To Amei Grinder Muivah with love

O T Ramshan *

Ukhrul bids adieu to Grinder Muivah on April 09 2016 :: Pix - TSE

Back in 1998, when I went to Delhi for my graduation, the two most towering personalities among the Tangkhul Nagas then, were late Mr Rn Tamchon and late Mr Grinder Muivah. Tamchon, who breathe his last in January 2006, was an Assistant Commissioner of Police, DANIPS a young promising police officer who defied all the traditional hierarchical notion of bureaucratic model and epitomized simplicity in his daily life and whose loving and helping arms always goes out to all the communities coming from the North East in the Capital city.

Amei Grinder Muivah was then, an established entrepreneur flourishing quite smoothly in Delhi. Who could have ever thought that tragedy would ever struck these peace-loving, cheerful, altruistic and benevolent people when the world needed them most at this hour. I, for one moment, thought that this is totally insane. I even reasoned that the God above is indeed a jealous God.

Why take away those good men from us who have contributed so much for the welfare of the people and who still have so much of vigour left in them to help the needy… Then the line 'man proposes but God disposes' struck my mind. It was just too hard to accept the reality that this strong and helpful man, a dear father, a dear friend, a dear husband, a dear brother and a dear generous benefactor is no more.

Yes, Grinder was indeed a man of integrity, his altruism though not flamboyantly seen by the society. He was still in his prime with so much of routine work and assignment left to be done for the society and of course 'caring' for his loving family. When I met achon Sonia Muivah (w/o Grinder Muivah) at the airport along with a host of other dignitaries, family members and friends to receive the mortal remains of Grinder, an ocean of memories flashed my mind.

The first time I met Grinder face to face was in the winter of 1999 at Sector 31, Noida where they were residing, though I'd occasionally seen him in the quarter of late Rn Tamchon at Police Line, Kingsway Camp Delhi where they used to dine together being very close to each others. Me and my friends, Eleazer, Achin, Akhai and Apam had gone to Noida for donating platelets to one Mr Ninganung, brother in law of Grinder, who was suffering from cancer, unfortunately whom we could not save despite the platelets we donated.

As we sat in the living room of their rented house having a lighter moment over a cup of coffee, I found that Mr Grinder was indeed a good human being. This fine gentleman was soft spoken, slow in speech as if closely and gently monitoring his speech, never used rhetorical words and yet his guileless smiles was so convincing that it was worth a thousand words spoken by an orator from a public platform.

His four kids ran about hither and thither and playing around the set of computers their dad had bought for them, theywere at their own world. Their youngest child, a daughter, Zingrin Muivah was a cute little ballad dancer back then. His wife Sonia always wears a grinning face as she stood at the doorway to receive visitors. Having graduated in Economics from St Stephen's College and an MBA from Delhi, Grinder was never lured into the novelty of writing civil services exam which is now a common case among our young graduates.

Yes, life is all about success and success in business was what was in stored for him! And he found it. I am pretty sure he was a man of vision because having acquired the knowledge of economics and management, he knew he would be efficiently handy in taking up business as his career. I remember he once gave a lecture in the Tangkhul Christian Fellowship Delhi at the Methodist Church, near Nizammudin fly-over sometime in the early 2000, where he briefly outlined his business maneuvers.

He had a very humble beginning, a greengrocer, which really surprised me because by then he had already established his own company in Delhi called KHAIBAK International Private Limited that deals in designing and embroidery. Life is always not a bed of roses. Relentless struggles even at the lowest ebb of his life and faith in God turned out to be the key to his success.

No wonder in the later part of his glorious life as a great entrepreneur till his death, he had already established Nishum Hotel Pvt Ltd, Khaibak Designers, Khaibak Infratech, Khaibak Mining Corps. But it's not his wealth that made him shot into fame as such but rather it's his loving heart that made him the most adorable person. He was a kind-hearted man, a philanthropist and a man of wisdom.

A little act of kindness in the form of giving money to the needy was the hallmark of his life. But never would his act of giving surface into a broad daylight. Because he never wanted his monetary help to be seen by others. Not even his wife saw her husband paying fees and hostel rents for some college students whose parents could not send money well in time. And no any person or organizations who knocked onto his door for help went back home without a smile or with an empty hand.

In his full wisdom, he organized the Tangkhul Naga Society Delhi (TNSD) for better understanding and development of the Tangkhul community staying in Delhi vis-à-vis other communities living in Delhi. And under the aegis of TNSD, he took the initiative of organizing the North East Tamchon Memorial football Trophy every year which has now become one of the most popular tournaments in the Capital city.

Grinder's vision was not only to popularize the name of late Rn Tamchon in the name of the trophy but rather it was to tap the young talents and harness the potentials of the North Eastern States, especially the youth, through sports.

A "go-between" is a rhetorical word in a modern political sense and by that yardstick Mr Grinder's soft character seemingly does not fit into the protracted Naga problem, rather it purportedly demands a man of tough character to deal with. But the Union Home Ministry rather chose a man of simple character and yet a high thinking person and a man of integrity and dignity, when they came out with a roadmap for early political solutions to the almost seven decade old Indo-Naga problem, to be a go-between the Government of India and the NSCN.

Well, Mr Grinder has played his role as a facilitator between the two entities from the day he was appointed as a go-between and it has indeed come a long way. The signing of the Peace Accord in August 2015 was just a tip of an iceberg and long before he could see the light at the end of the tunnel, the wrath hand of death has curtailed his sojourn and now perhaps the Union Home Ministry will have hard time to choose another one to step into his shoes for a final solution to be thrashed out.

We love you Amei Grinder. We will miss you.