Different authorities, different strokes
The Shillong Cantonment Board has taken a much-needed initiative to ban the use of polythene bags in the areas under its jurisdiction. This is their contribution towards the environment. Needless to say this will also put a stop to the disfiguration of the area. However, there has been no effort from the Board to ban the illegal sale of liquor in the Cantonment area. Liquor, which has devastating impacts on society and is the reason behind many acts of crime and nuisance should not be freely available. It is tragic that the Cantonment Board has so far taken a “hands-off” position on the matter. Funnily while shopkeepers in Jhalupara make efforts to minimize the use of plastic bags, bootleggers continue to use them to sell liquor in. However, illicit liquor is also sold in restaurants in the area. The authorities are aware of this but prefer to look the other way. Jhalupara is known for its late night brawls cause by drunks who pick up quarrels on flimsy grounds. But this area is also notorious for its unhygienic disposal of garbage. Every street corner is a garbage dump. Is the Cantonment Board looking?
Drama in real life
A heart-rending play Oniket Sandhya – Abode Lost at Day’s End – staged at the State Central Library auditorium last week was a tear jerker. The play, a modern family drama by Kolkata based film, television and stage actor Chandan Sen, primarily dealt with the present day penchant for nuclear family which the present generation considers pragmatic. The drama showcases present reality.
Gone are those good old days when parents would retire peacefully since they are sure that their children would take care of them in their old age. The fact is that Old Age Homes are a reality IN India too. Children who are too busy to care for their parents prefer to keep them in homes for the aged and pay for their upkeep there. The care that a parent gives to raise a child is thus repaid in the form of an old age home when their turn comes to be cared.
A former educationist who was immensely touched by the play said, “This play sends the right message for today’s generation. Children should learn to care for their parents. An Old Age Home is not the solution because what the older generation need is love, support and care or else the society will disintegrate. The play is well presented,” she said.
The true to life play has touched the audience at large as the artists depicted real life on stage. Among the audience were some non-Bengalis too, which proves that language is no barrier to understanding humanity. Not when the body language says it all.
Rupee devaluation: Meghalaya hit
The price for depending on motor transport for carting all essential commodities from hundreds of miles is telling on people of Meghalaya.
Prices here are already higher than other states. With diesel rising by 50 paise and petrol by nearly Rs 3, prices will not shoot up some more. A daily wage earner mumbled that he is burdened by the load of having to feed his family of five with a daily wage of Rs 250. On Sundays and bandh that Rs 250 becomes zero he says. “We live on debts and when one shop refuses to give us any more credit we shift to the next one, but for how long?” Many who live below poverty line hope that the Food Security Act is implemented soon in Meghalaya so that they can at least buy rice a little cheaper. But Government stockists and whole-sellers of food grains who know how the trade works have said that the poor will sell back to them the rice they are entitled to and will take money in lieu of rice so that they can buy other necessities.
They said that this used to be the case with the Public Distribution System (PDS). The whole-sellers and stockists in turn sell that rice in the open market and make a killing out of this transaction. “When people are poor the choices are very limited,” said a person dealing in the PDS.