Shillong Jottings

Chasing goals!
The image you see here is a homemade training station for pull-ups, dips, etc., at a locality in Lumparing.
Visit this place and you will see young boys swinging on an iron bar training their body — wanting to become champs.
Barely in their teens, these boys pulled off certain moves which were quite impressive.
Also, they were really friendly.
The SJ team spent a thorough 45 minutes or so with the boys who were due for practice at the training rig. It was a delightful Saturday evening.
An adult, seemingly guiding the youngsters, kept on telling them: “Do the dynamic”. And the boys would do a move on the horizontal bar.
For every boy doing brilliant on the bars, there were no dearth of cheers.
They definitely looked like a team!
One of the boys could even do a ‘Swing 360’, a calisthenics freestyle trick. Others were apparently progressing towards pulling this trick off.
One could tell that they had targets and goals.
Nick Mawniuh is the man who built the rig, and is a resident of Lumparing.
In this city, a number of champions are living without exactly realising their potential. And if pushed in the right direction, boys like them can scale the heights in several disciplines.
Another fantastic scenario in Shillong amidst the pandemic and the ongoing curbs is how people are chasing their health goals on foot, literally.
There is a visible increase in the number of joggers, many of them youths, wearing their athletic attires running across the town and back.
We cannot exactly tell what has been driving this enthusiasm among Shillongites, but clearly it’s a healthy sight.

A quiet comeback
Do you think tinted glasses on vehicles are something still prevalent? If so, why? Although the Supreme Court had banned the use of tinted plastic films on glasses in its 2012 verdict, 9 years later the directive does not seem to be followed by the citizenry in letter and spirit. Such is the scenario in Shillong. At a time when traffic rules have been made stricter due to the COVID-19 strictures, select vehicles, astonishingly with tinted glasses, have been seen plying on the roads of Shillong right under the nose of the law-enforcing agencies. Had there been crackdowns on such vehicles, there would have been a decline in the number of vehicles. To law-abiding people’s disappointment, it is the otherwise — the numbers continue to increase with each passing day.
A short trip to Laitumkhrah will let you see what is being talked about here.
The use of tinted glasses on vehicles was banned by the Supreme Court in a bid to bring down the crime rates. It is a pity that while select people fail to abide by the rules, the law-enforcing agencies continue to turn a blind eye to the contempt of court.

The career choice
The Meghalaya Board of School Education (MBoSE) recently declared the results of the SSLC and HSSLC examinations and admission into Class XI has already begun.
There is no doubt that the SSLC exam is a stepping stone to a successful career for students who often have to move from one school to another to get admission into the stream of their choice.
The SJ team spoke to some students and parents and realised that the choice of stream after Class X is not an easy one to make.
Sample this: A particular student wanted to take admission in the Commerce stream, but the parents were adamant that their child should opt for the Science stream as it would provide better career options after Class XII. This resulted in a minor stand-off within the family. Relatives sided with the parents and the situation became more complicated. The SJ team was not privy to the discussions that transpired but by 4pm the student had taken admission in the Science stream in one of the top city schools.
Then this: In yet another instance, a girl student who bagged over 500 marks in the SSLC exam was left dejected as her parents did not want her to seek admission in Commerce stream.
She finally settled for the Arts stream. The SJ team reached out to the family and was told that the student wanted to go to Kolkata after Class XII to pursue a career in Chartered Accountancy but this was a strict no for the family. “How can we send our only daughter to Kolkata? She won’t be able to manage it out there alone.”
Reacting to the incidents, an educationist had seven words of advice for the parents: “Let the students decide their own future.”