Ima
Market
. .
. S. Balakrishnan
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 Khom, 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. The only shortcoming was the Imas were not quite conversant with
Hindi. This affected not only our bargaining power but also understanding of
the products on sale, especially those unique to Manipur.
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 l
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! …. krishnanbala2004@yahoo.co.in
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