A phone call takes Laisram Indira back home:

The charm of these sumaang lilas (street plays), as we call them in Manipuri, was that they were all played in the night in makeshift stages, amid the paddy fields. They would be announced during the day through microphones on autorickshaws. It added so much excitement because there would be stepped- up activities in the house. Dinner would be prepared early, and mats rolled up with bedsheets so that we could all sit comfortably through the night. Sometimes, if the play was held in a different village, it meant more excitement, because the entire village would be in a walkathon…