Ten Lost Tribes Challenge - India: 'So, how is Ariel Sharon?'

IMPHAL, Manipur - This city's entrance looks like a shanty town, and the rest of the city is not much better. There are heaps of garbage on most street corners which can't be burned fast enough before they're refilled. We are the only tourists here, and the locals make us aware of that; I don't think many of them have seen people like us around here before. There are toilets outside, horses and dogs eating from trash, people picking through the garbage, and a thick, stifling, smelly air in this, the state's capital. The Bnei Menashe here tell us that they are fed up with life here and want to immigrate to Israel as soon as possible. I don't blame them. The Indian government clearly does not view this place as a priority region for development.

I speak to some business and commerce students on their way to class at the college here. They are Hindus, as is most of the population of Imphal. It is only once you travel to the outlying villages and farms in Manipur that you see more Christian activity. There are only two things that these young Indian students know about Israel: that it is the birthplace of Christianity, and that there is fighting with the Palestinians [Some other Indians in these parts asked me how Ariel Sharon was].

We are taken to the Ema market near our hotel. This is really an interesting place, and it's huge. Most of the stall owners are women, quite different to Mahane Yehuda and Shuk HaCarmel back home. It's mostly a food market, with tons of live, dead and dried fish; spices, fruits, fresh vegetables and many people eating in it. Although the food looks interesting I can't imagine I have the stomach for the conditions the food is stored and prepared here. There are insects everywhere, and it is by far the most unsanitary food market you can imagine, and I would love to eat here. Meals are moved around in banana leaves, which I think is pretty cool.

Finding internet cafés on this trip has become my central challenge. After finally locating one that's open [all shops close here at 6PM] it takes literally hours to send a few blog posts and pictures to Ricky [our blogs editor]. Everytime I send an email the system crashes. No surprises here when you look at the electricity poles in this city - they're leaning, and covered with hundreds of wires, total chaos.

Here and there I find glimpses of cricket. On TV screens in shops, and on the cell phone of a shopkeeper without a TV. It's India versus England, third one-day game. India is up 2 - 0 in the series. I'm reminded of my 'ancient' home in South Africa - a faraway land with weird cultural traditions - where men dressed in all white clothing run around after a small red ball for five days. And where they drink tea with milk.  

Amir Mizroch is the News Editor at The Jerusalem Post, a writer and an award-winning blogger. For all of Amir's blogs and articles, visit his personal blog Forecast Highs.

PREVIOUS ENTRIES:

• Stories from the bus - Nov 21, 2008
• The plot thickens - Nov 20, 2008
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• So how many Bnei Menashe are there? - Nov 19, 2008
• Ben Hur loves Zion: Inside the home of a Bnei Menashe - Nov 19,2008
• How did a small tribe from Samaria get all the way out here? - Nov 18, 2008
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• News from Amman - the first stop en route to India - Nov 17, 2008
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