She smiled at me.
Her eyes were brown and a lot darker than
her uniform. Her pigtails were mismatched and she was perched on the back of a
scooter with her brother behind her. Her cheeks were ruddy pink and when she
smiled, her eyes were suddenly transformed into little slits of crescents.
Little did I know that a smile of an unknown
child would make my day!
It was my usual walk - just a five minute
uphill walk to college. However that day I was tired… I haven’t slept well in
weeks and my sinusitis haven’t been showing mercy. I burnt my hand badly while
cooking that morning and things in the family haven’t been the best with the news
of an old aunt’s demise in Aizawl a few hours before sunrise. Yet, little did I
know that the smile of a little schoolgirl at Falkawn Crossing would make my
day. I smiled to myself as I walked up towards college.
It’s been a month since I’ve moved to Lunglei,
a little sleepy town down south. After exactly 11 months at home, I am yet on
the move again.I got a job offer from this Christian college and here I am now
in Lunglei, lodging with the family of my best friend in college (who now lives
in Bhutan) and sprinting on my way to work each morning.
I love my job. My students have a way of getting through to
this heart and I am so eager to go to work each morning. My colleagues are
wonderful to work with. If I’m not
taking class, I’d bein the library catching up on readings or conversing in the
faculty room with my co-workers, powdering my oily nose or dancing before the
faculty room’s huge mirror which makes my Barbie-like figure look like a
fat-mama joke! (Heh!! I’m kidding! I have a fat mama-like figure anyway! :D )
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| Me being me : Fooling around with a skit prop for College Fresher's day!! |
There are so many things I love about this
town. I can’t mention them all. But the fact it’s just five hours away from
home and that traffic is minimal in this town adds up to it. If I ever get
homesick, I can just hop into a cab and go home for a weekend. But I’ve never
resorted to such an act just as yet.
The weather in this town is as
unpredictable as my mood. It’ll be all bright and sunny in the mornings and
then suddenly, it gets dark and rainy in the evenings. Sometimes the fog here at
Lunglei gets me all gloomy, once it starts covering the hills. But most of the
time, I’m thankful that I no longer live in the scorching heat of the Capital. It’s
a bit too humid to my liking at times and the weather here at Lunglei has been
very hard on my skin, my sinus and my bronchi. Why!! I’ve just been diagnosed
with allergic bronchitis yesterday!! But
nonetheless, it’s good for my heart and my soul. Leitlangpui is indeed a ‘Mount
of Transfiguration’ for my physical and emotional being. I am so at peace here
despite my pimples refusing to show mercy!!
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| The view from the our Faculty Room. I lodge somewhere down there! |
But love dawns!!
I am seeing someone again... after two and
a half years of refusing to go out on a single date. There were times when
friends and family would try to convince me to meet someone. I would bluntly refuse
saying that I am not ready. After failing miserably in a five year long relationship,
I’ve become a cynic to the matters of the heart. Though I’ve told myself a
number of times that failure, no matter how huge it may be, should not maim me
or leave me an emotional cripple. I guess I never really convinced myself... until
I met him. He’s an imperfect person… a broken person (to be more precise!!) and
we would never complete each other without our “Third Cord” which somehow makes
it all the more better. The good thing about us is that we share the same dreams, the same goals and we speak the same heart language! Let’s just say, the best thing about us is Jesus
Christ.
God is good.
A year ago, I was scorching in the heat of
the Capital; house- sitting for a friend’s family for the summer; still licking
the wounds of a broken heart and listening to music whose lyrics sound more
foreign than Greek and Latin to me.
A year later, here I am in Lunglei,
thinking of ways to invent a special umbrella which would keep me dry from the
windy rain; planting squash and pumpkin in the kitchen garden; singing in a
choir led by my all-time-favourite Mizo Gospel composer; wearing boots in
August (because it’s actually cold enough) and meeting new people every day.
And when things don’t go too well, little
delights appear!!! Like the brown-eyed girl with that smile! God is good!!
So here’s a bright ‘Hello’ after going off
radar for a long time.
New Beginnings are beautiful. Indeed!!
From Lunglei, With Love.
