LATIKA KAGTI

The world is my family" (Vasudaiva Kutumbakam) is a phrase heard commonly these days, but for people of Shillong in the 1950s to 1970s if anyone lived up to it, it was Latika Kagti. Born to Judge Iswar Prasad Barua, Maikon as she was popularly known, lost her mother early. To mend the tomboyish girl to more graceful ways, her uncle Herembo Prasad Barooah took her to Jorhat where Maikon grew up to be adept in the arts that a girl of her days had to learn. She excelled in cooking, embroidery, weaving, music and was married to a dapper Magistrate Sarat Chandra Kagti . Here began a life of love and companionship to a person who went on to become a name as an officer of repute in post-Independence Assam. As the wife of the Deputy Commissioner, Naga Hills in the early days of insurgency, Maikon did not confine herself to the comforts of the DC's bungalow, but reached out to the people and won their hearts. She particularly reached out to the women folk of Kohima town an involved them in creative pursuits, be it weaving or baking. Latika Kagti's Christmas cakes were the talk of Kohima. Same was the story in other stations where her husband was posted. Years later, Latika Kagti created a storm by joining the gherao of the Assam Secretariat in Shillong in demanding the Second Refinery in Guwahati, preventing the Chief Minister Bishnuram Medhi and other senior officials (her husband being one of them) from entering the Secretariat. The same fire was seen years later during the Assam Agitation, when she led the old and young women in protest. Music, gardening, her cows, her card games and her pets were Latika Kagti's first love. She played the Jalataranga in Akashvaani, wrote poems in Mukul Sangha, and was instrumental in setting up the Stoneyland Women's and Children's Recreation Centre. Her acts in the long life of 108 years are too big to put into words, as we pray for the eternal peace of her soul.

- Swapnanil Barua

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