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Mizoram Emerges as a Rising Global MMA Hub: UFC Champion Joshua Van Visits, MISMA Fight Night Triumphs, and Lalthazuala signs Historic ONE Championship Contract

Mizoram’s combat sports scene is celebrating an unprecedented week of historic milestones, marked by a high-profile visit from UFC Flyweight Champion Joshua Van, a blockbuster local fight night, and a groundbreaking international contract for a homegrown fighter. Chief Minister Welcomes UFC Champion Joshua Van to Mizoram The historic week kicked off on the afternoon of May…

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Mizoram’s combat sports scene is celebrating an unprecedented week of historic milestones, marked by a high-profile visit from UFC Flyweight Champion Joshua Van, a blockbuster local fight night, and a groundbreaking international contract for a homegrown fighter.

Chief Minister Welcomes UFC Champion Joshua Van to Mizoram

The historic week kicked off on the afternoon of May 29, 2026, when Chief Minister Lalduhoma hosted UFC Flyweight Champion Joshua Van at his office. Accompanied by the Office bearers of MISMA, Sports Minister Lalnghinglova Hmar and Lt. Col. Clement Lalhmingthanga, MLA, the Chief Minister welcomed the elite fighter and expressed deep appreciation for his visit, stating, “Joshua Van’s remarkable achievements have become a great source of inspiration for Mizo youth,” wishing him a pleasant stay in the state.

Joshua Van, who is currently visiting the state on vacation, shared his gratitude during the brief meeting: “The Mizo people should know that they now have their own UFC Champion. I consider Mizoram my home, and I regard the people here as my brothers and sisters.” His visit—marking the first time a reigning UFC Champion has ever toured India. Joshua was accompanied by Rome Thalop (CEO of Thalop Group), ⁠ Dakota Hope(UFC Fighter & Trainer at 4oz Fight Club), Rohming Thalop (VP of Commercial and Home Lending) and ⁠Van Lian (Sushi Chef at SushiBoi).

A rare visit from the National and International heads


In another historic milestone for Mizoram and Northeast India, two top international MMA officials – Sharif Bapu (Senior Vice President, Asian MMA Federation & Member, Referee & Judge Commission, IMMAF) and Prasad Gaitonde (General Secretary, MMA India & IMMAF International Referee & Judge) conducted a National-Level Referee & Judge Seminar in the state during 27-29 May, attended by officials from five states.

Massive Crowds Packed for MISMA Fight Night

Following the courtesy visit, the highly anticipated Zonet MISMA Fight Night sanctioned by MMA India took place on May 30, at the R. Dengthuama Indoor Stadium in Mualpui. Jointly organized by MISMA and Zonet Cable TV Pvt Ltd, the event proved to be a massive success, drawing an overflowing crowd that packed the stadium past its capacity.

Chief Minister Lalduhoma graced the blockbuster event as the Chief Guest, in the presence of Sports Minister Pu Lalnghinglova Hmar, Directors of Zonet L.V. Lalthantluanga & Lalnunpuia and Senior Vice President of AMMAF Sharif Bapu, while UFC Flyweight Champion Joshua Van attended as the Special Guest. During his address, the Chief Minister noted that honoring Joshua “The Fearless” Van—the first-ever UFC Champion from Southeast Asia—was a matter of immense pride. He emphasized the ethnic unity of the Mizo, Chin, and Kuki communities, stating that Joshua stands before the world as a proud representative of their shared family.

Official Results:

  • Featherweight: Lalramsangliana (SPES, MISMA) def. Jeff Diengdoh (HR MMA, Meghalaya) via TKO
  • SuperLightweight: David Lalmalsawma (SPES, MISMA) def. Zacharia (Elite, MISMA) via UD
  • Featherweight: Lalnunmawia (SPES, MISMA) def. Lalruatmawia (Sete acadmy) via RNC
  • Bantamweight: Lalnunsanga (SPES, MISMA) def. Thangsanglian (Genesis, Manipur) via TKO

The event concluded with several local community organizations—CRCM, Chin Community Mizoram, Zofa Global, Zo Reunification Organization, Muaythai Association of Mizoram, and Assam MMA—presenting tokens of appreciation and honors to Joshua.

