Yaoshang: A Fun-tastic Festival for All and Sundry!

“There are no lines in nature, only areas of colour, one against another.”
—Edouard Manet

It is that time of the year when Mother Nature puts on her best attire and showers her blessings around us.

Birds start singing happy songs of Yeningtha; meanwhile heiyai and chorpon ripen to dance on a plate with thoom, morok, thoiding and beson. With Mr. Summer queuing up near the seasonal door seeking admission for the next term, Yeningtha also marks the arrival of the most awaited festival of the year—Yaoshang.

The festival which is usually celebrated for five days mean unlimited fun and frolicking with friends and family relishing yummylicious achapot and dishes; and not to forget, the numberless hues and shades of colours in the air.

Manipur Masala presents ‘Yaoshang: A Fun-tastic festival for all and sundry!’

The origin of this festival is quite controversial. Nevertheless, it would not be fallacious to state that the varied versions about the origin of Yaoshang are as colourful as the festival itself.

The Hindunised version of Yaoshang marks the celebration of the birthday of Chaitanya Gouranga. As per the chronicles of Vaishnavism, it was on the purnima of Phalgun month that Chaitanya was born on the bank of the Ganga in Bengal. Phalgun month, which is the last month in the lunar almanac, in the Meitei belief, is Lamta.

In the Meiteinised version, Yaoshang marks the celebration of the birth of Nongda Lairen Pakhangba who was born at Kangla on the full moon of Lamta to Leimaren and Salailen Sidaba. Laimaren, on the birth day of Lord Pakhangba, had to stay at the Ya-wol-sung. The name ‘Yaoshang’, as per the Meitei belief, is thus a shortened form of the original ‘Ya-Wol-Sung’.

A bunch of charu-tied bamboo was burnt to announce the world about the birth of Lord Pakhangba at Kangla. And on the fifth day after the birth of Pakhangba, all the Gods went to Khwai Keithel to buy gifts to Salailen to congratulate him for his new mapari. ‘Lai Keithel Kaaba’ thus had its origin from that day.

Incidentally, the resulting product of these several terms, right from Chaitanya to Kiethel is covert intolerance in contemporary Manipur. We cannot deny there is a great sense of going back to our roots, which can be read as harsh criticism of anything that is related to the Hindu faith. But it is for the people to decide whether it is helping us or not. Maybe we can talk about it further on another fine Sunday.

Back again, my knowledge on the origin of Yaoshang may be limited. But my understanding is definitely not. Alright, let Yaoshang be a celebration of anyone’s birthday. What does that change? Should the old or new found knowledge mar the spirit of the festival? Should it rob our memory bank about the fun we had when we were kids? Should it stop our kids from having their share of fun at present? I doubt so. For a religious atheist like me, celebrating a festival should not be associated with any religious connotations. I am a Meitei by birth but I prefer not to associate myself with any ‘ism’ which would compel me to think like a ‘frog in a well’.

Well, earlier during our bubok and edhou’s time, Yaoshang meant simple celebrations during which cheng-insaang khainaduna chaak chanaba and thabal chongba at a sumaang or leikai lampak were the major attractions. The celebration of the festival has been transforming over the decades.

For the last three–four decades Yaoshang has been synonymous to five frolicking days of unlimited fun with friends and families. Sports and various entertainment programs are organized at the leikaigi club to commemorate Yaoshang for all these years.

With or without the sports, the festival, which is meant for all and sundry, is celebrated with a jovial spirit sans any bullshit that we come across in our day to day life. Yaoshang fever infects the rich and the poor.

Well, it’s time to take leave from our professional chores and catch up with friends and relatives whom we usually cannot catch up during the rest of the year. Let this Yaoshang be a flamboyant celebration for everyone. Wishing all of you a very happy, colourful and fun-tastic Yaoshang.

PS: Registration open for the various events and items on the next five days of Yaoshang celebration.

This article was published on 16 March 2014.

A Yaoshang to Remember

A tug of war showdown at a park in New Delhi

A festival is celebrated for its essence. So, sometimes it does not matter where and how you celebrate a festival as long as we keep up the essence. This year, we celebrated Yaoshang, coinciding with the last day of the festival, in our traditional style but with a typical quintessence in New Delhi.

We organized typical games like chafu thugaibi and thouri chingnabi. The best part of the event was the tambola housie. We had gathered at a popular park, as we scratched and shouted for the quick fives, stars, the lines and the like.

For a while, we felt so closer at home. It was indeed a typical spring evening. The only sad part was time restraint. Sundays are always precious for working professionals. We had to spare our Sunday afternoon to catch up with one another. The event, which was supposed to start hours earlier, began a little late. Yet, we make it up with unrestrained fun and frolic. I am sure, as a side note, we managed to redefine the concept of ‘Meitei pung’ here in Delhi.

