Pekingto Y Jimo
Kuhoxu village, Niuland
Dr Khrielieü Kire (12 January, 1918 - 11 September, 2013) the first Naga lady Doctor, fondly known by the name Dr KK Angami, was a Naga bureaucrat and a great, if not the greatest philanthropist of her time.
Born into a Kire Angami Naga family in Kohima village, Nagaland, Dr Kire was the eldest child of four children of Zetsovi Kire and Neikuonuo Kire.
According to her younger brother Vatsümvü Kirekha, a Retired Director, Soil and Water Conversation Department, Government of Nagaland, Dr Kire did her early schooling from Mission School Kohima and matriculated from Government High School, Shillong.
Her love for humanity especially the poor and the needy was enough to convince her to choose the path of her exemplary life. She studied and completed Licentiate in Medicine and Surgery (LMS) from Women's Medical College, Ludhiana, Punjab, and became the first Naga lady Doctor.
She then served as Medical Officer at Ganesh Das Medical Hospital, Shillong. By 1957, while still serving at the hospital, the authority trusting her sincerity and passion encouraged her to pursue further medical course. She thus completed MBBS from Dibrugarh Medical College.
Later, when Nagaland attained statehood, Dr KK Angami served the state department of Health and Family Welfare in various capacity and retired as the Director. She went on to serve the department, at the request of the government, for some period even after her official retirement.
Dr KK Angami, in all humbleness, dedicated her entire life to the service and uplift of the poor and needy. Dr Kire, an earnest, devout Christian and a godly woman who lived a blameless life remained and died unmarried only to help the downtrodden. During her life time, she sponsored and helped many poor students and orphans.Yet she never wanted people to know what she did for the poor and needy.
It is a known fact that even her family and relatives did not know the people who were helped by the Doctor. It was her wish that the work she did for the poor be not made known even after she would be no more. Such a true giver she was, a philanthropist who genuinely helped the poor and needy but never sought fame or glory. She was truly like Florence Nightingale or Mother Teresa to the Naga people. There are many in our society today who would personally not hesitate to speak of how the act of love and kindness of Dr Kire changed their lives.
Late Doctor KK Angami now calmly rests beneath a marble tombstone that reads, “She lived a simple life, never wondered away from truth, honesty and God” in her family cemetery at T Khel, Kohima village.
To The First Naga Lady Doctor
(Elegy written on the 9th Anniversary of late Dr KK Angami)
Pekingto Y Jimo
Nine years have passed and I still feel so blue
When I think of you, doctor of renown.
And how I wish I could bid you adieu
Before the harsh storms of age blew you down.
And when I think of how these many years
Your resting place to visit dared not I,
In grief cries out my heart, and I have fears
That I may with regret live till I die.
For though I dreamed to come and comfort thee
With my success, yet by fate crippled, came
My plans to naught, and with you could not be
Nor visit the stone marked with your dear name.
And now, you cannot hear me mourn your death,
But here I come lamenting yet once more,
The sad loss of my patron; soul so great,
A giver true, a mother of the poor.
And since your passing, there has been a dearth
In our world, of good men and people nice.
Kind mother, your demise has left the earth
One giver less and many orphaned twice.
The world is full of men who give just for
Fame, good men who exploit the meek and weak,
Feigned givers who pretend to help the poor
But rob, and those who only riches seek.
The poor man’s house is now a place forlorn
Where mirth of joyous children’s heard no more.
Thou fair house, once for all a happy home
Now calmly sleeps; your praises sung no more.
Here I come, not with gifts but praise in verse,
To tell to the world how you helped the poor
And needy and ne’er fame or glory sought.
Adieu, till we meet on the other shore.
