Our Correspondent
Kohima, Oct. 18 (EMN): 'Beloved'-an anthology of poems written by Kopelo Krome, advisor to the Kohima Press Club, was released in Kohima on Monday. It is also the 43rd book of Penthrill Publication House.
Penned during the late 80s and early 90s, the book consists of poems written mostly with thoughts of the Nagas who have endured and experienced unaccountable sufferings and incidences during the last decades.
Through the book "I have put myself in other persons' shoes - many of which have to do with my friends, my near ones, and our Naga patriots. Many have departed and gone to be with our God Almighty", the 55-year-old author observed.
30 years ago, Krome started penning down his thoughts, and because of the "desperations and frustrations" after the assassination of his immediate elder brother Zekope who was gunned down on August 15,1987 in Kohima, he started writing couple of times after that.
He lemphasised that his 'Beloved' was penned with "protests and lamentations" because of disillusions, disappointments, frustrations, and betrayals.
It is written "in protests against the so-called Nagas, who are indifferent to the call for a changing Nagaland to a better land, but falling into the traps of easy living being nonchalant with love for their very own self and blind in their greed to see the sufferings of their own blood flowing deep into the earth", the introduction of the book read.
He said: "Can we still claim ourselves now, as a proud Naga? honesty, respect for elders, faithfulness .. or, truthfulness? Sadly, those were the yester-years”.
Publisher of the Penthrill Publication House, Vishü Rita Krocha, said that the book has been long overdue. She recalled scanning through the author's work some years back and was convinced that it was a ‘very important work of art’.
"Especially for the new emerging generation of today, I always think that children will grow up thinking differently, and with a misguided ideology of the long-protracted Naga issue. But people like Krome, has lived experiences of that era even as young college boy".
"During the time he had written the book in the late 80s and early 90s, he had witnessed unimaginable things—things that children of today would have absolutely no idea about", she observed.
She believes that the book will be an asset for generations to come.
MLA Khriehu Liezietsu described the author as someone who is not only creative but speaks from his heart and a "great story teller". He expressed hope that by reading 'Beloved', readers would be able to relate and appreciate life even more.