PETER & FRIENDS

Nagaland is a State in the far north-eastern part of India. It's physical separation from the rest of India has meant that the modern Naga identity gets short shrift in the popular imagination of Indians. A friend of mine once had her driver's license rejected when she presented it. “Nagaland? We don't take foreign id cards!“ she was told. Stories like these have only whetted my curiosity about that distant State.

Earlier this year, I travelled to Nagaland on what could best be descibed as a social adventure. My plan was to simply land unprepared in Dimapur, make friends with the first person I meet, and hang out with him. For better or for worse, that guy happened to be Peter.

Peter and I made the strangest of bedfellows. We journeyed in his dilapidated car. I got to meet everyone from the Chief Minister to undercover informers. He introduced me to the delicacy of dog meat. Over endless rum sessions—drunk in innocuous tea cups behind downed shutters because Nagaland is a ‘dry’ state—Peter and his friends shared with me their philosophy of life even as the Naga-Manipur crisis broke out right under our very noses.

Mahesh Shantaram
May 2010