Season 1 Audio Podcasting

Episode 021 FindingTheVoices : Halley Laithangbam the successful male model from Manipur in the glamour Industry

/ Monica Ingudam / 12 Comments

021 FindingTheVoices Halley Laithangbam the successful male model from Manipur in the glamour Industry

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Today I am with a Guest Speaker where many listeners have requested to have him at our show from the very beginning when we just started our talk show. And here he is at our 21st episode, we are proud to present Halley Laithangbam, the successful male model with cute dimple baby smiles from Manipur who has captured himself in national and international platform in glamour industry.

Driven by self motivation and passionate in chasing his dream, Halley started modeling at the age of 17. With a name like Halley , it gave him a noted stand when he entered the field. His revolutionary looks, macho body but cute dimple baby smiles made him most lovable and successful model . Halley bagged numerous titles including MR.PUNE CITADEL 2010 MAN-HUNT MANIPUR 2002 MR.SURYADATTA 2005 and achieved many other prizes in different fashion related events.

Listen to Halley sharing his interesting journey of getting into the glamour industry. He also shares his view about the financial aspect of modelling.

What I am hearing is that in the fashion Industry, Manipuri look is well accepted. But it may be difficult to get a break in Bollywood and Indian Movie Industry as the Characters in Bollywood movies doesn’t call for Manipuri look . Bollywood Wake up !!

Episode 020 FindingTheVoices : Ingudam Tomba Singh 80 year old man sharing his journey of getting education growing up from his Village Oinam in Manipur

/ Monica Ingudam / 6 Comments

020 FindingTheVoices Ingudam Tomba Singh 80 year old Man sharing his journey of getting his education growing up from his Village Oinam in Manipur

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This is one of the most difficult and special podcast for me.

Today we have a very interesting story from an almost 80-year-old man. He shares about his earlier life growing up from Oinam village in Manipur and walking 3 miles to go to school at Nambol everyday after he does his chores of farming. He started farming at a very young age and explains the process of farming using a cow. He used Hay and ash to wash off the muddy feet and run to attend school on time. In his locality, he was known for walking so quickly that people can’t see his feet touching the ground.   I am proud to present his wonderful story about growing up from a village and how he strived to study against all odds and proving how important EDUCATION is. He wouldn’t care and gave up materialistic items, but made sure that all his 4 children are educated inspite of the financial constraints, treating sons and daughters equally. I believe in EEMUL : Ema Epa Mitna Uba Laini (Parents are living God) and yes he is my living God.   I am blessed to have the honour to talk with Ingudam Tomba Singh, retired from Lilong Houreibi College and Vice Principal from Oriental College, Imphal and my Father. And I thank FindingTheVoices for such a wonderful special moment where my Father is sharing his story and I came to know things which I didn’t know earlier.

He had to stop going to his school for 2 years as they were not able to effort his education and that left him totally heart-broken. He was and is  a person who believes in education. He was so heart-broken that he was smoking during that 2 years phase to cope up at that very young age of 1o years old. This was during the time of 2nd world war and as I was growing up he told many interesting stories about what the war and Japanese soldiers. Growing up, there was no electricity in his house and studying was mostly during daylight or using light from burning wood call uchan and from Kerosene lamp called podon.

He completed his school and went to D.M College and became teacher at Johnston Higher Secondary School. His first salary is Rs 100 per month as a teacher from Johnston Higher Secondary School and in those time that was a huge amount and had lot of value. He completed his Masters from Gauhati University and then started teaching at Digboi College in Assam. Later he came to Manipur and continued in teaching profession as a Lecturer in Zoology and Vice Principal at Oriental college, Imphal and retired from Lilong Houreibi College.

I really admire his honesty, keeping time and his word, most importantly his value of raising and educating his kids without any difference of gender. And we plan to have more episodes to follow and talk about raising, educating and treating kids equally without any differences based on Gender.

This podcast is in Meitei Lon (Manipuri) Language.

