Cassandra Syiemlieh was born on September 25, 1939, at Jaiaw St Joseph’s road to Noberwell Roy Ryntathiang and Listrimai Syiemlieh. She was the fifth child in a family of eight siblings. She attended St Joseph’s school and completed her matriculation from this school. She completed her Bachelor’s degree from St Mary’s College and then attended Guwahati University from where she completed her Master’s Degree in English. During her days in school and college, her love for music led her to singing in many an occasion and her days in Guwahati University were marked by many such musical events, competitions and recognition. Her love for prose and poetry made a marked dent in her formative years and continued to making an impact throughout her life. She married (L) A Wahlang, Retd. IFS, and spent many a happy time enjoying the wilderness of our state with him.
She started her teaching career in the Union Christian College in about the year 1960 where she taught English literature, a subject she loved so deeply. Some of the distinguished students whom she had taught in the Union Christian College, included the former Governor of Meghalaya, Ranjan Diamary Mushaharri. She then joined St Edmund’s College in 1962. St Edmund’s College became her second family where she spent the rest of her entire teaching career. She took a brief hiatus, in the early eighties, from her teaching, to complete her dissertation for her MPhil. Her love for music and poetry found a synthesis and an outlet in her dissertation which was later published into a book called The West Wind of All Time Popular Music.
It was in the early eighties that she saw such depth and prominence of poetry in the works of several popular musicians of the times, which she fondly called as minstrels and bards, the original progenitors of poetry. The major chunk of her dissertation was devoted to one of the artists who hijacked her imagination, Robert Allen Zimmerman popularly known as Bob Dylan, and this was almost four decades before he was conferred the Nobel Prize for Literature. She also fell in love with the poetry of John Lennon and the Beatles, many other artists of the times and also the literary works of writers of the beat generation such as Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, to name a few.
Her free thinking spirit and her zest for life found ample expression in her work. She also dearly loved her profession and cared for her students deeply and was very proud of her Edmundian tag. She wore this as a badge of honour. Many a former student, some of whom had later in life, risen to prominence, fondly recall her as their teacher and mentor, one who taught and cared for them deeply and who also participated, always so enthusiastically, in the music of the College Week festival.
Her wit reflected her positive attitude to any and every occasion. She always had a ready repartee, elevating and lightening the mood, thereby lifting the sometimes somber cloud that obscures all of us from time to time, bringing in an element of surprise, humor and hope to an otherwise despondent and dreary situation. On retirement from St Edmund’s she helped the educational institutions Christian Academy Higher Secondary school, the KJP HS school, and the Greater Mawlai College, to name a few. She also enjoyed her time as a Bible class teacher for the nurses class at Robert’s Hospital where her faith and her teaching experience were amalgamated and this was also a soothing balm for her spirituality.
She was also very active socially and was a member of the Meghalaya Women’s Alliance, Civil Services Wives Welfare Association, Young Women’s Christian Association, Poetry Society of India, Meghalaya chapter to name a few.
She had written and published several books namely The West Wind of all time Popular Music, Ki Phawar ka Jingim to mention a few. She wrote several articles in various newspapers and was a fond and frequent contributor to The Shillong Times, the last article in this daily being the “Musical Colours of a Woman”, a piece celebrating the depiction of a woman through the prism of popular music and culture.
Her faith was quiet but strong and she firmly believed in the power of love and forgiveness which was why her belief and the true meaning Christ’s teachings, always resonated with her throughout her days. She lived a full life and on the 29th of April 2020 at 81 years of age, she was united with her departed loved ones in the holy bosom of her Lord and Maker, Jesus Christ the savior.
(A contribution)