Marriage cavalcade adds woes to the already choked traffic in Imphal. Traffic police always have a hard time during marriage season, especially of the Meitei community. They have to take help from the policemen who are engaged in counter insurgency operations. Such is the volume of traffic. This is also true that there has been an exponential vehicular growth in Imphal. The highest number of registered vehicles is in Imphal west district. Ibobi led government has been trying to fire fight traffic problems by widening roads. We shall have to wait and see if his remedial measures bring any result. Urban cities in other parts of the world have already tried the same remedy. Yet they are still facing the same problem. On a discussion on sustainable urban mobility organised by Manipur Cycle Club, a senior police officer had proposed for cutting down the number of vehicles for wedding. An ideal proposition that is ridden with farfetched impracticalities, should we say. Misplaced Meitei’s pride stand as the road block to the kind of change the well-meaning officer had suggested. Wedding celebration is the reflection of the personal value which further sums up to a collective social value. Marriages are now of pomp pageantry. It has become a competition among friends and families. There is a growing culture of exhibitionist display of opulence. There is a splurge of money and the quantum of cost inherent is still rising. The affluent class does not hesitate to spend hefty amount of money, only to pump up their false ego. There is serious undermining of the economic structure when the rest from the lower strata tries to emulate the affluent. Many families fall into debt trap after the celebration. This is primarily because these families had risked everything to honour their unwarranted fancies of exhibitionism. The negative implications after such inessential move are conspicuous: low savings towards the future and petty quarrel that can lead to tumultuous married life. Is there need for such public exhibition of extravagance to celebrate a crucial event in one`s life? There are neither laws nor social penalties that prohibit extravagant spending. Meitei social life is a complex mixture of contradictions. At one level one would vouch for the egalitarian values that are supposed to have ingrained in the Meitei value system. Say, the uniformity of the social attire that they adorn at the time of marriage and death. People from outside the state who happen to witness this kind of social event had often commented. That Meitei marriage is one of the most disciplined marriages they have ever witness. Of course, there are many aspects that can be counted with positive underpinnings. The uniformity in attire is one – an accepted social norm which hinges on collective consent. Here, one might ponder if displays like; cavalcades that block traffic, decorations that resembles garish television soap operas, fireworks that steal serenity, awoonpot that bankrupts families; which all come with high cost bear any semblance of collective consent? At another level there is no bar on conspicuous consumption of whatever that money could buy. There is a pressing need to draw a reasonable line on our social spending. It should begin from the top echelons that are in public life. Well, how did the CM’s son got married?
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