I on behalf of Lamhil Editorial Team would like to extend our heartfelt gratitude for agreeing to have me interview you. Since Lamhil caters mostly to student community of Delhi, questions would mostly evolve from around your study life. Please allow me to throw your memory back in time dur-ing your student years and of the struggle you had endured while preparing for the civil service ex-ams.

Hoineilhing Sitlhou: Please tell us briefly about your family background prior to your marriage.
Pi Nengcha Sitlhou: My father, S.L. Palal, and my mother, L. Hatnu, were a working couple in the modern-day sense of the term: he was a Compounder and she a nurse. My father was also a song-writer whose songbook ―Lathahbu‖, aka Palal Labu, first printed in 1949 became the mainstay of any ‗lenkhom‘ in our society. I am the second youngest of 6 siblings.
Lamhil: Please tell us about your student life (your majors, places of education, favourite subjects, hob-bies, sports etc.).
NS: The most important part of my student life is still the first school I attended. It was called Ho-inei Bombel School in Motbung (named after the mother of the then Chief of Motbung, Pu Lunneh). The school was in the community hall of the village, we must have been around 40 kids – with only one teacher, Pastor Mr. Satjasei. He was the most wonderful and complete teacher, who not only taught us reading and writing but also how to behave in society, how to respect elders etc. After that, I changed school many times over because my parents moved from village to village as health workers. I failed my class 8 competitive exams from Adimjati High School Imphal, partly because I was attending to my mother in hospital but also because I was generally unprepared. Then my brother, Prof. S.L Boikho sent me to Little Flower, Imphal for classes 9 and 10. I was too young to understand why he did it but I have him to thank forever for that decision. Because that‘s where I had learnt to fight for my survival. As a new kid with no friends, not being able to speak English, it was pure misery for the first 2/3 months. But I learnt fast and in fact, ended up taking seventh posi-tion in the state matriculation exams. I did my BA in English honours from Lady Keane, Shillong, and went on to top the university in that subject. I was never particularly good at sports but I en-joyed a game of badminton. I always loved singing, but in a group scene I comfortably tucked myself away at the back.
Lamhil: How much time (months/ years) did you spent in preparing for the Civil Services Examination? What were your optionals?
NS: Three years I would say. I always knew I didn‘t want to do MA. So after graduation in 1977, I attended the civil services training institute that NEHU had just opened in Shillong, but it was not a serious attempt and I didn‘t appear for all the papers. Then I went through a period of drift for sev-eral months at home until my mother packed me off to Delhi all on my own; no molly coddling on account of being a girl. I got the biggest culture shock when I arrived in Delhi, everything was so huge and hot and impersonal. I knew almost nobody - those days the number of students from Ma-nipur could be counted on one‘s fingers - and the few people that I knew I didn‘t know how to con-tact. I somehow got myself admitted to Delhi University for MA and even more fortunately got a hostel seat in Miranda House. It was once again a very demoralizing experience; to have come from another university where I had topped the subject and finding that here I was barely able to keep up with the class. But somehow I managed. I mainly concentrated on preparing for the civil services, taking up English literature and a brand new subject– Sociology. I studied like my life de-pended on it. I was acutely aware that my parents were spending all the money they have in
educating me. Failure therefore was not an option. I attended Rao‘s coaching in CP for a while which was useful for the mock interviews.
Lamhil: What is your advice to the future aspirants?
NS: Focus, focus, focus. Don‘t be distracted. Believe in yourself, give everything you have, even what you don‘t have – in the sense that you may not know you have it. Draw from all your reserves of will-power. Leave the rest to God and luck.
Lamhil: Was there any specific study strategy that you followed?
NS: None that I can recall of now. Everyone has his/her own unique way of doing things.
Lamhil: Please share with us some of your experiences as a diplomat in different countries around the world.
NS: I have been posted in Mexico, Bangladesh, Cuba, the United States, Lebanon and now Serbia. Each country is different and special, and demands something different from you. This is the exciting part – you never know what to expect and how you will respond to a situation. It‘s a constant learn-ing experience that makes you evolve all the time as an individual and a professional. Yet it‘s also amazing how much you remain the same.
Lamhil: What has been your most challenging task in your line of work until date?
NS: Being Consul Commerce in New York; never having done commercial work. New York being the capital of global trade and finance, trying to find your feet there and do a decent job of promoting your country was a daunting task. Luckily for me, I had a wonderful boss – Mr. Harsh Bhasin, the Consul General, who taught me never to be intimidated and was always behind me. The other chal-lenging and demanding task was being Joint Secretary in a territorial division in the Ministry of Ex-ternal Affairs, for the amount of pressure you have to deal with, without losing your sanity and sense of humour. I did it for 3 years. It‘s like no other experience, one that I would not exchange for any-thing in the world. By the time I found myself suddenly in the middle of a war in Lebanon and called upon to do evacuation of Indian nationals, I was somehow completely prepared for the task.
Lamhil: As a career woman, do you face role-conflict in balancing it with domestic or familial responsi-bility?
NS: This can be potentially the most difficult thing for a working woman to balance but I was fortu-nate to have very good help throughout and a very understanding husband. Moreover, the way I looked at myself, I was 100% a mother and home-maker when at home with children. I hardly ever brought work home. 
Lamhil: Congratulations again on winning the ―Prime Minister‘s Award for Excellence in Public Ad-ministration‖. Where would you like to go from here?
NS: The Prime Minister‘s Award came to me as a complete surprise, in the sense that I was only do-ing my job. It is an honour that I am deeply grateful for. What was really nice was to see the whole northeast celebrate. I will continue to do what I have always done, get on with the work wherever I am to the best of my abilities. That is what I am paid for. In the process, try and bring some joy to people I come into contact with, as the country‘s envoy and as a human being.





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