WCCM's 9th Weekly Meet "INSIGHT with L. Somi Roy"

July 26, 2021

WCCM of Imphal held its weekly meet of 25th July 2021 with L. Somi Roy , the author of the translation " The Princess and the Political Agent " as the guest speaker. This book was first published in the Manipuri original by the name "Boro Saheb Ongbi Sanatombi" written by MK Binodini Devi in 1976 and translated into English version by Pabung Somi which was published in 2020 as a Penguin Modern Classic by Penguin Random House India.

Members of WCCM were excited to meet the guest. We had had a reading session on the book before the meeting was held and were quite excited about the book.

On the 25th of July, the meeting opened with our founder Marjing Mayanglambam, who was also the moderator, giving a warm welcome to the guests. The session was attended by more than 50 members of WCCM .

The session continued with Pabung Somi giving introductions to the book, his life journey, and his association with his mother MK Binodini Devi who motivated, encouraged and inspired him to read, write, and translate her books.

The meeting was not a guest’s talk, but an interactive session which started with the guest's thoughts on how and what made him translate his mother's book. He talked about how he came to realise how rich the book was in its content of the konung lifestyle, literature, Manipur’s heritage, the British annexation of Manipur and most importantly how people felt and perceived their enemy -the British - which made Pabung Somi feel the need to share with the world this piece of his mother’s literature.

Later Pabung Somi mentioned his efforts in making the translation - from making sure of the exact meaning of a Manipuri word to been translated into an English word; the need to find words from other sociodialects to get at the most suitable word in English.

Pabung Somi also mentioned the editing the book by different editors at Penguin Random House. He mentioned how rich and diverse Manipuri words were, often with several meanings fot the same word. The rich and diverse nature of Manipuri words often meant it was impossible to find exact and suitable English words. Pabung Somi mentioned that as the book turned out to be written so well, with the sadness and despair that it depicted and its carving and weaving emotions into the narrative

The session made the book lovers’ souls feel filled to the brim. And it left in our hearts a warm love for the book and memories of that one and half hour meeting.

- Submitted by
WCCM (We Can Change Manipur),
a youth forum aimed at developing society.