New to Manipur?

Manipur is an often heard item in the news and other media, and like all things we hear often but have little idea about, many wild horses and theories seems to perpetrate the mass. Blockade is really not another name for Manipur, no matter how many people swears it is! 

Many of my friends have asked me many things about Manipur, like What language do we speak? What do we eat? Why are Manipuries very good in sports? Do everyone in Manipur talks all the time? Why are there no fat Manipuri? Why is everyone from Manipur beautiful or handsome? (yours truly did not made this up) How do one say "I Love You" in Manipuri? etc. and etc.

So, I thought it is time I gather my thoughts, think of all the scandalous things I can come up with and write a blog about this beautiful, dangerous (seemingly but not really) and most alluring place; and about its beautiful and somewhat eccentric people. 

We Manipuries like to talk. A lot. If you lock up two Manipuries in a room, they will chatter away about all things in the world and not realise they are locked in. But the language barrier often prevents us to talk much with non-manipuri people, our command/familiarity over other languages are good for official/business/work things, but not very good for talking the manipuri talk. 

Now, let us go locate Manipur and go there. 

For starters, Manipur is a small state of the Republic of India, situated at the North Eastern part of the country, bordering Myanmar(Burma). That does not say much about the geographical location to the layman person. Myanmar can be anywhere. So let's start from Culcatta (Kolkata) that everyone knows about. As a crow flies northeasterly from Culcutta (Kolkata), (assuming Bangladesh has no Air space restriction issues for a flying crow) I would need to fly 385 miles (619 kms) towards the direction of the sunrise (in the morning only). With favourable winds (and some luck), I will take around 22 hours non stop crow flight to reach Imphal, the capital city of Manipur. Unfortunately, almost all of us are not crows, so we have to take either a flight (2 Hr) or a Bus (2-3 days) from Calcutta to reach there.

Well, that's it for today, do tell me when you reached Imphal (either as a crow or a person), then I will continue with a brief history and a few things about the people of Manipur :)  Do come back tomorrow (or day after tomorrow for those who chose the bus route ). 

Disclaimer: This blog reflects the opinion of the author only.