The making of "Hada Samaton Ayangba"

Lt Col M Ranjit Singh (Retd) *

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During the first week of November 2014, a musical sensation was created in the Manipuri music world by Mangka with her solo song "Hada Samaton Ayangba" The song specially composed as Theme Song of the 8th Manipur Polo International 2014, was sung live for the first time at Imphal Pologround on November 6, 2014.

That was during the Closing Ceremony of the 5th 57 Mountain Division Polo Tournament 2014. The recording of this song with additional visuals thereafter was telecast by DDK Imphal for two to three times a day till the beginning of the 8th Manipur Polo International 2014 on November 22, 2014. The song was, however, officially sung as Theme Song on November 22, 2014 on the Opening day of the 8th Manipur Polo International 2014 in front of a large crowd of Polo lovers from Manipur and abroad.

A limited numbers of audio CDs of the song were also released on the Opening Day. The song sung with traditional elements in innovative ways became an instant hit to all the polo players present on that day. With this song Mangka, who is already well known in Manipur for singing traditional Manipuri folk songs, overnight became a famous singing star of Manipur.

The demand for Mangka to sing this song on many social, sporting and cultural events in Manipur thereafter was seen to be believed. This song became very popular also on You Tube, receiving around combined viewership of 60,000 as on this day, not a mean achievement for a Manipuri song.

It may be listed as one of the best Manipuri songs of all time. This song has become so iconic that it may be called Manipur's second State anthem, the first one being of course 'Sana Leibak Manipur'! Ian, a free lance journalist of The New York Times, who was in Manipur for about two months during the beginning of this year for his research work on Manipuri Polo commented on this song, "As of now, as far as Manipuri songs are concerned, It is Mangka and Mangka only. So popular is her song that it is played before the beginning of any function, in between the function and at the end of the function."

We in Manipur Horse Riding and Polo Association will ever remain grateful to her for influencing and appealing the people of Manipur through her song of awareness for Polo in Manipur and the need to save Manipuri pony from extinction.

This story had, however, a humble beginning. We in Manipur Horse Riding and Polo Association felt for a long time the need of having a Manipur song dedicated to Polo and Manipuri pony. In a meeting held during June 2014 at our breeding farm, our Association decided to have a Theme Song for the 8th Manipur Polo International 2014.

The song was to be associated with Polo and Manipuri pony. This responsibility was given to me and R.K Dilip, a senior Vice President of MHRPA. After the meeting, while I was coming back to home, I heard on FM Channel an interview of a young Manipuri folk song artist. She was narrating about her visit to Colombo.

In between the interview, she also sang few lines of the folk song she sung in Colombo. I then and there decided that our theme song must be sung by this young artist. I consulted my partner and to my pleasant surprise I found out that the artist was none other than Mangka, daughter of Mangangsana, a famous penna exponent who used to stay near my house and now shifted to another location.

After few days I met Mangangsana and requested him to compose our theme song to be sung by his daughter. The only condition I had suggested was that the tune must be based on Manipuri folk song style and it should be catchy and hummable tune. What I had in my mind was something like the world famous "Waka Waka" of 2010 FIFA World Cup theme song.

He readily agreed to compose the song and asked me to give him the lyric at the earliest. RK. Dilip and me had a long discussion and finally decided to approach late B. Jayantakumar Sharma, the greatest lyricist of Manipur, to compose the lyric for the song.

Eigya Jayantakumar, the most famous and popular lyricist of Manipur, as we all know wrote around 1314 Manipuri lyrics during his life time. I dare not write more on Eigya Jayantakumar as it will be tantamount to gilding the lily. Eigya as a matter of fact told us that he has not been writing lyrics for quite a long time.

Eigya, however, accepted our request to write the lyric for our theme song since his interest was also with Manipuri pony and Polo. Eigya sent the lyric to us on September 12, 2014. It had thirty three lines. I showed the lyric to Mangangsana and he said that the lyric was rather long to fit into a time frame of five minutes.

We went to Eigya again and requested to edit his lyric. He edited the original lyric and shortened it to twenty three lines. It is almost a year since Mangka sang this song. It is still popular. We all are grateful to late Eigya, Mangangsana and Mangka for making this wonderful Manipuri song on Manipuri pony and Polo.

The Final match of 9th Manipur Polo International 2015 will be played today (November 29, 2015) at Imphal Pologround between India (Manipur) and most probably with USA. It is going to be a great match. Come, watch and enjoy the match.

You can hear the song here or watch it at Ooba