Wanshan B Khardewsaw reminisces about Kong S Brilliancy Lyngdoh Nongpyuir, whose house could have given Wahingdoh its name
THOUGH NOT sure of her own birthday, Kong S Brillliancy Lyngdoh Nongpyuir, fondly known by all her close and dear ones as Kong Nian, is more or less a nonagenarian. Originally from Mawphlang, her family shifted to Nongpyuir (from where the title Nongpyuir was derived) and then shifted permanently to Wahingdoh in the Thirties.
Every evening the birds would pick up leftovers from Iewduh and carry them towards their nests at Wahingdoh, near Lawmali, because of the greeneries and the ever-presence of water and proper habitat. Kong Nian’s uncles at that time were very fond of bird hunting, which saw them at the river bank of river Umkhrah every time; most of the birds they were hunting had their nests there.
The presence of so much open space and abundance of water made their family start building a house of their own amongst the birds near the Wahumkhrah. At this place next to the river they started their well-known slaughter house that supplied beef to the English soldiers at that time. They had not less than 40 workers at that time for the slaughtering, starting just after midnight and finishing by seven or eight in the morning.
Kong Nian fondly remember how the English soldiers would respectfully stand in attention as the workers sang the song “God save the King/Queen”, every time they were done with handling the meat, even as they mostly hummed, as no one knew the proper words of the song.
It is said the name of Wahingdoh locality itself might have come from her residence. As the large-scale producer of beef at that time, slaughtering not less than 30 cows at a time, they used to hang (Wah) the meat (Doh) inside the house (їing). This made people called their house the їing Wah Doh (meat hanging house). How the name changed to Wah-ing-doh, instead of їing-wah-doh, is probably because of the Khasi inability to use some of their alphabets like the ї (unique to the Khasi language, pronounced as yee), it was spelt as їing (pronounce as yieng, which means house in Khasi). The Ñ, the g and the like, also remain a mystery to be revealed and retold.
Kong Nian was an ace in displaying the power of the jainsem that made her earn the respect of personalities like former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, and even the well known Bandit Queen, Phoolan Devi. The Khasi traditional attire had a special role in her life as it made Nehru take her aside from amongst the sports contingent from all over the country and take a photo with her. Also it was because of this traditional attire that Phoolan Devi was willing to meet and talk with her at Gwalior Jail, when she went for a sports conference. Also that Phoolan’s sister was burnt alive just the day before Kong Nian met her.
Just after her return from the “World congress on Movement and Sports in Women’s life” at Finland in 1987, Kong Nian gave these encouraging words in an interview to Dongmusa on 2 October 1987: “Ka mon lade ka dei ka tynrai ki jinglah baroh. Ngi kyrmen ba ka ri jong ngi ruh lada ka sngewthuh ia kane ka mon ban leh ia kaba dei bad ban practive bha lehse ngin kham paw pyrthei ha ki katto katne ki jinglehkai kiba ngi leh. Kane kan pynmyntoi ialade bad ia ka ri baroh kawei.”
Roughly interpreted, these sentences mean: “Our will is the seed of every success. We hope that our state also if it understands this will to do the right thing and to practice well we might excel in some sports that we play. This will benefit us and the nation as the whole.”
However, while talking to Kong Nian, one very interesting story that struck me is the story of Sohdienglong, a natural swimming pool, which used to exist next to the site where the present JN complex now stands. Sohdienglong, according to Kong Nian should have been one of the best swimming pools ever, with crystal clear water to swim in. She said only the best of swimmers dare to swim in Sohdienglong (which was not rare at that time), as it used to be very deep and some even believed in the presence of spirits in the pool that could swallow any unfortunate soul who dared to swim without proper swimming skills.
Interestingly, the same Sohdienglong was mentioned by another nonagenarian, Bah Webster Davis Jyrwa, popularly known as Daddy of Jaiaw. He also mentioned about Sohdienglong in his (more or less) autobiography, “Ki sienjam ban sah kynmaw (Memoirs)”, on page 20, “The Khasi States after the British Rule: A story retold”.
The only message to all of us, I believe is that if we do not recognize and treasure the wisdom and the experience that such legends have achieved, we would continue to be a lost and unknown nation to the world; a nation without history, or with no story to tell.
Don’t miss the opportunity to honour and to learn,
For the elders and forerunners,
Though very much with us,
Will someday be just gone.