Magical Manipur – Ima Market

S Balakrishnan *

Nupi Keithel - 2 :: November 2010

As soon as we stepped into the Ima Market in Imphal, we knew we were in a unique place. The first thought that struck me was 'Wow, only if I could produce a documentary on Ima Market!' When I shared my bright idea with my daughter and wife, they were in unison with me. But my daughter snapped, 'Don't think you are the only smart guy. I'm sure someone smarter than us and with wherewithal must have already produced one.' Yes, indeed, who would miss such an amazing theme!

Realising that I can only dream of such a project, my memory went back to Moore Market, the famous flea market of old Madras (now Chennai). Not the present Moore Market, but the old classic, British-built Moore Market. Unfortunately, it was gutted in a fire accident in 1985. Or was it a fire incident, as doubts persist, to create space for railway development?

It was another example of Indo-Saracenic architecture style in Chennai. The present complex, though modeled on the earlier one to some extent, and built at a little distance by foolishly filling up the Lilly Pond, is no match to the old beauty.

However, unlike Ima Market, Moore Market is not occupied entirely by women sellers, nor is the variety that amazing. It is known for old and new books, curios, antiques, besides dress / fashion material, pets, etc. With the rise of mall culture, this has lost its old glory. It is my favourite haunt for curios and antiques.

Coming back to Ima Keithel (Mothers' Market), the all-women market, I had heard about it long, long back. In fact, for me Manipur meant Ima Market and Ima Market meant Manipur. That was the only famous information I knew about Manipur for a long time. It was also one of my dream destinations; hence I was repeatedly insisting that we ought to visit Ima Market at the earliest opportunity after landing in Imphal Manipur is well known for its Ima (women) power.

Take the instance of women fighting against the British on 12th December 1939. The Nupee-lal (Women's war) Memorial near the Imphal Head Post Office was built in the honour of these women who sacrificed their lives for fighting for injustice. Then there was Rani Gaidinliu who fought against the British and for the unity of Nagas; the fight against AFSPA (Armed Forces Special Powers Act) then by groups of Imas and now by Irom Sharmila, the iron lady; and who can forget the punching lady Mary Kom, the boxer from Manipur? Ima Market that has around 3,000 Imas (mothers) as vendors of various products is a classic example of Manipur's women power.

We were fortunate to visit Ima Market on the eve of Yaoshang (Holi) and what a sight to behold! In a sense, the thronging crowd resembled the commercial hub of T Nagar in Chennai during festive occasions. The jostling crowd reminded me of the Tamil saying 'even if you put a gingili seed it would be crushed to oil'. For local flavour, you can replace til (gingili) with sarso (mustard). That sums up the milling crowd of eager shoppers.

Most of the Ima sellers – right from young to ripe-old ladies – willingly obliged for our photo hunt. Some of them even smartly posed for photos. However, I was precautious and restrained myself, whereas my daughter let herself loose. A man should be cautious in an all-women market, no? One Ima seller was curious to see the result of digital photography.

The pot seller was gleeful to see her digital image and eagerly enquired if I could give her a copy. When I regretted my inability as I was a tourist from far off Chennai, she understood. Wish I had taken down her address. There were a considerable number of Muslim Ima vendors also, mostly selling fish, but they did not permit us to take photos.

The variety of products on sale was simply mind boggling – vegetables, fruits, CDs, fish, dress material, trinkets, puja items, grocery, fashion items, household needs, flowers, pottery, and so on. An amazing variety of fish – dried & live- including eel & mussel, was on offer to satisfy Manipuris' craving for fish.

As we are vegetarians, I am unable to identify them. And, to cap it all, there were eateries also, cooking & serving hot food for the Ima sellers as well visitors. The menu was tempting but we were wary of the notoriously spicy Manipuri cuisine. We could not afford to take risk. Some Imas were cooking just for themselves.

We were wondering what was so special about the sack loads of laddu and puffed rice sweet balls & cakes! We got the answer on the evening of Holika dahan festivity. These were the main offerings at the puja and were distributed as Prasad.

We found the Imas a tough lot – no bargaining, only fixed price. My wife, despite her little knowledge of Hindi, enjoys haggling by employing a mixture of English, Hindi, Tamil and sign language. She stylishly calls it as 'shopping'. She would straight away bargain for half the quoted price, whereas I would dumbly pay whatever was quoted. Then, on mutual terms, they would finally settle down for 3/4th the original price quoted. But she could not succeed in Ima Keithel. Even on our third round and enquiring with several Imas, we found that the price of a handmade comb was quoted invariably by all as Rs 50 and no bargaining, please.

To our solace, that was the only handicraft item we could find worth buying there. And, yes, we also bought two local salt cakes which occupy pride of place in our showcase. I am yet to find how salt is made in Manipur! Another shining trinket that we bought was ear stud for twenty rupees. My wife had lost one of her costly imitation ear studs which she uses during travels, so she bought this as a standby. She felt the glitter was worth the amount and has placed the pair in the showcase along with other handicraft items we could manage to buy in Manipur.

I must also say here about a thing that we missed buying. It was a doll that looked like an Ima seller. The truth is that I liked it at the first sight, but it was a bit heavy; okay, we will go for a smaller version, we thought, but never found one such and so ticked it off from our list. We realised its importance and our foolishness only when we visited the State Museum on the penultimate day of our stay.

It was actually the Goddess of Wealth of the pre-Hindu religious sect. We blamed each other for not buying it at the first sight, as there was no chance of visiting Ima Market again. We lost a golden opportunity to own a pre-Hindi deity. My only hope is that someone from among those we have made friendship in Manipur could visit Chennai in future and we could request them to bring the Goddess of Wealth who would, I hope, bring us the ever-evading prosperity!

After going around Ima Keithel, we felt a bit disappointed; all the three wings of the complex – the two new concrete buildings and the old tin shed wing – did not have shops selling antiques, curios, handicrafts. In fact, it was a great disappointment for us. I think such shops would add the flavour of a flea market to Ima Keithel and attract tourists.

We were told that Ima Keithel would be shifted to a new complex being built near State Museum (Shaheed Minar), as the RCC structure had developed cracks due to earthquake. We found the new complex built in the typical market-like shed structure; but this was not to the liking of Imas, I was told.

When we visited Ima Market for a final round up of photo shoot after Dol Jatra, we found it almost deserted. It was in a holiday mood. That jostling mad crown was not there either. But to our surprise we saw a live concert (bhajan team of dol jatra) being performed in the old tin-shed complex.

Visiting Ima Keithel has fulfilled a long-standing dream of mine. I have two more 'market dreams' and both are in Thailand – the first one is at Samut Songkram, 70 km southwest of Bangkok, the unique Mae Klong railway market which is located on rail tracks. Eight times daily, a train runs through without care for stopping.

The second one is the floating market of rowing boats at Damnoen Saduak, Ratchaburi province. If I could visit these two markets also, I would Rest In Peace (RIP), else I would Rest in Pieces!