A distinguished delegation of state leaders joined the stadium crowd to support the event, including Ministers– Lalthansanga, B. Lalchhanzova & Prof. Lalnilawma; Deputy Speaker Lalfamkima; MLAs – Lalmuanpuia Punte, Lt. Col. Clement Lalhmingthanga, and Baryl Vanneihsangi, alongside Central YMA and NGOs.

Local MMA Star Nazareth Secures Historic $100,000 ONE Championship Contract

In another explosive development for Mizo MMA, undefeated local sensation Nazareth Lalthazuala has officially secured a prestigious US$100,000 contract with Asia’s largest martial arts promotion, ONE Championship.

Following three consecutive dominant stoppage wins at ONE Friday Fights, Lalthazuala earned his spot on the exclusive global roster. On the night of June 5, 2026, his exceptional cage performance further won him a $10,000 performance bonus.

Airport Welcome Planned

To celebrate this historic achievement, MISMA has fully sponsored Nazareth’s flight ticket back to the state. He is scheduled to touch down at Lengpui Airport on Tuesday, June 9, 2026, at 11:20 AM. MISMA issued an open invitation to all local combat sports fans, organizations, and supporters to gather at the airport in large numbers to give the undefeated champion a hero’s welcome. 

A Vision for the Future: MISMA Seeks Formal Affiliation

Though currently operating as an unaffiliated organization, MISMA continues to produce international referees like Samuel Lalrozama (a record holder for being the first indian to officiate in an MMA world championship and UFC Fight week); national officials like T. Lalrinpuia (President & Wrestling veteran), Lalthakima (Treasurer & Entrepreneur), Deng Thanchhunga (Technical Chairman & veteran Pro fighter), Lalrinawma (Technical Secretary), Andrew Zonunsanga, Lalchhuanmawia,  K. Lalramchhana & Robert Lalchhuanhlua , and elite professional athletes like Nazareth Lalthazuala, Zarmawia, Lalnunsanga, Lalnunmawia, and Lalramhlimpuii.

What truly sets MISMA apart is the sheer dedication of its leaders. Even the Referees and Judges often work without a salary, generously donating any honorariums they receive back to the association. Driven by contributions from its own management, MISMA hosts state championships and fight nights every year, with the leadership team working through the night to assemble the cage for every single event.

The association noted that obtaining formal affiliation under the Mizoram State Sports Council (MSSC) remains their top priority. They extended an open invitation to the state government to collaborate closely so Mizoram can regularly produce Asian Games medalists and self-sustaining professional fighters.

“Our ultimate vision is to bring a World Champion title home to Mizoram,” said MISMA, thanking Zonet, government bodies especially MSSC (PMJVK) and LESDE & Tourism Department, and their numerous local gym partners and sponsors like Elbruz Combat gym, PMS MMA Academy, East Trends GO East, RK DigitasRTZ enterprise,  Inkhel.com, Piece of Cake, Thangmawi Pre-SchoolAndrew Zonunsanga for making this unforgettable week possible.

Add these links:

MISMA: https://www.instagram.com/mmamizoram?igsh=MXcwbnU4aTd4Y3lqMA%3D%3D&utmsource=qr

MMA India: https://www.instagram.com/mmaindia_official?igsh=Z3YyNHp5MmYyY2Rj

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Bishakha Ghose: Author, Linguist and Conflict Resolution Specialist

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Bishakha Ghose: Author, Linguist and Conflict Resolution Specialist

An international negotiation and conflict resolution specialist, Bishakha Ghose brings together history, languages and spirituality through two decades of global work, two Orange Books-published titles and training programmes for organisations including McKinsey and IBM.

Bishakha Ghose, an international negotiation specialist and conflict resolution specialist, is showcasing two decades of international work, her published books and her language and cross-cultural training programmes through her official website, bishakhaghose.in. The site, headlined “Connecting Cultures Through Stories, Languages, and Time,” also presents her as an author, historian, cultural researcher, entrepreneur and registered antiquarian book collector, while her book covers introduce her as a museologist and linguistic engineer. Her work blends history, literature, spirituality, travel and human psychology.

