North Easterlies - 2

Early diagnosis and proper medication can cure leprosy. Incentives to pregnant mothers who take Zidovudine(I guess I got the name right). These are some of the huge, high visibility banners that caught my eyes in Kohima. I have never come across such banners anywhere else in the country. These banners say a lot about the broad contours of the challenges in public health here. Looks like much work needs to be done. I am reminded of the Amartya Sen/Jean Dreze’s words in their book - India: Development and Participation. They resist us from jumping to the models in other developed nations and trying to implement them in our country. Rather, they say, within our country itself we have islands of excellence and the others can learn from them. For example there is a Madhya Pradesh that can teach Bihar how to go about improving its literacy; We have got a Himachal that can provide models for socio-economic progress in Orissa.

There was also a banner “Plant tree with your jhum cultivation”. Jhum or slash-and-burn or shifting cultivation is practised in the Nagaland region. Just as the term conveys, stretches of lands are burnt down and then farming is done on the land cleared this way. No modern implements are used for agriculture. After a few crops when the productivity of the land hits the rock bottom, the farming is shifted to another patch of land. Again, the new patch is cleared by setting the forest on fire. Naturally, this causes serious damage to the nature. But its taking really good efforts to stop such a practice as it is not just agricultural, but cultural.

We got another glimpse of the Naga culture when we were presented with a few Naga dances and songs. The first one was a group song by a dozen old women. The song related to the harvest season and was generally sung during the pounding of grains. This song by these dozen grannies too, just like that of Three Sisters (that's how the three young lady performers of the previous dinner were introduced to us) was very simple yet captivating. The overall technique and style is this – very simple tunes/lyrics, one sub-group starts the song and keeps singing, the other sub-group follows it with a time lag. The effect is astounding. Then came the group dance by the young folks, men and women with their cool moves. Along with the dance, there is a surprise bonus waiting for all those ethanol lovers in you.

The evening was topped with a satisfying dinner. The hosts had tried to make some rotis too. This was a significant relief for all those chappati-oriented-people, who had had a real tough time ever since we entered the Northeast a week back. The staple food here is rice. However, this region is a paradise for the non-vegetarians especially the fish-eaters and the pork-lovers. It was about 9PM when I got into my Naga cottage. We stayed in a tourist village called Tuofema about 40KMs from Kohima. Here they try to keep things the traditional way and every cottage was designed like a Naga hut. Interestingly each tribal group had their own style of huts. By the time I was ready to sublime into the world of sleep inside the cozy quilt the breeze outside had turned into a haunting wind. Good night Nagaland!

That feelings-confusion I had on my way up to Kohima had vanished. What remains is the apprehension if I will ever get a chance to be back to Nagaland. I do not know; probably I might not be lucky enough to be at Tuofema again. But given a chance you grab it without fail. This Land of Festivals is for sure going to make you a better person; a more matured Indian.

(Gangtok. March 11, 2010)