Khekiye K. Sema
…CONTINUED-16
As they were rounding up the bombs they spied an Assam Rifle’s patrol some distance from them and heading their way. They quickly put all the bombs in their carry bag and one of the VG was sent scurrying towards the village while the others waited for the Assam Rifle petrol on the road to stall them. Late that night Mr. Toshi, the Asst. Commandant VG,Kiphire (and the elder brother of Minister Rothrong), came to my residence to report the matter. The bomb was in Fakim village he said. He was asked to immediately go to Fakim, collect the bombs and bring it back to me. The Army discovered the whole episode after Mr. Toshi had come back with the load by mid-day the following day. They were in a desperate flap. These bombs had manufacturing serial numbers, the dates and all the other manufacturing ID.
THERE had been times when I bent the rules to suit the local environment as long as it served a constructive purpose. One such instance presented itself during the Deepwali festival. Gambling is forbidden by Law. I had a firsthand informed that people of Kiphire would nevertheless flock to the jungles in large numbers to play ‘Jhandi mandi’, or whatever they called it… (a game of dice), during this season. It was not within my authority to abridge the Law but I decided to temporarily close one eye in its application during Diwali. The other eye I opened to issued permit worth Rs. 1000/- for just one day for the people to play this game of dice openly rather than to do it slyly in hiding which couldn’t be stopped anyway. My Office was swamped by applicants tussling and shoving as they would for cutting theatre or NST bus tickets and in the end we generated an unaccounted revenue of approximately Rs.25,000/- from the issue of permit. That was a reasonably handsome amount earned without a sweat at that time and it was equally important for me to ensure transparency in its expenditure in the public eye. Rs.15,000/- was invested to construct the one and only traffic stand point which still exists proudly in the heart of Kiphire town today. Bringing in cultural troupe from the outpost to participate in the National days like the Republic Day had always not only been an expensive affair but reluctantly done by the villagers. I intended to change this trend by converting their participation into a circle-wise cultural competition. The balance amount was therefore used as prize money for this contest between the administrative circles… Kiphire Sadar, Pungro, Ceyochung, Sitimi and Longmatra; giving Rs.5000/- to the winner; Rs.3500/- for the runners up and Rs.500/- each as a consolation prize for the rest in the first year during the Republic Day celebration. For a change the participation became a prestige issue and I did not have to beg and plead for their participation. It also attracted a huge public interest and curiosity. This little unofficial revenue did wonders to alter the public mindset. The following year the permit fee was enhanced to Rs.2000/- and the cultural competition prize money was raised to Rs. 10,000/- for the winner, Rs.5,000/- as second prize; Rs.3500/- for third and the consolation prize was raised to Rs.2000/- each. The balance amount was spent to have street lights put up on top of the traffic point. The Church had also thankfully bent their rules for a while by tolerating my indiscretion while I was still in Kiphire and became religiously intolerant against gambling once more after a year of my departure in 1986.
The Backward Area Development fund at that time was approximately Rs.7 lakhs, being used directly at the discretion of the Minister in charge of the area and it was being appropriated more on a politically inclined interests. While I had no authority to dictate the use of it, I approached Minister Rothrong to spare at least Rs. three lakhs for the construction of a Town Hall which we desperately needed. We were having public meetings in the open still and during the monsoon season it was most inconvenient. Mr. Rothrong was initially unwilling to fit this into his priorities but finally agreed when I told him that this would perhaps be his only visible achievement during his tenure way after his was gone. Sometimes ego massage works as was in this case. We finally had a Town Hall constructed. It served a great many purposes.
Considering the boredom factor of my wife having nothing much to do other than housekeeping, I had been encouraging her to start the Officers’ Wives Association including other ladies in town willing to participate and think of some social service they could render. As it was, the officers’ wives were already networking with her quite frequently. Kiphire had no movie theatre. Since we were the only one having the TV/VCR they would gather to see movies together. Once they watched “The Champ” a very tear jerking movie and all of them collectively cried watching it and laughed at each other for crying even though all had cried without exception. They then formed the Kiphire Women Association and decided to construct a kitchen for the caretakers of patients in the Civil Hospital. This was a desperate need especially for the outstation patient attendants without connection in town. I almost regretted pushing the issue when their fund raising tempo increased. Then my wife along with some of the ladies came up with a bright idea… to screen movies in the Town hall on ticket basis. They took up my TV/VCR with a magnifying screen and sold tickets. Since no movie theatre existed in Kiphire, this new experience became a very big hit. They ran houseful for several days and raised quite a sum. The balance estimated amount for their project was augmented by the officer husbands who contributed liberally to avoid less salt in their internal family affairs. Each of them jokingly cursed me for stirring up the passion of ladies. A small brick wall public kitchen with CGI sheet roofing, measuring 12’x10’ approximately was finally constructed for the attendants of patients within the campus of the Civil Hospital at Kiphire which still stands testifying their effort today. I felt proud of their effort.
