By Uma Purkayastha
‘‘Quietly he lives, quietly he dies,
Amidst the wilderness;
Quietly in the grave let him rest,
Beneath the green, green grass’’.
→ Soso Tham, Translated by Kynpham Sing Nongkynrih
December 18, 2022, marks the 82nd death anniversary of U Soso Tham, the pioneer poet of 
Meghalaya and one of the greatest poet-philosophers of the region.
Soso Tham, a God-gifted genius, remained neglected and totally unsung in his motherland till death and left this world silently with great disappointment! Today, he is recognised as the state’s pioneer poet laureate who was once ridiculed by the people as ‘baith’, meaning ‘mad’ or ‘cracked’ in Khasi. He was regarded as a worthless creature because of the ignorance of the people.
During his lifetime, nobody could imagine that the ‘madman’ would be revered as the ‘crown and glory’ of the state. But the recognition came after the end of his life of struggle, just like poet Robert Burns of Scotland.
Soso Tham died on December 18, 1940. The Meghalaya government recognises the day as U Soso Tham’s Day.
Patriotism and love for nature were the essences of Soso Tham’s poetic creations. His philosophical thoughts and ideas were far above his academic qualification. He always sought oneness and unity among his countrymen and tried to remind them to not forget their ancestral roots.
He wrote:
“The ancient tribe – Khasi and Pnar
A multitude that spread throughout the world;
The hidden light that we may quest”
(‘The Golden Grain’ translated)
At a time when there was no scope for the education of village children in the backward United Khasi and Jaintia Hills, the poet-philosopher’s parents tried their best to give him an education. “Soso had to go to Sylhet for education on foot, crossing the hills. He proceeded to class eight but 
had to stop due to his father’s death,” wrote Ba Tarani, the founder of New India School, Sohbar Punji.
Learning English helped Soso Tham a lot to study English poems and lyrics. He pioneered making use of Khasi idioms in his poems. Sometimes he uttered his self-composed poems while speaking to others only to be regarded as a ‘crack’.
Under pressure from his family, Soso Tham had to 
seek a livelihood but would often stay aloof. Sent to collect wood for domestic fuel, he would sit under the trees in the forest and enjoy the natural beauty. He thanked God for his nice creation and composed poems on nature. He would get scolded severely after returning home in the evening without any firewood. The illiterate villagers could not realise or feel the extraordinary genius in him and derided him as a ‘mad’ and abnormal creature.
He came to Shillong for livelihood. Some literate people of Shillong noticed his intelligence 
and appointed him as a Khasi language teacher at the Shillong Government Boys’ High School, Mawkhar on October 12, 1905. But here too, he was ridiculed as a ‘lunatic’.
Soso Tham nevertheless started composing poems, and in 1925, despite a financial crunch, published his first book ‘Ka Duitara Ksiar’ (The Golden Harp) comprising 46 Khasi poems and 14 translations from English poems. But he did not get his due even from the literate people. The frustration came forth in many of his poems.
Bhupen Hazarika regarded Soso Tham as a mystic 
poet. The legendary Bard of Brahmaputra found his poems touching. “Great people come once to the world to leave footprints through their golden creations. ‘Ka Duitara Ksiar’ is one among them,” he said.
S.K. Bhuyan, a renowned historian of Assam called Soso Tham the Robert Burns of the Khasi highlands (Ref: Studies of the Literature of Assam). Professor Radhan Singh Lyngdoh of Meghalaya said, “The name of Soso Tham rests on the highest pinnacle among the literary towers.” (In a speech on U. Soso Tham Day)
Braving the odds, Soso Tham composed and published a good number of poems and translated into Khasi some gems from English literature such as ‘Aesop’s Fables’ and Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’. He had two volumes of poetry to his credit but many of 
his writings are lost or untraceable due to lack of proper care.
Today, Soso Tham is greatly honoured by the government of Meghalaya and equally by the people irrespective of caste, creed or religion. He was a very simple man, a born poet-prophet who contributed a lot to society during his short lifespan without any expectation! He left as quietly as he had come.