Sri Lekhak's Poetry

Sri Lekhak (born 2 September 1948 as Kshetrimayum Mohan; Kakching Makha Leikai) was a radical poet when I first came to know him, then worked with him, and became friends. It was in the mid-1990s that we met, quite every Sunday evening, when he hosted at his pre-computer age, manual printing press, Times Printers (which was across from the post office; now the press has shifted to Kakching Co-operative Society estate opposite the electricity office, now owned by his brother Ksh. Tommei) kavi sammelans of the Sahitya Seva Samiti. The poetry reading and discussion sessions in his press in those days went very much into the making of my poetic consciousness. Two persons who stood out from among the people who gathered regularly were Sri Lekha, for his radical poetry and very unusual view of poetry, and Biprachand Pukhrambam (or Birchandra Pukhrambam, from Kakching Khongnang Mari Phangba, now shifted to Canchipur) for his poetry (which was very different from that of the rest) and critical studies of others' poems, which first started to instill Western poetic sensibility into me. The sessions there back then were very good--the poems, the reviews, the old men with keen eyes and ears--they are still vivid in my memory. I was a poet, and a tea boy--a Muslim boy from Jalpan Hotel would leave the tea kettle and lalmohan at a corner, and I would do the rest during the session, pouring hot/warm tea for and distributing the sweets to the poets.

It coincided with us (oja Birmangol Pukhrambam, elder brother of Biprachand Pukhrambam, and I, among his other students) arranging for binding the loose pages of his books freshly printed by the Times Printers. At other times large pamphlets. This drew me as a boy closer to Sri Lekhak. Then when I had become oja Kunjo Pukhrambam's student, I often ran errands for my teacher to the press, collecting printed books, or placing orders for new books or reprints. A man anxious to nurture young minds, Sri Lekhak kindly allowed or accepted me into his circle: he made me to read my poems to him, commented on them. He gave me books (one being Sahitya Neinarol, published by the Sahitya Seva Samiti, and printed at his press) to read. For a while I went to his press and learnt putting lead pieces of fonts/letters together to make what we called "block" for printing books. We did it that way, manually, before the computers and offset printing technology arrived at Kakching. Tiring, time-taking. Taxed the eyes in those poorly lit rooms. When we had become friends for a while, his eyesight had started to deteriorate. (He was blind for long 13 years from 1999, and mid last year he had an operation which restored a little bit of his sight. I'm not sure how he is now.) Frequently I would escort him back home in the evenings, when on the way we talked about poetry.

Now, after 13 years from that point, when I've read all what he has written so far (including the recent, last two books of long poems, he wrote in his blindness) I feel like writing about him. Not just because I have deep feelings for him, but because his is a poet under-recognized in Manipuri literary scene. Among other reasons (which there are, I think), the difficulty of his poetry contributes to his being a lesser known poet. Among the younger generation of Manipuri poets he is more or less unknown. This is not his loss, but Manipuri literature's. It's unfortunate.

Currently I'm writing on his poetry. There will be at least some long essays on his poetry in my next book. I'm also organizing a seminar on his poetry. I will share some of my articles here in time. For now, I will share some of my translations of his poems.