At the recently concluded UGC-Sponsored National Seminar on “Narrativizing Cultures of the North East”, I was asked to give a small presentation (in absentia) about my experience as a blogger who blogs regularly about the North East.

1. Preface:
• This presentation is just a small part of a much bigger presentation.
• At the UGC-Sponsored National Seminar on “Narrativizing Cultures of the
North East” held recently at Government T. Romana College, Aizawl, various
scholars and reputed academicians convened and gave presentations related
to this topic.
• For a subsection of this seminar called “representation in the cyber space”, I
was one of the few people invited to give a presentation (in absentia) on this
topic! It was an extreme honor to even be considered for such a coveted event.
• Basically, they wanted me to talk about what I have done to promote North
East or create awareness about the North East using the digital medium,
especially when it comes to blogging.
• My presentation was edited and presented (in absentia) by my good friend
Rini Tochhawng, Assistant Professor, English Department, T. Romana College.

3. About the presenter (in absentia) – Kima aka “Mizohican”
• Been studying outside Mizoram since class 4, Computer
Science Engineer, dropped out from IIM-Bangalore
• Worked for 5 years at India’s no1 Digital Advertising Agency
• Started his own Mobile Games Development Company
• Been blogging regularly since 2004, one of India’s earliest
• Voted as the “Most Consistent Blogger the past 1 decade”
by Indi Platform, 2011.
• Selected by TEHELKA Magazine as one of the Game Changers
of India (2000-2010) because of his blog content
• Appeared on CNN IBN and various national news media on
topics about blogging and the North East

5. First of all…

6. About Blogging:
• The term “Blog” was derived from “Web log”, meaning an entry that was made by
a person or a group on the internet. It is a place where you can write about
anything you want.
• There a different types of bloggers – professional bloggers, technical bloggers,
mummy bloggers, foodie bloggers, music bloggers, literature bloggers, medical
bloggers, gospel bloggers and so on.
• Yes anybody can become a blogger.
• But the biggest misconception about blogging is that it is easy. Yes, starting a blog is
easy, but being consistent is the difficult part. Of the 500+ Mizo bloggers that I’ve
come to known the past 9 years, around 250 have stopped blogging entirely,
another 200 bloggers occasionally update their blogs. Currently there are just
around 50 Mizo bloggers who update regularly.

7. Narrativizing Cultures of the North East through blogs:
“On Kima’s blog, you can find wit and insight on complex subcultures of the North East.
Or wait a long, long time for our literature, cinema or the media to bring it to you.”
-TEHELKA Magazine,
“Game Changers of India 2000 - 2010”, a special edition.

9. Importance of being online, as a North Easterner:
More
awareness
about the
North East
Currently
150 mil
Indians
online
North East
ignored in
news
media

10. Educating the vast misinformed
Indian majority about the
North East
Source: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151839204317139

11. Twitter already has quite a number of people from the NE tweeting about our culture & news
Notable people like Bina Nepram and
Tracy Shilshi (CNN IBN anchor)
already has a huge number of
followers from the rest of India.

12. Even emerging platforms like Quora are being used to clear misconceptions about the North East

13. Facebook is a very effective tool to engage the public to a discussion about the NE

14. Blogging is another powerful tool to reach to the masses. As a blogger, you can create your own
online campaign with friends and see a lot of positive reaction…
Source: http://mizohican.blogspot.com/2009/04/chp-239-operation-aizawl-phase-1a.html
In 2009, I wrote a blog post
called “Operation AIZAWL”
because we were sick and
tired of seeing “AIZWAL”
written in every ticket-
booking sites. With the help
of other bloggers (aptly
called armchair activists) we
kept bombarding these
sites with mails after mails
until they changed the
name to AIZAWL from the
website.
Currently, there are no longer any ticket booking sites showing the capital of Mizoram as Aizwal,
thanks to the power of bloggers united for a cause.

15. Blogging is not limited to just the online world
Source: http://mizohican.blogspot.com
Many of my posts about the North East have appeared not just at other digital
platforms, they have been republished across various print media as well.
• My 2006 blog post “Chinky: What me insult?” was cross-posted at Telegraph
and North East Sun magazines.
• My 2007 blog post “Impression of a Christian” was cross-posted at popular
gospel magazine “Jesus Calls”.
• My 2006 blog post “Inter-racial relationships” was cross-posted at Bangalore
Mizo Association annual magazine “Chhinlung”.
• Apart from that, many of my blog posts have appeared in the column section of
daily newspapers like Newslink.

16. One small blog post for man, one giant leap for the North Eastern kind
Source: http://mizohican.blogspot.com/2013/03/chp-446-palm-sunday-blues-being-abused.html
A few months ago, I was racially abused by a police officer in Mumbai. I wrote a blog
post about it, inviting the police for a cup of tea where I could educate them about
people from the North East. This post was picked up by a popular news site First Post,
and I got immense support from everybody, such that the Jt. Commissioner of Police,
Law & Order, Mr. Sadanand Date, personally contacted me and invited me for a cup of
tea, where we discussed about the problems people from the North East face.

17. One small blog post for man, one giant leap for the North Eastern kind
Source: http://www.firstpost.com/india/dear-mumbai-police-can-i-buy-you-a-cup-of-tea-675667.html

18. Source: http://www.firstpost.com/india/dear-mumbai-police-thank-you-for-coffee-poha-and-conversation-678548.html

19. One small blog post for man, one giant leap for the North Eastern kind
Source: http://mizohican.blogspot.com/2013/04/chp-447-tea-with-police-and-aftermath.html
And it didn’t stop
just there! DCP of
Malabar Hills
personally came to
our Mizo Church
service to personally
apologize and
ensure that people
from the North East
are safe in Mumbai.

20. One small blog post for man, one giant leap for the North Eastern kind
Source: http://mizohican.blogspot.com/2013/04/chp-448-of-tea-with-cops-and-sake-with.html
Later, Mumbai’s
Jt. Commissioner
of Police, Law &
Order, Mr.
Sadanand Date
personally invited
us for tea at his
office, where we
discussed about
steps that can be
taken to make
life easier for
North Eastern
people in
Mumbai.

21. As one of our suggestions, just
before 15th August, North East
representatives of all 8 states
were invited to take part in the
flag hoisting ceremony held at
various Police Stations in
Mumbai!
This was done in order to build
a better understanding
between the police and the NE
community.

22. One small blog post for man, one giant leap for the North Eastern kind

23. One small blog post for man, one giant leap for the North Eastern kind
Source: http://mizohican.blogspot.com/2013/08/chp-460-happy-independence-day-india.html
It was a great turn-out!

24. One small blog post for man, one giant leap for the North Eastern kind
Source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/north-east-exodus-time-for-mainland-india-to-embrace-
diversities/articleshow/19533286.cms
This incident
had a lot of
coverage across
various national
papers as well,
inciting other
police officers
of other cities
to invite
members of the
NE community
for “a cup of
tea”.

25. Source: http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-03-29/mumbai/38125066_1_officers-malabar-hill-city-police

26. And all this started, because of just one simple blog post.
THAT is the power of blogging.

27. Over to you… 