Little Box of Secrets

What’s the first thing that comes to your mind when people say “North-East India”? Is it the food? Is it the picturesque landscape and mountains? Or is it the culture? Whatever it is that you associate with this region, let me introduce you to a side that you might have never heard about – the mythical creatures from our folklore. Since I wasn’t able to get much contribution from friends in the other parts of this region, I’m going to focus on folklore from Mizoram. I have to admit, there aren’t many written documentations for these stories. Most of them have been passed along for generations through word-of-mouth, so you might find some inaccuracies in the details. Regardless of that, these creatures have fascinated me since childhood and I hope you love reading about them too. Here goes: Pheichham – Pheichham is the name given to a creature that is most likely a djinn or a type of goblin. The exact definition isn't clear since there aren't many written

Iliana woke up early in the morning, relieved and somewhat uneasy that she hadn’t had any nightmares the previous night. She sat up on the bed and tried to remember the last time she was happy. Ever since the nightmares came back a few months ago, she’d barely had enough sleep. Although she had gotten quite used to having them, they were particularly torturous and unrelenting this time round. If she wasn’t too scared to fall asleep, she’d be struggling to wake up from another one and losing energy in the process. She had woken up early that day because Sid would be coming back and she wanted to get ready for that. She sleepily dragged her feet to the kitchen and put the kettle on the stove to brew herself some tea. She hadn’t been cooking for the past few days because she felt weak, tired, and lazy. Instead, she regularly ordered food from a nearby Chinese restaurant. When Sid was home, though, she usually cooked since he didn’t like Chinese food – something about him that Il