Sometimes we have to put aside issues and differences and view the big picture. This is exactly what the thousands did when they turned out to pay tribute and homage to our dear Asu Issak Chishi Swu. It is safe to say every Naga felt they lost someone or experienced emptiness on hearing the news of his passing.
Some just felt it but many decided they have to say goodbye in some way or the other and fare thee well they did. Just a few generations back we Nagas were still so primitive. No Naga knew paper even centuries after Shakespeare had written all his great works.
No Naga heard music even hundreds of years after Mozart died. Most Nagas had not even seen a bicycle even after the Wright brothers invented the aero plane nor would there have been many Nagas who switched on a bulb when the television was already invented. So you can imagine the sudden transit for the Nagas as a whole from Stone Age straight into the twenty-first Century. This transition required special care and attention lest we lose our heritage and even more so our identity.
For an educated, selfless God fearing man and someone who simply loved his people it would have been hard to ignore this fact. So our Asu started his movement with likeminded friends. Whatever happened there after and over the years there is no denying we have an identity today.
Imagine if you googled Naga and no information came out. I look in the mirror and thank God for this life and thank my parents for giving this face a name and our Asu for giving this name and identity called Naga.
Ayeto Ayemi Fine things, Dimapur
