Monday, April 28, 2025

SHILLONG JOTTINGS

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Welcome to the Boys’ Club

The recent debate organised by a local college (Co-ed surprisingly) on the Inner Line Permit looked like a typical “Big Boys’ Club.” There were six male speakers and a male moderator. For a State that prides itself on being matrilineal and for a college that has broken the barriers and allowed girls into its hallowed portals, the scene looked rather incongruous. But perhaps women really have no view on the Inner Line Permit. Just as they have no view on larger issues of state and of politics. It is the men who are bestowed with political acumen. And the ILP is all about politics. Women and girls are supposed to lead the bandwagon of protest against rapes and domestic violence because that is ‘oh so not male enough an agenda.’ At times women are needed to push a male political agenda such as blowing the whistle about who is encroaching on whose land. It is rather pathetic that women do not recognise that they are being used as weapons of selective destruction. In normal circumstances when women are not needed around and there is no societal crisis to tackle then what they say is considered so much of claptrap. Still a long way to go as far as women’s empowerment in Meghalaya is concerned. You’ve got to have political godfathers to make it big in life!

And by big here we mean big ticket entry into political office!

 How sacred is this place?

The Mawphlang sacred grove draws several visitors on a given day but not all understand the meaning of “sacred.” And neither do the locals. At the entrance to the grove, there are empty liquor bottles and beer cans, potato chips packages and what have you. A young man who is evidently least interested in the history and ‘sacredness’ of the grove is posted there by the Lyngdoh of Mawphlang to take visitors on a guided tour of the grove at a cost of Rs 200. He and a few boys had burnt all the rubbish right at the entrance to the grove. Ask why? Because it is the easiest way to get rid of silly garbage.

 Bird sighting

This grey coloured quail (a sort of dove) was sighted in the garden of the lady who grows the Pacay fruit. Last year a bright young lady had correctly identified the Pacay fruit after the picture was published in this paper. The Pacay is a native of South America and its fruit which looks like a big sized sausage has pods inside which taste like Mangosteen and look very much like it. Many who have tasted this rare fruit say it looks like fluffy ice cream and is sweet to taste. The lady who grows a number of trees in her little garden says several new birds have been sighted ever since she turned part of her garden into a little grove.

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