Where’s a decent joint in Shillong?
This is a question every tourist asks on reaching Shillong. It’s a question that also vexes the over-forty couples of the city. For many, an evening lounge bar is a place to relax with a drink and perhaps listen to soothing music and maybe even have a conversation with other guests. They don’t want to be sitting in a smoky, noisy bar with a crowd that loves music which breaks decibel barriers. But where is such a place in Shillong where couples can simply sit or dance if they feel like and let their hair down? Perhaps there is not enough clientele for the not-so-loud lounges. Here, too many who believe a lounge bar is a place to get drunk and make their own kind of music.
Stay away from Khyndailad
The three-day incessant rains have turned Khyndailad into a complete mess. Anyone who visits the place now will have to wade through mud and slush. On reaching home they have to head straight for the bath and throw off their shoes. They are as good as farmers transplanting rice in the flooded fields with dirt right up to their knees. It’s not a very happy situation especially for tourists staying in hotels around Khyndailad. A tourist who has been holed up in his room for the past two days on account of the rain said he visited RB Stores for some toiletries and came back completely muddy. He asked this scribe whether the Khyndailad mess is also one of the sights that Shillong boasts of?
Oh the darned power cuts!
What was feared happened. During the recent SAF Junior TT Championship held in the Indoor Stadium, JL Nehru Sports Complex the power supply suddenly went off and the match had to be halted for half-an-hour. The image of Meghalaya got a severe beating when the generator that was provided at the venue for uninterrupted power supply could not be turned on because the operator was taking a smoke miles away perhaps living in the illusion that he is still working for the MeSEB and not MeECL. The worst sufferer were the players, who participated from six different countries including the host country. They lost concentration and grip over the game. This incident is a reminder of a ceremony in Khyndailad a few years back when a Union Minister of State was invited to inaugurate an establishment. As soon as the minister arrived the power supply went off as if on cue. The building had to be inaugurated with fog lights attached to a car. The minister cut the ribbon and said, “Perhaps we realize the importance of light when we are in darkness.” Well said!
Stinking, shameful garbage bin
During his their recent visit to Shillong, Union Minister of State for Communication and Information Technology, Sachin Pilot’s cabinet ’s cabinet colleague had an ardent wish to visit “Jitbhumi” bungalow in Rilbong where Tagore had stayed in 1923. But the experience was not exactly memorable. A heap of rotten garbage from the community dustbin greeted the visitor right next to Jitbhumi and with it the foul stench. On that particular day the garbage had spilt over into the road and the dogs were having a field day pulling apart all the rubbish. It was not exactly a proud moment for those who accompanied the visitor from Delhi. That the dustbin is allowed to remain right a few feet away from a historical spot and that on the auspicious year of Tagore’s 150th birth anniversary is a shame to all Meghalayans. Shillong itself is fast turning into a huge garbage bin. The awful smell that greets every visitor to Shillong at Marten is also something that those in the Secretariat do not seem to be concerned about! That’s why ordinary people wonder why Government talks of big schemes when it cannot address basic issues.