!

A few words

I was born in the farthest eastern border of India to a micro-community known as Chakma in Arunachal Pradesh. Our mountains receive the first daylights of India. In our region, the water of the mighty Brahmaputra is as chill as the Himalayan ice kingdom it emerges from. The grasses grow taller than the healthiest bushes of Rajasthan. I will be visiting my homeland very shortly, before the first burst of the Dussehra cracker of this year; where, the cows graze on sweet tender grasses by the sparkling rivers, where cumulus clouds float like the prosperous cotton fields of India's heartland, where at nightfall the moon appears rounder and bigger than a Kalahari diamond, and, balmy night breezes seduces you to dreamland effortlessly.

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