2. The Mother’s Market of Imphal

Since more than 100 years women at Khwairamband Bazar run the Mother’s Market in Imphal. In Manipuri, ‘Ima’ means mother and ‘keithel’ means market. More than 3500 women vendors sell food items, utensils, clothes and handicrafts irrespective of their community. As the local tales go, when Manipuri men were away in wars and fighting the Chinese and Burmese, the women of Manipur decided to be the breadwinners for their families and took over the commerce of their homes. Established in a bygone era, the shops or arcades are handed down to the women of the family, generation by generation, and the inheriting ladies continue to follow the unwritten rules, thus, also making the marketplace traditionally stronger. It’s actually a massive assemblage of independent women merely sitting on elevated platforms on allotted plot plans of 10ftx10ft surrounded with their respective piles of products. The lingering tangy flavours are indeed intoxicating and at times intimidatingly pungent even though most of it is uncooked, as it is raw and fresh from the village meadows.