Twelve-year-old Worin had till now seen grand-uncle Thuingaleng Muivah only on the front pages of newspapers, and sometimes on television. Thus when her grandfather Ahan Muivah went to pick her up from her hostel this morning so she could meet him in Dimapur, she was overjoyed.‘‘My grandfather told me even he had not seen him for over 30 years,’’ said Worin, a student of Std VII at the Patkai Christian Academy, about 20 km from here. She always wondered what kind of a grand-uncle he was, who never came to their village for so many years, she said. ‘‘I don’t know anything about politics. I only know he is a very famous man,’’ she added.‘‘I am so happy that he is here, standing in front of thousands of people, talking about a solution. I am not yet prepared about what to ask him,’’ said the girl, who kept waiting for over two hours along with nine other members of the Muivah family for the NSCN(I-M) leaders to arrive. Worin, however, could not get close to Muivah at the public reception at the airport. Her grandfather said the NSCN(I-M) would arrange a family reunion for them later in the evening.‘‘As we drove to the airport, my grandfather showed me the posters alongside the road and said, ‘look, that is my brother’,’’ Worin said. Ten members of the Muivah family were ‘‘special invitees’’ to the public reception that Muivah and Isak Chisi Swu were accorded on their arrival at the Dimapur airport by the Naga Council and the Naga Hoho, the apex body of all the Naga tribes.Worin’s grandfather, 80-year-old Ahan, came all the way from Somdel, the ancestral village of the Muivahs in Manipur’s Ukhrul district. His wife Ashum, younger brother James, and first-cousin Tuizar, a retired IAS officer, too were there to meet Muivah. Muivah is the third of four brothers, while their only sister, Longrunglah, died a few years ago.‘‘He was a very naughty boy. But he was also brave and honest,’’ recalled elder brother Ahan, recalling, how as a child, Muivah used to be the natural leader of the children in Somdel. ‘‘He also played football, but was better at playing the guitar,’’ Ahan said.James Muivah, a retired schoolteacher said, ‘‘He was a very good student. When he came home from Shillong on vacation, he would go to his old school and teach the students for free.’’Muivah studied BA in St Anthony’s College, Shillong, and MA in Political Science from Gauhati University before proceeding to Delhi to study law.‘‘We sent him to Delhi to study law. He would have made a very good lawyer. But within a year, he disappeared and joined the national movement,’’ James said, adding how Muivah’s favourite topic during his college and university days was ‘‘Naga nationalism and nothing else’’.
