Hanjabam Sunanda was born on 9th November, 1974 at Keishamthong Elang Leikai in Imphal. She is the third child among five children born to Hanjabam Gourachandra Sharma and Hanjabam ongbi Dhanabati. Her father Gourachandra is a retired government servant and her mother a housewife.

Sunanda had her early schooling in the local schools. However from Class III onwards she was sent to the prestigious Banasthali Vidayapith in Rajasthan where her elder sisters were also studying. She spent the next eight years of her life in this unique educational institute for women.

Established by Pandit Hiralal Shastri in 1935 with a unique vision in the memory of his deceased daughter Shanta Bai, the Vidyapith ideal of education is reflected in its vision of the Panchmukhi Shiksha – which attempts a balance of the five aspects of education, namely Physical, Practical, Aesthetic, Moral and Intellectual.

The Vidyapith also aims at the synthesis of spiritual values and scientific achievements of the East and the West. Emphasis on Indian culture and thought and simple living including khadi wearing are hallmarks of life at Banasthali.

Growing up in such an environment gave enormous influence. Till date Sunanda believes in the Gandhian way of life – “simple living and high thinking” in her own words. She also prefers a vegetarian diet and cotton clothes over the luxuries so easily accessible and so enticing to today’s youth.

Sunanda passed her matric from the Banasthali Vidyapith, and then did her higher secondary at Tamphasana Girls Higher Secondary school in Imphal. After that she went for a three years diploma course in Commercial Art at Mirabai Polytechnic in New Delhi.

After she passed out in 1994, she worked briefly for a packaging company and later as a label designer. However, she left the job and came back to Imphal soon after. “Starting out as a commercial artist in Delhi is very hard, though if you can endure for a few years the returns become more promising,” she informs.

“More than that I was also feeling insecure as in a metropolitan city like Delhi the crime rate against women is very high, and you know how people with our Mongoloid looks are often targeted,” she adds.

Coming back to Imphal, Sunanda again had to face the prospect of staring all over again. However her background as an artist helped her. Around five years back, she hit upon the idea of using the existing handloom and handicrafts items in the state and evolving them into new consumer items.

She took the phanek and phi pieces readily available in the market and started making tote bags, hangbags, wallets, file covers, mobile bags, notepads, etc with them. She hasn’t undergone any formal training in the field. What she has created, she has done so merely by observing and innovating.

Talking about the shift from commercial art, she says, “This is also related to art. Art attracts me. I had always wanted to do something related to our handloom and handicrafts, and so I started researching a bit on our traditional handloom and handicrafts, and what we can innovate or evolve.”

Not many people were open to the idea as she was. “Many people would come up and say, couldn’t you use something other than the phanek so that men wouldn’t hesitate in touching it. And I would point out that these phaneks haven’t been worn. And if you look at it, even a piece of dress material without the traditional phanek designs become a phanek if you use it as one” she narrates.

However lack of ready finance to purchase the raw materials in bulk is an obstacle she has been facing. “There has been some export orders, but we have not been able to give the needed supply, mainly due to money problem and time limit.” Sunanda has at present around 10 girls in their twenties and thirties working with her.

“As it is we have to work very hard just to keep a standing supply of 100 pieces of each item with us,” she adds. Most of her products are brought on wholesale basis from her workshed at her house by shop owners in the state as well as by interested parties. She also sends her products to Guwahati, Trivandrum and Delhi. She has exhibited her work at various exhibitions and trade fairs all over the country.

Sunanda’s interests vary. She is also a potter, having undertaken a course in pottery at the Central Glass and Ceramics Research Institute at Khurja in Uttar Pradesh in 2001. Along with a few other friends, she has plans to set up a pottery establishment in the state.

Sunanda is an avid reader – reading everything she can lay her hands on from biographies and fiction to non-fiction works. Her favourite stories are Premchand’s short stories. She also loves sketching and describes herself as “very stubborn.” She is presently finishing her bachelors programme in Hindi from IGNOU.