Mr. NEICHUTE DOULO: is one name that has had a lasting impression on us. He is a dreamer who followed his dreams; a nonconformist yet a believer of values, a Naga hero. Neichute cleaned toilets in his college days. He along with his friends took awareness drive of clean toilet. How and why toilets should be kept clean. He had worked as porter. He sold newspapers and ice-creams. Why would he run to return back change to a fellow Naga? This was when he was working as a porter. People would give him extra money out of benevolence. To see a fellow Naga working as porter seemed to have kindled their spirit of kindness.Was it for food? Was he poor? No, Neichute was not that poor. His family has all the comforts that one could have in a Naga village. He wanted a change in his society. So he begins the change from himself. When no Naga dared to do manual job, Neichute did it. He brought back the dignity of labour that was lost, which was intrinsic in Naga society. He broke the myth that Nagas are lazy. He argued that the Nagas were in the forefront who served as excellent soldiers in the Second World War. Their zeal of workmanship somehow got trampled with the current of time. Neichute believes in reviving the lost treasure. So, where do Neichute stand now? He now heads the conglomerate of entrepreneurs in Nagaland. He has helped to groom many self-help groups and entrepreneurs through micro finance. No wonder, Neichute was declared ‘Naga of the Year’, twice by Naga Mothers. We heard him speaking for the first time at the inaugural session of this year’s Chinjak Festival. He was invited as a special guest. His oratory skill is outstanding. We would say, he would outrun many of our microphone heroes in Imphal, or Manipur for that matter. We heard a northeast voice speaking with conviction and vision. Neichute exhorts to challenge the myth of ‘land locked’ that the infantile planners of New Delhi once endorsed. Time has come to get away from the dependency syndrome to the so called mainland. Northeast is not landlocked, as they say, we are land-linked. Time has come for us to foster our lost ties. The future of the northeast lies in the unity of the neighbors. We should see the mainland as our market. Neichute spoke with a sense of purpose. We at the Leipung were stirred to share a chat with him. He was ready to share so many things in spite of him getting late to be back in the hotel. Here is a man, as someone has rightly put, that in a globalized world the local is the new modern. We share that. Yes, Chinjak Festival is coming to an end. But we believed idle days should not come.
FOOTNOTE: whatever happens to the amount of money pumped in to the home department for recruitment of police personals, for up gradation of weaponry and the constabulary? For the amount of noise that they make for fighting insurgency, there is always a louder noise. Noise that kills people, innocent people right under the nose of Home Minister, LeipungNingthou calls it, “khoichopingaida yuhaar haaba khangdaba”.