Episode 019 FindingTheVoices : Hemanta Khuman, Director/Assistant Director of Manipuri Musical Videos and Movies

/ Monica Ingudam / 9 Comments

019 FindingTheVoices Hemanta Khuman Director and Assistant Director of Manipuri Musical Videos and Movies, featuring Kaina Peerang

HemantaKhuman (11)I am proud to present the voice of a very young Director of Manipuri Musical Video and Movies, Hemanta Khuman. Recently I saw this beautiful Manipuri Music Video “Kaina Peerang” and I was Zapped, in less than 6 minutes there is a beautiful passionate tragic love story with a perfect blend of manipuri ethnic wears with the modern look, beautiful star cast, beautiful scenic location with a beautiful song… it’s awesome, Congratulations to Hemanta Khuman and your team. Great Work !!! Hemanta Khuman worked as Assistant director for Phijigee Mani, the movie received Best Regional Film Award in Manipuri language at the 59th National Film awards for the year . Hemanta works very closely under the guidance of Director Oinam Gautam

FindingTheVoices is proud to feature Kaina Peerang , the video musical which caught my eye and lead me to search for the person behind this. We see all these wonderful work and never get to hear the voice of people behind the scene, and one of the goal for FindingTheVoices is to hear the voices of people behind the scenes to create such wonderful work. This podcast episode covers his experience in making of this video from the young 23 year old Director. Hemanta promised that he will come up with strong Character woman in future where the woman is strong and don’t end up dying 🙂

Thanks to all the Team members of Kaina Peerang in making this wonderful Manipuri Video musical.

  • Cast: Soma n Dekey
  • Singer: Pratima n Suren
  • Lyrics: Abung  wai
  • Music: Rahul
  • Make up: Jenny Khurai n Russia
  • Costume: Galif Pa
  • Camera: Mohon Kangla
  • Asst Camera: Danao
  • Director: Hemanta Khuman

Episode 015 FindingTheVoices : 015 FindingTheVoices Sameeta Angom founder of Sameeta’s Spa & Salon and Sameeta’s Nails & Pedispa at Texas, USA

/ Monica Ingudam / 9 Comments

015 FindingTheVoices Sameeta Angom founder of Sameeta’s Spa & Salon and Sameeta’s Nails & Pedispa at Texas, USA

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Presenting Sameeta Angom originally from Manipur, a mother of 2 wonderful kids, started Sameeta’s Spa and Salon and Sameeta’s Nails & Pedispa at Houston, Texas, USA. She has many people working for her and she plans to expand her business adding more location in future. We had a very interesting talk which shows the importance of partnership, support and teamwork from your better half, balancing work and family life, glimpse of life running a Salon finding different strategy of marketing, employee management, customer services etc. a wonderful journey going through interesting turns in life from being a stay at home mom to starting a business of her own. Who would know a Botony Major would end up being a Cosmetologist?

Her Salon offers very reasonable prices for many different Spa, Salon, Nails and Pedispa services and has very interesting deals always, check out the price at her website.

Episode 014 FindingTheVoices : Assault of Manipuri film actress Momoco Khangembam by NSCN-IM cadre Livingstone Anal

/ Monica Ingudam / 8 Comments

014 FindingTheVoices Assault of Manipuri film actress Momoco by NSCN-IM cadre Livingstone

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Today I am with Khangembam Rosnia, popularly known as Momoco, Manipuri Film Actress. She is only 21 years old now but had to step up taking responsibility of helping out financially at a very young age when she was in 11th Grade  after her father became sick.  It is very important to note that Artists in Manipur are not paid very well, it cannot be compared with Bollywood or Hollywood at all. The meager income she gets from acting in movies, Video musical songs and hosting helps in running her family supporting her father who is struggling back and forth from Hospital.

The best thing I like about her is that , in spite of all these heavy responsibilities at a young age, she continued  juggling with Studies and Acting and has graduated BSc(BioChemistry & Botany) from DM college, Manipur and plan to continue with Her Masters. I strongly believe in education and I am glad to see that she is pursuing her education.

