Glimpses from Imphal

While traveling from airport to the city one gets the impression that Imphal is a city under construction. The footpaths are dusty; the brick walls of three or four story houses on both sides of the road are not cement plastered or coloured. The bricks used in the walls are visible. But most of the houses are single storied and tin-roofed. One noticeable feature is the women selling vegetables, fruits, fish and other goods; one does not find a man selling on the footpath.

On the way to Loktak Lake one comes across armed police standing at every hundred or two hundred metres.  That reminds me of Irom Sharmila who has been on hunger strike since 2000, more than fourteen years protesting against killing of civilians at a bus stop, known as ‘Malom Massacre’ allegedly by Assamese Rifles and against AFSFA [Armed Forces (Special Forces) Act, 1959]. Then Sharmila was 28, and now at 42. Her youth has been spent on fasting and protesting for a cause. The presence of armed police is intimidating for visitors like us. The driver Nelo Singh, perhaps, guessed our discomfiture, and said, “Don’t be afraid, they are paid ; they have to guard to justify their salary.”

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(Loktak Lake)

Loktak Lake is the largest freshwater lake in North East India. It’s situated near Moirang, forty five kms away from Imphal. It’s also known as ‘Floating Paradise’. While climbing the hill at Loktak, a person standing in a corner, pointed to Nelo Singh the detached mudguard of the Bolero he was driving. Parking the vehicle on the hill top Nelo noticed it and wanted to get it fixed while we would have a look at the Lake. After nearly half an hour we got back to the place where we had left Nelo and found the person who had pointed out the detached mudguard. He was in tracksuit and holding a few tourist books on north east. He introduced himself as Vinod Patel from London.

He said, “I am originally from Modiland i.e Gurarat. My father was a British civil servant in Kenya. I was born in Kenya. When Kenya got independence from the British we were treated as foreigners, and asked to leave the country. We had to leave, and leave everything in Kenya, our property and all. We came to UK as pauper. In UK we are also not treated as equals to the British citizens. I am a person who cannot have emotional claim of a land as his own. Neither UK nor India, and we are driven out from the country where I was born.”

Vinod Patel, besides English, speaks manageable Hindi and fluent Gujarati. He says, though they have been staying in foreign land before his birth (He is now at 63), their family language has been always Gujarati. He has visited almost whole of India. This year he is on north east tour. Then, he asked whether we were going to Kaibul Lamjao National Park to see sangai. Of course we did not have the plan. He said, “How could you return from Loktak without visiting the Park, only ten kms away and miss the chance of seeing sangai? You may not have another chance to come to Manipur.” Sangai is called the dancing deer. “It’s only seen in Manipur, nowhere else. It’s also an endangered species. If you miss the opportunity this time, you may not have a chance second time, even in your life. If you get a chance to come again from Odisha, the deer might have become extinct by then.” He added. We were influenced. We decided to go. Then, he requested to take him in our vehicle. We agreed.

He did most of the talking and we listened. In fact, he became our leader and in a way, hijacked us. We reached the park, bought tickets for him and also for the vehicle and reached the spot. We did not find a deer; only a long stretch of tall grass where they told the deer lived. In a board, we saw the picture of the deer only and read, in the last count in 2013, the number of deer survived was only 204. It was 12 noon when we reached. This was not the time a deer could be noticed. We were told by a forest official posted there that we could see in the morning only and that was possible if we would have stayed the previous night there. We had to be satisfied with seeing the habitat of the deer.

We returned and dropped Mr Patel on our way back at Loktak. We spent extra Rs 750/ the driver charged for our journey to the National Park and for the tickets. The next day we met him in the dining room during breakfast. We asked when he returned the previous day. He replied at 10 in the night and said, he happened to meet a doctor who took him to a few beautiful places. We realized how he could he have enticed the doctor. He is a true tourist who loves to see the places and the things. He does not carry a camera, or a mobile phone. He says, “Everything is captured in my mind.”

                                                         (Vinod Patel in the middle)

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In the Sahitya Akademy function, a lunch was arranged by the functionaries of Manipur Sahitya Akademy. The lunch contained dry fish curry. Of course, I love dry fish, and we eat at home, but the preparation of the curry was not to my liking. We could not relish it. In Odisha, dry fish is not served in any feast. I asked about dry fish to our driver Nelo Singh. He said, people in Manipur are fond of dry fish. Dry fish of different quality is sold. The price varies from Rs 300/ per kg to Rs 1000/. At the viewpoint of Kaibul Lamjao National Park we found some labourers preparing their mid day meal. We found they had boiled rice and dry fish chutney for their lunch.  

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We were told to visit at least Kangla Fort and Ima market in Imphal. Kangla, situated in the heart of Imphal city, was the capital of Manipur. Kangla was the royal palace since the reign of Pakhamba who ascended the throne in 33 AD. It was a seat of political power as well as a holy place for religious worship and ceremonies. Kangla has grown into a fortress through centuries. There is a moat surrounding the fortress. Inside the fort situated Sri Govindjee Temple and Ibudhou Pakhambagi Sanglen. Sri Govindjee Temple was built in 1846 AD. It was damaged in an earthquake in 1868 AD. Later, it is reconstructed. The priest at Ibudhou Pakhambagi Sanglen said, this has been the deity worshipeed by the people before Hinduism entered into Manipur. The deities look like Radha and Krisna.

                                             (Ibudhou Pakhambagi Sanglen)

Ima Keithal or mother market is entirely run by women. ‘Ima’ in Manipuri means mother and ‘keithal’ means market, it’s known as Ima market. There are around four thousand women stalls in this market. It is said, this is the only market in the world to be entirely managed by women. One cannot find a single man selling goods here. Even there are a few male buyers. They sell clothes and handicraft, shawls, bedspreads, fish, vegetables, utensils, etc and also dry fish. We noticed at one place a woman selling cockroaches along with dry fish. Ima market is more than hundred years old and it shows the dominance of women in Manipuri society.

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We three (Gour, Prdeep and myself) are staying in Bhubaneswar, but we hardly meet each other. We are busy in our own work. First time, perhaps after fifteen years, we had the chance of having all the time for ourselves after we reached Bhubaneswar airport on 21^st December till 26^th December. We could freely talk completely free of any worldly worry. Pradeep met Jyotirekha Hazarika, a poet from Assam after ten years. He had met her ten years back when she had come to Odisha. Jyotirekha presented him with a red scarf which he fondly wore on his shoulder. On our way back we had to stay a night at Kolkata, and enjoyed wandering on the street with jhalmudhi and sandesh.

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