I think of my father very often these days. My memory has been spurred by articles I have come across in various newspapers in Manipur about the long disputes and litigation regarding Redlands, the royal quarters in Shillong. The Government of Manipur has won the case now; the property will revert to its owners. But never was it mentioned anywhere that the British government had exchanged Redlands for my sovereign father’s vast estate called English Bye during his reign. Nobody knew, and it did not look as if anyone ever would. So wanting to let the public know, I hastily published, with some exasperation and annoyance, a short essay titled, ‘Redlands, the Royal Quarters left by Maharaja Churachand in Shillong, belongs to Manipur’. Some friends who read that essay said to me, ‘From now on, it is right that you should write and tell the public what it does not know about your sovereign father and a world that has been forgotten.’ These words of encouragement made me a bit nervous – I was afraid I might have left something out, Might I forget at some point something I knew about my sovereign father? Has not a fair bit been written in The Maharaja’s Household? But there is so much more for me to look for, to write. Many were the evenings when I wept, and said, Sovereign Father, why have you entrusted this enormous duty to your weakest and youngest daughter? I merely heard from my older sisters and my older brothers. So I need to feel around, look around. I have written many essays, and in my eagerness to write, I know I have crowded them with omissions. I recall that my daughter Roma79 once said, ‘Imasi, your essays have some repetitions every now and then.’ What she said is true. But I thought to myself, if I remember over and over again, I must write over and over again. And so I will not try to think, I will not try to recall. I will write my memories as they come to me. My sovereign father figures in all these stories.
In 1939, five young girls passed their matriculation examinations from the Tamphasana Girls School that Sovereign Father had established in the name of my eldest sister. They were Sougaijam Sorojini, Satyabati, Radhe, Tamubi and myself. We were overjoyed. My father was especially pleased. This was the first time that a daughter of his had matriculated after going to school. In those days, even though sovereign father’s sons, my older brothers Bodhchandra, Priyabrata, Lokendra, and my younger brother Joysingh and others, had attended school and college, none of his daughters had gone to school. They had all studied with tutors at home. So my father decided that he would send me to college in Shillong. My friend Sougaijam Sorojini was the daughter of Sougaijam Sanajaoba who had been private secretary to my father and also a member of the Durbar. The two of us started our studies in Shillong together. And two of our other friends went on to study medicine. One was Satyabati and the other was Tamubi. I don’t think Radhe, Maid of Khongbantabam, studied further. I heard at the time that she married young. She married a nobleman of the Ningthouja clan. And my sister-in-law Radhe gave birth to R.K. Joychandra who became the Chief Minister of Manipur.
Even though my friend Sorojini and I both studied in Shillong, we did not go to the same college. She was at Lady Keene while I was at St. Mary’s. St. Mary’s was immediately next to Redlands where I was living at the time so I could simply step out and walk over. We do not remember Sovereign Father taking us to Redlands as he did, when we were little, to English Bye. I used to think that Redlands must have been a house that our sovereign father was very fond of. But thinking on it now, I realize he did not like it very much as it had been acquired in an exchange at the request of the British government. And so it was only when I went to college that I visited Redlands for the first time. As for me, I really loved it. One reason for my enjoyment was that, having been born and grown up in Manipur’s royal palace, I felt for the first time that there was another big world out there beyond my carefully raised and chaperoned lifestyle. During that time, I felt I was living independently by myself in Redlands, the royal quarters in Shillong. For the first time I was living beyond the reach of my parents’ careful and watchful gaze. It was not that I did not know Shillong. I had known and loved it as a child. But then I was with my mother, father and my many brothers and sisters. And so the Shillong that I was getting to know and see was, for the first time, as a budding young adult. I was but seventeen at the time. What people may not know is that my birthmother the Lady Ngangbam had put me into school in Nabadwip for about three years. There I had sat for my matriculation at a school called Ishani Smriti Mandir. But I failed the exam. And so I went back to school in Manipur and passed my matriculation there.
There is one matter I should mention at this point. The time I spent in Nabadwip as a child was very helpful and beneficial to me because it was a place that was very civilized in both language and literature. I learned to speak Bengali fluently. People even said that I spoke it as well as native Bengali speakers. I began to find my way around Bengali literature at that time, too. Most importantly, I began to read novels and plays by famous people like Bankim Chandra, Sarat Chandra, Michael Madhusudan80 Dutt and others. I realized later how valuable this was to me in my literary journey. I was smitten by Bankim Chandra’s books like Durgesh Nandini, Kapal Kundala. One of my private tutors in those days used to read me many Bengali poems and stories after my lessons and so gave me a hazy idea of the wide world of Bengali literature. I remember that teacher even today. How as a young girl I adored and idolized him. I bow my head to him when I remember him today.