{"id":177959,"date":"2021-11-29T01:03:32","date_gmt":"2021-11-28T19:33:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/?p=177959"},"modified":"2021-11-29T01:03:32","modified_gmt":"2021-11-28T19:33:32","slug":"former-diplomat-noted-litterateur-l-keivom-dies-at-82","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/2021\/11\/29\/former-diplomat-noted-litterateur-l-keivom-dies-at-82\/","title":{"rendered":"Former diplomat, noted litterateur L Keivom dies at 82"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Aizawl, Nov 28 (PTI) Former Indian diplomat and noted Zo litterateur Lalthlamuong Keivom died at a hospital in Delhi on Sunday after a prolonged illness. He was 82.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Keivom was undergoing treatment for multiple health complications since June, family sources said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">He was later diagnosed with cancer and bed-ridden since then, they said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">He breathed his last at Max Super Speciality Hospital in Delhi at 5.46 am, they added.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">He is survived by four children, who live abroad.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Keivom was nicknamed &#8220;Zoram Khawvel Pa&#8221; after his masterpiece &#8220;Zoram Khawvel&#8221; and for his contribution towards the integration of &#8220;Zo hnathlak&#8221; &#8212; descendants of Chin-Kuki-Mizo-Zomi group.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">He was born at Pherzawl, a remote village in Manipur&#8217;s Churachandpur district (now Pherzawl district), in 1939.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">He belonged to the Hmar tribe, one of the major tribes of Chin-Kuki-Mizo-Zomi group.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">He graduated from DM College, Imphal in 1963 and obtained a master&#8217;s degree in History from Gauhati University in 1966.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">He joined the Indian Revenue Service (Customs and Excise) in 1967.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">He joined the Indian Foreign Service (IFS) in 1970 and was posted in at least six countries, including Italy and New Zealand, during his 32-year-long career as a diplomat.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">He retired from his job in 2002.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Keivom did not sit idle after his retirement as his passion and thirst for literature, which he believed was one of the main contributing factors towards the unification of &#8220;Zo kindred tribes&#8221;, made him travel to different places of the Zo tribes and he carved a niche among famous Zo (Mizo) litterateurs.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Keivom has written at least 22 books in Hmar, Mizo and English and composed over 150 songs, including Hmar nationalist songs.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">His book &#8220;Zoram Khawvel&#8221; (eight volumes) won the prestigious &#8216;Book of the Year&#8217; award by Mizo Academy of Letters in 1991.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">His book &#8220;Zoram Khawvel-4&#8221; is often compared to Adolf Hitler&#8217;s &#8216;Mein Kampf&#8217; for its insightful and authoritative discourse on Zo nationalism and unification.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">He also translated Holy Bible and Rabindranath Tagore&#8217;s Nobel Prize-winning work Gitanjali to Hmar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Aizawl, Nov 28 (PTI) Former Indian diplomat and noted Zo litterateur Lalthlamuong Keivom died at a hospital in Delhi on Sunday after a prolonged illness. He was 82. Keivom was undergoing treatment for multiple health complications since June, family sources said. He was later diagnosed with cancer and bed-ridden since then, they said. He breathed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-177959","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-north-east"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177959\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}