ABSTRACT
In downtown Imphal there is a major intersection where five roads meet near the Khoyathong Pukhri Achouba, a large public pukhri and important landmark. The traffic circle is busy during the day and usually staffed by local police in a small shelter raised above the traffic. It is a major route for the city’s auto-rickshaws taking passengers to and from the market. To improve traffic flow, ropes and steel barricades are used to block off certain streets at different intervals. Police threaten disobedient drivers with bamboo sticks, though the threat can be muted by subtly dropping some rupee notes on the road near the police post. There are also several eateries and pharmacies clustered around the traffic circle, feeding the dual addiction of the city’s youth to fried chicken and Spasmo Proxyvon. A short stretch of road joins this traffic circle to the main highway to Myanmar where there is also a traffic circle with a police shelter, known as LIC point after the Life Insurance Corporation of India building on the corner. This is the main entry point for vehicles bringing goods from outside the city into the market area. The flows of cars, bikes, rickshaws, bullock carts, tractors, and trucks (though they are supposed to go by a different route) cause traffic jams throughout the day. All of this makes it a crowded and slow-moving patch of the city – the perfect place for large billboards and a patch I return to often during fieldwork to look at what is being advertised; from watermelon festivals to fashions shows to new private schools.
