Jail Road leads the way
For several months now the residents of Jail Road have been coming out to clean their locality 
in a spirit of solidarity. The community cleaning drive that started with two score people in the initial phases on Sunday saw a participation of nearly about four hundred residents. If only this community effort is replicated elsewhere, Shillong would truly become a clean city and retrieve its earlier fame of a ‘beautiful hill station.’
Alas! What is usually replicated are the ugly habits of discarding garbage along the main roads, especially roads that are highly frequented. Take for example the road from Umpling to Itshyrwat en route to NEIGRIHMS. The entire stretch of this road has become a garbage dump. At one time, the one-man army – Radio Jockey of FM Radio Mirchi – Nicky J had stood at the place where garbage had piled up along that road until it was all picked up. But many months later, the road wears the same disheveled look.
Shillong’s problem is that it is divided into Municipal and non-Municipal areas and no politician has as yet been born who would dare bring the entire city which includes Greater Shillong under Municipal limits for the purpose of cleanliness. This division is the reason why Shillong gets a bad name. One part which is under the Shillong Municipal Board (SMB) is cleaned up daily; the rest of the city is left to stew under the garbage.
Jail Road too owes its present initiative to a group that kick-started the process – Team Jiva led by Jiwat Vaswani. It always takes leadership to start and sustain any movement. Let’s hope this initiative at Jail Road takes wings and the citizens of Shillong emulate their excellent efforts.
Décor game afoot
Festivity and lights go hand in hand in Shillong. However, Shillongites, of late, seem to have upped the ante this Christmas-New Year season as nearly every nook and corner of the city appeared to be luminous and all decked up, especially towards the end of December.
From string lights to lamps of different shapes and sizes, and beautifully decorated Christmas trees, houses across the city were shimmering in hues of red, green, blue and more; and notably the Christmas star — one of the most relevant decorative items.
The star, however, has become relatively less popular with decoration now becoming an art, per se. It’s almost as if homes compete to come up with the best decoration.
Earlier, the Star was people’s go-to. During Christmas, at least a star would be hung outside every house; it was quintessential.
Of course, some were just as enthusiastic back then to be able to go beyond just the stars and put up a decoration like there was stiff competition among peers.
But regardless, everyone loves luminous surroundings and if once in a while this gives us a chance to smile by just glancing at the cityscape, this apparent competition is spreading joy.
In hope of a better year
With COVID-19 crippling normalcy across Shillong for two consecutive years, there’s always a little ray of hope for a better year ahead in 2022. Shillongites, too, feel that they can make a better year out of 2022. The SJ team interacted with a few of them to find out what they anticipate this year and what are their New Year resolution(s), if any. Meena Joshi, a working professional, feels that she can make this year a lot productive. She says she not only plans to learn how to play guitar this year but also wants to make running an everyday habit to keep herself physically fit. She also says that she plans to experience scuba-diving this year. Similarly, Suman Chettri, who is a student, also said that she’d want to live a healthy lifestyle, while maintaining that it is paramount in the contemporary world. “This year taught me how important it is to keep up the good health. It really affects the other activities going on in our lives,” she said.
She also said that she will be more focused towards her studies and goals. Suman also says she has travel plans for this year.
Vishaka Joshi, who is also a student, says she plans to read at least three good books and lose weight this year. “Not only that, I also want to become a better version of myself,” she said.
JP Upadhyaya, who is a teacher by profession, also plans to lose weight. “Hope that pandemic will not force me to gain weight due to lockdown this year,” he says.
Upadhyaya, who’s not a tech-savvy, says that he also wants to better his online teaching skills.a