Editor,
One wonders how nice and clean Shillong might have been when it got its name as “The Scotland of the East”. I have never been to Scotland but I have heard that it is a clean place where there is no scattering of garbage, no encroachment into streams & riverine system, no hawker problem, no disturbance to eco-system, etc. All these are possible when there is civic sense in its inhabitants/citizens. Looking at the present state of affairs in the city, I am ashamed myself to call it the Scotland of the East. Of late, we see garbage strewn all over the roads & pavements. The internal roads (except VVIP routes) are full of pot holes and even man-holes. Whatever streams or rivulets we have flowing through the city have been turned into drains. All the discharges from houses and shops/hotels/garages are released directly to these streams/rivulets with no one to check. Recently, we witnessed number of signboards/signages put up haphazardly by some commercial and private institutions. One such prominent one being the advertisement boards of USTM mounted on every electric/telephone poles in almost all the localities. Some are dangling dangerously in the strong winds. Did they obtain permission from the DC or concerned authorities to do so? Or, is it a free city where no one cares for no one? No one seems to care as long as life goes on and in such a situation, it appears to be a fit case for Public Interest Litigation.
May I request the concerned authorities though your esteemed daily, to take action before it is too late? Shillongites, lets take care of our city and help it to retain its past glory as the Scotland of the East!!
Yours etc.,
M S Sangma
Shillong-14
On social networking.
Editor,
It’s a fact that social networking has stolen much of our time since we are constantly online. Some people busily chat through WhatsApp while in the middle of a traffic jam with one hand on the steering wheel; some while sitting in an important meeting pay heed instead to what numerous friends comment about one’s new car bought and posted on Facebook wall. Some while sitting in a church service keep scrolling down, curious to know what each friend is doing- whether listening to jazz music or reading Janice Pariat or travelling in a plane to the beautiful islands of Hawaii. Teenagers believe in true friendship when an online best friend texts, “I miss you best pal”, and in real love when an online girlfriend texts, “I love you baby. You are my everything!”. The purity and sincerity that one can feel in the tone of the voice, and the facial expression that should show a deep honesty is what they miss out on. Hence we can say that such friendships and relationships are “imaginary” and “not real.” That is why there are cases of duping and cheating. What we’ve lost out on are real meaningful bonds where we can touch, feel, hear and hug the person if we want to.
The only boon of the social networking world is the high speed sharing process where one can give web links of important and relevant articles on politics, culture, art, literature etc, and they can be from any country of the world. We have all come to develop and derive in some way an obsessive narcissistic pleasure in reading what people think about one’s strange quirky smile in a selfie or a big statement of self-discovery and revelation in a status, which leaves people to comment and comment, showering and showering endless praises…And yes, the world continually goes on like that!
Yours etc,
Willie Gordon Suting,
Via email