Rebirth of Jodha Chandra Sanasam in Manipuri literature
- Part 3 -

Surjitkumar Loitam *

Prof Jodhachandra Sanasam, president of Patriotic Writers' Forum (PAWF), Manipur (February 25 2014) :: Pix - Hueiyen News Service

A Successful Life The 16th May, 2022, Wednesday was a dark day for Manipuri literature. It was the day when Jodha Chandra Sanasam passed away in the morning at 9 peacefully. His brothers, sisters, relatives, friends and several scholars could not take part in his cremation due to COVID-19. The crematorial function was performed peacefully although there was pain for the absence of his well wishers in the function.

However the members of the family were free from indebtedness and burdensome of dependence upon others. Indeed his soul was great. Once the wife of Jodha Chandra Sanasam, Smt. Biona Kharubon said, "He was a man of benevolence and dignity. Really his life was successful." I also thought of it as true.

The Person to keep commitment

Jodha Chandra Sanasam was the person who kept commitment in his life. As for me, I found four figures like him in my life. Mention may be made of the names of Elangbam Nilakanta, B. Jayentakumar Sharma, Nongmaithem Tombi and Maibam Nabakishore. Indeed it was the nature of Jodha Chandra to keep his commitment in advance instead of posponement of the actual settlement. One of my personal experiences in this regard may be remembered as follows:

During the period of lockdown of COVID-19 in April 2020, I had approached him to translate into English the poetry book, Gandharigee Mitkhumphi and the prose, "Prof. Nongmaithem Tombi Singhgee Punshi Khongchat : Nouhouna Yengba" both written by Nongmaithem Tombi and I handed down copies of the two books to him. He agreed to try his level best end and I requested him to complete the translation work within three months. By that time he carried on his normal task of writing daily without stoppage.

After crossing over one month, one evening of 29 May, Friday he informed me through telephone unexpectedly and said, 'Surjit I have completed the translation work which was entrusted to me by you. I give the title of the article as "A Refreshed View at the Life Journey of Prof. Nongmaithem Tombi, so you may take it now." I was surprised by his commitment to complete the translation work within 33 days earlier out of 90 days as per the settlement.

Such experiences were shown not only for me but for others also. Jodha Chandra Sanasam had performed several unforgettable works within the short span of 19 years of his literary journey in Manipuri literature.

The journey of his life had gone free from resistence like the journey of the Sun, the large fireball. His cousin brother, Sanasam Umananda once said, "He never accepted negative thinking. During the youthful stage of his life he used to cherish any idea to launch a movement. He denied the lazy life." It was a fact that he carried out many dignified works in the interest of the nation keeping aside laziness, tiresome and retread.

He was always successful due to his will power and strong determination untill and unless he had got his end reached. Prof. Nongmaithem Tombi once appreciated his cherished dream for literature as such, "Jodha Chandra's literary world is of Satyam-Shivam-Sundaram (worldly Truth-Good-Beauty). He wants to be a member of the non-violent society. He wants to experience the taste of ugliness, bitterness and acidity. He is thirsty for a good government and society. He is a great humanist. He is a romantic idealist who dreams of a beautiful world."

Jodha Chandra Sanasam had emerged as one of the rare figures of Manipur. His life becomes one of the icons of Manipuri society for our life time in the 21st century to show that a born leader has come out for every century generation by generation. As a result of his uniqueness as a man, there was the least of what he could not sacrifice, contribute for the sake of Manipuri literature during his short span of life for 19 years.

Renowned writers and the general mass had shown gratitude and respect with their deep expression, 'We know what you contribute and sacrifice.' He could find the opportunities to read personally their writings to honour him.

To some extent, he was more fortunate than the then pioneers of Manipuri literature, like Anganghal, Chaoba, Kamal and Irabat etc. The appreciation of those pioneers was taken up only after their death. They could not enjoy personally those appreciation when they were alive. Keeping in view these developments, Jodha Chandra could read over the writings of appreciation about his lifetime achievements as well as the love and affection extended to him from different circles during his lifetime.

Everybody knows that the art of writing is not an easy thing. The writing of a prose work naturally takes several months. Thus thr portrayal of the true picture of a writer, critical appreciations of his prose and poetry works and the production of critical books of literature shold not be taken easily.

In fact the success to implement a difficult task and achieve the goal was brought only by his great-ness in his literary journey. It was a rare occasion. It may be said that such great souls do not appear in the society very often. I wish the birth of great souls like him one after another for the development of a good and peaceful society.

Two Occasions Unable to Attend During the Con-cluding Part of His Life I found two occasions which were not attended by Jodha Chandra during the concluding part of his life. The first one was the 31st anniversary of Nongchup Haram Khorjei Lup (NOHAKHOL), Yurembam kid on 21st April at Haorang Keishang with Jodha Chandra as chief guest.

The second one was the Kavi Sanmelan (the Poets' Meet) organised by IMAKHOL, Awang Potsaagbam In fact the non attendance was due to the broke out of the second wave of COVID-19, Has locality and its surrounding areas were declared the containment zone during the period and as such he was unable to attend the two functions.

Some days back before the dates of the two functions, he made a telephone call as such, "Suriit, I will not be able to attend the two programmes, I could not» keep what I had told you about my commitment in this regard. Our locality (Thangmeiband Khomdram Selungba Leikai) was suddenly included in the declaration of containment zone, it seems difficult for me to come out. Your madam has also advised me this time to abstain from the two functions. She never told me such things in my life.

As for me this time I decide to obey your madam. But I regret my failure beyond my expression. Sometimes there were occasions in my life in which I was absent and my stand was that there was nothing of what I could not do. This time I have clearly told NOHAKHOL and IMAKHOL my inability to attend their grand functions. Really, I regret to think of my failure."

Responding to the call of his pathetic expression, I told him with due respect to drop the serious thinking about the miner, it was not the deliberate failure, it was really caused by the circumstances of the public issue, there might be several similar occasions in future. He replied, "Yes, I have to think of what you suggest." Thus concluded our talk. Although he could not attend the functions, he found enough time to make clarification sincerely about his weakness and failure.

Read Poems written by Jodha Chandra Sanasam here

To be continued...