i Am

  I as in me. A word like 'I' ought to be the most basic word in any language. The whole big world begins with I, right? The sound of I is very basic as well.

  Languages we speak are all about sounds, and the sound of speach has its own history. In-fact, history of sound must go way beyond people history. After all, sound is the medium of expression for many animals. That said, all languages ought to share some common history of sound.

  In the language I grew up with, me sounds like 'aeaie'. All vowel sounds. Vowel as in sounds such as - a, e, i, o, u. The english 'I' sounds like 'aie', vowels as well. Vowels are primitive sounds. We didn't invent them, we inherited them. Animals use vowels to communicate as well. All our languages inherently have vowels in them.

  Vowels are simplistic sounds. The sound of vowel lacks texture. They are produced by air blowing straight out of the lungs. They donn't involve movement of the lips or tounge. Texture of spoken sound comes from air being manipulated by the lips and the tongue. Such as the sound of - 'eaam' or 'kay' [M or K]. They involve intricate movement of lips and positioning of the tongue. They are consonants. They are more pronounced and have texture in them.

  I would think all natural languages have simple vowel sounds that signify 'me', or at least in their history. It is how nature has progressed, with a sense of sound as well, besides technology and all that. Anyway, that was some tit-bits about the word I.

  I am Sago. I am made up of desires. To experience and sense the world, and to express the meanings I find in it. A variety of experience brings me awareness, and they are important to me. They imprint sharp memories further intensifying my consciousness, my being. I along with peeps I share experience and memories with, make up my story.

  I express my consciousness and imaginations. What I become aware of the world, and what are the possibilities. I also express how the world makes me feel, and what I wish our world can be. It is how I find meaning of my existence, from the intensity of it. In the end, it's solely I who can realize what I experience, and it is solely my expressions that I leave behind.

  I am a software architect by profession, and my academic training is in applied physical sciences. I can build things, a wide variety of thing, and if I do I do it for amusement. Above all, my heartfelt zing is in writing philosophy. I believe the sense of awe and wonder sank into me when I was little. I loved water colors and pencils as a kid. I also took apart everything I could to be amused in finding what made them tick. Music means so much to me, it not only touches my soul but quivers every part of me. I play the piano, but not by any formal training. The sound of the piano pleases me as I put them together in a flow pouring out emotions. I would rather be blind than be deaf.

  I love life and live it full, up to the brim. I love people. I love seeing people do things, and meeting every possible variety that is out there. I usually care, and try my best to be kind. Plato said "Be Kind; Everyone You Meet is Fighting a Hard Battle". I can be moody and emotional, but I am friendly and easy going for most part. If you come and say hello, you might find me entertaining. I tend to speak my mind out. I don’t easily lie or hide. I think lies are meant for spontaneous life threatening situations, which I picked up from a chameleon. I believe - If we do end up lying, we must have the courage to confess so once we are past the situation that made us lie.

  My oldest memory goes back to the very beginning of elementary school. I sat next to this girl I liked, on the last bench. I used to play with her fingers, she had six of them on one hand. I still can see her in my mind. I was in the elementary till the beginning of 4th grade. Then on, I went to a boarding school far away from my folks. My home town was then beginning to get torn by war. War is the ugliest thing to witness, especially as a kid.

  I came to the United States from India having a job as a software engineer. That was in Atlanta, GA, summer of 1999. America looked so beautiful. Everything had such great standards. My first meal was at a Burger King, I was so impressed. Years later, when my folks came to visit me, they took pictures of that Burger King. I lived in Atlanta for 17 years. Today I am in San Marcos, CA.

  I was born in a valley at the foothills of the Himalayas. The valley is surrounded by beautiful crimping hills wrinkling the growing mountain. The valley was an ancient lake. Apparently, few thousand years ago, some clever explorers managed to drain the lake over time through trenches they saw possible. There still remains a huge exotic lake at the valley today. The trenches that drained the ancient lake is thought to be in an area called Chingnunghoot. It means ‘holing the hill’. A few years ago, I anticipated visiting the trenches to gauge my imagination. I was told of its inaccessible wilderness, which meant resources I didn’t have or couldn’t imagine.

  I admire the foresight of folks that endeavored to domesticate the ancient lake. A fertile land to cultivate, and incubate a culture wealthy of experience and expressions. Their stories lives on.

  A draining lake of that size at that time must have unraveled a thriving ecosystem that became threatened, and threatening as well. The stories of entanglement between humans and its inhabitants are surreal. The remnants of the ancient lake today is home to one of the richest biomes. It is unique in having numerous floating pieces of land, or biomasses called Phumdis. They are of varying sizes, some as large as the city I live in today. The Phumdis have their own ecology, and the large ones are protected as national park today due to rare and endangered species living there.

  The depiction of amphibious serpents of the past brings the mythical dragon to imagination. Ectothermic animals have cold bodies that rely on external heat. It is possible that the original inhabitants had some control over fire for their own comfort and defense, but it will be far fetched to think that they domesticated fire. Some large serpents are thought to carry fire heated stone in their mouth to start fire elsewhere, or to spew fire out in self-defense by exhaling their methane breath.

  There are fables of humans trying to displace the inhabitants, only to be consumed by landslides. The serpents are thought to be wanderers alongside the hills in an array of long tunnels hunting mammals, also to rest undisturbed digesting their prey. If disturbed by human habitation, they could have been capable of setting methane filled tunnels on fire causing vacuum and bring on a landslide.

  A large serpent sleeps for days almost paralyzed trying to digest a large prey. They also produce large ammout of flamable gases as part of their digestion. If disturbed while asleep, they are known to exhale or burp reasonable amount of methane like gases to easily kill men around. The stories describe humans vomiting blood, burnt inside out having inhaled the wrath of such creatures.

  The initial spots of land that emmerged from the draining lake is today known as Kangla, a little north to the middle of the valley. Being an initial spot of human establishment, it must have been rich with stories that can be unimaginable today. Kangla remains protected and preserved today for its historical significance. It is a place of worship as well. I met a local historian there once, she showed me an opening to a small tunnel that sank underground. She mentioned of the spot to sacred, where ‘Pakhangba’ makes its appearance. ‘Pakhangba’ is a symbol of worship. The tunnel starting there is though to have been once connected all the way to the hills that surround the valley. It is a land with memoir of surreal stories depicting the tangled existence of ‘mee and lai’.

Sago.
July 10th, 2019 CE
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