Well, I do not intend to bore you all with my personal experience of how awesome my Yaoshang festival was. Still, I would like to stress on how important it is for us to catch up and celebrate every festival together, whether we stay back home or elsewhere across the world.

I have observed in all these years that our folks in Delhi do not have a unifying factor. Most of the diasporas and expatriates rely heavily on internet, and social media to be precise, to connect with their friends and families. I consider it that there is always a strong undercurrent of nostalgia among us. Most of us are homesick during many occasions. In fact, festivals fuel up our nostalgia meter.

Beyond the Yaoshang play-field

Quite contrary to my over-expressive opinion, I have also come across many Manipuris in the city who get pissed off with the smell of ngaari, soibum or hawaijaar. They, in my opinion, are the chanafam khangdraba kaangbu.

Ngari, soibum and hawaijaar are a few of the distinguishing factors of our community. The smell of ngari or soibum while crossing a building or ally makes most of us nostalgically hungry. And that’s a unique specialty of our community. Correct me if I am wrong.

No doubt, we have students’ associations here but in my opinion, I think we need a body that unifies both the students and working professionals in the city. Don’t you think we are quite used to community living? Besides, we get more ideas that further grow when we interact with one another. I used to crack jokes about a demand for a greater Manipur in the capital. I hope this does not sound like a step to launch a demanding crusade, like a homeland — a concept that we find it hard to resist.

Back at the Yaoshang arena

Nevertheless, I missed the original flavour of Yaoshang back at home — those countless games and sports at the leikai lampak, many chaak chanaba programs, getting pampered by mom’s delicious insaangs and the list is endless. I do miss all my leikai friends and cousins, with whom I grew up together celebrating Yaoshang and many festivals to the fullest.

We do celebrate Yaoshang here but we celebrate it paying a due homage to all the best memories about the festival we have. I had wished many a times to celebrate Yaoshang in the city. I randomly shared my plans then but never had any support from anyone in particular.

This time, we managed to make a difference with the help of some very good friends. We wore colourful phanek on that day as a reminiscence of good old Yaoshang days. Nothing can beat that.

We do have terrific plans for celebrating the forthcoming Cheiraoba in yet another compensatory attempt to lessen the degree of missing home. No matter, how and why we celebrate it, what makes us feel good is the feeling of being together with our own folks in the city. We come from different leikais; most of us did not even know one another but then the nostalgia factor, like a strong yubi thouri, binds all of us together.

I am glad to share that a Yaoshang, Cheiraoba or Chakouba in Delhi will never be the same again. Thanks to all my friends who have supported me and chanura marup (a group of exported Meitei chanuras) in pioneering this endeavour. We hope we can repay our gratitude with a scrumptious Cheiraoba meal soon. You might even want to join us. Cheers!

This appeared in 7 April 2013 edition of the Sangai Express 

When Spring Arrives, Can Yaoshang Be Far Behind?

When the full-moon brightens up the sky of lamta, when spring is finally summoned by seasonal lairembi, we celebrate Yaoshang — the much awaited carnival of the year. From angaang-nubi to ahal-laman, the festival is meant for everyone. During Yaoshang, there is no rich or poor, every one celebrates the festival in high spirits.

Yaoshang is a sweetheart for every one for weather and various other reasons. The only sad part of Yaoshang month is that yongchaak starts dry-cleaning his black overcoat, ready to put it on and say goodbye for the whole year. Yes, dear Yongchaak, you will be badly missed in many chakhums in Manipuri. The akangba maru is no match for the fresh and energetic Yongchaak, who rocks every chakhum a season ago across the state.

Unlike in North India and other states, Yaoshang, in Manipur, is celebrated for five long days. I do not feel envious about the North Indian way of celebrating Holi. All my good memories about the festival (as I mentioned in one of my earlier columns) trace back to those childhood days. The norms of celebrating Yaoshang have changed over the years, but the essence still prevails. The very mention of Yaoshang triggers our taste bud for pafor, gulla macha, heiyaai, baraf and of course, the most cooked insaang — kobi (foon) saag.

When it comes to the Yaoshang related achapot, modern kids are luckier to relish branded ice creams and snacks of all sorts. Back in those days, ice cream meant to us that plain, white colour ice (sans cream) cupped inside a plain cone. We relished it with utter delight; licking the more of ice, less of cream yet to our heart’s content. I believe, even Baskin & Robbins cannot compare the branding strategy of that particular ice cream, eh!

