Exploring the Manipuri-run grocery stores in Bengaluru’s Ejipura

I catch Immanuel Songat on his weekly grocery run at the North East Provision Store. The blink-and-you-miss-it grocery store is in a lane in Ejipura, squeezed between Hari Om Jwellers and Style Hair Dressers. The fridge is full of wild greens and Naga chillies, and stacks of canned sardines line the shelves. Behind the counter, surrounded by heaps of fish pickle packets, sits Akhok Horam from Manipur; her uncle, James, owns the shop. Immanuel, who hails from Assam, eagerly points out his favourites, “Every week I pick up greens, Singju packets and fermented beans from here.” These North Eastern grocery stores that dot Ejipura are a connection to home for folks from the seven States living in Bengaluru, offering produce that is nearly impossible to find online or in the city’s gourmet stores.

Chinaoshim Hongvah came to Bengaluru in 2010 to work as a makeup artiste in a MAC store. “I am a Naga from Manipur. In 2015, I opened the Seven Sisters shop in a lane in Ejipura. So many of our North Eastern people were here. They missed their home food, but they did not know how to source the products. Over time I built my contacts and started the shop.”

In 2018, they moved to a store on the main road, opposite a gamut of shops selling meats and chicken. “Once I moved here, so many people who come to shop for meats, started noticing our shop. Then we gained popularity on Instagram too.”

Now their page @7sistersstore_enterprises has more than 12K followers and regularly posts about the produce that is available.

Six months ago they opened a restaurant called Seven Sisters Pitstop Northeast restaurant. On the menu are Manipuri snail curry with pork, smoked pork thalis, and buff innards curry. The produce is sourced from Nagaland or Manipur.

Why Eijipura

Bengaluru’s Ejipura is infamous for the unfinished flyover hanging over it. But beside the concrete behemoth, there is a bustling locality that is a crucible of Tamil, Kannadiga and North East communities living together. The story goes that because of its proximity to the British army grounds, it was called Equestrian Grounds Puram back in the day, which later became EG Puram.

Its closeness to both Indiranagar and Koramangala, along with an already existing community, make it a popular choice for folks from the North East. People from Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, and Nagaland have made their home in this two kilometre radius of Ejipura and Viveknagar.

When Seven Sisters began it was only one of two, but now there are more than 100, Chinaoshim claims, “Especially because of the conflict and community clash back home in Manipur, people come here and start their own business. There is no work there.” It is a viable business plan to open a grocery store as the rents are cheap and the investment required is quite low.

Fresh Naga onion
| Photo Credit:
Anagha Maareesha

What’s in store

The products in these stores are sourced from Manipur, Nagaland, and Kalimpong, and snacks from Nepal and Myanmnar. Dried fish in plastic packets hang from the shelves. Pickles are a popular export; varieties include king chilli, bamboo shoots, and beef. Nagaland’s famous fermented soyabean product axone can be picked up to be used in chutneys and curries.

I see black rice, dried yam leaves called anishi, yam milk cheese churpi, peels of kaffir lime, and perilla seeds (now better known thanks to Korean food). Burmese snacks such as rusks, butter biscuits and tea are fast moving items. From the fresh section there are mustard greens, pumpkins, and onion roots. At Seven Sisters you can also pick up clay pots made in longpi pottery style and wooden cutlery.

Dried smoked pork
| Photo Credit:
Anagha Maareesha

A mix of ingredients for the Manipuri side dish singju
| Photo Credit:
Anagha Maareesha

Less than a kilometer away, in Rajendra Nagar near the Regional Passport Office, is another hub for the community. I take a short walk in one of the teeming by lanes, and between the bike repair shops and kebab centers are around five or six NE stores.

I see the familiar red stacks of canned mackerel, pouches of Wai Wai noodle snacks and packets of Joker Super butter biscuits. The stories are the same. Jacob Kamei came from Manipur to Bengaluru just after the COVID 19 pandemic and set up shop in Rajendra Nagar. His shop may be small, but when I visit there is a group of three or four people inspecting the produce.

A street in Rajendra Nagar (near the passport office) dotted with NE stores
| Photo Credit:
Anagha Maareesha

Back in the North East Provision Store, as I pick up some yak cheese for myself, a local Kannadiga woman walks in asking for Manipuri lemon. “It is not there akka. Please come next week,” Akhok replies in a mix of broken Hindi, Kannada and English.

Published – May 15, 2026 06:00 am IST