KOHIMA — Minister
of Tourism and Higher Education, Temjen Imna Along, on Saturday launched a book
titled ‘Khekho-the tiger challenger’ written by Nokho N and T Dili Khekho held
at D’Café in Kohima.
Speaking at the book launch programme, the minister lamented
on the disappearing culture of reading books among the people today due to
mobile phones and encouraged people to inculcate the habit of reading.
He has credited whatever little knowledge he has to reading
books and added that to possess a book is a great gift and to be able to read
is an advantage. Stating that storytelling is common among the Nagas, he said
ancestors for thousand years till today have been telling stories and younger
generations should not be cut out of it.
Congratulating the authors, he said such kind of literature
in the written form would enhance the folklores, culture, traditions to the new
generations.
Nokho N, one of the authors, shared that the journey of
working on the book has been an ‘emotional trip of learning from the man who
was unfettered by the blind beliefs of the crowd, unshaken by peer pressure,
and unafraid of challenging the norms of the world he lived in."
"This is the story of Dili in particular, but this is
also the sorry of tiger's intricate relationship with men travelling back to a
century down the memory lane of our ancestors of Mao Naga tribe, anecdotes
which survived the cruel passage of time, untouched, unaffected by the fast
developing world," Nokho added.
ADGP Sandeep Madhukar Tamgadge, in a brief note on the book,
said that writing down the oral history into a document form would help shift
it to the next generation. He state that it is about preserving and protecting
the knowledge of the village which becomes important for generations to
preserve the rich heritage.
He observed that the book is about connection and how
culture, traditional and customs exist in the village life. The book provides
sociological and anthropological aspects of Naga especially to the non-Nagas,
he added.
T Dili Khekho, co-author of the book, thanked all those
involved in the process of making the book and the guests for turning up at the
launch event.
