A wooden sculpted face
Una saba saktam
Fungawari Singbul by B. Jayantakumar Sharma

Translation by Nganthoi Lourembam *

An illustration of Folk tale 'Una saba saktam' by Nganthoi Lourembam

Once upon a time there was a poor man who was in his middle age and not yet married. As there was no one to look after him he had to do all the household work; washing his clothes, cooking food and keeping his house clean. He hardly gets time to go out of the house and meet friends.

In order to lessen the tension of not having a wife he had once gone to an architect and got sculpted a woman made of wood. The sculpture looked so pretty and real. The poor man kept this sculpture in the house and he lived with it as it talks to him. "Dear, prepare a Hidak Nganthak (a traditional type of Hookah) for me," he said to himself, in a girl's voice he replied, "yes yes I'll prepare it" and he loaded the bowl himself. "Have you finished cooking dear?" "yes" "yes" and he cooked the food. Thus he lived with the sculpture pretending to be alive.

Once, the poor man looked at the sculpture and said, "Dear, today I am going out to meet a friend so prepare the meal" and he left the house. While walking co-incidentally he met a friend.

"How are you friend, hope you are fine?"

"Yes I am fine, how about you my friend?"

"I am well."

The rich man asked the poor man, "Friend have you got married?" The poor man felt ashamed and said, "Yes." "Why didn't you invite us in your wedding?" the friend asked. "I was ashamed to invite my friends as I got married late," replied the poor man. The friend said, "Okay friend, let's go to your place today to meet your wife." The two started walking towards the poor man's house.

While walking the poor man thought, what shall I do, I am going to die of shame today, O! Lord, please save me. As the poor man was mumbling the poor man's friend asked, "What happened friend, why are you burbling yourself?" and the poor man replied to this, "Well, my wife is very young so I was thinking if she would show disrespectful manner to you, hence I was murmuring to myself."

They reached at the poor man's gate. The poor man said to his friend, "Please wait here at the gate I'll just inform my wife in advance otherwise if the house is unclean you might feel uncomfortable" and the poor man left his friend at the gate and went alone. When the poor man reached at the courtyard of his house he was completely shocked to see his clothes washed and hung to dry. He thought, 'It must be my sisters and friends from neighbour who felt pity for me and washed my clothes.'

The floor of his house was neatly cleaned and wiped and a prayer's light was lit. He was terrified with shock. He thought someone's playing a trick or the house was haunted. "Is anyone home?" he asked two to three times; no one replied. Later on someone with a melodious voice replied and the poor man went inside the house and found the sculpture disappeared.

Instead of the sculpture a beautiful lady was found and the poor man had a word with her. The poor man became very joyful and called in his friend who was waiting at the gate. The rich friend was surprised to see the beautiful wife of the poor man and felt jealous. The poor man served his rich friend with whatever food he had.

The clever rich man said to the poor man, "Friend, let's invite each other for food consecutively. When the guest after having food touches anything he will be the owner of it." The rich man thought when he comes for food at the poor man's place he will grab the beautiful wife of the poor man and take her as his wife. Both of them agreed to this and the rich man returned home.

As agreed earlier the rich man invited the poor man first for food. After having food as agreed upon the poor man touched the furniture box of the rich man which contains all the wealth of the rich man such as gold jewelleries, silvers, etc and became the owner of it and took it home.

Then the poor man invited the rich man for a meal. Since the time the rich man had arrived he was peeking at the poor man's wife. The rich man was not focused on the food. The rich man looked at her as if he is going to eat her up; unnecessarily he called her to give extra food and water just to look at her. The wise poor man's wife thought, "This rich man seemed to really like me. He is planning to touch me after having food so that he can own me. So I have to think of a way out."

She brought a ladder inside the house from the backyard. The husband and wife signalled each other with gestures. When the rich man went out of the house to wash his hand after having food the wise lady climbed up at the ladder and sat on top of the house. As soon as the rich friend entered the house after washing his hand he was searching for the poor man's wife and he learnt that she was sitting on top of the house.

The rich man wanted to grab her hand hence he climbed up on the ladder. When the rich man touched the ladder the poor man suddenly said, "Friend, you want the ladder. You should have grabbed something valuable.

May be you knew I am your poor friend hence you didn't want valuable stuff from me that's why you grabbed the ladder. Fine, since agreed upon you have to take the ladder. It's a very useful ladder. Please take it." The rich man came to his sense and since defeated badly he carried the ladder on his shoulder and took it home.

The poor man got the wealth of his rich friend and he lived happily with his beautiful wife.

** From Manipur folk tale Book called "Fungawari Singbul" by B. Jayantakumar Sharma