The website also announces that she is attending the Frankfurt Book Fair, the world’s largest trade fair for books, underlining her growing presence in the international publishing conversation.

An International Negotiation and Conflict Resolution Specialist

Bishakha Ghose is an international negotiation specialist and conflict resolution specialist with a unique specialisation in manoeuvring conflict zones, from negotiations to reconnaissance to gathering deep information.

This expertise sits at the heart of her profile. Her website lists international negotiations, humanitarian initiatives, and programmes for migrants and refugees among her areas of work, and her book covers describe years spent in conflict zones around the world. Rather than treating conflict only as a hazard to be avoided, Ghose has built a career around understanding it, combining language skills, cultural knowledge and careful information gathering to work toward resolutions.

The same range of skills appears in the specialisations listed for the protagonist of her memoir-fiction hybrid, The View from the Forbidden Window, which include communications, resolution expertise, intelligence gathering and reconnaissance.

A Career Built Across Cultures and Continents

According to the website, Ghose has spent more than 20 years working internationally. Her career has taken her through libraries, museums, archaeological sites, humanitarian initiatives, migration and asylum programmes, diplomatic environments and international workshops. Her stated areas of work include translation, cross-cultural communication, international negotiations, museum projects, work with government institutions, and programmes for migrants and refugees.

That range of experience, the site says, gives her a rare global perspective that enriches every book she writes. Her guiding idea is captured in a line featured on the homepage: “A lifelong fascination with the visible and the invisible.” The theme runs through her writing, which seeks to uncover stories that connect people across cultures, generations and civilisations.

Her book covers add a more personal note. They describe her as having spent an undisclosed number of years in conflict zones across the world, studying cultures, safeguarding forgotten histories and decoding languages shaped by war. The back cover sums up her outlook in one line: “It is in conflict that she finds peace.”

Two Decades of Work by the Numbers

The homepage highlights four headline figures: more than 20 years of global work, two published works, more than five academic credentials and more than six organisations trained. Together, these numbers present a profile that combines scholarship with practical, real-world experience, and they give visitors a quick snapshot of her professional journey before they explore the detailed sections on her background, books and training programmes.

Academic Foundation in History, Museology and Languages

Ghose’s website lists five academic credentials. She holds a B.A. in History from Delhi University and a specialisation in Museology from the National Museum. She also earned a Post-Graduate Diploma in Industrial Relations and Personnel Management from the Government of India, an M.A. in Spanish from the University of Valladolid in Spain, and a Teacher of English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) certification from the University of Cambridge.

This mix of history, museum studies, personnel management and languages reflects the interdisciplinary nature of her work, which spans archival research, language teaching and professional training.

Linguist’s Corner: Training Professionals for a Global Workplace

Beyond writing, Ghose is the founder of Linguist’s Corner, formerly known as Leisure Links. Through this venture, she has trained professionals in specialised languages and cross-cultural communication, helping teams work with confidence and cultural fluency across borders.

The website says the professionals she has trained come from Sapient, McKinsey, Maruti, Rico, IBM and Elsevier, and it counts more than six organisations trained overall. In an era when businesses operate across time zones, languages and cultural expectations, such training addresses a practical need: reducing miscommunication and building trust within multinational teams.

Her Books: Memoir-Fiction and a Republished Legal Biography

Two works are currently featured in the website’s book collection, and the book covers show that both are published by Orange Books Publication. An Orange Books promotional graphic for the author lists the titles as available on Amazon, Kindle, Google Play Books and Flipkart, and directs readers to www.orangebooks.in.

The first, The View from the Forbidden Window (Vol. I), is described on the website as carrying Ghose’s signature blend of history, spirituality and human psychology. The back cover, where the book is categorised as fiction, calls it a bold memoir-fiction hybrid that explores identity, freedom, conflict and personal truth across cultural and geographical boundaries. Its protagonist moves through several specialisations, including linguistic engineering, communications, resolution expertise, financial manoeuvrability, intelligence gathering and reconnaissance.

The blurb also highlights her romance with an archetypal hero, a figure of courage and rebellion who is played in her life by multiple characters, and describes how she stands beside each of them through their turbulent journeys. The front cover shows a woman, seen from behind, standing at an open arched window and gazing over a desert and mountain landscape at sunset, an image that echoes the book’s title.

