At the beginning of this month, a phone call from one of my friend has made me busy the entire fortnight. The caller is none other than Mr Saratchand Thiyam, the poet, journalist and the recipient of Sahitya Academy award 2006 in his travelogue ‘Nungshibi Greece’.

In clarification of the confusion which may be in the mind of some of my readers who know both Saratchand and I personally well, actually Saratchand Thiyam is younger to me by 2000 days or so. I was born in 1955 and Saratchand, in 1961. But friendship looks at no age and so I have enlisted him as one of my best friends in my heart though he always address me as ‘Ojha Anand’.

By profession, he is an engineer, but in reality he is more a poet than an engineer. So let me call him poet engineer. His wife Bimabati is also a lecturer and working in a Govt Higher Secondary School. She is also a poet, a writer of repute.

Both of them belong to the birds of same feather and Mrs Thiyam (Bimabati) is an activist of LEIKOL, a literary association exclusively for the women writers with MK Binodini in the lead.

I have strayed long from my original tract about the phone call of my friend poet. From the other end of the line he entrusted me the task of delivering a lecture on the travelogues in Manipur literature, a symposium organised for the first time in Manipur literary history by LEIKOL.

The symposium was held on the 14th October 2007 at Manipur Press Club, Majorkhul. Renown scholar Shri Lonjam Jaichandra Director (Retd) JN Dance Academy was the moderator. Along with me, there were two other resource persons.

Both of them have got the privilege of the affix of ‘Dr’ before their names by their qualifications in the field of research works in Manipuri Literature. Dr Huidrom Subashini read out her paper focusing on the travelogues of the early period (from early period to 1953), Dr Heigrujam Sumatibala had her paper from 1954-1999.

My fellow paper readers read out their papers well reaching nook and corner of every area of travel literature. Dr Subhasini gave a detailed account of the travelogues in the early period from ‘Poireiton Khunthokpa to Jilla Durbar Chatpa’. Dr Sumatibala detailed about the travel literature in Manipur in the modern period from 1953 to 1999.

The later period or post-modern period from 2000 to 2007 has been spared for me. I somehow managed to give an exhaustive account of the many travelogues written in this period of time. I am not sure about the quality of my paper but the faces of the audience and the applause at the end of my speech tell me that the admirers of Manipuri literature who gathered there did not regret for coming there that evening.

Keeping aside the progress of travel literature in Manipuri Literature for another day, I am writing here about my personal feeling during those days in which I make friends with the travel books. I have benefited a lot from reading almost 15/16 travelogues at a stretch in the whole fortnight.

As the reading session of the symposium draws nearer and nearer, I have kept my midnight lamp burning for many nights. To be frank, I didn’t read much late at night during my college and university days as I did in the first fortnight of this October month.

I have begun my journey with Sagolsem Hemanta for the range of ‘Khengjoi Chingshangda’ in the South-East part of Manipur. Through his travelogue I can see the beautiful part of our State as well as the hardship face by our brothers in the hills. Through his pen I also joined the press Conference of the chairman UNLF along with other 12 journalist.

From that I pass through ‘Tripura Lamnungshi’ with Bimol Chongtham to meet the Manipuris there. Then I meet Samananda and proceed toward ‘Mizoram’ for the BJP Election Campaign there. Then, I have got a train journey to ‘Banga-bandhu gi Leibakta’.

My companions at this time are Thokchom Ibohanbi, Late E Nilakanta and Nilbir Sastri. Through this travelogue I can see the capital city Dhaka, the city of the Sylet and other Manipuri villages in Bangladesh.

I hurried back for home again and joined Maya Nepra and her party in the excursion to Rajasthan to meet the poets of the deserts and the vast stretch of sandy land of Jaiselmer in her book ‘Leikanglaga Shakhangnaba’.

In 1999 with the publication of a travelogue ‘Khongchat’ Sony, a Canadian-Manipuri born in Bangladesh had swept the emotion of the readers in Manipur and his travelogue occupies a unique place in Manipuri Literature.

After a gap of seven years, I have got the chance to be a co-traveller with the mischievous middle aged ‘Thokchom Sony’ in his search for ‘Thawanmichak’ and have reached upto Thailand via Nepal in his last journey of travel literature ‘Aroiba Khongchat’.

I did not fail to travel with Imashi MK Binodini to Mexico and other Western Countries and been a part of cultural troupe to America in commemoration of bi-centenary year of American Independence in 1976.

I have also visited to Israel with Thoudam Doren (better known as Delbros Doren) and enjoy the Agro-tech Mela there in his travelogue ‘Ashangba Marubhumi’. There I have seen the trickle Jordan river, the only river that runs through Tel-Aviv.

Being cleared off all the dirts from the city sewage, the water of Jordan river is even considered fit to be used for Kitchen. Oh! What for our Nambul!

How tightly I ran along the river banks of Bramhaputra, Ganga and Cauvery holding the angling rods and with Mr Doren by my side, we enjoy hunting Mahasir fish (king of all fish as told by Doren). From there we went to England, France and then to Thailand to see the ‘Ankor Vat’.

The chance of visiting foreign countries does not fall to everybody. It is for a privileged few. Some have got the chance in search of life and prosperity.

Some have got a restlessness or a yearning or just ‘the grass is greener on the other side syndrome’. From their account which they have produced in the form of travel books we can see the whole world.

For fifteen days, I have diligently read and studied the lives and societies of the different parts of the world. True, I see neither the cities, nor the people but in their books I drink the fragrant wine of France and see with my own inward eyes the autumn of New York.

In their books, I found myself roaming in the streets of New York, London and Paris. I stand near the Nigeria falls with the sprinkle of water still touching my cheeks. In their books I climb the summit of Alps and run through the snow clad mountains of the Himalayas.

For this I owe a debt of gratitude to LEIKOL. How can I pay it back?