Editor,
Shillong has been my home for the last two years as I was on an official posting in an all India Development Financial Institution. As I now leave for my hometown Mumbai on my next posting, the feelings are mixed. On the one hand I am elated to be back home with my family after my lonely existence in Shillong. On the other, a heaviness envelopes the heart to leave this pristine, beautiful place endowed with nature’s bounties – clean crisp air, hills and vales, mountain springs, waterfalls and brightly flowered shrubs and the unique blend of Western mores, music, grooming and fashion co-existing with a firmly entrenched traditional value system.
I have travelled through much of the length and breadth of Meghalaya, to its remotest villages perched on mountain sides, interacting with farmers, men, women and youth. Among the things that impressed me most was the penchant of the people of Meghalaya to maintain utmost neatness and cleanliness in their homes, be it the mansions of the affluent or a modest wood-and-tin-roof dwelling. No wonder the State lays claim to a village termed as the cleanest in India. I have also marvelled at the women of Meghalaya. They seem to be everywhere, even in areas which in the Indian mainland are strictly a male occupation. One sees them on fields by the roadside, hoeing, tilling, digging, sowing and harvesting, filling at petrol pumps, running shops and restaurants and business establishments, as teachers, professors, bureaucrats, bankers, editors and journalists, writers and photographers, yes everywhere!
Was safety ever an issue, I used to be asked back home. I bet it never was. Except for some rabble rousing troublemakers who took advantage of the IPL agitation and attacked some tourists, Shillong, or for that matter most of Meghalaya, is an absolutely decent and safe place. In all my interactions with Officials, NGOs, and others I found the people to be most courteous, cooperative and cordial. Having no food restrictions myself, I heartily enjoyed the traditional Khasi fare of rice and pork, fish or country chicken during my visits to villages on work assignments. While I did not pick the traditional local habit of chewing “kwai” after meals, I did pop in a betelnut or two on occasions to “keep up with the Joneses (or Lyngdohs)”, so to say. I also used my modest literary abilities to get a couple of my stories and articles published in the Canvas section of the Sunday Shillong Times. As I bid adieu, be rest assured that every time I wipe off the dust, sweat and grime off my brow in the swarming, humid, cauldron of bustling humanity that is Mumbai, it will arouse pangs of longing- for the crisp, cool and, comfortable climes of this picturesque and beautiful state of Meghalaya.
Yours etc.,
Julius Machado
Shillong – 3
Where is the Government?
Editor,
The people of Meghalaya are subjected to numerous bandh calls in recent times. Everyone agrees that bandh calls are unethical and undemocratic. There are various other forms of protests which do not disturb the daily activities of the people and the entire state other than bandhs. We the citizens are responsible for making bandhs successful. We prefer to stay indoors, more so if it is raining heavily as has been the case this time. We stay away from our work places and some of us almost seem to be looking forward to such unscheduled holidays and thank God that we do not have to go to work on such a day. Well that is human nature. But the question that needs to be asked is, who is to be blamed? We the people who stay indoors, the bandh callers or the government?
Let us start with us the people. We all play the wait and watch game to see who would venture out first. We argue about our own safety should we venture out. On the part of the government all it does is encourage citizens to defy the bandh call. But merely issuing such statements is not enough. We need transport to ferry us back and forth; we need security and assurance of safety. Has the state government addressed these issues? These days we have government transport but these do not go to every part of the city. So we all prefer to take off. After all there are no consequences for our actions.
The bandh callers who see the quiet roads and nearly all the shops closed, besides the weary and dismal look that the state wears on such days, see these as symbols of their victory and are further encouraged to call more bandsh in the future if they are not dealt with strongly by the government. Wrongdoers have to be punished. Only then will the wrong be set right. I believe that is what we do with our children as parents, teachers and elders. Today bandh callers are holding the entire state to ransom. Can they be allowed to do so? Or more pertinently should they be allowed to do so? But they are and have been allowed to do just what they please. They ought to be stopped in their tracks. And who should be doing that if not the government? But is the government even making an attempt to set things right? In fact what the government does best is to sit quietly perched in its comfort zone and shove its responsibilities on us the people to defy such bandhs without any guarantee of our safety, and security. This lethargy and inaction of the government has and will cost the state and its people dearly!
Yours etc.,
Jennifer Dkhar,
Via email