Suicide – the easy way out
A class IX girl of a local school committed suicide on December 6, after she failed in the final examination. The girl comes from a lower middle class family.
Her parents are distraught and don’t know what led her to take the extreme step.
Another shocked parent said his daughter tried to cut her wrist after she failed. This is a new phenomena in Khasi society.
The tribals are known to place great value on life. No incident however traumatic would push them over the edge. But suicides are now becoming far more common.
Doctors looking at mental health say that this trend is growing but the number of psychiatrists or counselling psychologists are far too few in Meghalaya.
Most parents would not be able to recognise the signs of depression, even if their daughter or son were to be suffering from this mental health problem.
This is why doctors believe that parents need to be better educated about mental health since they can help their children or be able to find help if they see signs of suicidal tendencies.
Rapid Fire
With another year coming to an end, one would think that students would breathe a sigh of relief and that the Higher Secondary level students would return to their well prepared study tables to begin their preparation for the final examinations scheduled for Feb-March next year.
But that is not to be. Students are still scurrying about attending extra classes and lectures for it seems that a normal academic year is not enough to complete the course.
Efficiency is questionable here with teachers completing 3-4 big theories in a single sitting.
There is no yardstick developed to measure teacher efficiency. Most teach for the sake of teaching and don’t care about outcomes.
As a result most students have to depend on private tuitions which have become compulsory especially for Science students.
There are too many holidays in Meghalaya. This makes it difficult for teachers to complete the syllabi, hence they just rush through.
Any which way we look at it, students are at the receiving end. No one really bothers because everyone welcomes an unscheduled holiday brought about by bandhs etc.
Outdated website CEO
We are known to be the ‘late starters’ and the ‘non-initiators’ but being lazy in making the mouse clicks to update an official website is just not acceptable.
With the Assembly Elections round the corner, the webpage of the Chief Electoral Officer is sure to get quite a few hits than usual but people could be hugely misled. The website www.ceomeghalaya.nic.in in its home page lists Meghalaya as a State having 7 districts even after the formation of new districts almost three months ago which has taken the total to 11.
Well how can we slam our State employees when the Centre’s official page www.india.gov.in also lists Meghalaya as a State with 7 districts only!
No wonder the rest of India considers us backward, if not complete lagards…we don’t keep them updated!
From Look Here to Lukier Road
Lukier Road starts from adjacent to District Council office and culminates at the Rilbong junction. The origin of this name is quite interesting.
Sources say the name had its origin from the military drilling exercise in the then parade ground located on this road.
The British military officer who used to supervise the Gorkha soldiers in this parade during the World War often used to shout at them “Look Here” during the exercise. The Gorkha soldiers were very attentive and dared not take their eyes off the British officer for fear of being punished. He was very particular that the soldiers did their drill accurately and maintained strict discipline. The moment anyone was distracted he would shout “Look Here” and the soldiers were back to their normal postures.
So the road derived its name from the word “Look Here,” and with time got corrupted to Lukier through mis-pronunciation. Lukier road is now part of our history.