( Mutdur, shu mutdur)
By Toki Blah
For those of us who grew up in the Beatles era, the song “Imagine” perhaps is one of those legendry John Lennon lyrics that never fail to stir. It moves because it happens to reflect the inner most desire of our hearts – to be something else than what we really are. It stimulates the “What if” or the “Suppose, just suppose” game of introspection that everyone indulges throughout life. We ask ourselves such questions because man is never satisfied with what he has. It’s human nature. The less romantic call it wishful fantasy. For dreamers it’s the gateway to the “Could have been”. It exists and it persists. ‘Suppose’ we had been born in a different country; a different era, a different generation? ‘What if’ we had married someone else? ‘Imagine’ what we would have done if only we had a different job with different responsibilities? It goes on. It adds to the spice of life and those who say they don’t know what I am talking about are either walking vegetables or lying through their teeth.
Having said that, let’s reflect on the “Shillong turns 150, in silence” report of the Shillong Times edition of April 29 2016. The British shifted their HQ from Sohra to Shillong in 1866. This apparently did not blink on the 2016 official radar of the state but nonetheless, the paper went on to speak of the many changes that have affected Shillong since then and later since 1972 when we attained statehood. Be that as it may, let’s suppose, for suppositions sake, that we never got the Hill state we demanded in the 1960s. Had we still remained in erstwhile Assam, by now, the Assamese would have converted Shillong into their summer capital with Dispur as the winter HQ. I doubt if they would have allowed the city to deteriorate to the extent it has today. They would have had a stake in retaining its reputation as Queen of the Hill Stations, a tribute the people of Meghalaya hardly seem to care about. Most of us are just not bothered! Shillong or its adjacent areas most probably would have developed and added one or more 19- hole golf courses. The present Golf Links would have remained green, pristine and well looked after and not the decrepit location for a Police Academy, nor quarters for the MPRO. What a waste of resources!
Let’s suppose that Meghalaya was not blessed with such rich mineral resources and we did not have so much coal and Suppose, just Suppose ( Mutdur, shu mutdur) By Toki Blah limestone. What would have happened to this state of ours? Most probably the poisoned and dead rivers of Meghalaya would still be as unspoilt and pure as the day God made them. Rat holes would still remain the natural habitation of rodents and snakes and not the toxic underground assets of greedy, arrogant human cretins. The ground below LadRymbai, Khliehriat and Wapung would not have become a warren of death traps for every quake that comes our way. The Meghalayan electorate would most probably still be voting for persons with the ability to think, visualise and lead the state and its people. Most probably we would be sneering with contempt at those who dream of winning elections through sheer money power. Meghalaya would probably still be practicing time honoured systems of governance and not ruled by ignorant short-sighted individuals more interested in cornering Government contracts and supply jobs for themselves or their family members. Most important, perhaps our egalitarian value system would still have been our most valued asset instead of the coal mines and limestone quarries that now pockmark the country side to showcase the uncaring greed that dominate Meghalaya governance.
Suppose the “No Hill State, No Rest” agitation and the resultant state of Meghalaya had never happened. Suppose we never got our own Legislative Assembly. Then what? Most probably legislators would have taken better care of that heritage Assembly building we inherited from the British that once dominated the Khyndai Lad skyline. It would probably still be standing. Most probably as tribals we would have been politically represented by intellectuals and social reformers, people with genuine concern for the growth of society rather than coal merchants more worried about the NGT ban than anything else. We would probably have produced philanthropists who would have invested in schools, colleges, hospitals and playgrounds rather than grubby rich individuals who love nothing better than to showcase their wealth through properties in Shillong and swanky SUVs. “The winnability factor”, the most stupid political catchphrase ever uttered would never have found expression. Most important if we never did have our own Legislative Assembly we would have had 60 less people to be ashamed of. Have we ever thought of that?
Now suppose some idiot (whoever he was, may the Devil make his miserable soul the permanent care taker of Hell’s garbage dump) never did cause the Shillong Municipality to be superseded. What if elections to the Shillong Municipality were a regular feature of the city? Then what ? We would most probably have had an urban population with better civic sense than what people are showing today. The Shillong Municipal Board would by now have introduced a viable solid waste disposal system for the whole of urban Shillong. Marten would have reverted to the forest it once was and Shillong would have had a better, technologically advanced land fill area somewhere else. Dumping of waste on the road itself would have existed only in our worst nightmares. We would have had better regulation over hawkers; people would still be using footpaths for walking instead of turning them into impromptu flea markets. Most probably none of us would be treating the Wah Umkhrah as God’s special sewage created specifically for the people of Shillong. We most probably would have had better civic infrastructure, a better water supply system, better roads, better traffic control and a cleaner Shillong to be proud of. Honestly speaking, the “Imagine” game is so invigorating that as far as civic administration of Shillong is concerned, one simply wishes it was true.
Suppose and just imagine we were still under Assam. We would most probably be having, at the most, 3 MLAs in the Assam Assembly and most of the development funds would still be under the control of technical experts serving in the different departments involved with overall development of the state. Most probably 120 crores of scarce resources would go direct into development schemes for the people instead of being diverted as the private pocket money of 60 MLAs. We would have had sustainable development! Under Assam most of the contentious socio-political problems of the Khasi, Jaintia and Garo people would not have been there in the first place. The question of a Garo, a Khasi or a Jaintia CM would have been infructuous. Political stability thus ensured, there would be no Langpih; no Block I Block II border disputes simply because there would be no Meghalaya-Assam border. Simple! Everyone would be happy and contented. Actually we would be in serious competition with the Bhutanese in implementing Gross National Happiness. Oh glorious existence! Then suppose the ASEB had never constructed the Umiam Hydro project! We never would have had electric power. No electric bulbs; no TVs; no computers; no accessibility to modern gadgets. Every house would still be lit with candles and hurricane lamps. Suppose we never had cars so there would be no point of having paved roads. Glory be, we would be living in the true meaning of our glorious past (ka sotti juk; ka juk ksiar u barim ja jah) Culture and tradition would have reigned supreme as they existed thousands of years ago. Suppose the British had never come to these hills; there would have been no script, no education. IT, a superfluous technology as we all would still be communicating via the kyrwoh. All of us would have been so happy tilling our small little fields on some wretched hill slope.
Champions of tradition who never forget to remind us of our imagined glorious past; those who are so reluctant to let go of yesterday, would be in their seventh heaven. The Khasis and the Achiks would still be preserved in all their half naked glory. This whole controversy over culture vs development would never have arisen. Sometimes one tends to actually believe in the fable of Ka Sotti Juk.
To cap it all, suppose just suppose the British never discovered Shillong as the most alluring hill station and a health resort for their soldiers, then we would never would have been tagged with that infamous and impractical identity of being the ‘Scotland of the East’. Let’s face it, we just don’t have the mental calibre of accepting the title. Suppose just suppose that when the Brits left, the Instrument of Accession, the Standstill Agreement had never been signed. Suppose the Khasi and Jaintia Hills had never seceded to India. Then what? By now most probably all Khasi males would be Mias and our females Begums. A sack called a burkha would have replaced the other sack called a jainkup and all of us would have cheered that as progress. The taste of crunchy juicy pork would have been foreign to our palate. What a nightmarish possibility but compensated perhaps by the alluring thought of 70 virgins waiting for us in the afterlife. What lovely suppositions!