Self Discovery:

It was the winter of 2005. It was business as usual at a bar cum restaurant called “Sathee” somewhere near Pune University. I was sitting with a Physics Professor and some Bengali research scholars from IUCAA or the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pune.

We were being perfectly loyal to the bar owner with a 750ml bottle of Royal Stag on our table. We shared our drinks and soon after lit the cigarettes. Alcohol is good solvent for smoke but I think it was the smoke that cooled the alcohol that evening.

We talked on various issues beginning with Physics. I hardly spoke but listened attentively to the lively discussion. We shifted our topic to arts and music. When it came to rock music, it was me who spoke the most with circles of smoke flying up the ceiling.

There were few lessons I learnt that day. I noticed a habit in some of the Bengali guys present that evening. Whenever they got drunk, they will just close their eyes and recite Bengali poems, mostly by Rabindranath Tagore or hum a line of Rabindra Sangeet.

That evening wasn’t any different from other evenings of leisure and drink. They would close their eyes and start reciting Gitanjali in Bengali followed by oft recited one liner “Let My Country Awake.”

When they did this that evening, I thought I would immediately recite a Manipuri poem in front of them. I was ready closing my eyes, raising my fist in the smoky air.

I opened my mouth but nothing came out of it, not a word, not a hiss and not a sound. When I realized my inability to do the same, I pretended that I was yawning, being bored with Tagore’s poems.

Indeed, I was bored. I would have been very much excited if they were reciting Nazrul Islam’s poetry but no one did that.

That night, I came back drunk cursing myself for not remembering a single Manipuri poem. Even if I had remembered a line from Dr. Kamal’s “Madhavi”, I would have recited it like a poem by Allen Ginsberg.

I would have recited it so powerful that they would think I was reciting a protest poem or something like that. But unfortunately I ended up yawning and smoking the cigarettes till it burnt my fingers.

Literary Intervention:

After that night, every time I sit down for a drink with fellow Manipuris outside the homeland, I asked them to recite a poem in Manipuri.

Alas! They were just like me, unable to recall a good poetic line. Worse still, they either end the evening with a yawn, perhaps getting bored with my questions.

I would only take solace in the thought that some good poems have found their way into rock and heavy metal music. Coleridge's “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” inspired Iron Maiden to compose a wonderful song by the same name.

Most people of my generation who have been exposed to the so called Western Popular culture, particularly rock music, (I am leaving others of my age who are seriously engaged studying Manipuri literature), are either not interested or do not bother to check out our own literature.

We are ready to read a poem by William Blake or T. S. Elliot, but not the poems which are rooted to our pain and agony. Yes! We do have poets who speak volumes of our sorrow and disturbed lives.

A verse from Thangjam Ibopishak's poem "I Want to Be Killed by an Indian Bullet" [ * ] goes like this:

Whatever it may be,
if you must shoot me please shoot me with a gun made in India.
I don't want to die from a foreign bullet.
You see, I love India very much.
That can never be.
Your wish cannot be granted.
Don't ever mention Bharat to us.

Meira Paibi of Sekta

• * Translated from the Manipuri by Robin S. Ngangom. This poem was censored out of an India International Centre, New Delhi publication on the Northeast probably thinking it was too hot blooded for the cold hearts.
• + Poet Thangjam Ibopishak writes in Manipuri. He has published six volumes of poetry, three of which earned him some of the most prestigious awards in the state including the "Manipur State Kala Akademi Award" in 1986, the "Jamini Sunder Guha Gold Medal" in 1989, the First "Jananeta Irabot Award" in 1997 and the "Ashangbam Minaketan Memorial Award" in 2005. Ibopishak also won the "Sahitya Akademi Award" for poetry in 1997.