Sajibu Cheiraoba 2018

It is hard to fault all the Manipuris who compromise to fit in, bargain our traditions or distance ourselves from our cultures when most of us learned to live two lives – as a Manipuri at home and as an Indian at our workplaces/schools/colleges, struggling to juggle the two disparate personas. This became a hard reality to all the Manipuris, which many of us are still not ready to accept the same. It was clearly visible to some of our senior CMF members who have been living in Chennai for several years and not seeing a common forum or platform, so far (by then), where we all can gain the confidence and enabled ourselves to proudly articulate the vocabulary of who we are and what we believe in. At the same time, through a single platform (CMF), all the Manipuris could come together as one and celebrate all our traditional festivals. With this very beautiful idea, some of these senior CMF members had decided to organize our first ever biggest get-together event in the name of our Manipuri new year festival called “Cheiraoba” in April 2018 by inviting all the Manipuris living in and around Chennai to whomever were reachable at that time.

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The event (Cheiraoba) turned out to be a huge success with more than 80 participants. Among them, there were more than 20 families and other single working professionals and students. One of the most sought-after traditional dancing festivals among the young community of Manipuris called the “Thabal Chongba” was also organized in the same event to celebrate of being the Manipuriness in us and to make everyone feel like home. Many more fun activities for adults and children were also conducted. As the CMF was founded in the same year, with the idea of organizing this “Cheiraoba” event, we will always remember this event as one of the key functions held in Chennai so far for all of us.