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Importance of Being a Bishnupriya Manipuri

This is one aspect of my personality that I have EARNED earnestly being a Bishnupriya Manipuri by birth.

By Rishikesh Sinha, New Delhi


Being a Bishnupriya Manipuri is of earnest importance. That what I have found and I believe you all share the same view – that their lies an innumerable importance of being a Bishnupriya Manipuri, especially in a country like India which is a cauldron of innumerable religions, caste, dialects and languages, same with the physical characteristics of the people.

The physical characteristics of the people are as diverse, unique and abundant than compared to people of the whole world combined. We have got people who shares a similar physical characteristics that of Chinese – the northeastern, of West Asian countries – north India and of western countries – the Kashmiris.

I have found that I create more confusion than what I am in the minds of the opposite person. The best part of the complexity by default is that it changes with the point of contact. If I am near the bus stand or loitering in the periphery of restaurants and hotels, people mistook me with a Nepali kancha and they start communicating me with the Nepali language. That’s a sorry part but at the same time extremely amusing in nature since I have to explain them that I am not a Nepali Kancha but a Bishnupriya Manipuri! After hearing the name of the caste, it becomes their turn to scratch their mind to discover “which caste is it?”. I leave them to think, to ponder what I have said “I am a Bishnupriya manipuri”.

If I stretch further to the boardrooms, cafeterias of companies I have worked with, colleagues confidently passed the judgment of my caste or region I belongs to. Of course, every time they have been found wrong in their acquired perceptions about me; they without betting an eyelid pronounce - you are Garhwali, aren’t you?! And after hearing my true identification, I feel pity of their visible sorry face.

It has not happened once or twice but has happened many times though inadvertently. And every time I feel proud of myself being a Bishnupriya Manipuri, since I can confuse people, make them feel sorry of their pronounced confidence in the identification game.

And for those who do not give a damn to my looks and go for deciphering my surname “Sinha”. Answering them is an altogether experimental game. I am a Bihari, a Bengali and a Bishnupriya Manipuri. It is absolutely a free run to choose which goes the best at that particular moment. A suppressing smile flows wide in my mouth!

Many of my close friends have said that they have found many Bishnupriya Manipuri friends who are unmistakably as Assamese, Biharis, and Bengalis people are. They mean to say that we Bishnupriya Manipuri people are multi-lingual, absolutely polyglot; one can’t differentiate with the tone and tenor and the command over language we have with these people.

Coming to my brothers, my third brother, of his profession in the hospitality industry he is being connoted as a Philippine. Great! I turn into a Nepali and Garhwali and my brother to a resident of Philippines!! Well, about my dad, hmmm, he is being mistaken as a Bengali. And about my mom, it’s a well kept secret!! Next time, some other day it will be revealed.

This is one aspect of my personality [of course of yours as well] that I have EARNED earnestly being a Bishnupriya Manipuri by birth – creating tension and confusion!!??

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