Meitei meets Madrasi !
- Part 2 -

S Balakrishnan *

'What impacted you the most in Manipur?' By that time our daughter had also returned after attending her friend's wedding reception and a fat dinner. 'The friendliness of Manipuris,' we three answered in unison. 'But the food was quite spicy', neither did we fail to complain, again in unison! He scared us by telling that the 'Shirarakhong' chilly grown there is the spiciest variety available and people are in 'hot' pursuit of it! I think just seeing it would bring tears to our eyes. We showed him the few handicraft items we managed to buy despite Yaoshang holidays.

He explained the nuances of some of them. I could not control my outpour of anguish in not being able to watch a polo game, stage performance of Raas Leela and a Manipuri movie without subtitles in a local theatre. I feel the subtitle is a distraction though I may not understand the finer points of a film without it. To be frank, I prefer subtitled English movies as it is difficult to follow the mumbo-jumbo of Hollywood movies. At the most, I am able to comprehend only their 'yeah'. To partly redress my grouse, he volunteered to lend me DVDs of a few Manipuri films.

Mr. Khomdram Reagan Singh is the guardian for two of his cousins staying with him and studying in a nearby college. I can see that many Manipuris are eager to pursue their higher studies in South Indian educational institutions, realising that knowledge is power that leads to empowerment. He also coaches them in cooking, he said and that they had tried cooking chicken that day. It went without saying that he had had a full take of chicken, because he was often sipping water from a bottle that he carried along to help digestion! Hence he was not feeling hungry and was postponing dinner.

Mr. Singh has a long connection with Tamil Nadu – for the past 5/6 years, to be precise. He did his bachelor's degree in a college from Tiruchengode in Namakkal District and was selected in the campus interview. He is now working with TCS under Nielsen project. But for the hot & sultry weather, he has no other complaint. 'Of course, as an outsider, some traders try to cheat as is the practice anywhere, but nowadays by experience I am a smarter shopper', he chuckled. 'I had Tamils as my close friends in college and have visited their homes and attended weddings also', he went on. I was happy to know that he had picked up rudimentary Tamil to manage daily shopping.

At this point I remembered of my cousin's daughter's wedding near his place, Sithlapakkam, on 10 July. Without a second thought, even without consulting my cousin, I extended an invite to him and handed over a piece of paper & pen to note down the date & venue. What a fool I was! He pulled out his Smartphone and snapped the details! Oh, God! I must keep up with the trend, I said aloud pathetically looking at my basic model cell.

'I myself haven't travelled widely in my state,' Mr. Khomdram Singh regretted. 'That is always the case', I assuaged him and pointed out that 'despite living in Chennai for three decades, there are still so many places I have not visited, not to mention about those outside Chennai.' It is human tendency to postpone visiting local places; we think 'what is the hurry? We live here only; anytime we can visit it', but that anytime never comes unless we create. Believe me, a relative family of mine that was living in Delhi for a quarter century never visited Taj Mahal!

I was extracting information about his family back in Manipur. Mr. Reagan Singh said his family members live in Imphal, close to the airport and that he has a sister. They have some land and harvest only a single yield of paddy from it due to water shortage, he went on. I had also noticed vast stretches of land lying dry, as we proceeded to Moreh and Loktak. I was surprised that this was due to water shortage! Bore well technique has not yet reached Manipur, Mr. Singh said. In a way it is good; else people will suck out all the water from the bosom of Mother Earth to the extent of converting it into a desert.

Living in Chennai, he wished he had established a firm contact with me before my trip to Manipur, because he was also at home during Yaoshang holidays. Ha, he did correct my pronunciation of Yaoshang! Whereas I was pronouncing it as 'yashang', he said it should be 'yoshang'. 'Sorry I couldn't reply your email on time as I didn't access any email during vacation. During your visit I was also at my native place (Manipur) on vacation,' he had e-mailed later and gave his Chennai number also.

Well, as we chatted on, the clock struck 9.30 PM; he was not very hungry because of the chicken in his tummy, but we were hungry and it was also getting late for him to return, which involved an hour's travel. So we decided to continue chatting while dining. It was a simple menu as desired by him (or rather pre-decided by his chicken). First a piece of 'Mysore pak' sweet was served; not home-made, we assured him; then we rolled out mini idlis soaked in sambar, then came roast dosai, chutney and the gunpowder. Mr. Singh was guided to make a small depression with his finger in the heap of gunpowder in which sesame oil (til thel) was added; he was asked to mix them both to make a loose paste.

'Wow!" he exclaimed tasting the gunpowder. He had a hearty laugh when we explained the nick name of gunpowder given to the idly powder. We in our house generally do not use much spice (chilly), hence our gunpowder may not qualify to be actually called so, we explained. Idly powder is available readymade in the shops. We have to only mix oil with it and it is ready, we gave tips to make his dosai taste better. The chutney my wife had prepared was not the usual coconut chutney served in hotels; as it tasted different, Mr. Reagan Singh like it much. As a finale, we offered coffee, but he said he was full.

Mr. Khomdram seemed to be a poor eater. Maybe the chicken in him made him repeat 'enough', 'I am done', 'I am finished'. So we decided to pack off the remaining idlis with adequate sambar, chutney and all the gunpowder that we had. He had tasted it for the first time and liked it very much. His cousins could also taste our preparations, we convinced him to carry the whole lot. Had I known earlier that he was living with his cousins, we would have definitely invited all the three together. He proudly declared that he had gained expertise in dosa making with the ready-to-cook barter available in the market. 'This gunpowder would go well with them', he said with a twinkle in his eyes.

We were so engrossed in our chat that I forgot to take a few snaps of the VIP as our guest, for posterity. I had kept the camera batteries charged and ready, but was lost in the interesting talk.

I was hoping to have a snap with him at the wedding on 10th. The muhurath was early in the morning between 7 & 8, and on Sunday. Hence I was doubly doubtful – early in the morning and that too on a Sunday. And Mr. Khomdram's shift duty throughout the week is from 4.30 in the evening to 2.30 in the early morning. What an odd time to jump into the bed? He said, 'With my cousins gone to college, sometimes I would sleep on and on and even miss the pickup vehicle in the evening'.

Because of the disturbing law & order situation in Manipur, many Manipuris prefer to work in South; a few have even settled down here. Further, job opportunities, particularly in IT field, are far & few, he pointed out. He also has some plans about his future, he detailed.

As I dropped him at the Kodambakkam station, I again reminded him about the 10th July wedding. When I went for the wedding reception on 9th evening, I spoke to my cousin, the bride's mother, and sought her ex-post facto sanction for inviting Mr. Khomdram Singh and his two cousins. My cousin readily granted permission, magnanimously saying, 'Why this formality? Just three additional guests, no problem at all.'

I immediately texted Mr. Singh, extending an invitation for his cousins also. On 10th morning, I waited and waited anxiously but no sign of Mr. Singh & his cousins. More than me, my relatives were disappointed much; we were expecting to receive a VIP guest from Manipur but he did not turn up. As a rule, VIPs are always unpredictable; to maintain their VIP status, either they turn up late or not at all! Much later in the evening, he texted 'Sorry, could not attend; cousin ill; took him to hospital.' Well, we missed him and he missed a wedding breakfast!

Concluded