Feelin' That Homecoming Spirit, in Our City

CHENNAI: Naga students gathered to share their vibrant culture and tradition at the 36th Fresher’s Day organised by the Naga Students Union Chennai (NSUC) recently. 

The event was held at Holy Trinity Church hall, Vepery, and had Lakme Fashion Week model and former Mister International India 2012 Opang Jamar Metsubo as their special guest. “Never stop believing that you can do it. Take every step and every failure as a push towards success,” said Opang, who was in the city for the first time for the event.

The chief guest for the meet, T K Rajendran, Assistant Director General of Police (Law and Order), referred to the Naga students as ambassadors of North East and gave his well wishes to the new entrants to the city.

The programme was followed by a fashion expo and music show, presented by the members of NSUC. The union limned their culture and traditions through dance, fashion show and folk songs performed by various tribes of Naga community.

The performances included Zeliangrong cultural folk dance and Tangkhul cultural show. Besides that, the students also organised Mr and Miss Fresher, Maram folk song and Poumai presentation. Celebrity hairstylist Rachel B Singh, actor and model Sahithya Jagannathan and Opang were the jury members for the competition. Losii Frances from Rajiv Gandhi College won the Mr Fresher title and Akumsenla Kichu from Madras University won the Miss Fresher title. Zeliangrong tribe bagged first place in the cultural show, followed by Tangkhul and Maram tribes.There are around 6,000 Naga students in the State who are bound together through the union.

“Through this unification we share a cultural bond away from our homes,” said R Shing Timothy, vice-president of NSUC. The association aims to help new entrants in the city to get accommodation, find jobs and get admitted to good educational institutions. Most Naga students prefer Chennai for education, citing the good colleges here. Most of them are enrolled in colleges like MCC, Loyola, MGR and Bharath University.

The only challenge they face here is adapting to humidity and food. But, the city has two restaurants — North East Kitchen and Naga Reju — serving home-cooked Pork in bamboo shoot, fried rice, king chilly with chicken and Kimchi as side dish,  in authentic North-Eastern style.