Sovereign Father arrived. He had extensive consultations with my birthmother the Lady Ngangbam at his house, English Bye. That would surely have been over our middle sister the Lady Tombiyaima. A State doctor was also regularly involved in the consultations over my ailing elder sister. I cannot recall who exactly he was but I know he also took part in the discussions.
One day there was great excitement in our household. A renowned doctor was to come to check our sister’s health. The doctor came. He was taken in to look at her. Sovereign Father did not allow anyone else inside, except for an essential few. Only I hung around watching furtively. The doctor was very tall. He was very fair. He looked like a sahib though he wasn’t one. Such a handsome man! We had seen many English surgeons in Manipur but he was better looking. It was said that he was an Indian.
My older sister, the patient, had her bed laid out even more neatly than usual. She wore a pretty, loose orange shirt of fine wool. Her long black hair was pulled back into a braid. I still remember it. My sister was beautiful even though she was ill. As she breathed heavily lying on the white bed she looked even lovelier. One day our maternal uncle’s daughter Maimu said, ‘If I could be ill like the royal princess, I would gladly stay sick in bed if I were asked to’. I heard the Ngangbam clan tell this story and laugh uproariously over this remark.
True, I mention my bedridden sister often in my essays. Some people even ask, ‘Why do you keep talking about her?’ No, it is no mere mention. She is here with me when I write. If it were not for her, where could I have gotten this priceless family album?76 Where would I have looked for the many invaluable albums that tell me many stories of my father and mother? I still remember that even as we were fleeing the War77, she pleaded that her albums and books be brought too. That is why I still see her vividly every moment I write. She is still alive to me.
I remember her many features at this very moment: her large black eyes that took after our sovereign father, looking at the doctor measuring her pulse at her wrist. Those eyes seem to ask, will I never get well? When I was little, I coveted her beautiful cheeks that dimpled even when she was not laughing. I threw tantrums saying that I wanted dimples like the ones in my elder sister’s cheeks. I was greatly embarrassed when people told this story later when I was grown up.
How beautiful she was that day. The doctor was very handsome too. They said his name was Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy.78 He would come to Shillong regularly on his travels. It was said that our sovereign father rushed from Manipur to meet him when he heard that the doctor had arrived. I, for one, stood outside while the doctor was checking my sister. As a child I was given to peeking furtively. As the doctor was about to leave, he saw me, and patting me on my back, said with a laugh, ‘Who is this young lady?’ My happiness knew no bounds. I remember as a young girl thinking the incident was the most precious moment of my life. I still remember it today
Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy was a renowned doctor of Bengal at that time. Following his advice, my father had to bring his daughter to Calcutta for her treatment. This meant a long stay. It meant a new life there. Two of us children were taken out of Pine Mount School and sent along too. We were not upset over this but, rather, excited to follow our parents. We were quite used to following sovereign father wherever he went in this way, and loved it.
At that time, Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy was not only a doctor but seemed to have been someone high up in the Congress Party. He said to Sovereign Father, ‘Bring your daughter to Calcutta and we will consult other famous doctors like Neelratan Sarkar about her proper treatment.’ Dr. Bidhan Chandra would come every day without fail for my sister’s check up. He did not even take any fees, so there were whispers and gossip in Sovereign Father’s family and staff. They said that Dr. Bidhan Chandra was a bachelor and planned for Tombiyaima to come to Calcutta since he had set his eyes on her.
I feel sad now when I think about the many trials and tribulations my parents faced because of their children. Of their five daughters, two died of tuberculosis. Another died at the adorable age of eight. It was said that Sovereign Father became insane with grief. But apart from this, they had daughters who went against their wishes and they lived through that pain together. I heard that my mother Ngangbam Ibemcha and the young child king had fallen in love with each other and married. Both were in their teens with only two years of difference between them. But the king’s family and his brothers did not greatly approve of Ngangbam Ibemcha. Despite their opposition and disapproval, the child king Churachand got his way. Actually I heard how all this happened from the Ngangbam clan. So it is one-sided. Today I think that the love between child king and Ngangbam Ibemcha must have been deep and passionate – it was said the teenage king was head over heels in love with her. Ibemcha Ngangbam, Jugolsingh’s daughter, who chased monkeys and had an aim so true at kang that people from other localities would ask her to play on their side, had no sense of discretion. They could not but meet every day. It was said that the king would often come on horseback to Ngangbam after people had gone to bed and bang and stamp on the steps and the verandah. The warrior Jugolsingh disapproved of this and often warned the king against it. These were all stories recounted by my maternal uncles that we heard later. It makes me smile now to think that the love between the two of them can be said today to be like a Romeo and Juliet story of a bygone age. But I never heard my mother tell their story. She might have buried it as a personal story she treasured.
I think that people might have misunderstood my mother Ibemcha, the Maid of Ngangbam. Her stubbornness and strong will might have been taken for arrogance and pride. But this is certainly true: the child king who loved her from his youth continued to care for her deeply. Even though Sovereign Father took four more wives after her as approved by tradition, he placed the Lady Ngangbam at an especially elevated rank and gave her the full status of a maharani. He took her everywhere that he went, and shared his secrets with her. He took care of her daughters. So people said, ‘The Lady Ngangbam knows the black arts. She has cast her dark spells and ensnared the king.’
The illness of their most precious daughter Tombiyaima at this time must have broken their hearts. They made great efforts for her recovery. There are noteworthy stories about how Sovereign Father rented a house at Manohar Pukur Road for Tombiyaima’s treatment by Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy in Calcutta. It was by the lake in Calcutta. From the time Sovereign Father took his daughter to Calcutta for treatment, the story of English Bye also seems to come to an end. He had to let go of this beloved house and estate at the insistence of the British government and had to exchange it for the house and estate known today as Redlands at Laitumkhrah in Shillong. But we could never forget our life at English Bye.