By Kordalin Thangkhiew
I confess that I’m usually one of those who grumble at home only (Ksan Rympei rem dorbar types) and writing about it seems an awful waste of time. But the reason I’ve finally taken the plunge is that I’ve just lost it literally (my cool i.e). To cut a long story short, on Sunday when the sky was an azure blue and the sun was at it’s brilliant best, I suddenly longed for a return to childhood days when we splashed barefoot in crystal clear streams, catching tiny tadpoles and playing on the grassy slopes. Right there I got my household going and in an hour we were on our way to Kyrdemkhla on the Sohra road with our two kids in tow. On reaching the spot where the waters flowed, the sight that greeted me was unbearable! Where the grassy plain used to be, a boulder strewn quarry and a small dirty stream lay before me. I was sorely disappointed but nevertheless bravely took my less than three year old daughter down to the waterline to sit by the rocks & dangle her feet in the ( not so clear) waters…. but wanted to cry instead. Lining the waterside all along, were hundreds of broken pieces of glass from bottles dashed against the rocks by drunken, uncouth, irresponsible people! I wailed silently and wept unshed tears of regret for such a shameful display of human destruction on mute victims of our mother nature. Was it just me or would you have felt the same ? I scooped my daughter in my arms and went back wondering if she’ll ever know the joy of feeling cool waters gushing and caressing one’s feet on a hot sunny day. I have nothing against people drinking; that’s their life and I’m not about to interfere but that stream belongs to all of us collectively and no one has the right to smash bottles in their drunkenness and cause grievous pain to others. While people have the right to drink and get drunk, they don’t have the right to destroy our environment and deprive our children (the future generation of our Ka Bri U Hynniewtrep) of their claim to enjoy what’s rightfully theirs! By the way, there’s another ugly pile of stone quarrying machines on (a once green patch with a stream running below) the road from Laitlyngkot to Pynursla. That’s one more nail on the coffin of Mother Nature ! I have one more resentment; it’s on ‘Our Civic Sense- when did we lose it and why’ — but that’s for another day.