Manipur lost two young professionals Kongbrailatpam Nganthoi Sharma and Lamnunthem Singson in the Air India plane crash in Gujarat’s Ahmedabad on Thursday. Both were in their early 20s.
Ms. Sharma hails from Thoubal district in the Imphal Valley, while Ms. Singson’s family has been residing in the Kuki-majority Kangpokpi district following their displacement from Imphal after the ethnic problems erupted in May 2023.
“She said she would return on 15 June. I wished her a safe flight and told her we’d contact her when we get the internet connection back. Then we heard of the plane crash from an aunt on the phone. She said an Air India flight had crashed in Ahmedabad; the plane was going to London. This is how we confirmed it,” Gitanjali, elder sister of Nganthoi said and broke down.
In Kangpokpi district, where Lamnunthem’s family lives, the community came not only to offer prayers, but to stand by a mother whose heart waited for a word, a confirmation, a hope that her daughter might still return.
Lamnunthem’s mother, Nemneilhing Singson, held on to the last conversation she had with her daughter less than 24 hours ago, “I’m travelling to Ahmedabad to report for duty.”
Her words carried sorrow and also the faint light of a mother’s hope – that perhaps, against all odds, her daughter might still come home. Lamnunthem was the only daughter in a family of three siblings.
- Inputs from various sources