The second, Sir Chunder Madhub Ghose, K.T.: A Biography (Vol. II), is a non-fiction title chronicling the life of Sir Chunder Madhub Ghose (1838–1918), a distinguished Indian lawyer and Puisne Judge of the High Court of Bengal. He is also Bishakha Ghose’s great-grandfather, which makes the biography a deeply personal family project. According to its back cover, the book has been reworked and republished by Bishakha Ghose, while the original 1937 version was published by Sir AK Roy. It highlights the history of one of India’s tallest legal luminaries across generations, along with a successful family with roots in Kolkata.

Set in colonial India, the biography records his rise from humble beginnings to a respected career in law, public service and judicial life. The website notes that a statue of Sir Chunder Madhub Ghose stands today within the Calcutta High Court, a lasting tribute to his judicial legacy. The edition carries the ISBN 978-93-7426-397-6 and is also available as an eBook. For Ghose, republishing the book is both a tribute to her great-grandfather and a natural extension of her identity as a registered antiquarian book collector.

Workshops on Language, Culture and Emotional Freedom

Ghose also runs regular workshops in specialised foreign languages, cross-cultural training and emotional freedom. The website invites interested organisations and individuals to get in touch by email for details. The offering suggests a broader philosophy: that language learning is not only about grammar and vocabulary but also about understanding culture, building empathy and supporting personal wellbeing.

Online Presence and How to Connect

The bishakhaghose.in website is a single-page portfolio organised into sections: Home, About, International, Founder, Books, Workshops, Press and Contact. Visitors can browse a photo gallery from her international work, read about her background and go straight to the Amazon pages for her books. Ghose can be reached by email at tinabish@rediffmail.com, the same address printed on the back covers of her books, and is active on Instagram and Facebook.

What It Means for Readers, Learners and Businesses

For readers interested in history-driven non-fiction, for organisations seeking negotiation and conflict resolution expertise, for businesses seeking cross-cultural communication training, and for learners exploring foreign languages, Bishakha Ghose’s work offers several entry points. With two Orange Books-published titles, more than 20 years of global experience and an active workshop programme, she continues to build a body of work that, in the words of her website’s tagline, connects cultures through stories, languages and time. Readers can learn more, explore her books and get in touch through https://bishakhaghose.in/.

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Tiffyy – Built to Fix the Chaos Behind India’s Tiffin Economy

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Tiffyy - Built to Fix the Chaos Behind India’s Tiffin Economy

What started with one cousin’s tiffin service is becoming a management and marketplace layer for home-food providers and subscribers

Pune: Tiffyy did not begin with the idea of building another food-delivery app. It began much closer to home.

When the founder’s cousin started a tiffin service, one thing quickly became obvious: the unorganised tiffin market was difficult not only for customers looking for reliable homely meals, but even more so for the people running these businesses.

For a small tiffin service or a homemaker cooking from home, daily operations can become chaotic very quickly. New customers often hesitate because there is little trust or visibility. Existing customers want to reschedule meals, pause subscriptions or carry forward balances. Kitchens have to track remaining meals, collect payments, manage subscriptions, coordinate deliveries and respond to customers — often through a combination of WhatsApp chats, notebooks and spreadsheets.

Tiffyy was built as an attempt to simplify this entire layer.

A management layer for home-food businesses

At its core, Tiffyy helps tiffin providers manage the operational side of their business in one place. Subscriptions, meal balances, rescheduling, payments and delivery tracking can all be organised digitally, reducing the manual work that usually consumes a vendor’s time.

But solving operations was only half the problem. Home-food providers also needed new customers. That led Tiffyy to build a marketplace on top of the management layer, allowing customers to discover multiple homely meal providers, compare them and subscribe directly. Ratings and reviews are driven by actual orders, helping create greater transparency and trust between customers and kitchens.

One customer, multiple kitchens

Tiffyy also approaches subscriptions differently from traditional tiffin services. Customers are not permanently tied to one kitchen. Bored of eating from the same provider? Start another subscription with a different home-food provider. Want lunch from one kitchen and dinner from another? Take two separate subscriptions.

