Getting to Kisama on public transport

Yesterday I had to get from Kohima to Kisama by myself. I was told that this year (it changes some years), the easiest ./ cheapest way to get from Kohima to Kisama for the Hornbill Festival without a private car is to first get a local taxi to the P.R. Hills Junction traffic point. Coming from the War Cemetery, the Hotel Japfü will be on the hill to the right and the massive Nagaland Police HQ building (see below) on the hill to the left.



Continuing down the road towards Imphal (with the Hotel Japfü to the right and the Police HQ to the left) just a little bit from the traffic point, the road will swing to the right. About 100 metres from where the road turns, there'll be a few yellow Sumos (the big jeep-like vehicles, not the wrestlers) waiting outside a "Network Travels" office to the left. These Sumos should be labelled 'Zonal Taxi'. (When I went there I saw many taxis waiting right at the point where the road swings to the right - I'm not sure if those were also going to the festival grounds.)

The cheapest way is to look for a yellow Sumo that's filling up and say you're going to Kisama. No matter what language you speak, the passengers will understand 'Kisama' (pronounced 'kee-sah-mah', with the stress on the first syllable). Some Sumos will be going straight to the festival ground gate, but many will be heading towards other towns, like Jakhama and Khuzama. These will still pass Kisama, but they'll only drop you off at the base of the hill and you have to walk up (it's only a 10-15 minute walk, but it's uphill).

Yesterday morning, I ended up getting a Sumo that was heading to Jakhama. There were 4 men crammed into the back row, 4 women in the middle row and 2 girls in the front row. Being the only male in the front two rows, the driver thought it most appropriate that I sit next to him.

The reason? When the vehicle's this packed, it's common practice to have a passenger sit with the gear stick between their legs.

The journey wasn't very long and it wasn't as uncomfortable as I thought it would be.

Except a few times when the driver went into 4th gear.

Hornbill Festival 2011 - Bananaga

Yesterday (Day One of the Hornbill Festival), I got to the festival grounds at Kisama with Canato and his cousin around 7.30am so he could set up his stall, under his label 'Bananaga'.


By late morning, after the festival opening(s), business was pretty good, with a near-constant stream of people coming to look and buy stuff. Lots of people were interested in his cards and bookmarks. And as I said to him, many foreign tourists would like his work because they show some traditional aspects of Naga culture (as well as modern), plus they're pretty and light and would make nice souvenirs or gifts for people back home.


He was also selling a T-shirt and bags. At 100 Rs a bag, they sold pretty quickly..


Canato chatting with customers


With Canato at his stall. I even scored a participant's tag but I gave it up since I wasn't really doing any work for him, apart from standing around and telling customers that he was the illustrator.


I had a lot of fun the first day, especially since I had a place to leave my stuff and hang about. It didn't help that I kept buying food and books. (Although I do admit that by mid-afternoon I'd whipped out my Kindle to catch up on some George R Martin.) I'll be heading down to Kisama later today to catch up with him - he spent the night freezing at Kisama.

I also got to hang out at the animators stall, where they let me sit and watch animated clips featuring Beatles songs.


They were mainly promoting a short animated film titled 'Man Tiger Spirit' which is based on traditional were-tiger beliefs. I believe the film's based on research done with Angamis, although many tribes in Nagaland traditionally had people who were said to share the same spirit as tigers (and other animals). But they didn't physically transform into them at the full moon or anything like that. They're premiering the film tomorrow (3 December) at the 'Hornbill Glocal Film Fest' to be held at the Heritage Bungalow in Kohima, starting at 12 noon. The DVD is in English and Angami and I think I'll get a copy.

These stalls were in the Bamboo Pavilion, and I was there early enough to see Dr K.C. Nihoshe (I'm not too familiar with local politicians / important people) cutting the ceremonial ribbon at 9.30am.




This year, Hornbill Conservation Group was formed to find ways to protect the few hornbills still surviving in the state. I'd read about them in the local paper and happily signed their petition.

This poster's also part of their campaign. I know male hornbills feed the female when she's incubating the eggs, but it's because the female's basically imprisoned the whole time until the eggs hatch...

Hornbill Festival 2011

So I find myself back in Kohima for Hornbill Festival 2011. Technically, the main festival ground's at Kisama, which is about 10km from Kohima on the road to Manipur, but there're festival-related activities all over town. It's not the easiest to get to by public transport and thankfully I caught a ride with a friend at 6.45 this morning. Tomorrow though, I'll have to catch a share taxi, but anyway...

