Association of Manipuri Diaspora In Pune Observes 130th Patriots’ Day
Pune, 17th August 2021: The Association of Manipuri Diaspora (AMAND) Pune, a non-government community organization founded by like-minded working/retired professionals from Manipur residing in and around Pune, observed the 130th Patriots’ Day on the 13th August.
They paid floral tribute to the martyrs at the premises of the president of AMAND in Pune following Covid preventive measures. Many families joined the observation function across the nation live on zoom platform. The function was opened with a patriotic Manipuri group song. Many offered floral tributes to the Martyrs, which was followed by a welcome speech from the President, Er Naorem Giridhar Singh. He briefly reiterated the historical scenario of the nations/ empires in that geographical region in the 19th century leading to the Anglo-Manipur war of 1891, in which the British Indian Empire defeated the then princely state of Manipur.
He said that many great leaders and soldiers of Manipur were then captured and sentenced to death by the British. He mentioned, Yubaraj Bir Tikendrajit and Thangal General were thus hanged till death in public view on the 13th day of August 1891 at Feidabung (now Bir Tikendrajit Park) in Imphal. Er. Singh emphasized the young generation to remember the bravery, patriotic and gallantry spirit of their forefathers in their day-to-day life to inculcate a nationalistic view and cultivate strong sense of national integration.
He said that this spirit today is analogous to the one while we all cheer up for the great Tokyo 2020 Olympic medalist like Neeraj Chopra, Mirabai Chanu and others.
The president’s speech was then followed by a charismatic audio-visual display of various patriotic songs, poems, dance and paintings performed by young children of AMAND family below 15 years of age. This was spear headedly planned and executed by the General Secretary of AMAND, Er. Yurembam Sanjoy Singh.
Advocate Geetarani Takhellambam, AMAND executive, appreciated the children for their display of matured essay writing on the theme of Patriots’ Day and their creative paintings. Dr Huidrom Narendra Singh, former President of AMAND appreciated the participants for the three-phased Patriots’ Day awareness quiz program.
He vividly elaborated the various answers of the inquisitive quiz questions, which many appreciated that, it could not be found via Google search. Er. Sanjoy appreciated all parents for encouraging and helping their wards in participating and he assured that a certificate and a gift would be reaching all of them from AMAND soon.
Thangjam Kamala Devi then presented a patriotic song as closing song of the function. Soubam Subhachandra Singh, vice president, AMAND then gave vote of thanks to all who contributed to the success of the function. Konsam Pritam, Joint Secretary AMAND, the overall program co-ordinator of AMAND for 130th Patriots’ Day 2021 observation, conducted entire sequence of the program as Master of Ceremony of the function.
