So many hues, so many colors

There are so many things, cultures, rituals, food habits, and even drinks that we do not know anything about and that is the true vastness of our country.  Now we all know the Japanese drink Sake or the Korean Soju. Did have you heard about something similar – Sekmai or atingba? Mostly likely not.

This drink, like the sake is rice beer  and is local product of Manipur. Essentially a ‘dry state’ this drink though flows freely as it does not get categorized under liquor though the effects are the same. Right from the armed forces to the militants there, all are united by sekmai.  This drink, made from fermented rice, has a very short life and is usually consumed the day it is made.  There are sekmai bars all across the state and unless a stool and a table in most bars across the world, here the ‘bars’ have a seating on the floor and the ‘table’ for the sekmai serving is the flat, low stool of wood, which we usually use while performing pooja.

Sekmai ultimately is alcoholic and surely like excessive consumption of alcohol, has its own side effects. Its not that one has to consume this liquor to ‘feel’ the culture of Manipur but just that there are so many such drinks and edibles in India, which we urbanites do not even know about. And to think that we live in a ‘connected’ world.