EMA 2004 ge meeting chatlubada

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E-Pao! EI - EMA 2004 ge meeting chatlubada

By: Krishnananda Sharma*

Handak "EMA ge meeting chatlubada" , eina thengnajarakpa khara mayamda tamjage.

It for me was a profound priviledge to be present at the enormously indigenous and nostalgic European Manipuri Association gathering at Carlisle,UK.

The memories from the events, will stay on for a long long time to come, starting with the barbecue when our Pabung hosting the gathering shared his days in Manipur along with those black-white photographs of his ( pictures from the early days of 1930s) to the delicacy of "Rou Atauba thongba" from his wife (ene)(though she is English herself her Rou thongba showed the amount of Manipuri touch in her! they were as delicoius as my mother's cooking, if not more.

European Manipuri Association

It had been indeed the moments to cherish for years to come filled with moments never to be forgotten, when those Meetei jagoi khuthek and Khujengleibis from our Eeches, Eenes and Eechans and thier Mapan naiba phanek syncronous with the beautiful and picturisque Carlise evening.

The Gracefulness of the jagoi sathek went in perfect tandem with their wisdom and qualification of international calibre, what could have inspired me more, as we all had a covert smile glowing in the pride of being a Manipuri.

It has been a few years since those good old days of Thabal chongba ,but the recent one was by far the most spirited than any other thabal chongba I had ever seen.

As we danced, so far away from home, to the rhythm of the thabal Eshei and Tantha, adding the extra zeal and poignancy to the participating lot. It reminded many of the Pabungs Enes and Emas about their good old days of thabal chongba under the half lantern lights.

Quite suprisingly none of the ladies complained of any karan taaba or Nupi munnaba , from the Pakhangs even though there were no volunteers (everybody was busy in the thabal steps)

what more could have brought us together and instilled a sense of Manipuri-ness..... as we sang "Sana leibak manipur" , the words had everybody having a hard time holding back their tears ! Seems "Sana leibak manipur" is still too much in our hearts inspite of the distance from Manipur.

The bingo (fondly called housie in manipur) brought up cheers to all of us again though eventually most of us lost the game ,we won the night in the joy of being together!

The Late night discussions about the present crisis in Manipur and the churning of the ocean with the likes of aunties and pabungs and all the colleagues made the final icing of the cake, leaving us all the more enlightened in more ways than one.

The traditional Manipuri dress of the eeches and eenes,reminded so much of how beautiful our dresses can be and adding to that their Iromba and Pabung's OOti with Shingju ,nobody could ever doubt how blissfully mouth watering our foods are!

The presence of the non manipuri spouses of our eeches and eenes and their longing for our own eromba and ooti with nga ataoba proved once again that our foods are not just ordinary foods.Indeed it was such a pleasing sight to see them looking for the last drops of eromba !which was so much in demand.

I wish and hope to see more of our traditional dresses and indigenous foods in the gatherings to come!

As we all stood together in complete silence to mourn the loss of the brave souls in the present crisis, I could not stop myself in reminding the deep sense of responsibility of being a Manipuri.

The meeting was short and sweet with the chairperson along with the secretary and the treasurer conducting all of us in a pleasing and meaningful discussions with positive outcomes.

Over all a really exciting productive enjoyable and learning experience. A five star experience!

Those who have not been a part of these beautiful moments have definetely missed something!

My sincere thanks from the bottom of my heart for the kind of care and hospitality showered on all of us from Pabung , Eene and their Family.

My heartfelt words of appreciation to the organiser of this wonderful gathering, who have added a unique environment in an association, creating a home away from home.

I am sure wherever Manipuris are, no matter how far away from Manipur, would have definitely created this "homely atmosphere" in all their associations.

I hope, the homely atmosphere which has been developed here, would encourage more Manipuris from all over Europe, to come together and be a part of this beautiful family of EMA .

Dr. Krishnananda Sharma living in London, UK , writes regularly to e-pao.net
You can contact him at [email protected]

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