From the diary of a flying squad III

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E-Pao! EI - From the diary of a flying squad

From the diary of a flying squad
- Part 3 -

By: Oinam Anand *

On the 20th March, our team went to MG Evergreen High School, Pallel, about 50 km from Imphal. We reached there at 8.30 am, half an hour earlier from the examination hour. we spent the extra time loitering around the markets buying vegetable items brought from the hills which were scarcely found in our locality.

It was a peculiar feature that students belonging to different community living in Manipur were sitting together in the examination rooms. There were students from other parts of India also appearing in the exam through nearby high schools. Tangkhuls, Kukis, Aimols, Marings, Thadous, Nepalis, Meeteis were all housed in the exam centre.

After the examination hour, we were given a tasty fruit which we had seldom seen in Imphal but found there as refreshment. There I got a rare opportunity of meeting Mr Kshetri Bira, a renowned novelist who had written more than 16 books on Manipuri Folk tales and literature. He was officer-in-charge of the Centre.

He narrated a very interesting account of his experience while he was in the hills of Manipur as a teacher in different schools. The stories compounded with the folk tales of the Nagas and Kukis and at the same time about pathetic lives and hardship faced by the hill people in the 70s when there were no communication facilities in the hills.

'Pallel' means big barrage. 'Pal' - barrage, 'lel' - biggest or the 'top most'. There was a story linked with this name as narrated by Mr Modun, the AOC of the Centre. In the past, there were frequent wars between Manipur and Ava (Burma). According to the narrator Manipur had attacked Ava 11 times and Ava attacked Manipur ten times.

The Avas in order to level the score tried to invade Manipur for the 11th time in a large scale. The King of Manipur on getting the information stationed at Pallel in advance and made a big barrage across the Pallel river in one night and made the water flood the whole in which the Avas had to advance towards Manipur and thus foiled the attempt to attack Manipur. From then onward, the place came to be known as 'Pallel'.

On the 23rd March, we were ready for Phungyar centre. It was a morning shift duty and the journey from Imphal to Phungyar took almost 4 hours. So we had arranged to start from Imphal at 5 am. We managed to pack our lunch and that took some hours and we arrived at Phungyar about half an hour behind schedule.

Phungyar is windy all the 24 hours. Air is fresh and refreshing. While the sun shines overhead one could enjoy the cool breeze of air even in the hot summer months.

As I was told by an elderly man Mr Simrayngam, 'Phung' in Tangkhul language means a point or place of meeting and 'yar' means diversion, to part away in different directions.

Once upon a time the forefathers in their search for settlement, converged there to meet and from there some had gone eastwards, some south and some westwards deciding to meet again at the same place in due course of time. Henceforth that meeting place came to be known as 'Phungyar'.

Mr Simrayngam presented me a sapling of a flower plucked from the garden of the school campus. He told us to come again in the months of October and November to see the Ningthi river which can be seen clearly from the top of the Phungyar hill if the sky is clear.

In the evening shift of the examination, only one female candidate appeared in the Elementary Manipuri subject. The OC told us that the student was from Kamjong area. She appeared in the subject on her own effort without the help of a Manipuri teacher in her school.

In his opinion, the OC expressed that most of the non-Meitei students in the hill want to read and write Manipuri. But there is no Manipuri subject teacher. As MIL subjects now include Tangkhul, Thadou Kuki, Hmar etc, the number of students offering Manipuri and Elementary Manipuri are decreasing year after year and the students in the hills are distancing from the knowledge of Manipuri language and the gap is still increasing when the cry of south Nagaland echoes back from the mountains of Manipur.

At this, I remembered one of my Tangkhul friend, who was my roommate during our university days. He was from Singkap village, Ukhrul district. We were the first batch students of Manipur University. While I was doing Master's Degree in English language and Literature, he was doing the same in Manipuri language and literature.

He got the degree with high marks and was the first Tangkhul to get an MA degree in Manipuri language. But unfortunately he was killed in a road accident near North AOC Imphal shortly after he got his Master's degree.

During our talks while in the University campus, he had expressed his desire to write books in Manipuri collecting the treasure of the Tangkhul culture hidden unknown to the valley of Manipur, and by which in his opinion would strengthen the ties between the two brothers.

But God had other wish and at this juncture I fondly remember him. If he had lived today, I wish that he would certainly help his Tangkhul fellows to know Manipuri well.

On my journey back home I had a far view of his native village on the other range of the mountain and with a sigh prayed to the almighty to rest his soul near his abode in peace.

We had our lunch near a waiting shed which stood on the crest of the mountain range. An elderly man, who worked nearby joined our lunch. He had fully satisfied his stomach and expressed that he had not eaten such a delicious and tasty food in his life.

Away from the maddening crowd in Imphal, I sometimes envy the true wealth of Nature possessed by these simple people in the hills and at the same time think myself lucky to be born in the valley when I see the hard life of the people in the hills.

Mesmerized myself by the sight of a blue mountain range in the far east, I asked the name of the mountain. The old man replied, 'O son, it is the Angou Range'. I paused there for a moment, lost in the spectacle of the range, so beautiful, so noble - and even to this moment while I am with my pen here, the picture of the blue mountain range seared indelibly in my mind.

To conclude my diary, I would like to remind all a fact.

We are aware of the fact that examinations can pull up education and can raise the standard and quality of education. But examination alone however flawless it may be cannot do it and ensure it.

We should build a good academic atmosphere not only in the core of Imphal but also in the whole of Manipur by providing sufficient teachers and adequate infrastructure specially in the hills of Manipur.

Yes, we have quality examination, no doubt but for quality infrastructure and for quality teachers it is still a distant dream.

| Read Part I here | Read Part II here |

Oinam Anand wrote this article for The Sangai Express
This article was webcasted on April 14th, 2006

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