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| | BOOK EXCERPTS: The strength of the naga woman | | | In the picturesque district of Mokokchung in Nagaland, Syeda Hameed and Gunjan Veda came face-to-face with the dynamic Ao women and took part in an event that celebrated their strength. In this excerpt from their book, Beautiful Country – Stories From Another India’, they unveil the exceptionally talented Ao Naga women and also talk about how the tiny northeastern district of Mokokchung has set an example for the rest of the country by caring and nurturing its girls.
A year and a half later, we returned to Nagaland, entering through the winding road which goes from Jorhat in Assam to Mokokchung District. The picturesque district with resplendent blue-green mountains is home to the Ao Naga. It is said that the term ‘Ao’ means ‘going’ or ‘gone’ and refers to the group of Naga migrants who left their original settlement and crossed the river Dikhu.
Mokokchung was the first district in Nagaland to embrace Christianity. Education was introduced early, and hence it has high literacy rates. The district has yet another distinguishing feature. In a country where the female foetus is increasingly being destroyed in the womb, it has the distinction of having the highest sex ratio. The Ao Naga love and nurture their girl children.
As we entered the district headquarters of the town Mokokchung, we were greeted by hundreds of cheerful women sporting the Ao colours – red sarongs and deep blue shawls. Their hair was knotted with black-and-white tassels. Necklaces of ochre and aquamarine beads with silver spikes were strung around their necks. They were members of the Watsu Mundang, the Apex organization of the Ao women. It was on their invitation that we had returned to Nagaland.
It was 20 April 2007, a day to celebrate. The Watsu Mundang had completed twenty-five years. ‘What is the Watsu?’ we asked Dr Chubatola Aier, a slim, middle-aged Ao woman with a ready smile. She was the president of the Watsu. ‘It is a woman’s organization. All Ao women are members; a membership fee is collected from girls who cross the age of eighteen,’ she explained. ‘We work on issues which concern us, such as the Total Prohibition Campaign in Nagaland.’ We had long heard and read about the strength of the Naga woman, and today we were to take part in an event that celebrated their strength.
The community hall was filled with people; 2,000 women and 1,000 men. We marvelled at the discipline with which they had sat for the entire three-hour-long inaugural ceremony. A small choir sang hymns in the most mellifluous tones. Throughout the morning, not a single cell phone rang. No one moved, no one talked or walked out of the hall. This gracious discipline is unheard of in most other parts of the country. One by one, the women pioneers of the Ao tribe were commemorated: the first woman graduate, teacher, dentist and doctor.
That afternoon, we once again basked in the warmth of Naga hospitality. They were meticulous in their care of every detail – from the beautiful bed linen and towels that they had brought from their homes to the meals that were carefully served by the Watsu members. Given the fact that their staple is rice and pork, in deference to us (some vegetarians and some non-pork eaters), they served meal after meal of delicious chicken and fish preparations, paneer and even aloo parantha. The state guest house had a tiny kitchen, so individual members were assigned the responsibility for our breakfast, lunch and dinner. Carrying casseroles and plastic containers in their hands, they trudged up the hill to serve us pineapple cakes, scones, muffins and sandwiches in addition to our regular meals. Young girls would stand and serve, and when we asked in amazement, ‘Who has made this?’, someone would quietly answer, ‘I did.’ Nanu was one such girl. At one time, she worked for Hindustan Computers Ltd (now HCL Technologies) in Delhi but came back to her village to look after her mother. ‘Now I run a restaurant in Mokokchung town called Dolphin. ‘We serve Chinese cuisine,’ she told us. Sampling her cooking, we could imagine how well her restaurant would be doing.
The Ao women are among the most talented in the country. Interior decoration, coking and flower arrangements are their forte. They prepare the most delectable confectionaries and are experts in many cuisines. Unfortunately, when in search of employment, they move out to Kohima and big cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Bangalore where they end up waiting tables or making beds in five-star hotels. This is a sad waste of their talent when they can add immensely to the aesthetics of any public place: hotels, guest houses, airport, lounges, etc. …
Our final stop for the day was at the village of Chuchuyimlang, with a population of ten thousand. By the time we reached it was raining. Yet a small crowd of men and women had gathered to meet us. After a traditional Naga welcome – the village elder draped a beautiful shawl around our shoulders – we were taken inside the PHC. The centre was running out of an old school building constructed in 1963. Out of the twelve beds, only one was occupied. This PHC, which catered to 36,000 people across nine villages, had not had a doctor for three weeks now. ‘The resident doctor married and settled in Delhi,’ a villager explained. No power back-up was available. Inside the centre a small crowd was waiting to greet us and apprise us of our situation. Surprisingly, no women were present. Even those who had come to meet us outside had disappeared. Puzzled, we asked the village board development members. ‘Don’t you have female members?’
‘The women are busy at home,’ one man said.
‘We didn’t inform them,’ said another.
Suddenly, we recalled a meeting we had had with some women’s groups in our hotel in Kohima during our precious visit. They had complained about the denial of rights to Naga women. At the time, we had been surprised, almost disbelieving. We had heard of the Naga Mothers’ Association and their work. Now, sitting in a dilapidated old building with the rain coming down outside, we could clearly see what our Naga friends had been talking about. The Naga do not kill their girls but they are yet to give them their rights.
(Excerpted from Beautiful Country – Stories From Another India By Syeda Hameed and Gunjan Veda; Published by Harper Collins; Pp: 365; Price: Rs 399)
—(Women's Feature Service) |
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