Pabung AK Sheram
During the research phase of the creation of the music album “Ema gi wari” in 2018, I travelled to Sylhet (Bangladesh) and stayed at Pabung A K Sheram’s place and listened to his stories which you will never find in books or newspapers
During the research phase of the creation of the music album “Ema gi wari” in 2018, I travelled to Sylhet (Bangladesh) and stayed at Pabung A K Sheram’s place and listened to his stories which you will never find in books or newspapers
Many years ago I read Pabung’s writings through Sathoulup’s magazine. But it was only in 2018 that I was able to interview Pabung for hours. It was inspiring to listen to Pabung and hear of how he formed the ‘Bangladesh Manipur Sahitya Sangsad’ with his friends.
It was a story of a young man who was trying to find his roots. Pabung believes the Bangladesh Independence War of 1971 awakened the Meetei people’s political consciousness in some way. On 21st Feb, 1975 Pabung attended the Mother Language Day with his Bengali friends. Pabung was part of a rally that was followed by a poetry reading session. Seeing many young Bengali poets and writers reading their own Bangla poetry, it struck him that he also had his own mother tongue. That day he walked home barefoot, feeling sad and lost in his thoughts. He felt that the Manipuris in Bangladesh were completely out of touch with their own mother tongue. Pabung was hardly 22 years old then.
That day he met his friend Maibam Tolen at Lamabazar, Sylhet and planned to publish a book in Meiteilon. Maibam Tolen used to work in a printing press and was also interested in poetry. So Pabung, along with Maibam Tolen and some like-minded friends, contributed 50 Taka each and put out a book in Meiteilon. On 11th May 1975 they held a meeting at Bhanugach and formed a literary organisation called Pujari Sahitya Sangsad. Later it was renamed Bangladesh Manipur Sahitya Sangsad. In the meeting it was also proposed that the organisation would publish a monthly journal named “Deepanita”, which was later named “Meira”. Pabung was the first editor of Deepanita, but the assassination of the Bangladesh president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, along with his family, on 15th August 1975 had slowed down the work of the newly formed organisation as the whole country was in a state of shock. He shared these stories with me during my stay in Sylhet.
Pabung also shared with me how copies of Deepanita reached Imphal and how he later exchanged letters with various poets and writers from Manipur. And I believe that that was the beginning of a new era of literature among the Manipuris in Bangladesh. Now I see lots of Manipuris from Manipur going to Sylhet and lots of Manipuris from Sylhet coming to Manipur. There is so much cultural exchange happening now and I believe that this bridge was built by Pabung and his friends.
