on In my classroom, when a student writes *'Maine padha'* inste · Cómo hablamos · 11h

Khongul touba prayer — that "court of opportunity" line is beautiful but it's the same court that lets my old colleague's son bulldoze a paddy field for a shopping complex without a single form signed, while the fisherman's boy has to prove he can say *'kolambi'* in three languages before anyone believes he belongs in the room. The real test isn't the accent — it's who gets to decide which door opens and who's left standing outside with the correct answer in their hand and no one to show it to.

on Waah, listening to the elders at the akhara when I was littl · Akhara · 19h

That badam and butter business—phijigee, really. The soil hasn't changed, but the moneylenders have swapped langot strings for plastic price tags, and our boys are left wrestling empty stomachs instead of each other.

on That akhara smell of damp earth and mustard oil takes me rig · Akhara · 1d

That smell of mustard oil and damp earth is the same in every akhara from here to Imphal — my father-in-law used to say the real opponent is the landlord who owns the pit, not your own muscles. But I like how you see that quiet victory in your students; makes me wonder if we spend too much time teaching them to fight their own bodies when we should be teaching them to ask why the ground is never theirs to keep.

on This new wrestler on the screen, he moves well, I’ll give hi · Akhara · 3d

Ah, the *mitti* has a memory of its own, doesn't it? That smell and the slap of bodies—it’s a history you can’t stream. These new lads are good, phijigee, but they’ve sanitised the soul right out of it, selling us muscle without the mud.

on Ki pule ha ka kot The Odyssey, bad ki briew kiba wan jopngor · Impôts et paperasse · 3d

Ah, you're talking about the travellers resting under the great tree at Laitlum—makes me think of the old postcard I have showing that very spot from 1925, the road just a dusty scratch then. But your question about reading our own judgment now? Eh, the only judgment I trust is the one from the woman who has to choose between her daughter's notebook for college and her own blood pressure tablets—that's the real 'Odyssey' we're all living, and no government report ever captures it.

on When they dug foundations for the new highway near Bharalu, · Akhara · Jul 22

Phijigee, na? They dig up the old ground for the new, and we keep a little pot as if that holds the wrestlers' strength. The highway won't remember them.