A tourist’s plight
Mesmerising Meghalaya is a paradise for tourists. The state caters to all types of tourists – day trippers from Guwahati and nearby places, the group travellers from West Bengal and elsewhere and the families who take a break from their schedule to enjoy the quiet solitude found only in idyllic hill stations like Shillong.
Tourists too enjoy the hospitality offered by the residents here. We are good hosts after all. However, there is a section of people who often play spoilsport to the tourists during their visit to the state. If you haven’t been able to guess yet, we are talking about the cabbies. And not just any cabbie for any part of the town, they are the special ones found in Police Bazar – PB in their lingo.
The SJ team recently witnessed a young couple being subjected to some discomfort in PB. The couple wanted to book a cab to Nongthymmai. One cabbie demanded Rs 400. Others uttered the same amount. Soon a few cabbies gathered around the couple who did their best to avoid them. They started walking away towards Pegasus Crown Hotel. The cabbies followed them. The husband intervened while the wife seemed a bit concerned. Passers-by noticed the incident and the cabbies withdrew.
Now while it is clear that the cabbies are also trying their best to earn their daily bread and butter, yet harassment of tourists is something that should be avoided. Visitors should not be allowed to leave the state with bitter memories and experiences.
We wonder why the Tourism department does not set up a tourism kiosk at a centrally located place at Police Bazar to assist tourists. They do have one on the Meghalaya Co-operative Apex Bank premises but its location is questionable. Will the department listen?
Too early?
A biker girl from Nagpur has been one of the many evening tourists who have been utterly disappointed about how early recreational spots close in Shillong, especially during winters.
Wards Lake was almost about to close when this visitor just arrived at its entrance. This incident is from last month.
Unaware that the place was going to close down for the day, this girl, who happens to be a vlogger, parks her bike on the pavement alongside the road and approaches the gate where a lady stood.
Immediately she is told that the place is about to shut down and that no more visitors are allowed. “It is closed,” the lady at the entrance says to the girl.
She beseeches to the lady that she be allowed to get in, and reasons, “I have arrived from far off and this is my only chance to get the content for my vlog.”
But adamantly, the lady rebuffs her requests.
By this time, this visitor has turned irate.
Then she begins filming outside the venue, and could also be heard complaining about how 4.30 PM is not the ideal time to shut down such places which are popular among tourists.
An SJ team member, who overheard the exchange between the visitor and the lady at Wards Lake, approached the biker girl. She revealed that she was on a bike tour of the North East and was from Nagpur (Maharashtra).
Also, throughout, the workers inside the place could be heard whistling at people telling them to leave.
After the fiasco, in disdain, she swung her leg over the bike and took off. Quite disappointed, perhaps.
This brings us to a debate: Is 4.30 or 5 in the evening too early for recreational spots like Wards Lake to shut down?
According to a social media poll, 75 per cent of the netizens have voted for a ‘Yes’ when asked if Wards Lake should remain open till 8 PM.
Also, candid conversations with the general public have revealed that most prefer to have recreational places welcoming visitors for longer than what the norm is.
Can 8 PM be the magic mix?
Cake mixing ceremony
Christmas is arriving and the feast is incomplete without the traditional rich fruit cake which is a must for every home. Many find it a bit heavy what with dried fruit, nuts and a generous helping of rum and wine thrown in. The fruits, nuts and spices are soaked sometimes for a 
whole year before they are added to the main baking ingredients, namely flour, eggs, butter, sugar et al. On November 23, last the chefs and proprietor of Hotel Polo Towers, Kishen Tibrewal and his wife and daughter and the interns of the Institute of Hotel Management (IHM) Shillong all teamed up to mix the ingredients to be soaked for the Christmas cake.
The ingredients were placed separately on a long table and it is a ritual every year that on a particular day the hotel chefs and other invitees would grace the Cake Mixing Ceremony. After the ingredients are mixed with spices like cinnamon, rum and wine would be poured on the dried fruits and nuts and all present would mix the ingredients up nicely. It was a fun exercise. After that the ingredients would be stored in a container to soak in the spirits. A month later these ingredients would go into the making of Christmas cakes galore. These cakes are then sold at different outlets of the same hotel such as Hotel Polo Orchid, Hotel Polo Towers, Agartala and at cafes run by the same company in different parts of the city.
With so much fruit and nuts soaked in, the number of cakes that will be turned out of Hotel Polo Towers this time would be phenomenal. Many are waiting to get those rum-soaked Christmas delights…