Lolia Susan

The vibrancy she creates around her seems to come naturally even as Lolia Susan animatedly brings to life defining moments from the past that she recalls with pleasure, mostly because of the experience she has gained and for pushing her career ahead. She describes herself as a typical village girl whose heart is rooted to the simple way of living. This, indeed, shows in the East View Piggery Farm at Lerie Chazou Colony, which she conceptualised a few years ago and is now running full swing. The story behind it has, however, been a challenging one as she looks back to how it all began.
Actually, she wanted to become a lecturer when she grew up but reasonably states that her parents could not afford her higher education which limited her academic quest to graduation level. And so she taught in a series of private schools for 9 long years that sort of compensated her childhood dream, before she realised that settling down and sustaining a family needed more than teaching in a private school.
She confesses that the concept of a piggery started in her mind when she was requested to keep two nephews who could not continue their studies. Coupled with her own interest for animals and basic ideas that she gathered from her village background, she began her new venture. But it wasn’t all smooth when she went ahead with the novel concept. That she bought 44 piglets out of which 41 died day after day until it was reduced to 3 surviving piglets did not help. Anybody in her place would have easily given up. But she didn’t.
As a matter of fact, she humorously gives an account of how she couldn’t find the space to bury them all. At the end of the day, she carried forward a lesson learnt and with optimism reared the 3 piglets even after having suffered huge losses. The pride in her eyes sparkles as she talks of the surviving sow that multiplied and is still around to see many of its generations.
Today, she is the proud owner of 20 sows and numerous piglets, which, she says, come and go. Despite the lack of basic training, she makes it sound fun learning from experience and the ‘village ideas’, as she puts it, come handy. The most challenging part of her job, she says, is feeding them and the fact that piglets are very susceptible to diseases if they are not given the necessary care. “Especially for nursery, we have to see that piglets are kept warm, have to monitor, etc…for me it is fun,” she expresses even as she insists on how growing up in the village has helped her towards this end. “My parents kept cows, pigs, chickens, and I had some basic idea but it is really important to love the animals to run a farm like this,” she says.
Through her venture, she has already generated employment to 6 young people and cheerfully talks about the activities that keep her engaged. Nagas love pork, she states, but says ‘we are lazy, impatient and want immediate results’, while pointing to the number of pigs brought in from outside. However, she observed that in recent years Naga families have also started rearing pigs for their own consumption, which, she says is a good sign.
Dwelling more on how she runs her piggery, she emphasises that space and good source of water are dire essentials. She uses dry feed for her pigs, 50% of maize and combination of 8 other items including portion of wheat, oilcakes, groundnut etc to make it a balanced diet.
“Everything is a self-experiment for me,” she expresses. Undoubtedly, she has let her passion drive her into this venture because the outcome certainly shows. She is grateful to Entrepreneurs Associates for believing in her and extending a loan to her, which has helped her extend another long stretch of much-needed sty in her pig farm. Here, she maintains, “Rich people do not need loans while poor people do not have enough property to apply for loans…EA is a saviour to many youths.”
And yet, her business isn’t confined to piggery for she also remembers running a grocery store once upon a time, which, in the process became a hub of many things - clothes mostly, which she also enjoys shopping from outside to simultaneously meet the needs of the customers in the State.
‘General Falls’ in Kohima needs no introduction – it’s a sort of one-stop shop visited frequently by most people in the capital town. This one is her idea of trying to provide everything possible in one place. “At least some of the basic things brought together in one place so that people don’t have to go around several places to pick what they need”.
By all standards, she is also apparently a Super Mom too for she has managed it all so well despite having to mother 7 children - 4 of her own and 3 other nephews and nieces. When asked how she balances all these, she simply states, “My husband is there to share the burden and I have a good helper in the kitchen.”
“I am happy in the jungle,” she insists. And yes, it shows in her kitchen garden, in her farm, and how she seems so happy doing all the good ‘natural’ things. “As a village brought up child, I had to fetch water, carry firewood…” she says, adding that ‘children today have all the leisure and pleasure’.
In this regard, she emphasises, “If we sit too long in this comfort zone, we will suffer.”
She feels that young people need to have ‘we-must-do-it’ attitude. “We should not feel too much for unemployment because there are sufficient things to do,” she states firmly, while maintaining that ‘If one is ready to work hard, we should not feel too seriously about what to eat tomorrow’.
The sportive spirit in her seems lingering still, and it is with enthusiasm that she shares her love for sports too. It is no wonder that she has represented Manipur state on several occasions at the national level. And that goes back to her school days in Class VI, VIII and X respectively for individual games, Basket Ball and Science Seminar at Delhi, Gujarat and again Delhi.
She only wishes that her children and other youth alike firstly sees to it that they are educated and not necessarily rush for government jobs but keep options open because, she persists that there are so many private companies willing to take them in if they are hard working.
“We need to be more down to earth, have the mentality to work hard…Nagas are smart, we have the competitive spirit, but we are a bit sluggish,” she opines as she dismisses the interview by confessing her love also for gardening and reading.
By 6 in the morning, she is already slugging it out at her piggery before she begins another day at ‘General Falls’ making customers happy with her vibrant smile alone. The counter in her shop also manifests her love for reading in the stacks of books. Truly a self-taught woman who has come a long way indeed.