Haunted places in Nagaland

Unfortunately this is not a spine-chilling Gothic fiction plot but if you have an inclination for the mysterious, the on-and-off phenomenon of possessed light bulbs, the deafening silence of fog-covered huts and offices, distant view of candlesticks and kerosene lamps burning on window sills signalling the perpetual fight against darkness and more sucking darkness, you could stay the night here and find out. Nothing to do with your favourite Hotel California either, although I rather fancy some of its interpretations. We also have mountains of skulls in our villages from those head-hunting days to entice you further, and if you don't believe me here is the living proof of a picture:

(Photo: J.H Hutton (1918 - 1923) Naga Database http://www.alanmacfarlane.com/FILES/nagas.html)

All stories that writers write are influenced by their personal experiences in some way or the other no matter how fictitious and deliciously sleep-inducing. Stories of haunted places therefore are perhaps inspired by real-life encounters with  beastly things and frustrated spirits particularly after sun down when Dagr rides away in his swift Skinfaxi (nah! it's not the new moisturising cream), or in some cases if one is specially anointed with the oil of extraordinary hallucinations. 

Our story of haunted places goes way back as early as the third or fourth day of creation when it was uttered, "Let there be light!" Before this very words it used to be really dark and really cold, there was nothing, not even ghosts. In modern times, people just swing their wands and spellify with a simple "Lumos!" Anyway, in those bygone days of Primordial Soup, soups could be scooped up from soup-ponds, naturally, and there was no need for electric stoves, candlelit dinners or roasted delicacies glistening on dining tables under blazing chandeliers. After many billions of years of natural soup-drinking, around 400,000 BC our greatest-great grandfather fortuitously discovered fire and roast beef and smoked pork and so on. Then came the invention of the primitive lamp right out of Flinstones' bedside table, illuminating caves and bats and there was no stopping our early mothers and fathers thereafter. The birds and animals oil lamps made their début and soon the market was flooded with competitive products of innovative inventions by Egyptians, Mesopotamians and Arabians and then the Greeks, Romans, Indians, Chinese and others.

However, the biggest blockbuster in titanic proportions was the box-office smashing  invention of the Candle in 400 AD with a lot of hard work from our friends, the bees. Although it was a bit messy in the early stages, the candle was perfected as years passed by and the oil lamp and candle duo have been serving humankind since....

I suppose it is important to mention about the inventions of Thomas Alva Edison and his powerful incandescent lamp too and the discoveries of Benjamin Franklin and Michael Faraday long long time ago but these have little relevance to our secret village life in 2010, the later discoveries are rather a source of nuisance for us. So what has this light and lamp history got to do with haunted places in Nagaland you ask. I am afraid it has everything to do with the matter at hand. I very clearly remember at least the last twenty years, how our villages and towns have been haunted by the ghosts of electricity and light bulbs day and night. 

Kerosene lamps also called paraffin lamps invented around 1850 replacing their Hellenistic predecessors are the brave warriors in my hut till today battling the woes inflicted upon us by the other-worldly creature, locally known as 'electric power supply'. I am proud to mention that we are in possession of two types of kerosene lamps - the old and faithful hurricane lamp and the stylish but fragile mantle lamp, and a host of thin, fat, round and short candles. 

There have been strange incidents like...

(to be continued)

The Village Microscope

                                                                      Photo: Nagaland

I believe this is a new type of microscope that has good potential to examine certain undiscovered or overlooked micro-organisms in some modern primitive lives and communities. You are welcome to use it any time. Although nothing as accomplished and magnificent to combat biological warfare threats or magnify things like anthrax-causing bacteria, swine and bird and man and cow flu germs, and nothing like equipments used in S.Holmes' line of business (unfortunately!), this new microscopification adds a rather annoying but sparkling tinge to our languid and dusty village life. I should perhaps pay a tribute to the hot Dutchman, Antonie Philips van Leeuwenhoek, for his kindness to micro-organisms, without his cross-sections life would have been one big ominous ugly blob.

It seems micro-organisms thrive against all odds and unimaginable hostile environments beating temperatures that can incinerate my lovely bones to nothingness in nano seconds. I am no microbiologist but this is hard fact, mind you. They could possibly be lodging in Mars too with NASA finding methane and all that gas or those deportee Martians must be cooking up something in their cylinders sending smoke signals years after Mr.Wells shot them back to the land of their redness. I truly admire microbes and their power of resilience and adaptation but there are dark forces, not Darth Vader or Voldemort in person, but diseases like social stomach-aches caused by unmonitored villainous activities of micro-organisms.

Anyhow, besides crimson alien shores, microbes also love chomping down compost piles (which is highly beneficial for my dear mustard) and jiving in foul-smelling corners found in abundance where I come from.

Of course, it is the natural order of things to thrive in muck and relish rubbish multiplication, and sometimes life's simple pleasures are found in rummaging garbage heaps and even dirty bazaars especially if you were a rodent of the animated variety. If only life was a bit more like that of the nice mice Emile's, scurrying around the sewage one minute and smelling up rosemary, basil, sage and thyme the next, reeling in his herbal heaven summoning thunder and lightning into his ratatouille.

This is a new sensational microscope trial in the court of my village's food consumer bazaar and its intricately chained microscopic market structure where demand always exceeds supply, where you can exchange your diamond ring for a plump tomato, diamond-(tomato)water paradox doesn't apply here, but you can also test-market your used iPad business here, throngs of customers I can vouch.

In the light of recent events exposing the lives of cabbages and chillies and how their pirate masters enslave them in those dark, musty, claustrophobic dungeons demanding the treasures of Solomon for a ransom from their poor parents, making the medieval ghosts of our tribal ancestors long gone scowl at us, we ought to storm some castles and cellars with our mental Daos - sharpened and ready. For further reference on these stories, check out the leading papers Morungexpress, Nagaland Post and Eastern Mirror using the keywords such as cabbages, chillies etc.

I just cannot get how kidnapped cabbages and chillies possess all the brains to do the calculus of iPhones and geometry of modern Taj Mahals but cannot free themselves by solving their way out their labyrinth and continue to be prisoners of unknown outside unnatural elements. After having travelled to Mars to consult with  Oraculus Microbeus, I still await an answer however, this new microscope's mission must move ahead examining the floor of these prison cells. I urge you to join the quest and pour in your potions of clarity and investigation!

Here are some additional news you can analyse with the Village Microscope:

www.easternmirrornagaland.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=27237&catid=27237&Itemid=54

http://www.morungexpress.com/frontpage/53289.html

http://nagalandpost.com/ShowStory.aspx?npoststoryiden=UzEwMzEwMzc=-AznfOkSr5mQ=