Customers can manage their subscriptions, track remaining meals and follow deliveries through the same platform while having the flexibility to choose different kitchens based on their preferences. The idea is to make a traditionally rigid tiffin subscription much more flexible.

From 10–15 customers to 150+

The opportunity becomes clearer when looking at vendors already using the platform. One Pune-based tiffin provider, Shree Krishna Pure Veg Tiffin Services, grew from roughly 10–15 customers to more than 150 customers through Tiffyy.

The example demonstrates what can happen when a small food business gets both operational infrastructure and access to a wider customer marketplace.

For Tiffyy, this is the larger opportunity.

  • Some vendors may already have an established business and simply need better tools to manage it.
  • Others may want to scale beyond their current neighbourhood.
  • And for homemakers who cook well and want to earn additional income from home, the platform can provide a way to start small without having to build the technology, payment systems and customer acquisition infrastructure themselves.

Building infrastructure for the home-food economy

Tiffyy is therefore positioning itself as more than a discovery platform for tiffins. It is attempting to build the management, trust and marketplace infrastructure behind the home-food ecosystem.

For customers, that means more choice, greater transparency and easier subscription management. For vendors, it means fewer operational headaches and a potential path to growth. And for someone sitting at home wondering whether their cooking could become a small business, the proposition is straightforward: Whether you want to manage 20 customers better, scale to 200, or simply earn some additional income from your home kitchen — Tiffyy wants to provide the infrastructure to make that possible.

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Book Review: She Refused to Break by Dhruti Mukesh Jain

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Book Review: She Refused to Break by Dhruti Mukesh Jain

There is a particular cruelty in losing the very thing the world has come to admire about you. In Dhruti Mukesh Jain’s She Refused to Break: She Was Beautifully Unbroken, that cruelty becomes the emotional centre of a story about a successful singer whose carefully constructed image of perfection is shattered by sudden facial paralysis. Published by Bigfoot Publications in September 2026, the novel follows a woman who must learn to understand beauty, ambition and identity all over again.

The novel opens at the height of its protagonist’s success. She is performing before thousands, celebrated online and surrounded by luxury, applause and an apparently enviable life. Yet the glittering surface conceals the insecurities beneath it. Her social-media persona is built around empowerment and confidence, even as she privately worries about maintaining the illusion of strength. Her devoted partner, Ved, is the one person who sees beyond the celebrity façade. The contrast between public triumph and private vulnerability gives the opening chapters their dramatic charge.

Then comes the rupture. After an extraordinary performance, during which she holds a climactic note for five seconds, her face suddenly ceases to obey her. The diagnosis is severe Bell’s palsy, or acute facial paralysis, caused by inflammation and compression of the seventh cranial nerve. What follows is not simply a medical crisis but an existential one. A woman who has made her face, voice and physical command part of her profession must confront a terrifying question: who is she when the body can no longer perform as expected?

Dhruti’s strongest achievement is the way she gradually shifts the meaning of “recovery”. The protagonist initially wants her old face and voice back. Eventually, however, she understands that healing cannot mean recreating the past. In one of the book’s most affecting passages, she returns repeatedly to the piano, relearning basic sounds—“Ah”, “Oo”, “Ma”, “Pa”—and refuses to measure progress by perfection.

The supporting relationship between her and Ved provides the novel with its emotional ballast. He does not merely protect her; increasingly, he learns to stand beside her while she confronts her own vulnerability. His insistence that falling is permissible but remaining down is a choice becomes one of the book’s central ideas.

The book’s most compelling insight is that resilience is not the restoration of an untouched self. It is the discovery of a self that can exist after everything has changed.

By the later chapters, the singer no longer hides behind scarves, cosmetics or digital perfection. She walks into the recording studio with her asymmetry visible and begins again. Her eventual artistic breakthrough is consequently more meaningful than a conventional comeback: she discovers a “new voice” rather than simply recovering the old one.

She Refused to Break is ultimately less a story about a singer defeating an illness than about a woman refusing to let illness define the limits of her life. Its final message is simple, familiar and, in this case, earned: sometimes becoming whole does not mean becoming as you were. It means learning to love—and live through—the person you have become.

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