Well, children have their own reason why Yaoshang is a favourite of all the festivals. They have the license to be notorious playing with water and peshkari. Yaoshang is also one such festival that provides the license to children to ask pocket money from anyone at the leikai. They visit homes humming their favourite slogan — ‘Nakadeng laak-ae paisa piyu’. Some of the kids keep on the legacy of ‘Yaoshang special chaak chaanaba’. Holding a thumok in their hands, they visit from home to home buzzing, ‘Cheng leire cheng piyu, paisa leire paisa piyu’ — one does not have a choice but to offer those kids why they are asking.

All these while, I have been writing this column with a deep longingness for the festival and its essence. However, I feel good in my heart for all my folks back at home who are eagerly waiting for this festival. For the theist in me, I cannot help thanking God that we at least have Yaoshang. Yes indeed “Thank You Lord — Ebudhou/Ebendhou /Jesus/Krishna/Alah (whosoever) for Yaoshang”. We can have this break from the ennui that has become a part and parcel of our lives.

We need many Yaoshang-like festivals in our state to cherish life and to fight back the chronic and nauseating issues. From the context of Hinduism, Holi is celebrated as a triumph of good over bad. I wish to live that day when all of us celebrate our typical Yaoshang with the same spirit. It would be like icing the cake and I am already starving for it.

This year’s Yaoshang festival is going to kick-start in a few days. I am sure everyone is on high-spirit to celebrate the festival. I, through this column, personally wish everyone ‘A Very Happy & Colourful Yaoshang’. I would love to see many colourful pictures of the celebration across the state. So, kindly jam my newsfeed on Facebook with pictures of Yaoshang during the festival. Once again, happy Yaoshang to everyone.


This article was published on 24 March 2013

Celebrating Leisabi-Aribihood

We make it a ritual to celebrate the International Women’s Day on 8th March every year. We should keep showing there are things we can do good and things we can do better, much better than the ‘unfair’ sex a.k.a. men. This is a day we remind ourselves of our world and those around us.

As the years pass, as the whole world commemorate this year’s women’s day recently, I have this recurring mixed feeling if many of us are simultaneously celebrating womanhood and leisabi-aribihood. For a change, Manipur Masala through this column will be taking a noble initiative to see what lies behind and beyond the leisabi-aribihood days of ‘matamgi’ Manipur and ‘matamdugi’ Manipur.

When I was child, I had my own notion about a leisabi aribi. There were in fact many of them in my leikai. Those eche- and eney-like ladies were the ones I always looked up to for some fun and interesting event in the leikai during any type of festival. Come Yaoshang, for example, they were the ones who would organise thaabal chongba at the leikai lampak.

I have the fondest memories of Yaoshang with all of them. Many local games such as chafu thugaibi, pafor chabi, cha thakpi, thouri chingnabi etc. were specially organised for the so-called leisabis. As kids, we were not allowed to interfere in the games and events categorised for them. Then, the organising committee, usually those club members, would bark on the microphone like they were a Nazi group, at least, it looked like that.

Remember those long, long time we had to wait for the various angaang-gi thouram. Deep in my heart, however, I felt good that they were having their own share of fun. Well, that was a slice of how things were during ‘matamdugi’ Manipur.

In ‘matamgi’ Manipur, kids cannot wait to grow up so fast. We do not have a huge generation gap, but at times, I feel like a dinosaur when trying to understand the current trend of modern kids.

As far as Yaoshang is concerned, I have totally felt out of place. Taking part in various games and events of Yaoshang ‘sports’ held at the leikai lampak have a totally new meaning nowadays. The same goes for thaabal chongba. Things were different when we were kids. ‘Hujikaan gi thaabal di leisabi amata chongnadare, angaang ngaakta ngaire’. I wonder if this is really true.

Do modern kids grow up so fast? If yes, what is the secret behind their growth? Has the innocence of childhood days gone with the wind?

I do not have ready-made answers for all these questions that hum on my mind. I had been absent from my leikai for many Yaoshangs. And last year when I turned up there trying to recollect the memories of the wonder years, I felt like a fish out of water. No one can be blamed for any of these. This is perhaps the cycle of life that goes on and on. Perhaps, it is also time I get enrolled at the club of leisabi-aribi, bidding adieu to the wonderful memories of childhood and many festivals I had taken part in.

So far, many friends have joined the marriage club. Many of us are still having phobia about tying the nuptial knot. And there are people like me who lead their lives without a plan. An independent career and sole dictatorship of our lives are two main reasons why most of us are reluctant about tying the over-rated knot.

I do not intend to sound like a Nazi and do not even consider my married friends as the Jews. Yet I must admit that being a dictator of one’s life is a hell lot of fun. I do not take any bullshit from anyone and I make it sure others do the same. Things sound perfect this way!

