Millet, millet!

I bet it would be a little irritating for the 'novice'to hear the lectures by my sis and her husband about the virtue of meditation.But if you are a little into wellness, like me,you would be able to understand their enthuasiasm.

It's heartening to find out that they are starting to question the traditional kitchen and they are actually acting on some newer ideas of how we eat.

But all my remaining three sisters in Imphal are firmly moored onto the traditional kitchen.

In my mind, we need to start questioning the traditional kitchen. Traditional kitchen is desperately in need of newer ideas.

We talked a lot about the practice of wellness and of breaking away from the traditional kitchen.

On one such occassion, I just mentioned in passing that millet is the best staple food but it's not availbale here in Imphal.

After several days, my sister was there at my house with the millet!

She asked around and found a shop selling millet.

I tried making porridge of millet and found out that it's okay.

I'm going in for corn and millet as soon as my stock of peas exhausted itself in a few days time!

My sis and Ima Keithel

My sis returned to Delhi today.

I'm not sure of her but her kids considered Delhi their home. They were born and raised up in Delhi. So, this is natural for the kids to feel Delhi their home.

Several years ago, the whole family came down here. The two kids stared at us and said aloud, like calling out a name-- 'Manipur'. There was something about it that was funny but at the same time thought provoking.

Did the word 'Manipur' a challenge to their to their notion of 'rootedness'in Delhi?

This time the kids are busy in their school and college. Inspite their absence, my sis seemed to devour every minute of her stay here.

She made a point to visit every family member--both from our paternal and maternal side.

My house served as a strategic launching pad to spin out in every direction for visting the family members! One day she returned to the 'pad'visibly excited. She sat down and started her story.

I was there with two of other sisters.

She told us that she had just returned from visting an aunt. This aunt happened to be the one to whom our grandma gifted the one 'shop space'( Is this the correct term?) in Ima Keithel. She told her that she would take that 'shop space' to start her business when she returned from Delhi.

This made me laud out aloud. It's a little hard for me to imagine my sis among the womenfolk in Ima Keithel tending her small business!

But, my other two sisters got animated about hearing it. RIGHT! WE SHOULD TAKE BACK THAT 'SHOP SPACE'.

Isn't it an eyeopener?

All the dazzles of Delhi seem incapable of snapping the primordial ties of Manipouri women with Ima Keithel.

Military activities in the afternoon sky

During afternoon, there was a lot of military activities in the sky.

Choppers were flying around. And real,snub-nosed military turbo-props were also seen flying.

As I saw them, they were flying towards Churachandpur and coming back again.

I have no idea if the activities were something to do with the reported rebellion within the ranks of a major rebel group operating.

The scene of the rebellion is reported to be along the Burmese border.

It's now official:DROUGHT

It's now more or less official now.

We are in midst of an emerging drought.

But we may have still hope for July.

Come rain--July is waiting for you!

Two stories

I went to a marriage yesterday. When I received the invitation card, there was no mention of 'Heijingpot'. I thougth there must be some disagreements with the bride's side and all the rituals and ceremonies would be a groom's side affair.

When I went there it surprised me to find out we were going to bride's place.

Marriage without 'heijingpot'.

I think it's a good sign that people start accepting such practice. If some people want marriage with 'heijingpot' it is also ok. But if some poor people want their marriage with less pomp like the 'heijingpot' it should also be acceptable to the society.

I mean if some members of society want to go with the bare basic of marriage ceremony it should be broadly acceptable.

In related matter, my soster told this story.

In Delhi, recently, one of her relatives decided that going to Imphal for would unnecessarily burn a lot a cash. Like maony spent on painting and decorating both the houses of the bride and groom. So, they decided to ask their parents to come to Delhi instead.

Now that Delhi has a sizable Manipuri population also helps. There are people for attendance in the ceremony and so, only the parents are needed!

The moral of the story is that they save a lot of money!!

Which class?

Is June 18 AMUCO's legacy?

Again, is June 18 UCM's legacy?

The answer to both question is an empathic NO.

June 18 is one of our Society's brightest legacies.

Nearly 10 years after the historic event, our society's mandate, at the moment, to any NGO, be it AMUCO,UCM etc, is to guard this bright legacy.

Here, we need to go a little further back in time when AMUCO decided to break away from UCM, which at the time was an umbrella body of around 10 NGOs. In the sense AMUCO represents the interest of a particular class (as do other NGOs represent their respective interest of various classes in our society), it is quite understandable for AMUCO to start working for this particular class, once the historic necessity for the continued existence of UCM lapsed. But(THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT) AMUCO should rise above its class interest to guard this bright legacy of our society.

This is AMUCO's historic responsibility.

Why guarding this legacy?

Becasue we need still to learn extremely important lessons from June 18.

Lesson like understanding the particular interplay historic currents that propelled the formation of UCM,which, though briefly, truly represented the united will of Manipuri society.

Lesson like coming to grip with our capability to again letting the united will of the Manipuri society flower to a full blooom according to the demand of our time.

But at the moment we find ourselves in the midst of hectic deployment of precious time and money to consciously entrap the populace in AMUCO vs UCM meme. This means we are actually starting to take steps in the opposite direction of 'guarding this bright legacy of ours'.

That said, it's not the time for finger pointing.

We need keep our cool heads and try to emperically answer this big question:

Which class of society is proving unequal to the task of guarding 'the bright legacy of ours'?

Relief today!

For several days, my sister from Delhi have been telling us that today she would have a must-attend schedule.

Today at around 9.30 in the morning, she would be going to the place in Senapati district where Dr Kishan together with his two subordinate staff were murdered.

From what she had been tellng us we gathered that it was planned for a private function for family members for Kishan to erect a memorial stone at the spot.

Yesterday, she told me to expect her late in the afternoon.

But she didn't turn up.

I suspect their plan had gone awry. They planned it as puely private function. But then they found out that everybody wanted to attend with probably full attendance of State's media.

So, it might turn out to be an elaborate function.

That she didn't turn meant other sisters also didn't come. That means I was relieved of palying host to her sisters today!

But for the coming days it would be my must-attend duty to play host to my sisters late in the afternoon. Until she returns to Delhi on month end!

My little niece and the dress code

When the little daughter of one of my sisters first saw her eldest aunt just coming down from Delhi,she quitely went to mom's ear and whispered-- 'Would you ask this 'che che' to bring a pointed shoe for her?'

She thought her eldest aunt was a 'che che' because my eldest sister was in a salwar Kameez.

She was properly imprinted with the idea that all the married women should be either in a phanek or a sari(half-sari,isn't it?).

The scene with me little niece was hillarious but it made me think about the state of dress code for married women in our society.

What's the use of this code?

Do people expect the woemnfolk here to bring out an aura of 'class' when they strictly adhere to their dress code?

This is the only reasonable ground for the dress code,if one is forced to think out one.

Otherwise, the dress code only serves to supress womenfolk by male-hierarchic society. Suppression. Period.