Find-the-fake challenge ‘Duplicates’ share space with smuggled gizmos at Paona

From DVD players to iPods, Paona Market has everything to delight the gizmo freak. The originals come from Myanmar, albeit illegally, through the border township of Moreh. The duplicates find their way to the Manipur capital through Guwahati.

India and Myanmar are now contemplating including electronic gadgets in the list of tradable items to save Paona Market from becoming the dumping ground for fakes.

The trade agreement between the neighbours lists only 22 tradable items — mostly food items — but both countries allow individual buyers to procure any one of the goods available in Moreh and Tamu town of Myanmar for personal use. Smugglers take advantage of this rule to smuggle in electronic goods made in Japan, Korea, China and Taiwan.

On the other hand, some traders bring in imitation DVD players, portable tape recorders, walkmans, hi-fi sound systems, wristwatches and cameras bearing international brand names to palm them off as genuine foreign goods.

Most visitors, including foreign tourists, are unaware of the fact that the fake might be sharing shelf space with a genuine electronic gizmo.

“My advice is ‘be careful’. If you want to buy a VCD or DVD player, check the item and the brand properly before you buy it. Any one of them could be a duplicate of a Sony, Kenwood, Samsung or any other branded product,” says trader Bhimo Singh, never mind the fact that he gets his stocks from Guwahati.

“Any customer could be fooled. The real one and duplicates are almost the same. Only the traders know the difference. The duplicates are actually as good as the real ones,” says Binarani Devi, another shopkeeper at Paona Market.

But where are the duplicates made? Bhimo suspects they are made in “either Calcutta or Delhi”.

Traders procure fakes not because of the margin of profit but mainly to avoid the trouble of smuggling in the real stuff. “Between Moreh and Imphal, there are more than 10 checkpoints manned by police and paramilitary forces. You need to bribe personnel at these gates. But even if you get past the checkpoints, you could run into armed looters between Pallel and Moreh. Procuring duplicates from Guwahati is easier,” explains Bhimo.

But what about the customers who are duped into buying fakes?

“You do not have to explain anything to them. We are happy if they are happy. Believe me, the duplicates last longer than the original ones,” claims another trader.