Tomorrow things may be different but today I enjoy my freedom and that’s more precious to me than the most expensive jewels on earth that I would never ever dream to buy. It is important to celebrate our own life before we think about celebrating or commemorating a particular day. We have many things to celebrate every day.

Come what may, live life queen size sans any regret. Hail Leisabi-Aribihood! Cheers to life!

This article was published on 3 March 2013

The Yaoshang Diary 2012

By the dusk of Lamtagi purnima, kids at every Leikai of Manipur, especially in the valley, eagerly wait for the Yaoshang hut to be burnt down. For no other reason but that instantly they can start visiting each and every house in their Leikai for nakadeng. The festive spirit of Yaoshang kick starts right on the purnima day of Lamta and the fest extends over five days.

A festival of colours, a perfect time to reunite with friends, families and relatives to indulge only in merrymaking, Yaoshang is one such festival that is celebrated with great pomp and show in our state. A much anticipated vacation for me, I enjoyed one of the best Yaoshang celebrations at my hometown with friends, family and relatives in high spirit. The norm of celebrating Yaoshang hasn’t changed much in all these years and it has gladdened my heart for many a reason.

The nakadeng culture, going on unabated, ensures the spirit of Yaoshang is alive and kicking. Children have been enjoying full-fledged liberty to ask money from anyone they come across at the street, anyone at the leikai lampak or anyone at the locality. This is a tradition that has been kept alive for all these years. I was quite elated to see so many kids loitering in the streets dressed in colourful joipur and fanek with sengaos in their hands (especially the girls).

Another top menu of Yaoshang especially among elders is a sumptuous feast. The very time of the year when one gets a continuous five days break from work, the laid-back feeling is too blatant. The festival is also one great excuse for an annual reunion and catching up with friends. And how delightful these treats are—when these are added with a delectable meal and a hard day’s laugh over funny narration of our lives, backwards and forward.

A cheerful festival, it is indeed fun to be with long lost friends and it is a great way to socialise during Yaoshang, forget Facebook. The best part is that one doesn’t need to bother about any hectic professional chore. One can simply relax, chill out and have as much fun without bothering a bit about a team meeting or worrying about any deadline.

From relishing singju, bora and keli chana with friends to enjoying late-night movies that are screened at the leikai lampak and from loitering all across Imphal, wearing colourful moirang feejin chanba fanek to watching the interesting Yaoshang events, we are spoilt for choice during this festival.

Yaoshang is a festival for all and sundry. So it has something to offer for everyone irrespective of ages or genders. In some localities, we can see men in their 70s actively taking part in football matches while in some others, it is fun to watch kids, grouped age-wise under 13, under 12 and under 10 enthusiastically taking part in a football match with a team from other leikai. Their excitement is commendable. Soccer fans would better understand what I am trying to imply here.

Borakhao lamjel, spoon and marble race, blind hit, pafor chabi, chaak thonglaga chaaba haanbi taanabi, King/ Queen Desire, Fashion show, cassette dance, fancy dress competition etc. are some fun filled sports and events especially held by the local clubs during the festival.

For kids, it is needless to mention that their happiness knows no bound during this very festival as they are licensed to be notorious for five days. They play with colours, run after one another with pichkaris in their hands and have as much fun that they can afford.

From age-olds to kids, everyone seems free spirited during this festival. People take a leisurely break and indulge only in those events that make them happy. Young and old, men and women took an ideal break and come together to indulge in various Yaoshang centric events held at their respective leikai lampak.

The festival also marks the annual come back of some eateries. Eateries such as gulla macha, pafor, boiled eggs etc. have been particularised as the very achapot for Yaoshang. With due regard to those cabbage farmers in Manipur, I must not forget to mention kobi saag which is a special dish cooked in every Manipuri home during Yaoshang. I still cannot define the connection between Yaoshang and kobi saag. Every Yaoshang, every Manipuri home finds it a norm to cook kobi saag. Maybe it is the seasonal availability of the vegetable and that is how it is closely associated and in fact considered a small piece of Yaoshang celebration. Hawai mubi (ariba), Yongchaak overcoat litpa, hayai, chorfon, heirit etc. are some more vegetables and fruits that are in during this festival.

If it is all about enjoying a fabulous time with friends over a plate of bora or kaanghou, Yaoshang is one such jovial festival during which one can have a good time. Yaoshang festival 2012 bid adieu with colourful memories imprinted in our hearts. We should have more of this festival. Till next Yaoshang, let us cherish the vivid memories of this fiesta.

This article was published on 18 March 2012