Shri Biren

Nongthombam Shri Biren, better known shortly as Shri Biren or Sri Biren, and also spelled as Shribiren or Sribiren, was an Indian editor, poet, playwright, social reformer, teacher and short story writer of works in Meitei literature. His writings are characterised by the wrath and the mood of the loss of hope and confidence. He was active in writing in the 1960s and the 1970s. Most of his writings are predominant with the "iconoclastic extreme anger and questioning of everything in life". He was considered to be an angry young man of the 1970s, for his poem, Tangkhul Hui (Meitei for 'Tangkhul Dog'). He was known for portraying the lives of people in a metaphysical and philosophical way, protesting against the existing socio-political systems and institutions and attempting to break them, using symbolism and allegory as tools, as evident in "The Two Doors". He was bestowed with the Manipur State Kala Academy Award, the Central Sahitya Akademi Award and the Jamini Sundar Gold Medal for his poetry and short stories. Unfortunate to the Meitei literature is that he died at an early age, suffering from Parkinson's disease.