Manipur calling!

Are you out of your mind? Don’t ever think of going to Manipur”, cautioned friends and well-wishers.

Such damningly spine-chilling diatribe may have made a normal person to think twice before even contemplating taking the flight into the ‘seemingly’ bizarre region.

However, such words of advice did not deter a team of 10 members, including four daughters and their kids, son, and, yours truly, a son-in-law of 67-year-old Vimla.

They decided to go ahead with the proposed visit to one of the famed seven sisters, oblivious as they were about the two-month-old turmoil because of economic blockage.

It did not matter to the obsessive motley crowd. A reason for this firmed up steely resolve to go to their destination was the call of roots,

which has been so strong that humans all through history have braved all odds, including crossing the seven seas, to reach the place they were born, at least once in their adult life.

So it was with Vimla, who was born Huimila in one of the remotest corners of India -- Kalhang village close to the Myanmar border in Manipur.

“Your father-in-law was so besotted that he just plucked me like a flower at the tender age of 16 and took me to the vast plains in India,” she recalls with a noticeable twinkle in her eyes.

My father-in-law, Madhavan Pillai, a native of God’s Own Country was posted in Imphal as a radio operator in CRPF, decades ago.

It was for the first time in 50 years that Huimila was getting to see ‘my village where as a child I used to climb cherry trees and roamed around the majestic hills’.

Of course it was one hell of an agonising ride for us. The journey to Kalhang from Imphal was wrought with danger.

On the way, we could see burnt cars abandoned at the foothills and paramilitary personnel standing vigil.

Why should such a beautiful place with streams, rivers, flowers, fresh fruits and vegetables that grow without any fertilisers and pesticides face bloodshed?

We shuddered at the inhuman acts of gory that were destroying a naturally resplendent locale of all its pristine landscape.

But then, bloodshed has also been because of locals who also swore by their roots and were influenced by their overly zealous tendency to ascertain their supremacy.

The rift between Meiteis and hill tribals, primarily comprising Nagas and Kuki tribes, has been raging for decades. While political power rests with the former, 90 per cent of the State territory constitutes hill areas.

An emotional reunion
It was past 10 in the night when we reached Kalhang village but not before surviving anxious moments as we were first huddled into autos to Yaingangpokpi, 25 kms from Imphal, and again hopped into a Winger for a four-hour trip up to the mountains.

Biting cold, fear of being stopped and hurled, notwithstanding, we eventually made it. Without sounding as an exaggeration, the euphoria was perhaps similar to the nirvana a mountaineer gets after successfully standing atop Himalayas.

Huimila’s sisters, brother and his son received us with laughter, tears and hugs.

“I cannot believe it. I am meeting my sister after 50 years. We thought she was dead. We are grateful to God for making this joyous day happen,” remarked the teary-eyed Ngaisung, her brother.

He was not too much off-the-mark because back in the 1960s the only mode of communication was by the way of letters. Somehow, both families lost touch with each other. It was thanks to the relentless efforts of Aimson, her nephew, that his aunt was reunited with her siblings and kin.

Treks, food and frolic
Away from the strife in Imphal, there is a sense of calm up in the mountains. People have minimum needs; women just pluck vegetables from the slopes; berries are made into jam while rice and pork constitute the staple diet given the climatic conditions. And yes, bananas are in abundance.

However, we preferred chicken splashed with potatoes and cherry tomatoes. To most of us city-bred folk it was a meal fit for the kings because it tasted like no other we could think of immediately. What’s more! Most meals end with tiny apples and a juice of passion fruit!

The best part of being in the hills is in going for walks along the mesmerising mountains that are dotted with dazzling pine trees that seem to be rising right up to Heaven.

In December (that’s when we undertook the ‘pilgrimage’), many trees shed their leaves and the dry ones take on an orange hue.

A few houses mostly styled like the ones in English countryside, in wood, blend beautifully with the environment as men, women and children flock to the fire place for rice beer, fruit and short eats.

The mountains have something about them, they make you realise how small we are and also protect us from the vagaries of nature.

If you are heading to Manipur, then go beyond Imphal into the hills for achieving the perfect physical and mental rejuvenation!