My Memories of Imphal From 1941 : Chapter 4 :: Download

Dr Mohendra Irengbam *

St Joseph’s, North Point, Darjeeling

Part 4
Post war Renaissance in
School Education in Imphal

Imphal may not be the most poetic place in the world. It may not be as captivating as the five snow-capped peaks with jagged edges of Kanchenjunga that turn fiery orange in the glow of the rising sun. I used to see it in the morning from the dormitory of St Joseph’s at North Point in Darjeeling.

From my experience, I tend to agree that ‘All that glistens is not gold’ – an aphorism popularised by Shakespeare in the Merchant of Venice. A book cannot be judged by its cover. Nor a sausage by its skin. Manipur cannot be appreciated from its appearance alone. It is the people and their culture that lie in the heart of a nation.

Imphal town with its majestic tree lined blue-ridge mountains, some of their peaks dipping in the motionless fluffy cloud, remains a poet’s dream. Imphal Valley is an amphitheatre created by nature with its massive Loktak Lake that nestles in the Moirang dell.

Loktak is the biggest freshwater lake in India. It remains wind-swept and unsheltered at times or limpid and halcyon at others. On certain days, the lake with a calmness from the core, ripples and dances, reflecting the azure sky on a sunny day.

Manipur never ceases to live up to its reputation. Lord Irwin, the Governor General and the Viceroy of India, when he visited Manipur in 1931, called it “The Switzerland of India”. Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru described it as “The Jewel of India” when he came to Imphal in 1953.

I was there during my summer holiday when Pandit Nehru gave a speech at the Polo Ground in the company of the Burmese Prime Minister U Nu. Out of his generosity and to the detriment of Manipuris, he gifted the Kabaw Valley to U Nu. Kabaw valley is about the size of Imphal valley.

Download the entire Chapter 4 of this book here