CHAGUMBA

ceremony in one's Life Cycle is the chagumba( I don't know how to spell it), maybe Chaumba. It is the ceremony of feeding a child his/her first solid food. I believe, the Bengalis also have a similar tradition. Learnt about it when I read's Jhumpa Lahiri's Namesake. It was a striking similarity though, maybe the whole ceremony was a Bengali legacy, a sweet legacy nonetheless. The similarity was in the ceremonial tradition of letting the baby choose between pen, money, soil and other stuff which would theoretically decide where the future of the Child lie. But I believe it could be changed litle bit today, we could place a stethoscope, a laptop and the money. Today, one becomes either a doctor, computer engineer or an MBA anyway.

From Bullu Raj,Imphal