Momoco was hosting as programme announcer for a fund raising musical concert at Chandel district by Mahamani Women’s Society. NSCN-IM cadre Livingstone Anal pulled her down from the chair and started kicking her continuously towards her face.  Livingstone tried to kill another two artistes (Singer Prakash Soraisham & Actor Guna who came running to rescue her). Livingstone fired at point blank range but they escaped unhurt.  All this because Momoco didn’t encourage his behaviour of talking, touching her hair and body. Momoco went there to do her work to support her livelihood and not to sell her body. What is chilling to hear is that when these terrible incident happened there were police personnel and more than 100 people were present but nobody came to help except some womenfolks. All the men were standing like a statue.

We strongly condemned the brutal act of Livingstone and want necessary legal actions is taken against him.

Today Momoca shares with us the incident in detail …

Episode 013 FindingTheVoices : Dr. Sohini Ray, Lecturer in Anthropology at Santa Monica College and Founder/Artistic Director of Manipuri Dance Visions located in California, USA.

/ Monica Ingudam / 5 Comments

SohiniRay

013 FindingTheVoices Dr. Sohini Ray Lecturer in Anthropology at Santa Monica College ,Founder and Artistic Director of Manipuri Dance Visions located in California, USA

Today I have a very special Guest, Dr. Sohini Ray, Lecturer in Anthropology at Santa Monica College and Founder/Artistic Director of Manipuri Dance Visions, training center of classical Manipuri dance in Los Angeles, California, USA. When I saw that we have a training center to learn Manipur Dance in California, I got very excited and had to hear the voice of the person behind it. And I found more interesting details, In addition to promoting Manipuri Dance, She has written a dissertation essay on the Meetei Mayek script (also Meitei Mayek, Manipuri script). Yes, she is a Bengali, a non-Manipuri promoting Manipuri dance and Manipur through her research work. I really admire her work and am so proud to present her voice.

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Dr. Ray, a rare combination of an outstanding performer and a prolific scholar, has won the prestigious Lestor Horton award in 2008 for her production “Gita Govinda”.  (Lestor Horton award is the equivalent of the Grammy. It is given for live concert dance.) And, has received two more Horton nominations in 2007 and 2011.  She won the Los Angeles Treasures award in 2007, and numerous other grants and fellowships. A Ph. D. in anthropology from University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), Dr. Ray has held fellowships in Harvard University and has taught both academic and practical dance classes in several American Universities.

Her research on Manipuri dance won the prestigious J.B. Donne prize in anthropology of art from the Royal Anthropological Institute, UK in 2009; she being the first dance-researcher in the world ever to have achieved this rare accolade, also the first Asian and the first woman.

Dr. Ray was identified as a child prodigy by the legendary Manipuri dance maestero late Guru Bipin Singh at age seven and was trained by him and his senior disciples, the Jhaveri sisters for more than twenty-five years. She received the prestigious national scholarship in Manipuri dance from the Government of India at age fourteen and numerous prizes and awards as a young performer in India, and was a lead dancer in Jhaveri sisters dance troupe for several years. Concurrently, while dancing professionally full-time through her college and university careers she stood first class first in Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in anthropology from University of Calcutta. In 1992 she chose to move to United States to pursue an MA in dance in University of California at Los Angeles, and has lived and worked there since.

Dr. Ray has travelled and researched in remote regions of Manipur for the past twenty years and has one of the finest collection of audio-visual materials on Manipuri dance in the world.

Dr. Sohini Ray, the world-renowned master-artiste of classical Manipuri dance will be touring India from Dec 27 to Jan 12. Please find the details of the schedule at https://findingthevoices.com/2012/12/12/sohiniraysolodancetourindia/

This podcast was featured by Manipur Times.

We have a surprise host, Please welcome Monindro Ingudam.

/ Monica Ingudam / 3 Comments

We have a surprise host for this week, Please welcome Monindro Ingudam, Architect by profession, core board member and adviser for FindingTheVoices. Tamo, Thank you, Thank you for all your support. We love your humorous and unique style of podcasting.

It is indeed an honour for FindingTheVoices to present Episode 12 from 2 special and great personalities.

Khagemba Sanabam

/ Monica Ingudam / 6 Comments

Episode 012 FindingTheVoices : Khagemba Sanabam, Entrepreneur starting Manipur’s own production of packaged drinking water and oxygen.

