The Singing Mizo

Recently, after coming late from a funeral, I sat quietly and suddenly blurted out to my roommate.

"No wonder Mizo's sing well. We sing at weddings, funerals and every single social meeting. We literally sing every time we meet!"

My roomate shrugged " Really? "

I got all excited. "Especially when we wait overnights for funerals, we sing through the whole night!"

She looked up from her laptop, quizzed her brows, " Really?? I thought you guys just sat there quietly, you know, with the dead body and all."

And she sounded more appropriate. Staying overnight with a dead body with the youth singing the whole night?? It seems more like a celebration.

A friend of mine once joked about how we, Mizos wish and greet each other. A handshake for each and every occasion, be it good or bad. It doesn't matter if it's a wedding or a funeral, a handshake is appropriate for every single occasion. I remembered my dad greeting me with a handshake when I went home for my mother's funeral. He also greeted me with a handshake when we met after I finished my master's degree. I, on the other hand, greeted an old friend whom I haven't met since high school, when I met him at his sis-in-laws funeral recently. So I thought, maybe, it's the same case with singing. We sing when we're sad, when we're happy, when we are in love, when we fall out of it, we sing when we meet, we sing when we part, we sing pretty much all the time. The Mizo life looks like one big musical. No wonder we are known for our singing! And it doesn't matter if we're mediocre at it.

But of course, there will always be exceptions like a close friend of mine who once declared "Zai hi chu Pathianin min kohna ani lo tih ka chiang e". And true to his words, I have never heard him hit a right note with a single song. And yet, that doesn't stop him from participating in the choir occasionally. Wait, I believe  he lip-syncs with the choir!! He doesn't attract stares that way. Sometimes, I wish it could be the same when he sings off key at funerals and get-togethers. What can I say? He is a Mizo, just born with the wrong vocal cords!!

And tonight, as I punched these words into my keyboard, I don't even feel like talking to my roommate. Why? Because, today is an Easter Sunday and I just got back from a series of services filled with singing, singing and more singing. Just the church service had four different choirs, including the children's choir. And I had to go and be part of three of them. I know, I just sound overboard. But let me confess, I'm a Mizo. **Read: I love singing**.

And to sign off, here follows a picture taken a few years back from an Easter service here in Delhi. It has been doing it's rounds in Facebook for a couple of years now! Now that is what I call "The Singing Mizos." 

Competing with a yawning Hippo????