Guwahati, March 22: Maishnam Namita listened quietly as Manipuri folk singer Mangka Mayanglambam took the stage at Gauhati Medical College and Hospital auditorium this evening. One song later, Namita looked elated and clapped as the young folk singer played numbers popular in her home state, Manipur.
"We hear about the rich repository of Manipuri folk songs but I witnessed such a soul-stirring performance for the first time today. Programmes like this help us know about our culture and promote it," Namita, a Manipuri living at Christianbasti here, told The Telegraph. The Rejuvenating Manipuri Folk Culture, a cultural event, was organised by the Manipuri Sahitya Parishad, Assam.
Namita's father, an Assam police inspector, had shifted to Guwahati from his ancestral home in Silchar years ago. Namita, a senior sales and fitness consultant in a gym here, was born and brought up here. She loves Bihu, Hindi and English songs, but Manipuri culture is close to her heart. "We eat Manipuri food at home or in eateries. But performances like these are rare." The Parishad is targeting young Manipuris like Namita, who live outside Manipur. The southern Assam districts of Cachar, Hailakandi and Karimganj have a sizeable Manipuri population. There are nearly seven lakh Manipuris in Assam. Today's function was part of a project to keep Manipuri culture intact among Manipuris living in Assam.
"We have collaborated with Laihui, an organisation working for traditional and performing arts. Laihui is performing here today and will do the same at Lala in Hailakandi district on Friday and Binnakandi and Silchar (Cachar district) on Saturday and Sunday," said Swapan Ashangbam, an executive member of the Parishad's Kamrup district committee.
Ashangbam is also the convener (sub-committee) of the programme. The Sahitya Parishad and the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Guwahati, today organised a lecture on Folk Culture and Identity- the Future of Folk Arts by M. Mangangsana, the art director of Laihui, at the institute.
"We are organising consultations with local practitioners of traditional art forms and organisations promoting them for preservation and promotion of the same," Ashangbam said.
Laihui, set up in 1985, has organised festivals of performing traditional arts in many parts of the country and abroad. Its functions have been held at the Peter Norton Symphony Space Theatre, Broadway, in New York (2007), the opening invocation of the 6th session of United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous People in Singapore (2007), Tapestry of Sacred Music in Singapore in 2013 and Asia Pacific Broadcasting Union Song Festival, Colombo (Sri Lanka) in 2014, among others.
