By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: The last day of the three-day 2nd CALM festival held in the city saw eminent personalities of the State, the region and the country sharing views and thoughts on various topics and releasing of books by prominent writers.
The CALM festival, which came to a close on Saturday, witnessed participation of many artists of various fields including retired officials of the State and students in activities like spell bee, discussions, book release and the likes which enthralled the audience.
Dwelling on the discussion, ‘Shillong – Then and Now’, prominent citizen of the State, Toki Blah said “Shillong was a sprawling town even in the past, but it was a pleasantly unplanned city. Today the city is still unplanned, but horribly so with concrete buildings coming up all over the place.”
Six panelists who all have extensive links with Shillong gathered to discuss the subject and they were later joined by another six, who took the conversation forward.
Noted writer Mitra Phukan said “Shillong has it better than most other hill stations.”
One thing she stressed upion is the change in weather while retired Professor Temsula Ao stated “I can’t remember the Shillong I used to know.”
Whereas, Indian actor Victor Banerjee said sarcastically “Now Shillong is a living, throbbing city thanks to the noise in the street. It has become integrated with the rest of the country through concrete, buses, fumes. It’s the same air that I breathe in Calcutta. It’s the responsibility of locals to stop the so-called progress. I owe everything that I am to Shillong.”
While Toki Blah stressed on the need for better infrastructure, new suburbs, need spaces where kids can play, noted Photographer Banteilang Rumnong suggested that they could move government into the suburbs to make more use of the city space. RG Lyngdoh seemed to have different views when re reasserted, “We wish some things were better, but I don’t think we have much to crib about.”
This three-day CALM festival had it all from books to music, in-depth discussions, stand-up comedians, spell bee, food and a good crowd besides other.
While, Writer of the book ‘Chaos Theory’ Anubhav Paul, a stand-up comedian, enthralled the audience with his tireless humour during the release of his book, Shillong very own Principal Secretary PW Ingty highlighted the gist of his book ‘Bhaskara-The last of the Varmans’ which was launched by Publisher Ravi Singh.
In-depth and thought provoking panel discussion on the issue pertaining to senior citizens like Old Age Home was held.