My friend and contemporary Late Mr. D. Kevichusa, IAS, composed this song, which afterwards was adopted as the Naga National Anthem.
One day Kevichusa called me to his house and showed me the handwritten draft and told me to read it. He pointed to me the 8th line, “Needs help in deed”. He told me his fear that over the years people might join up the words “in” and “deed” and miss his point. I told him that it should not happen as people get more and more educated and enlightened and may not commit such silly mistakes. He just looked at me saying nothing. Alas! It did happen as he feared then. He meant to say that our country needed help in deeds and not in words. Since then this Anthem is sung in almost every non-religious gathering.
Every time I hear this sung I feel a pang of guilt in my heart that we are doing injustice to a great soul by messing up his words.
I am writing this without seeking the consent of his brother and sisters who are with us today knowing that they understand. At times, I thought of pointing out this mistake to our people but then I ridicule myself saying “who am I to do so.”
The other day, while reading a publication of NNC Publicity Wing I found the same mistake in the Anthem again glaring accusingly at me seeming to tell me – “Why didn’t you do it?”
So here I hope now the Nagas everywhere get this corrected for future.
K.K. Peseyie, Kohima
