Melbourne Manipuri Cheiraoba

Chingshang *

Melbourne as a city civilization may not be that old if one compares with some of the greatest cities of the world. But if one thinks twice about the culture, traditions, food habits, life styles and other living norms of this great city one will be surprised to know that the city is on par with the best of the bests in the world.

Melbourne is a strong city backboned with multicultural immigrants of multifarious origins. When the immigrants migrated here, they come along with their centuries old traditions and other historical legacy, in fact, bringing their world into Melbourne. Think about English, Chinese, Greek, Turkish, French, Italian, and Indian in Melbourne!

The list will be definitely very long and of course their history too. This very fact may be one of the main reasons why Melbourne is so vibrant in its outlook and pro active in every cultural exercise. The whole year is calendared with full of celebrations pertaining to different communities here and celebrations are everywhere every time.

Only one may think about the scale of celebrations. That's all. To preserve ones cultural identity amidst a microcosm of cultural paraphernalia that everyone tries to assimilate in Melbourne one has to be very assured of being oneself. It is a welcome addition that Manipuris of Melbourne also celebrated their traditional New Year, Cheiraoba, very recently when many are busy having a great Easter time in the city. It was simply great and turned out to be a perfect rendezvous for every Manipuri soul to come in to terms with Manipuri reality.

A group photo of the Cheiraoba goers.

Manipuris as a community in Melbourne is not big enough to tag the name community itself. But it is not a weak community. Of course, it does not have anything like organisations or associations that one may expect when I address as a community may be because of its weak numerical strength.

All the Manipuri residents of the city are well networked and informed about their whereabouts. Many of them are spread out in different suburbs of the city. It mainly comprises of professionals and students like me at the moment but expecting a steady growth in the near future.

It was a good will gesture from Tamo Biren and his wife to invite all the Manipuris of Melbourne to gather at his place for the auspicious Manipuri Cheiraoba this year. In fact we were very grateful to them for their perfect display of a proud Manipuri at Melbourne.

Actually I was not having the slightest idea of celebrating Manipuri Cheiraoba at Melbourne this year even though my parents at Manipur and I talked often about the same on the phone. But a phone call week in advance from Tamo makes all the difference. Indeed I was so anxious and waiting for the D-day was an absolute pleasure.

It was a great feeling thinking about meeting all the Manipuris after a long time in a different country and participate in celebrating such a solemn occasion. The day came sooner than expected. Meeting my own people, speaking the same language and having that great sumptuous Manipuri cuisine like a big Manipuri Utsav was wonderful, that too on such an auspicious day.

I was not wrong in every sense what I mean that the event went off so well so much to memory with. I live in a suburb called Spotswood in West Melbourne whereas Tamo live in another beautiful suburb called Mt Waverly in the south east of Melbourne which is almost one hour journey by train from my place. Normally I drove my bicycle to reach all the suburbs around Melbourne and I know it is one of the most pleasurable modes of movement for me.

I was thinking of riding the same to Mt Waverly on that day. But at the last moment I changed my mind thinking that I should be on time as Tamo mentioned us to arrive at his place at around1030am. So I took the train buying one daily Zone one and two tickets for the first time that allows me to travel anywhere in Zone one and Zone two areas the whole day.

Mt Waverley lies in Zone two of Melbourne rail network. I could reach his place well on time and even I walked for few minutes from station inspite of his telling me that he will pick me up at the station. I always enjoy exploring new areas myself.

Religious thing apart, the whole ceremony was as much authentic as the one will experience at home in Manipur. The delicious mouth watering cuisines of Manipur laid out in plantain leaves spread on the floor and eating in perfect Manipuri style was definitely the major highlight of the day.

Iromba, Utti, Sareng thongba, Ataoba thongba and Singju was perfect in its traditional Manipuri ingredients. Even the Sangom Khir that Iche Julliene, another Manipuri Melbourne resident, brought provided a perfect accompaniment as sort of dessert to other Manipuri cuisines. It was indeed a very wise decision foodwise.

The dishes laid out in traditional offering - La

Everyone enjoy teething the mouth watering savoury. Chewing little bit of betel nut or kwa chaba is quite a normal thing in many of the social feasting in Manipur after lunch or dinner. I was thinking of the same but could not make it out this time not that betel nut is not available in Melbourne.

In fact there are few popular pan shops in Melbourne run by Indians. There is hardly anything, really, that you could not get in Melbourne in terms of Manipuri food items as there is very strong presence of south East Asian communities here. Indian, Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai and Bangladeshi grocery shops provide almost all essential cuisine specific ingredients.

Even Ngari is available in Bangladeshi grocery shops. We don't have to worry much as we can get whatever we like here. But the way we use and cook our food items are definitely different from other south East Asian communities even though we all use the same materials.

It is a treat to eyes to see all those Pan, Yendem, Komprek, Hawai maton, Pullei, Uyyen, Yennam Nakkuppi, Koli Hawai, Hawai Asangbi, Hungam etc. in Vietnamese supermarkets. It may not sound anything new or strange to any Manipuri at home in Manipur except that it happened in a foreign land.

But to be a Manipuri in a strange land and to take pride in everything Manipuri involves sort of self challenge. I know this is a different feeling only to be felt when one experiences it. The love of home thing and doing like the one does at homeland comes naturally.

That was what exactly happened when we gathered together at Tamo's place this year for Cheiraoba. Time flies very fast and there was hardly any time left after the lunch. We chat for some time and clicked some group photographs, of course, as a testimony to the big occasion.

Most importantly we ended the celebration with a strong note that we meet once again to make the occasion a regular fixture in the days of a Melbourne Manipuri. I think everyone have already started looking forward for the next big occasion. We bid farewell to all our beloved Manipuris and came back.

While returning back Sony and I were driven by Iche Julliene and her husband Fred up to Armadale station. On the train I was talking to myself that what a beautiful and memorable day it was. I made see you again to Sony at Melbourne Central and went straight for my work.

The beautiful day almost came to an end with beginnings of golden memories that will last forever.



Check out the photo gallery on this report here.

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* Chingshang, a Graduate student at University of Melbourne, contributes regularly to e-pao.net. The writer can be contacted at rockm(at)rediffmail(dot)com . This article was webcasted on April 22nd 2009.

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