One day while confabulating with me inside the office of the Manipuri Sahitya Parishad, Nanda Meitei said, "in my life I would never introduce myself as a poet. Let the other people regard me as a poet. I feel very angry when my son calls me a poet. Calling me a poet is aggravation". Further he said, "In future I would never bring out my poems in Manipuri. Let the publisher bring out my original works". What an attractive thought is given by the poet in the preface this book - "A writer, in fact, is like a student. And the reader is like the examiner". Most of the poems included in this translation are original, although a few are from published works. All the hidden personalities of the poet are exposed in this book. We could know what kind of man Nanda Meitei is. He is an innocent as child. On the other hand he spells out the things with a very deep thinking. Some of his poems are highly symbolic. See the meaning behind some of his mini poems:

”Teacher! To the mango grove
Let's go
Let's gather mangoes there" (gathering fruits)

"O Man, climbing up the sky
If you could
Bring me please
A piece of the sky" (Atiyadagi).

The poet goes and gathers the mango fruits which symbolizes the practical skill of the young boys and the girls. The poet also wants peaceful co-existence which is symbolized by 'sky'. The poems are all entertaining to read. The poem Iris of the Sky itself has poetic depth. The poem having only two lines writes,
"Our body is the nest
And words: the bird" (The Nest and the Lair).
Here the title is not suitable to the content. It would be better to change The Lair to The Birds.