Sapam Shivadas: A Table Tennis Player Of The 1950s

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Sapam Shivadas :: Pix - Hueiyen Lanpao

Sapam Shivadas was born on Sunday, 10th March 1929 at Konjeng Hazari Leikai, Imphal. He is the lone son and third child of Sapam Matum and Yumlembam Ningol Sapam Ongbi Tharik Devi. He passed matriculation in 1952 from the Bheirodan Hindi School and was admitted to Imphal College for further studies. As a mediocre student, he knew Hindi and Bengali languages very well. He had an ardent interest in reading of popular Hindi and Bengali books. Later he became a friend of the books.

Shivadas is one of the pioneers of Table Tennis Game in Manipur. When sports like Football, Hockey and Athletics were very popular during his youthful time, Table Tennis had just around 30 players. They learnt various techniques of the game like handling the Table Tennis racquet from the books. From around the year 1950, he began to play Table Tennis as a new game and by 1955, he became a good player.

Players of the time used to practice Table Tennis at the Public Library complex beside GM Hall. Shivadas could become Manipur champion many times. Some of the players were Maisnam Kunjabihari, Dr. Jogamani, Sougaijam Lalit, Kh. Nimai, Dr. Kumud, Sanjembam Priyokumar, Kh. Brajamani, I. Raghumani and Sarat Arambam who had learnt the games from Shillong during his studies. Most of the players were all-rounder.

From 1954 to 1956, Shivadas represented Manipur at Inter District tournaments held at various places of Guwahati. Around 1954, he along with M. Kunjabihari and M. Manmohan Sharma were selected as Manipur Table Tennis players to participate in the Assam Inter District Championships in Jorhat, where Shri Nilakamal was the Team Manager. In 1955 again, he participated in the Inter-district tournament along with Sarat Arambam and M. Kunjabihari.

At the Assam Inter District tournament held at Nagaon in 1958, S. Shivadas got the runners-up position in Men’s Open Table Tennis. On a number of final matches, he faced Assam player Omar Hazarika who was number one while Shivadas was the number two of Assam. Other state players during the tournament were M. Kunjabihari (captain) and H. Kamini. In the same year, he also got training on Table Tennis from the famous Indian coach Bhandari. During the Inter District Championships held from 13 to 15 December 1959 at Silchar, Shivadas represented Manipur along with M. Kunjabihari and Kh Nimai.

In 1956, he joined service as a clerk in the Education Department. Acknowledging his efficient and sincere works, the then Education Director SD Bahuguna promoted him to the post of Librarian. As Librarian of the Post-Graduate Training College for a long time, he had the opportunity to read a number of valuable books.

Shivadas is such a hard working employee who did not take even a casual leave during his service. He retired from service in 1994 as Selection Grade Employee. As a sportsman, he indulged in playing and walking long distances. On Sundays, he used to walk to and fro Nambol for around 2 and half hour. His daily morning walk reached upto Malom.

On Table Tennis Game, Shivadas gave his opinion as “As Table Tennis is suitable to the medium sized people of the Asian countries, the players of Japan, Korea and China emerge victorious on many occasions. It is also suitable for the Manipuris”. As a player, he developed a good food habit and had a healthy body.

Veteran player Shivadas expressed his extreme satisfaction on being invited to join the Torch Run in the V National Games hosted by Manipur in 1999. He also appreciated the Hueiyen Lanpao Daily for the opportunity to recall his past glory as a player. He was happy for his siblings would now realize that he was a sportsman during his youthful days. Besides being a player, he loved reading books.

Talking to Ratneshori Goswami of Hueiyen Lanpao Daily, he recounted the names of a few people who read books regularly in his library. He said that GC Tongbra, RK Jhaljit, Laishram Samarendra, Chongtham Jayentakumar, Dr. Jamini Devi etc. were regular readers when he was the Librarian. One of the most shocking incidents in his life, as the octogenarian Shivadas said, is the arson of Central library building in the state.

Today, Sapam Shivadas is 85 years old. But even at the dusk of his life, Shivadas still loves sports.