During my stint in Kiphire, we had no underground activities in the Sub-Division at all. It was a wonderfully free atmosphere where security issue did not occur in our minds. Then came an incident in Fakim Village. Mr. Tobu Kevichusa, then perhaps General Secretary or some such responsible position within the NNC, had come to this village before the break of dawn on a prefixed meeting with an Army Intelligence representative who had still not reached the location. At that time the Army patrolling party commander had reported in to say that they were in another village while actually being stationed at Fakim. They too were unaware of the activity of their Intelligence wing. When Mr. Tobu’s party entered the village parameter of Fakim the lookout sentry opened fire. Mr.Tobu and companions managed to escape unhurt but they had dropped a pistol in the village and a typewriter was also recovered some distance from the village by the Village Guards who had pursued Mr. Tobu for some distance but had dropped the chase deliberately. As morning light broke the GB recovered the pistol lying in the puddle and while he was inspecting it with interest, the Army Major snatched it from him. The pistol and the typewriter was never handed over to the Civil authority as was required of them. On receipt of the information an enquiry was made but we were told that it had been sent to their Regional HQs. My internal informants however gave us a feedback that these items were returned to Mr. Tobu in a subsequent reconvened meeting with the Army Intelligence in one of Fakim’s kheti hut. Though I did not press the issue further, this was not taken kindly. An immediate order was dispatched to all the Village Guards (VG) that anything seized or found by them in any given incident(s) should be submitted to the Administration without fail even at the cost of confrontation with the Army. This order had a telling effect in another circumstantial event. One day the Fakim VGs had gone to Pingkim village on their routine patrol. On their return they had stopped over in a river for their midday meal. Some of them were crab hunting when they discovered six pieces of ‘two-inch mortar bombs’ under the boulder. They gathered around the collected bombs in wonder. One of them picked up a bomb and threw it against a boulder downstream to test it. Luck was on their side. It did not explode. This bomb had an effective range of 200yards radius I was told by the Army later. As they were rounding up the bombs they spied an Assam Rifle’s patrol some distance from them and heading their way. They quickly put all the bombs in their carry bag and one of the VG was sent scurrying towards the village while the others waited for the Assam Rifle petrol on the road to stall them. Late that night Mr. Toshi, the Asst. Commandant VG,Kiphire (and the elder brother of Minister Rothrong), came to my residence to report the matter. The bomb was in Fakim village he said. He was asked to immediately go to Fakim, collect the bombs and bring it back to me. The Army discovered the whole episode after Mr. Toshi had come back with the load by mid-day the following day. They were in a desperate flap. These bombs had manufacturing serial numbers, the dates and all the other manufacturing ID. They tried their best to convince me that it would be dangerous to keep these bombs in the Police Station because of the 200yards devastating effective range that would endanger the civilian population should it explode. I refused to hand it over to them. This had something to do with the Army trading with the undergrounds in secret and I was not about to hand over this priceless evidence against them to them. All the bombs were carefully photographed with all manufacturing markings and a lengthy report was submitted directly to the Commissioner, Nagaland. Meanwhile the bombs were sand banked in the Police Station with armed guards 24/7. All hell broke loose with Army Intelligence squad and a High Level Army Inquiry Team hitting Kiphire. Within a month the whole Battalion was posted out of Kiphire and replaced by another. I now forget the names of the Battalion that left and the one that arrived. The Army discovered a new genuine and healthy respect for the Civil Administration for a change. (My Officers were now able to buy their liquor at a click of a finger from the Army canteen).
Almost a regular monthly party used to be had in my residence with all the Officers and their wives. The rapport amongst the Civilian Officers were superbly built through this frequent partying and many happily requested to join me in my village tours and picked up VDB matters fairly well. However, having seven, eight Officers in the entourage on village tours had its side impact. Instead of addressing the village problems we had become a hazardous liability to them in matters of hospitality. They would present shawls to each one of us and prepare food for us and I was not able to compensate them sufficiently. Ordering all the villages to avoid this practice of shawl /dao/spear/headgear presentations, was of no avail. They still did it. After a couple of runs with all the officers I had to regretfully inform the others that I would not be able to ask them to join me on these village tours again. The tour to Mimi and Khongkha (the very last village bordering Myanmar), was however different. On this tour, leave aside the officers, even the wives of the officers, including mine, wanted to join. I didn’t have the heart to refuse them all and so a very strange happy band of officers and our lady wives eagerly prepared for Mimi trip. The Army was well aware of this outing and the Commandant informed me that all his outposts had been alerted for ROP along the route with light refreshment prepared for us at regular distances. It felt like over pampering but I accepted it gratefully since we had ladies in our entourage. The team drove all the way to Pungro, Salumi to Pingkim village footpath junction and from then onwards the trek to Mimi began. It was tough and a harrowing trekking up the hills and down the valleys all the way that really tested our stamina to the limits. Enroute we saw felled pine trees for jhuming, where two adult men could hardly hold each other’s hands around the trunks which were as straight as an arrow. What a waste! With the road going up to Mimi now I’ve been told that all those beautiful pine trees lining the hills have disappeared. What a waste again. I was glad that the Army Commandant had instructed his boys to have refreshment served to us at regular intervals and it helped quite a bit. The distance a villager would have covered in three hours took us almost the whole day. The Mimi villagers were waiting for us on the riverside with dinner prepared. What interested me more was the famous lime caves close by. The rest of the team wanted to join and so together we went to survey the cavern. The bats had mostly left the cave at the time we had reached but its excreta formed the floor carpet with an odd stench. We went through the first five caves but to proceed further to four other caverns we had to slide in through a hole. The village elders however advised us not to proceed further as they suspected that the python had moved in. I had no idea how they were so sure about this. Though I half believed the elders I insisted on going further. I however had no intention of being the first for a python’s welcome on the other end and so I asked the young Sub-Inspector VG to go in first. He gave me a humourless blood drained fair smile even though he was of brown complexion and didn’t make a move. No one else volunteered to shake the tail of a python… least of all me. We, the brave hearts, had a hearty laugh at all our collective bravery and retreated. After a sumptuous dinner at the riverside we again trekked further up to the Village. All the officers and their lady wives were taken to their respective hosts. My wife and I were put up in the Army camp guest room. After a warm bath we sat on the lawn with a glass of brandy that felt like heaven…though I’ve never been there.
My story is getting much too long so I’ll stop here for today. I’ll take you through the bat harvesting and the hair raising honey rearing culture on a perpendicular cliffs of Mimi next time round. Ciao.
The writer is a retired IAS Officer.
Forest Colony, Kohima