012 FindingTheVoices Khagemba Sanabam, Entrepreneur starting Manipur’s own production of packaged drinking water and oxygen

We have a special Guest Speaker Khagemba Sanabam, Entrepreneur, who have started Manipur’s own production of packaged drinking water and oxygen. Yes, production in Manipur.

Khagemba shares his journey of his struggles and experiences in starting Reliable Hydrotech and Oxygen Plant in Manipur. I am so proud to see such initiatives which will help people in Manipur and we don’t have to depend to get these items from other states in India. He shares his struggles, challenges in getting finance (Loan only if you have Assets !!! No room for innovation without money !!!), lack of basic infrastructure (Electricity, Roads/Transportation, experienced Human Resources) to support production plant in Manipur. And most importantly the experience in doing business in Manipur where the market is mostly dominated by non manipuri.

Thanks to Khagemba Sanabam for sharing your story. Tamo, I am so proud to hear about the products manufactured by your company right there in Manipur and that We don’t have to import packaged bottled water and oxygen from other states of India. Please support such wonderful initiatives by buying products produced in Manipur.

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Marina Spring is the brand name of the packaged drinking water produced by Reliable Hydrotech, a proprietorship firm at Joypur Khunou , Bishnupur District in Manipur.

Oxygen plant has completed installation and awaiting finishing touch for trial run. This plant will fulfill all the requirements for both clinical and industrial oxygen at a very cheap cost. This will really help people in Manipur.

Hosting today’s Show is Monindro Ingudam, Architect by profession, core board member and adviser for FindingTheVoices. Tamo, Thank you, Thank you for all your support. We love your humorous and unique style of podcasting.

It is indeed an honour for FindingTheVoices to present today’s show from 2 special and great personalities.

Episode 011 FindingTheVoices: Part 2 Armstrong Pame IAS officer from Tamenglong sharing the journey in making the 100 KM Road in Manipur without any help or funding from the Government

/ Monica Ingudam / 6 Comments

011 FindingTheVoices Part 2 Armstrong Pame IAS officer from Tamenglong sharing the journey in making the 100 KM Road in Manipur without any help or funding from the Government

Today I am with Armstrong Pame from Tousem sub-division, tamenglong district in Manipur, India. He is an IAS (Indian Administrative Service) officer serving as Sub-divisional Officer. He also was an assistant commissioner In the Indian Revenue Service.

And most recently he has initiated a very inspiring initiative of making a 100 km road in Manipur with no funding or help coming from the government, a story which have touched people’s heart all over the world …

This year, with the outbreak of diseases like typhoid and malaria, It took two days for anyone in the village to make it to the nearest hospital on foot in the absence of a motorable road. Hundreds of patients were carried on bamboo stretchers, and very few made it to the town alive.  And town doctors were unwilling to come to the village because of its inaccessible terrain. Frustrated with the situation with no response from the government, Armstrong Pame turned to his family and well wishers and initiated the project of making the 100 km Tamenglong – Haflong Road Construction in August this year and targeted to be completed by Christmas this year.

I am proud to present the voice of Armstrong Pame, the voice requested by many listeners of FindingTheVoices, the VOICE we want to hear and should be heard. The podcast is devided into 2 parts. Please listen to Part 1  which focuses on his introduction and journey from Tamenlong to becoming an IAS officer, an episode is dedicated to all the student listeners of FindingTheVoices particularly students from North East India where the parents work very hard, sacrificing and struggling to send money to get their children educated in other parts of India.

This is Part 2 which focuses on details about the making a 100 km road in Manipur with no funding or help coming from the government, a story which have touched people’s heart all over the world. It is touching to hear how he started the project and how people all over the world responded, a story which makes us believe that there are still good people in this world and we still have hope. He is so humble and gives all the credit of this project to his Villagers and thanks to everyone for the support received.

Please contribute and help in making the wish of Armstrong Pame in giving the gift of the Road this christmas for all the villagers and children. Please refer to the facebook group  Tamenglong – Haflong Road Construction for more details or contact 91 9953029135.