95-year-old Mizo seamstress stitches free masks for the poor

For decades, it has been a routine for Nghakliani, a 95-year-old seamstress in the Dawrpui locality of Mizoram’s Aizawl to walk to the local church to attend the morning prayers. The lockdown due to COVID-19, has disrupted the daily routines of many old-timers like Nghakliani.

But the 95-year-old, who has seen and survived the Second World War and the insurgency in Mizoram, doesn’t plan to sit at home and sulk about the war against an unknown enemy. She has devised her own way to fight it.

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If you haven’t guessed it yet, she is the same woman who Mizoram’s Chief Minister Zoramthanga recently thanked on Twitter for contributing a month of her late husband’s pension (of ₹14,500) to the CM Relief Fund.

She didn’t stop at that. Having heard from a relative about the shooting price of normal face masks (which have gone up to ₹150 per piece),  Nghakliani, the widow of  Lalrinliana, a former MLA of the Mizoram Assembly, now stitches masks for the needy for free and donates them to hospitals.

She has donated over 50 masks to the hospital. She now stitches masks for Care Hospital in Dawrpui.

Nghakliani would usually stitch potholders, aprons and bags which she donates to the church every New Year. And having lived through the difficult times of wars and insurgencies, she understands the nature of hardships that fellow humans face during such times.

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Also a humanitarian, Nghakliani, after the imposition of the lockdown has been regularly telling her grandchildren to check on their non-Mizo neighbours and ask if they have food to eat, says her daughter-in-law Zothansangi. She is blessed with seven children, 20 grandchildren and 24 great-grandchildren.