Munda, Chuthek, Chiriya ? Next Lucky Number...
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: October 24 2011 -

If the loud reports of crackers bursting and other fireworks heralded the coming of Durga Puja, with the noise getting louder in proportion to each day getting shorter from the first day of October, 'Your next lucky number' and 'Any complaints ?' (sic) announcements over the public address system have taken over now to be in sync with the festive mood hanging over the air in most of the leikais dotting Imphal.

The same may be said in the case of the places situated along the periphery of the twin capital districts. This is the festival season and some of the major festivals lined up include Diwali on October 26, Ningol Chakkouba on October 28, Kut on November 1, Christmas on December 25 and New Year.

This is also the time of the year when the paddy harvests will start arriving to replenish the grainhouses, which have been lying empty or almost empty for the past two/three months, heralding a break for the land tillers and the farmers and capping this off with a festive mood is natural and in fact welcome.

However questions have been raised from some concerned citizens of the land and while it is easy to dismiss these questions, it would not hurt to note that the concerns are not against the festivals as such but against the manner in which they are celebrated which at many point of time border on the ostentatious and vulgar.

Forget about the harrowing time that the people are passing through right now, thanks to the over 85 days economic blockade, there is something definitely very distasteful in which some of these festivals have come to be celebrated down the years and this does not reflect prettily on the people.

And so from the loud reports of crackers slicing through the stillness of the night, the chants of 'Next lucky number' and 'Any complaints ?' have come to define Imphal as of today and it will go on for the next couple of days. The markets will be crowded and negotiating through the roads of Imphal will be anything but pleasant.

Shouts of Munda, Chiriya, Chuthek and what not have also started streaming out from lanes and leiraks of Imphal and fisticuffs or some loud exchange of words laced with expletives may be the added bonanza to this particular facet of ringing out the festive mood or in celebrating these festivals.

Manipur sure knows how to script unique stories ! The number of festivals that adorn the calendar of Manipur adds that dash of colour to the life of the people and is in a way a reflection of a rich and vibrant social life. However down the years it has become increasingly clear that a reality check is perhaps what is needed before the first cracker is lit or the dice is rolled.

Festivals ought to be celebrated but there are certain unwritten but important human norms which should dictate how people celebrate these festivals. A look at the manner in which these festivals have come to be celebrated in the past few years will leave no one in doubt that the fuel that keeps the festive spirit of the people charged up is money and nothing else.

Not that money is not needed but when the use of money borders on the ostentatious and at times take a vulgar turn then it is time to seriously consider whether a diseased mind has come to dictate the senses of the people.

And so from bursting crackers much before Durga Puja and well beyond, Gandhi Memorial Hall has today been turned into some sort of a Housie Centre. The lure is a fancy car for a Houseful or a first prize that runs into lakhs. The Housie Game has been a series since October 18, more or less, and there is no sign that it will end soon.

Permit may have been obtained and the hiring charge may have been deposited but this is besides the point. The point is compromising the very purpose for which GM Hall was set up in the first place.

A series of Housie game is akin to reducing a place erected in the very name of the Father of the Nation to some sort of a gambling joint and there can be no justification for this.

Housie is no longer a game where people pool in the bare minimum of money to try their luck and see if a duck or a fish can be had for dinner together. It is like trying one's luck at a game of Flash or the Casino.

Only difference is there is none of the polish and the finesse identified with trying one's hand at the Casino or the sincerity of gambling as in Flash. The 'make money quick, without sweating for it' mentality is palpable here.

It is this same mindset that saw the last digit lottery flourishing and in the process reducing many to paupers in Manipur a decade or two back. It is this mindset which saw money scheme introduced by shady companies like the infamous Forex, Unipay, Visarev etc forcing many families to bankruptcy.

Something, somewhere is wrong, terribly wrong, and it is doubly so that such a mindset should be granted some sort of a legitimacy in the name of celebrating a festival or two.

Next lucky number, Any complaints, Munda, Chiriya, Chuthek....Manipur surely knows how to defile the idea and bases of celebrating festivals.