Honlei Konyak – A man with a vision.  

I was blessed to be a guest of Phejin Konyak and her dad Honlei Konyak , a lead radical who is way ahead of his time. An Entrepreneur, a farmer and a visionary. With no formal education, He struggled to succeed by observing the opportunities around him. As he started out, He challenged himself to make maximum use of his time and develop the resources and land around him. He went on to start the sayeang Tea farm, the orange orchards, teak and Tita chap plantation, Citronella, lemon grass over 1000 acres of Land. He even went to an extent of bringing Goats from Punjab, Cows from other states. Inspired from his travel to other states, for eg after seeing wards lake in shillong , he started creating water bodies. Before that the people of the region had a taboo against water bodies as it is believed to harbor spirits. But he understood the vitality water created to the environment. He cultivated corns in huge quantity because he understood it could be used for animal feeds. His motivation comes from the fact that he believes in God and His Blessings. He feels that Nagas does not make good use of the fertile land around them and he wishes that the younger generation may one day understand and work hard and cultivate the land around them. He is against the idea of buying Rice or other food products which we can produce. He has also plans of setting up his own Tea processing plant and also establish a pure organic livestock farm. As we drove around the property, I saw each inch of the land had been developed in some way. I also came across huge tracts of land donated to those Villagers who does not own land for cultivation. The whole economy of the region had changed in the last two decades. Every family in the surrounding villages have been able to educate their children thanks to the steady income mainly from the tea and fibreless ginger cultivation. With lime and Oranges coming along, definitely this is one story that is worth experiencing and emulating. I am blessed for the opportunity to interact with him. I am awed by the Wisdom and Purpose driven life Honlei Konyak leads. A simple man who has no swanky bungalows in Dimapur or Kohima, instead lives in a modest house in Shiyong Village. A story I had to share.