As far as I know, the Hornbill Festival isn't actually a traditional Naga festival, but it was created to bring the various tribes from across the state (and sometimes the region) together to showcase various traditional cultural practices, which typically involve dances and games. I heard in a speech today that this year's is the 7th festival, and assuming it's always been an annual event, that would mean it started in 2004. Twice today I heard the event being referred to as "Festival of festivals in the land of festivals", but thankfully I've developed some tolerance for the hyperbolic rhetoric that characterises the speech of politicians in this country.

Here's a Nagaland Tourism poster, with some not-so-subtle advertising by Zumvü Printex, whoever they are...




The Naga Heritage Village at Kisama, features a number of replica traditional houses and morungs (traditional bachelors' dorms used by many tribes to educate young men before the advent of Christianity).


Performers waiting for the guest of honour ( the term 'chief guest' is more commonly used here) to arrive.


A Sumi group from the village of Khetoi performing outside the Sümi ki 'Sumi house'. I actually visited their village with the Sumi Cultural Association a week and a half ago and got to watch them rehearsing for their Hornbill festival performances.


The main performances involved three different groups consisting of 4 different tribes performing at the same time. Something to do with 'unity in diversity', but for people who weren't familiar with the tribes, you couldn't tell who was who, especially when the commentary was nearly always about a tribe putting on 'colourful costumes' and 'performing a dance' for a special occasion.

Last year I complained about tourists taking photos of performers like they were animals on display - I mean, if you're dressing up in traditional gear, you're going to expect people to take photos of you, but some tourists seemed a little more invasive than others. Anyway, this is my favourite shot this year of people taking photos of each other - if you look at the lower side, one of the performers is holding a digital camera himself.



I actually had a lot of fun, but mostly because I got to hang out at a friend's stall most of the time, but that's for my next post.

'Oodles of doodles' exhibition at Dream Cafe

(This post was meant to have come out yesterday, but I was having trouble uploading the photos.)

Yesterday I arrived in Kohima. I wasn't originally planning on being here this year during the annual Hornbill Festival (which runs from 1 Dec - 7 Dec at the Kisama Heritage Village just out of town). The traffic in town is terrible and getting to the festival site isn't terribly easy without private transport. And frankly - this coming from someone who is genuinely interested in the different cultures here - after a day or two of performances, all the dances start looking the same (the commentary isn't always that illuminating). Last year, I ended up taking photos of foreign tourists ogling these 'naked' Nagas like they were animals at a zoo (see here). That said, I am looking forward to seeing people compete in the Naga pork eating competition and Naga chilli competitions this year.

But I digress. This year I decided to come for a number of reasons, one important reason being that my friend Canato Jimomi is having his first public exhibition of his artwork at the Dream Cafe. Sadly though, I missed the grand opening at 10am on 29 Nov because I was still in Dimapur. The artist himself refused to let me take a photo of him at the cafe but his photo is in the Nagaland Post article here.



His work typically depicts children and is characterised by a blend of traditional Naga and modern imagery, with a few blends of traditional and Christian thrown in for Christmas (like the little shepherd boy in the photo below and the three Anghs / Three Wise Men here).






You can see more of Canato's work at http://canajimo.blogspot.com/
(Although given the internet situation in Zunheboto, don't count on regular updates while he's there.)

If you're in Kohima for the Hornbill Festival this year, Canato's also got a stall at Kisama where he'll be selling some of his work, including T-shirts, bookmarks and cards. And if you're visiting the War Cemetery, drop in at the Dream Cafe across the road - some of the artwork is still for sale.

Also, the cafe itself has a lovely view (see below). And wifi! Just be prepared for slow service.



Congrats again Cana!

The 'Oodles of Doodles' exhibition runs from 29 Nov 2011 to 7 Dec 2011 at Dream Cafe, next to the Kohima War Cemetery. The cafe is open from 10am to 5pm.

Wild gooseberries!

As I mentioned, one of the nice things about travelling by private car is being able to stop and look at people selling fruit and veg by the roadside. It also gives one the opportunity to stop and pick fruit growing in the middle of nowhere.

And it so happened that we chanced upon a lonely gooseberry tree on a hill. Technically, these are 'Indian gooseberries', though most people here just call them 'gooseberries', or amla, the Assamese word for them [correction: the amla is the Hindi word for them and amlokhi the Assamese word]. In Sumi they're called kholethi if I'm not mistaken. In Assam and Nagaland, I've seen posters advertising their high Vitamin C content and how they're good for your health etc etc.



