Two Nagas win Northeast-level singing and poetry competition

Our Correspondent
Kohima, Aug.11 (EMN): Two Naga youth have emerged victorious at the Northeast India regional-level multilingual poetry and singing competitions held on the theme “Celebrating life.” The results were declared on the occasion of “International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples,” on Sunday evening.

In the competitions judged by renowned musicians, singers and poets from the region, the “Tunesmith of North East India” title was jointly claimed by Aseto Zao from Nagaland and Megdeep Deuri from Assam.

Rajkumari Ichanthoibi Devi from Manipur and Aditee Kashyap from Meghalaya jointly bagged the “Wordsmith of Northeast India,” while Nagaland’s Dzüvinguno Dorothy Chasie and Freedy Boy Majaw from Meghalaya were chosen for the jury’s special mention award in poetry reading category respectively.

Aseto Zao

A song titled “Believing” spanning three minutes and 59 seconds played on acoustic guitar by Zao in a video had clinched him the coveted title amongst many contestants from the Northeast.

Winning the prestigious title, Zao, who hails from Jakhama village in the southern region of Angami area, attributed his success to God.

Speaking to Eastern Mirror, Zao said he was “greatly surprised” on winning the title as there were many good musicians and song writers from all the corners of Northeast India who had participated in the event.

“This was the biggest achievement among the few titles I had achieved till date,” he shared.

“It was a proud moment of achievement not only to me individually, but to my families, friends, well-wishers, and music fraternity of Nagaland in general,” said Zao, who is also a finalist in both 2020 Northeast You’ve Got Talent – Season 1 and 2020 Indies Singing Superstar – Season 1.

“I’m deeply humbled and grateful for all the love, prayers and support and God’s blessings upon me”, he added.

Zao believed that his first ever original song “Believing” had reached out and touched many souls.

“It wasn’t just a random song I wrote, but behind this very song was an inspiration God has given me with all the words that I put into lyrics,” he shared.

Amid all the failures, hurdles and discouragement, Zao shared that he continued to put his faith in God and belief in Him, which had inspired him to write the song.

Although Zao wrote “Believing” in April 2017, it was only this year on April 24 that the arrangement of chord progression was done and tuned into a song with acoustic guitar. He informed that the musical arrangement and studio mixing on the song would be finalised this month.

On winning the competition, the Task Force for Music and Arts (TaFMA) also congratulated him.

The video of his song, which won the Tunesmith of North East India, was uploaded by Guwahati Grand Poetry Festival on its Facebook page and YouTube channel. One can also check out the song on Zao’s Facebook account at Aseto Zao or his Instagram username Aseto Zao. Zao informed that he was also influenced by some renowned guitarists like Neil Zaza, Joe Satriani, Vinnie Moore, Steve Vai etc.

Dzüvinguno Dorothy Chasie

Dzüvinguno Dorothy Chasie’s lively one minute and 58 seconds spoken word poetry titled “Whisper of hope” was chosen as one of the jury’s special mention award in the poetry competition.

Chasie’s “Whisper of Hope” recitation is available on YouTube channel and Facebook page of Grand Poetry Festival.

Chasie, who is currently pursuing her Ph.D in English at Nehu, Shillong, has been writing poetry and short stories since she was 10 years old. She started getting into spoken word poetry during her master degree days and is one of the founding members of ‘The Felons,’ a spoken word poetry troupe based in Kohima.

“Honestly, I was surprised because no additional winning category was announced at the time when the competitions were announced,” she reacted on being conferred as one of the awardees while speaking to Eastern Mirror.
“I am very grateful that the organising company, after taking painstaking hours to judge so many entries, thought it best to include a surprise jury’s special mention award, said the 26-year-old Chasie who hails from Khonoma village in Kohima district.

Her poem “Whisper of hope,” was submitted for the poetry competition. It was self-composed and read in the style of spoken word poetry.

“The tone, actions and feel of the performance were all utilised to accentuate the poem on the theme of the competition “Celebrating life,” she shared.

“Whisper of hope” was one of the first poems written by Chasie for performance in the spoken word poetry style, when she was doing her master degree in English at Nagaland University.

“I wrote it specifically for the opening ceremony for the North East India International Model United Nations (NEIMUN) in the year 2015, where I was interning at the time,” said Chasie.

“The poem takes a raw look into the challenges and the problems that young people face in this world and how we should all unite and work towards a better future,” she explained about her poem.

When asked how many poems she had written, she responded saying, “Honestly, they must be in the hundreds, including all the rough drafts laying within the corners of notebooks and hard drives.”

The virtual poetry and music event organised by Guwahati Grand Poetry Festival, in association with Kamata Foundation-a charity organisation, was said to be the biggest competition in the region which began on July 12 to mark the birthday of poet Pablo Neruda.