yekhi: ala lakha, yekha keu akushino azü yekhakeu = to block road; to dam to fish.
While my friends weren't too familiar with this particular entry, it seems to refer to blocking either a road or a river (the latter for the purpose of catching fish).
This immediately brought to mind what happened last week as we were travelling back to Zunheboto after doing some cultural documentation in a few villages. We were crossing the Lanki River - which I dubbed the 'Lion King' river - when a rather peculiar sight greeted us.
The Lanki River
First, I couldn't make out where we were meant to ford the river, but the driver didn't have any problem plunging the car right into part of the river. When we emerged on the embankment in the middle of the river, there was a car parked on it, with a few men in military uniform standing around with guns - members of the Underground.
For those who don't know, there's an insurgency problem in Nagaland, with a whole 'government' running parallel with the government recognised by India. They're not terribly popular, given their penchant for violence and extortion. At least now there's a ceasefire between the Underground and the Indian Army, but there are also a number of different factions which still fight amongst themselves.
Anyway, the curious thing that day wasn't anything to do with violence. It was a steam shoveller in a pond. And it was blocking our attempt to cross the river.
What these guys were doing, was using the steam shoveller to dam the river and make a smaller channel so they could catch fish! In the process, they had also changed the course of the river, thereby blocking the usual road, and the car had to struggle up a muddy path, aided by a few of us pushing it up.
The verb yekhi would therefore be doubly appropriate to describe what happened here. Of course, damming the river this way and blocking all traffic just to have a bit of fun definitely doesn't make the guys in the Underground any more popular.
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