Chakouba Spirit (November 17)

We love festivals. We also love to spend extravagantly on every available occasion despite the poor state tag attached to Manipur and Manipuris. Examples are never lacking to demonstrate that we love revelry and merry making apart from spending money freely. 

Last month we celebrated Durga/Panthoibi pujah with pomp and gaiety. We spent money on housie, crackers and feasts. Yesterday was Diwali. Candles are lit and households were decorated with colorful flowers and electrification. Such celebrations call for some expenses. Today is Govardhan pujah and come tomorrow we will be celebrating Ningol Chakouba, another important festival of the state. 

All these festivals need huge expenses; poor and rich alike will have to part with hundreds if not thousands as a part of the celebration. And the fact that the government has not been able to release two months' full pay with all the allowances for the employees before Ningol Chakouba does not seem to have dampened the spirit of Ningol Chakouba. 

If one wants proof of this he should pay a visit to the Khwairamband Keithel today, Chakouba shoppers, mostly women, old and young have already been swarming the main market kin the city for tomorrow's festival. Fish and other expensive items of gift for married sisters are integral parts of the celebration. Married Ningols will require the best of gold ornaments and costliest of wealth. When it was more than apparent that there would be no salary before Chakouba it was thought that this would certainly dampen the spirit of the festival. 

A few days' back when this daily conducted a survey it was revealed that sale dropped drastically and most of the shops were shutting at the end of the day a without single customer turning up the whole day. The poor merchants had even predicted that sale in this year's Chakouba season would record an all time low. The traders must now be smiling throughout the day with buyers rubbing shoulders inside their shops, stalls and kiosks.

It is clear that people are keeping the spirit of the festival with or without pay or pension. It seems to have been forgotten that we are poor and we need to inculcate the habit of thrift. With no salary for the last two months and all development works, through which manual laborers make a living, coming to a screeching halt several month's back it was believed that each and every one in Manipur has already emptied out his purse and little money would be left for extravagance during the Ningol Chakouba. 

One may be pardoned for commenting that if the Government is left penniless people are still rich and have enough cash to be a spendthrift. It is ironic that as Manipur becomes poorer, the people living here have inculcate a habit of spending more and more during festivals like Ningol Chakouba. 

The idea of the festival is to strengthen the bond of love between brothers and married sisters by sharing a feast and presenting gifts to the sisters. It has now been converted into sort of a display of wealth. The trend is disturbing. Happy Ningol Chakouba.

(Courtesy: The Sangai Express)

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