By Paul Lyngdoh
A lady in distress requested me to bring out the following letter as part of my bi-monthly column:
Dear Sir,
My hearty congratulations on your assumption of the much coveted office of the DGP, Meghalaya. I am sure that by now you would have realized, like few others, how tough it was to make it there, with so many imponderables and factors involved . That you finally did is a testimony to your killer instinct and survival skills – a must-have in the treacherous terrain of India’s public life.
Let me begin by introducing myself as an ordinary citizen of the state, a lady in her early 30s. A single, working mother of two school-going children, my interests include issues that affect society at large, besides ordinary stuff like cooking, reading and watching TV. Having done that, I wish to get straight to the point now. I am writing this letter as a reaction to your first-ever decree as our DGP : the ban on the use of tinted glass in vehicles in conformity with provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act and all that junk (that’s how the Act is treated like here). I will not go into details like the permissible limit of light etc. because normally your cops can only assess the same with their naked eyes. What this means is that it all depends on how good a particular cop’s eyesight is, i.e., the opacity level could range anywhere between 45% to 80% depending on who’s doing the assessment! Why, a cop would not look at the glasses first, but at the car-top to see if it is fitted with a beacon-light or not to decide if he should proceed with his job.
I am sure your concern about dark glasses in vehicles emanated from your worry about the rising crime graph in the state. It is a legitimate worry we all share, but the prescription you offered is way off the mark. You see, Sir, there are parts of the state where officers are dragged from their offices and abducted by young men who actually have to walk some distance to reach those offices. Nothing to do with tinted glasses. In the coal belt , abominable crimes of rape, molestation and sodomy occur daily in God-forsaken coalfields and deep jungles where only Shaktiman trucks can negotiate notoriously rough surfaces which pass off as roads. Nothing to do with tinted glasses! On the highways, drivers get high on rum or other alcoholic beverages and do ram down a couple of motorists and pedestrians every alternate day .Nothing to do with tinted glasses. It is another matter that people here account these deaths to God’s plan, which is why you will not hear of angry mobs lynching killer drivers in Meghalaya. It certainly makes your mob control task so much less challenging.
I am also sure that your concern stems from your deep-rooted belief in an individual’s right to life. At the risk of sounding repetitive, like an old, overused vinyl record, let me assure you that the threat to this right has little to do with dark glasses. Here’s a revealing fact: it is our daily exposure to the lethal combination of noxious, poisonous fumes emitted from the thousands of vehicles that are actually shortening our life-spans. It does not help that the water we drink is reportedly contaminated and I am caught in the crossfire of the debate of who is responsible for it: the PHE which allegedly does not treat the water or the Dorbar Shnong which allegedly is flexing its muscles over land rights. Last heard, the debate was still raging.
Forgive my digression, Sir, but to come back to the point : may I know if any test stations for these hundreds of vehicles are functioning and where is the Pollution Control Board in the entire picture? What about the blinding head-lights and piercing horns that have become such a menace on our roads? In fact, as a mother who has to drive to work , the kids’ school and the bazaar daily , I can assure you that my tinted glasses afford me a sense of security and privacy, specially when I am stranded for an hour or more on these car-choked roads and try to avert the prying gaze of a trucker whose leering eyes send shivers down my spine. Please put yourself in my place if you really want to know what I mean.
Sir, you are fairly new to Meghalaya. Please take the trouble to visit our Transport check gate at Byrnihat which is supposed to screen every vehicle entering the state. That would ensure that cars without proper documents and records, stolen cars and so on do not cross into the state and facilitate criminal and illegal activities. The gate is no more than a showpiece helping a bunch of people earn fast bucks while the state loses. In short, It has enough manpower to pilfer, but not enough to filter. Please conduct raids all along the National Highways and find out for yourself the amount of liquor joints that serve two purposes :a) to lubricate the parched throats of truckers and b) to maim and murder at will. You will be surprised by what these raids will unveil.
Frankly, these are issues that should engage your time and attention as our top cop. As far as my tinted glass-fitted car and I are concerned, even if I were to plan an act of crime, I would have a major impediment in executing it: throughout the day, the roads are choc-a-bloc with traffic and I will not be able to run away from the clutches of your subordinates. At night, the electricity Board has begun rationing power supply through the ritualistic “load –shedding”. During the load-shedding hours, Sir, even a bullock-cart looks as dark and impenetrable to the naked eye as some of the swankiest SUVs that adorn our roads. Does it really matter, Sir, whether my car is fitted with tinted glass or not when everything around can only be seen with the help of stars located light years away?
To conclude, Sir, I hope I have succeeded in convincing you on what should be your priorities as our Top Cop, and pray forgive me if I sound presumptuous and all-knowing. I certainly am not. I have no medals to reward you with should you accede to my humble prayer, but I will wave with all energy at your car whenever it whizzes past mine. And, yes, I can assure you that I will be reasonably visible despite my darkened glasses, assuming, of course, that you have normal eyesight – and a vision to boot!
P.S.: Hope you’ve read my open letter with an open mind, Sir.
Yours sincerely,
An ordinary Meghalayan
IT’S COMPETITION SEASON, FOLKS!
Come winter, and children across the state are on the edge. The exam fever and the holiday fervour close on its heels are sure to turn them into bundles of nerves, with parents and elders pushing them beyond reasonable limits. The fear of failure, either in studies or in romance or in life itself, has pushed many youngsters into needless despair and death. A locality in Shillong has registered an average of two teen suicides a week in the last couple of months. Even the seemingly innocent kids’ fashion parade can leave deep scars if the emphasis shifts from fun to competition. Parents would do well to read how individuals with different psychological make-ups like Hitler, Michael Jackson and Indira Gandhi have had to deal with the trauma of manipulative, pushy parents or relations and how, in turn, this has shaped their response to the world around them.
PARTING SHOT
After years of public life, I have realized why, when eliciting a person’s opinion on any topic, we always ask him or her : “ Phi sngew kumno” (What is your feeling?”) instead of “Phi pyrkhat kumno?” (“What is your thought?”)