Month: February 2011

Hero From India.

“On a planet of seven billion people – the population we will reach in 2011 – who is the most typical human? According to statistics: a 28 year old Han Chinese male. The largest ethnic group is Han, and, with 1.3 billion people, the most populace nation is China. But the typical human is male by only a whisker: There are 1.01 men in the world for every woman. By 2030, China will lose its top population status, and the most typical human face will be INDIAN”
~NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, MARCH 2011.

I am sure you must be wondering why I find that amusing. Please read on.

This post came to me via email. Despite best efforts, I am unable to give credit to the writer. Many links are available on Google Search, but I am unable to locate the writer. I compliment whoever it is and thank him for the investigation and the spirit with which the article has been written.

Ziona Chana lives with all of them in a 100-room mansion. His wives take it in turns to share his bed. It takes 30 whole chickens just to make dinner.

He is the head of the world’s biggest family – and says he is ‘blessed’ to have his 39 wives.

Ziona Chana also has 94 children, 14-daughters-in-law and 33 grandchildren. They live in a 100-room, four storey house set amidst the hills of Baktwang village in the Indian state of Mizoram, where the wives sleep in giant communal dormitories.

The full monty: The Ziona family in its entirety with all 181 members.

You treat this place like a hotel: With 100 rooms the Ziona mansion is the biggest concrete structure in the hilly village of Baktawng. Mr Chana told the Sun: ‘Today I feel like God’s special child. He’s given me so many people to look after. ‘I consider myself a lucky man to be the husband of 39 women and head of the world’s largest family.’

The family is organised with almost military discipline, with the oldest wife Zathiangi organising her fellow partners to perform household chores such as cleaning, washing and preparing meals. One evening meal can see them pluck 30 chickens, peel 132lb of potatoes and boil up to 220lb of rice.

Coincidentally, Mr Chana is also head of a sect that allows members to take as many wives as they want.

Feeling peckish? The senior ladies of the Chana family show what it takes just to make a meal.

The wives and I: Mr Ziona Chana poses with his 39 wives at their home in Baktawang, Mizoram, India.

He even married ten women in one year, when he was at his most prolific, and enjoys his own double bed while his wives have to make do with communal dormitories.
He keeps the youngest women near to his bedroom with the older members of the family sleeping further away – and there is a rotation system for who visits Mr Chana’s bedroom.

Rinkmini, one of Mr Chana’s wives who is 35 years old, said: ‘We stay around him as he is the most important person in the house. He is the most handsome person in the village. She says Mr Chana noticed her on a morning walk in the village 18 years ago and wrote her a letter asking for her hand in marriage.

Shared bedroom: A look inside the four-storey mansion, Chhuanthar Run – The House of the New Generation.

Another of his wives, Huntharnghanki, said the entire family gets along well. The family system is reportedly based on ‘mutual love and respect’

And Mr Chana, whose religious sect has 4,00 members, says he has not stopped looking for new wives. ‘To expand my sect, I am willing to go even to the U.S. to marry,’ he said.

One of his sons insisted that Mr Chana, whose grandfather also had many wives, marries the poor women from the village so he can look after them.

I Am Not Even Good Enough.

After some respectable time after my achieving widower status, some well wishers have tried their hands at matchmaking for me. There have also been a lot of ribbing about widows chasing me or me chasing widows all over the world.

In this scenario, I was loaned a book written by a very incisive lady.

This is the book.

Just so that you can get a feel for the book, you can read these two fairly good reviews, from the Forbes magazine and The Sunday Times. The former gets somewhat bogged down in semantics but otherwise is quite readable.

I found the book funny and poignant in turns, but asked my friend who loaned it to me as to why she thought it fit for me to read. She said that she was despairing for me and thought that so was I, and this was her way of conveying to me, that all is not lost and that some one somewhere will choose me. Instead of her expected response, I am now convinced that I am simply not even good enough!

No, the friend is not looking for someone who is good enough. She has got a great husband and has been his wife for 45 years.

What do you think?

Skepticism vs. Disbelief

Welcome to the weekly Loose Bloggers Consortium Friday posts when some of us write on the same topic. Today’s topic has been chosen by Conrad.

I was a nogoodnik till, with great difficulty and two attempts, I got my High School certificate. My father gave up on me. My late mother did not. She kept nagging me to study and at least get a Bachelor’s degree. This was very important for her as, she felt that I had more in me than what my father saw in me.

After that, I started working and studying for a Bachelor’s degree through the then equivalent of distant learning. There were regular letters from my mother when she could not harangue in person to study and reach my potential. My father, when he came to know about my part time academic pursuits was skeptical.

Lo and behold, I got my Intermediate certificate on the first attempt and my mother was ecstatic and rushed to my father with the news. My father’s reaction was disbelief. He told my mother that her son was a liar. So, I got a letter asking me to send a copy of the certificate duly attested to be a true copy. With some difficulty, I got that done and disbelief turned to grudging belief.

My mother would not leave me in peace. Despite the fact that I was making and spending money and thoroughly enjoying myself, she kept nagging me to continue the distant education to get my Bachelor’s degree. Just to keep her off my back I enrolled in a course and when my father came to know about it, you guessed it, he was skeptical. The Gods were kind to me and I got that degree at the first attempt and my father’s reaction to that news was again disbelief. Just so that he could prove to my mother that his nogoodnik son was lying again, he sent one of his minions to check from the university whether I had graduated and when that was confirmed, he had no chice but to accept my mother’s glee and joy.

The story does not stop there. My mother came across an advertisement asking for students for a high profile Institute of Management and insisted that I sit for the competitive examination and when I passed that hurdle, the skepticism and disbelief till proof of admission was provided, repeated.

When due to some unavoidable circumstances, I was forced to relocate from where I was living then, I decided to accept the offer of admission and went for my MBA program. Skepticism was once again the reaction from the father. He told my mother that I would be thrown out of the Institute in a few months. When i survived the full two years and graduated, disbelief was once again present till I took the diploma home, along with a job offer from a high profile company who had recruited me via the campus recruitment process.

I have had first hand experience of skepticism and disbelief, Conrad. I have overcome both in my own humble way, with God’s grace and the nagging of my late mother.

There is a famous couplet in Tamil, my mother tongue, which translates to: “Greater is the joy for a mother than giving birth to a son, is when she learns that her son is learned.” I am glad that I was able to give her that joy despite skepticism and disbelief that she was exposed to.

My Scottish Connection.

The young man on the left is Simon and on the right is Craig. In the middle is my brother Barath, the proud father of both the lads.

In this, we see the proud mother Lily Scot between the two apples of her eyes.

This photograph was taken at the wedding of Simon on the 19th at Edinburgh. The bride Hannah and Simon are here after the wedding outside the church.

Usage And Abusage.

One of my favourite reference books goes by the title of this post. The author, I am sure would not have thought of this new shocker for me.

Our newspapers are frequently advertising a new Mutual Fund offering.
The advertiser is a highly respected and conservative, Tambram (Tamil Brahmin) family run company from the South of India.

My understanding of this advertisement was straight forward. Promoting a new MF. I was made wiser by my son who thought that this was hilarious. I was puzzled till he asked me to google for ‘Golden shower’. Before disambiguation, I was led to this wikipage.

I am now wiser by hindsight. I wonder if the Sundarams are!