Editor,
The Khasi Society is known as, “Ka Jaitbynriew Tip briew Tip Blei“. But this statement has changed over the years. Unless we love and respect each other whom we can see and communicate with, it is not possible to love and serve God, whom we cannot see. I’m afraid, we are now far from that “Jaitbynriew” whom we used to be known as. Now establishing truth is hard when we live in a society colored by the deceptions of violence. Our society has swallowed the bloody belief that violence solves problems. We wrap violence in acceptability and even admiration. Violence permeates our culture. It seeps into our society and it flavours our identity.
We need to fully understand that an eye for an eye has never been the answer. No rising to the bait of the hecklers please. We do not need violence. It’s not the time to sharpen the knife. We need to sharpen our pens and our minds. We should sharpen our wits and try to recognize the invisible edges of our fractured stance. If we seek with an open mind we may figure out, what strength our society has. We may be able to put the missing pieces in place, identify what is driving us and how to achieve the set goal.
Yours etc.,
Phrangshai Hynniewta
Shillong-2
Schools and traffic jams
Editor,
Traffic jams have been the cause of much inconvenience, complains and discussions for people here as in most cities and towns in the world. Any modern city or town will have traffic jams as a by- product of the conveniences that modernity brings with it. Shillong is no exception. Except that in Shillong traffic jams have become the rule and free streets a very rare occurrence. And one of the major contributors to the jams is our schools, regardless of their sizes and locations. We would like to express our appreciation for the inputs given by B C Paul in this regard which were published by your paper on February 26, 2020. The writer has been able to express precisely our very own thoughts and opinions on the matter in a very clear manner and deserves to be applauded for having done so promptly. We would like to add our two bits to what the writer has said in the hope that by doing so more and more people will come out to voice their concerns as well as suggestions on how best to address the issue.
We would also like to express our appreciation for the unstinting efforts put in by the Shillong Traffic Police who can be seen to continually experiment, explore and exploit every avenue to ensure the uninterrupted flow of traffic in the city. They are to be applauded heartily for not giving up. They have done their part; it is now time for us to do ours. We, as members of the public, need to work hard to curb our egos and to adopt a more generous and thoughtful attitude towards others by not parking our vehicles wherever we find it convenient. The fact that the Traffic Police has had to post No Parking signs in several sections of the city, particularly along the stretch of the street from Dhanketi to Laitumkhrah, is precisely due to our insensitivity and self-centredness.
Another matter that needs to be raised is that parents, relatives and helpers who come to fetch their respective wards and the wards themselves tend to assemble on footpaths, sides of the streets and any other open space near the streets causing immense inconvenience to pedestrians who are forced to step on to the middle of the street to go on their errands. Schools should make space available inside the campus for such people to keep them from spilling on to the streets.
We urge upon the Traffic Police to not allow any parking near or opposite any school or college since it is the responsibility of the institutions to provide parking space. The concerned authority tasked with ensuring that educational institutions, government offices and business enterprises provide parking spaces to their stake-holders musts take errant institutions to task and force them to comply as per the law.
Yours etc.,
P Majaw & B Kshir,
Shillong-1
Start treating the locals as locals
Editor,
This is the curious case of the government of Meghalaya which shuts down the internet at the slightest sign of trouble and thereby taking us back to the Stone Age in the process. Instead of solving the problem at hand, all that the Government of Meghalaya can think of in such a scenario is to shut down the internet. Meghalaya is an aberration. It is the only State in India where the local indigenous population is being treated shabbily. The foremost thing that the Government of Meghalaya should do to bring peace in the State is to start treating the locals as locals. It is injustice of the highest kind to give five star treatment to illegal migrants and foreigners and treat the locals as garbage.
I remember while growing up I always felt a sense of injustice about the way my father treated me. My father is the nicest guy when it comes to his relationship with other people but when it comes to his own children, I sometimes feel that we always got the rough end of the stick. Sometimes this kind of feeling is unwarranted but sometimes I feel there is just ground to harbour such feelings. Likewise when it comes to the government dealing with the local indigenous people, there is just ground to harbour feelings of injustice against some of the State government`s actions. The recent incident at Umroi where local shop owners were uprooted without giving them time to make their case about staying put is a case in point. At the end of the day the local indigenous people feel that they are always given the stick instead of the carrot. It`s high time that the State government starts giving the local indigenous people some of the carrot and thoroughly scrutinizing the people who truly deserve some of the stick!.
Yours etc.,
Gary Marbaniang,
Via email