Magical Manipur : Krishna, our friend, philosopher & guide
- Part II -

S Balakrishnan *

Yaoshang mei thaba in a locality in Imphal :: 05 March 2015 :: Pix - Deepak Oinam

Krishna was the first Manipuri we officially met after landing at the quaint little Tulihal International Airport in Imphal on 22nd March. Ultimately he turned out to be like Lord Krishna to Partha (Arjun). Mr. Krishna Kanta Sharma, our guide during the six-day trip in Manipur; turned out to be our friend and philosopher as well. Like Lord Krishna who helped Arjun to course through the confused battleground, this Krishna helped us to smoothly traverse through the unfamiliar Manipur.

But throughout those six days we were drilling him with questions and questions – about the language, the social customs, traditions, culture, religion, functions & festivities, beliefs, food habit, and what not! We even probed him of his personal life to know more about the Manipuri way of life. Maybe he felt a bit discomfort, but did not show it outwardly. He was a cool guy, tall and handsome.

Maybe he had a hearty laugh about silly tourists like us who nagged him with questions like investigating officials. We were unlike the routine tourists who visit like dumb and beautiful dolls, more interested in taking selfies than observing, and then packing off! It was because of our continued persistence that he also came to know of the olden day temple of Bishnupur built of small bricks, probably influenced by the Chinese style. He must have become wiser now to avoid such tourists henceforth!

Thanks to Krishna Kanta, our knowledge of Manipuri has improved; now we know the meaning of at least a dozen Manipuri words – achouba=big, pukhri=pond, macha=small, etc. I hope to write a handy Manipuri-English-Tamil dictionary for tourists!

Krishna Kanta is 30, belying his looks. In fact, among us three we had a bet – me on one side and my wife and daughter on the other side. I said he must be only 25, he looks so boyish. But my wife and daughter said people in Manipur actually look younger than their actual age and he must be 30. They were right and I had to bear the cost of a Kanglasha model – Rs. 480/-

They were again right in identifying his first younger brother who was taking part in the group dance at their Aribam Leikai. My wife initially thought that Krishna had taken the avatar of a dancer. Luckily this time I did not wage any bet, else I would lost another 500 rupees. His second younger brother competed in another team.

Krishna said he was not very comfortable in shaking his legs and hip. To our great discomfort Krishna made us sit on the dais during the cultural competition. Unused to such VIP treatment, I and my daughter sneaked out in the pretext of taking photographs. My wife was forced to enjoy her VIP status.

Brahmins do not till the land, we learnt from him. Hence their land near Moirang is on annual lease, out of which they get enough rice for the whole year for the family of five. As the field is at a higher level, irrigating it was a problem, hence only one yield per year, he added.

What do Manipuris generally have for breakfast, we were curious to know? So we probed him gently one morning if he had had his breakfast and what was the menu. Puri & subji is the staple menu for breakfast, he said. For noon, light snacks, and heavy dinner early in the night, he added. Mustard oil is used widely and also refined oil to a lesser extent.

We found it difficult to get curd in Manipur and so we asked him if curd was not a main item in the menu. We saw so many herds of cattle roaming the fields of Manipur plains, but his answer was a big NO.

At least to cool down the digestive system after such a spicy cuisine, Manipuris ought to take curd or butter milk, its watered version. For South Indians, this forms a part of the main course. When we remarked that Manipuri cuisine was too spicy, to our horror he simply munched one green chilly after another along with boiled channa! But to our surprise, he does not take tea or coffee. What a good boy!

It was from him we learnt the surprising fact of prohibition in Manipur. Well, people do manage to get it from military and police canteens, he admitted, besides the local brew, the preparation of which he promised to show at Kakching (I suppose), but could not, due to Yaoshang holidays.

Though nowadays Manipuri youngsters prefer nucleus families, they live nearby and the subji prepared is shared among close relatives thus offering a variety of menu, Krishna went on. We did not dare to ask him if he would set up his own nucleus family or continue to live in the joint family setup. That would be too impolite, no?

He leads a Batman & Superman life – working in the night in the local language daily Sanaleibak and assisting his uncle, Shri R.K. Sharma, in running the affairs of the travel & tour agency Seven Sisters Holidays, during day time. In fact, it was thanks to this agency that we came in contact with each other.

Besides looking after accounts, he is an all-rounder there, it appeared. As elsewhere, drivers played the cheating game while filling up petrol for vehicles and were not very punctual and reliable. Hence he availed leave from the daily newspaper and took up the challenging task of driving the Innova for us, which challenge he must have regretted later!

Krishna explained the nuances of Naka Theng, the practice of collecting money on the roadside mostly by girls of all ages and, rarely, by boys. The cool guy lost his temper when there were series of Naka Theng and shouted 'tha-kho' ('down' with the rope). Immediately after holi ka dahan, girls would rush out for house to house collection, he pointed out.

We were excited to know that Krishna Kanta has travelled widely in India, except J&K & Gujarat. Has touched Tamil Nadu, but not visited. Now that we have extended an invite to him, hope he will set his foot on TN soil also. Hence he has a fair knowledge of Hindi and English. Besides, he is a B.A. (Arts) graduate from a Shillong College.

As I am averse to road travel, I was shocked to know that it takes about 16 hours to traverse the 600 km. road distance between Imphal and Shillong! I would be dead by then, vomiting (throwing up) all the way. I was scared even to cover the 106 km. Imphal-Moreh distance and came from Chennai fully armed with Avomin tablets and ginger morappa.

As we returned from the dol jatra celebration at Lord Govindajee temple, he detailed the procedure for the bhajan teams – wherever from in Manipur, each and every bhajan team has to first visit this temple and perform holi /dol jatra and only then they are allowed to perform bhajan at their respective village / locality.

We are waiting for an invitation for Krishna Kanta's wedding scheduled in 2018. By then, I hope my dream of travelling by train straight from Chennai to Imphal would also materialise. You see, I would be soon turning 60 years and can claim senior citizen concession in railways but not in airlines! But the front-page news item in The Sangai Express on 29th gives a bleak picture of this project.

It was a great learning experience to travel with him, but how Krishna Kanta really felt, we do not know. As he dropped at the airport, he simply smiled and drove off.