This particular tree was just bursting with fruit. Our driver Huto ended up climbing up to shake and break off branches, which we then picked up from the ground.



The first time I had Indian gooseberries was 3 years ago on my first trip to Nagaland. Some kind person offered them to me as we set off in a shared Sumo from Zunheboto to Kohima. Completely unsure of what to expect, I found the berries both bitter and sour (and given my general preference for sweet things, my gustatory sense was offended twofold.)

The thing I didn't realise about these gooseberries, is that when you first bite into them, they're very sour. But if you drink water right after eating them, the water tastes sweet. Even if I don't drink water, I find my saliva starts tasting sweet too.

There's a story I've heard about gooseberries from both my Sumi and Ao friends (it's probably a tale shared by most tribes in Nagaland).

It goes something like this: in olden times, a group of not-too-bright people from some village trek down to the plains to barter for salt and other things not available in the hills. On their way back, they find some gooseberries next to a spring and eat them. After eating the gooseberries, they drink the water from the spring. Finding the water sweet, they decide to lug the newly discovered 'sweet water' back to their village. I think in some versions they even leave behind some of the goods they've bartered for.

In any case, it's one of those folktales about a group of not-very-bright people said to exist somewhere.

And on that note, here's a pretty picture I took that morning we picked gooseberries.

On the road: Nagaland (I)

On of the advantages of travelling by private car and not by Sumo (the most common type of vehicle for inter-town travel) in Nagaland, is that you can stop at the roadside stalls anytime to buy fresh fruit. I was fortunate enough to be able to catch a ride with Ab. and her dad from Dimapur to Kohima exactly 2 weeks ago.

Visitors heading up to Kohima from Dimapur to attend this year's Hornbill Festival will no doubt see a few of these pineapple stands on the way.





Between Kohima and Zunheboto we also stopped outside the gate to the village of Usütomi, where some of the villagers were selling produce. (Usütomi was one of the villages I got to visit last year to do a few recordings.)





On offer were oranges, pumpkins, wild brinjals, chillis and some jungle greens.



There were also a few types of yam, as well as large ginger - the village takes it name from the kind of ginger grown there, ausü (Drop the ubiquitous a- prefix and you get usü. Add to which means 'hill', since the village is on a hilltop, like most settlements here. The mi means 'person / people' and is sometimes dropped when people talk about the village itself, not some villages seem to always keep the mi.)



Of course, having a car is no guarantee that things will go according to plan.



Our car had a flat just a few hours out of Dimapur. As is standard practice, there was a useable spare in the car. Given how hopeless I am around machines, I let Ab.'s father and their driver sort out the car business.



But with hours of travel still ahead of us (some of it through knee deep water), it was thought prudent to get the tire repaired just outside Kohima. While waiting for the tire to be fixed, Ab. and I ducked into a nearby rest stop for, surprise surprise, a cup of cha.



They're nothing much to look at, and the toilets are often pretty gross, but I quite enjoy these little rest stops.


In the end, we decided to spend the night in Kohima, given that the new quicker route to Zunheboto wasn't terribly safe to drive along at night (did I mention the car had to cross a river?)

And it was just as well, because the next day, we had another flat just a few hours out of Kohima!

Plans, programmes and projects

Generally, if I wanted to know what someone else was up to at a later point in time, I'd probably ask them, "Do you have any plans for today / tomorrow / later?" or "What're your plans for today / tomorrow / later?"

Except when I'm in India. Here, it was far more common for people to ask, "What is your programme for today / tomorrow?" Consequently, it's what I've come to ask people too.

The first time I heard the word 'programme' used in this context, it sounded as if my life was some sort of show with carefully scheduled performances throughout the day. Ironic of course, given that in my experience of India, nothing has ever run according to schedule - I was once booked to catch a train that turned out to 13 hours late. As a friend pointed out, "Back home, we'd called that train 'cancelled'.

However, the words 'programme' and 'plans' are not always interchangeable. For instance, today my host here in Dimapur was explaining to his sister-in-law that we were running late because "we had a programme at 3.30". In that particular context, I would've said "something came up at 3.30".

On a related note, hearing the word 'programme' used in this context reminded me of when I was on exchange in Lyon. One of the French professors said during orientation that in French, you didn't ask someone "Avez-vous des plans?" but "Avez-vous des projets?" if you meant 'Do you have any plans?", the French word projet being a cognate of English project. (This I believe is for a more formal register of French.) In any case, I wonder if French learners of English often mistakenly ask people if they have any "projects" on for the day...