‘Want to be remembered as brothers who construct houses’

Eastern Mirror Desk
Dimapur, Oct. 5: While most people could get complacent with the monotony of today’s lifestyle, a few choose to take things into their own hands to make life a lot more purposeful. Likewise, a band of brothers from a village in Dimapur have a story to tell and inspire others.

“There is no shame at working (doing manual works) for livelihood,” said 27-year-old Shoseyi Rakho, who along with his three cousins, are constructing a house at Bade village in Dimapur.

The four brothers namely Shosheyi Rakho (27), Sebuto Rakho (27), Khruzo Sasu (26) and Shovelhu Rakho (24) are from Suthozu in Phek district. They have been working together since 2015 with the sole objective to “earn for ourselves and not trouble our parents anymore”. They have together constructed more than 20 big and small houses so far.

This quartet of young men shared that they do not want to be known as the four brothers who dropped out of school, but rather as the brothers who construct houses.

Shosheyi Rhakho, who is currently living in Purana Bazaar, and the eldest among the four brothers, shared that he started working in construction from the age of 18, after dropping out of school. He realised that he had to start working in order to support himself for the long run, since getting a government job was not an option for him.

“I am from a poor family, my father is a farmer; I dropped out of school and made a lot of bad decisions. But life is dear, it gave me a second chance to make me a better person,” Rhakho shared.

He admitted that working as a labourer required hard work but said that he had to push his limits and carry on to keep up with the fast-changing world, so that one day he would also have a place to call his own.

According to him, there is providence for anyone willing to work for it and added that he has no reason to complain about any aspect of his life.

“It’ll be good if all our youth, who are not doing any progress in life, start to work instead of wasting their precious time. There is no shame earning money in any way that is lawful, whether be it a day labourer. It’s worth every sweat and pain,” he said.

Shovelhu Rakho, the youngest among the four brothers, said that he started working along with his brothers after he found it hard to meet his daily expenses.

“I cannot just stay at home and complain about my life, I know I’m a failure in studies but I simply cannot let that be the reason for me to not go forward in life,” he stated.

He confessed that he did not want to end up like most of the youth, who do “absolutely nothing but just waste their life living on parents’ hard-earned money”. He said he pushed himself against all odds to work as a labourer so that he does not have to trouble his parents for money.

He also revealed that he was reluctant to work as a labourer at first, as these things were ‘unusual’ in Naga society today. But after all the struggle and hard work he went through, he stated that “life makes sense now.”

The brothers further emphasised that the Naga youth need to know the good and honest money that comes in plenty from construction works.

“Why let others come and take away the money which we, the youth, should be earning?” they queried.