Tourism boost
The Department of Arts and Culture, Meghalaya must be applauded for the first of its kind New Year festivities that the city witnessed on December 31. The first Shillong Midnight Fest drew thousands from the city and outside who poured in to witness performances by the likes of Kubikles, Dosser’s
Urge and Fourth Element with creative and energetic DJs who took over the scene post midnight and brought the crowd alive! Events like these are sure to go a long way in projecting Shillong as a tourist hotspot.
Ushering the New Year were we?
There were of course the occasional spoilers. Post midnight, vehicles with drunken drivers zoomed past amid loud cheers, laughter and loud music. These zany drivers and their companions could not care less if they ran down the poor pedestrians who also have a right to use the road.
Yes, the city was welcoming the New Year in an old but accepted fashion but it seems there is today a young, utterly selfish crowd that does not believe in “Live and let live.”
While a little bit of fun is accepted it has the entirely opposite effect when mixed with reckless adventurism at the cost of other people’s life and limb. Several cases of pedestrians being knocked down and vehicles hitting each other were reported from across the city on New Year’s night.
While this was the physical part of the celebrations, there were many across the city, who, had to undergo mental agony on account of the merrymaking. There were complaints from residents who were apparently subjected to douses of “sub-standard but heavy metal screaming music” throughout the night.
Habitual cleaners
Much before Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Clean India Campaign became a bandwagon Shillong had its own version of Swacch Bharat Campaign in place. The residents were aware of the importance of cleanliness in their localities. Yes, we are talking about the locality cleaning practice prevalent in this part of the country since decades now.
A notice regarding the same is like a clarion call to all and sundry who need no further intimation to walk out of their living rooms armed with brooms and spades to be “in the line of duty.” From children to the elderly, the working class and the white collared, all are on the same platform in these cleaning drives which are a way of life in the Pine City.
It has for decades united, taught coordination and above all imbibed a sense of healthy living among the residents of the city who have otherwise lived with more than one difference to crib about. The only problem is that the community cleaning drive happens once a year. Perhaps now it should happen once a month if not every week!
