By Debasish Chowdhury
We are yet again back in the closing month of the year. Along with it has returned the winter chill. The deep azure in the skies of Shillong, the quaint hill city, at sunrise too has returned to its routine pattern. As such, by midday, the bright azure of the morning sky gets dissolved in the horizon into a gloomy shade of grey. At each dawn, the blooming cherries are still there to paint the skyline in bright pink but the dazzling morning brightness is almost invariably getting watered down into a shade of dull grey by noon. The traffic on the city roads is choking with her marketplaces teeming with people of diverse hues. Some of them are tourists, many are vendors, few are visitors from abroad and scores of window shoppers are making the market resemble what they truly are. Each day by dusk, the city centre shapes up as an open opera with young musical enthusiasts up and ready on the pavement to enthral the passersby with their musical renditions. Decorated merchant outlets are keeping their doors wide open to lure the prospective customers even though a rather coy look of sellers manning the counters reflect that the business is hardly that brisk as it ought to be in the prime of the festive season.
Yet, it is Christmas time and everyone around, out from the clutches of a devastating pandemic, seeks to have a grand celebration. Ringing church bells, gleaming stars in brightly decorated balconies by the roadside at each sunset perhaps are revealing expressions of this solemn desire. Tiny girls dressed up as little angels; a jovial Santa Clause with his flowing white beard in red robes may not yet be frequenting the streets at dusk dancing their way down to church but are expectedly awaited. Beneath the facade of festivity, the general mood, however, seems somewhat subdued. Burdened on many fronts by the dreary mundane, people, it seems, are struggling hard to revivify their festive spirit.
The unprecedented pandemic had already played havoc in the lives and livelihood earning capability of countless people all over. Disoriented employment scopes have made life miserable especially for those who are in the low income category and find engagement in the unorganised sector where earning is a direct function of the regular economic activities. Incidentally, this happens to be the largest contingent of the people in our society. Ever escalating price levels of basic consumer commodities have made things even harder for many to enthusiastically partake and enjoy the approaching festival.
Livelihood earning of course is a serious concern but educating the children too is no less worrying for many. Some years before, Shillong was considered the educational hub of the entire north-east and even beyond. As of now, many of the city’s premiere institutions show distinct trends of a downslide. The performance profile of some of the premiere institutions of higher learning that have, in recent years, submitted themselves for reassessment and reaccreditation by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) underwent sharp decline in their respective gradings. Institutions that once held the top slot have been relegated to an average grade. Given grading by the national body is any indicator; the falling standards hardly beget a debate.
Ministry of Education, Government of India generates the Performance Grading Index(PGI) of the States and UTs on a year to year basis. It considers five distinct domains to undertake such evaluative measures classifying Domain–I inputs as ‘Learning Outcomes and Quality’; Domain–II as ‘Access’; Domain–III as ‘Infrastructure and Facilities’; Domain–IV as ‘Equity’ and lastly Domain–V as ‘Governance Processes.’ Domain I, II, III, IV and V have been assigned a maximum possible score of 180, 80, 150, 230 and 360 respectively taking the maximum total possible score in PGI for a state/UT to 1000. Meghalaya, with her aggregate score of 716 out of 1000 in 2020-21 assessment session, stands in the last but one position from the bottom of the queue. Only Arunachal Pradesh trails behind her. Placed at level VI amongst the ten available, the education sector in Meghalaya demands a thorough and earnest introspective review.
While unemployment and education are worrying concerns, the state’s tourism sector, one of her major revenue sources, is doing no better either. Pandemic linked restrictions on movement did take a toll on the tourist inflow into the state but what is causing irreparable damage to the cause of tourism is the frequent disruption of public order on one or the other pretext. The image of a strikingly beautiful scenic hill station with its equally attractive serene, historic and culturally alluring locations spread all around inhabited by a warm hearted as also welcoming people has been the mainstay of her tourist attraction.
This image of a salubrious and charming tourist destination did undertake a beating in recent times thanks to the frequent violence and disruption in civic life resulting, at times, from provocation but more often to vent the frustration of especially the youth of the land. Such disruptions did not veer out of control into a full-fledged law and order issue but they severely impaired the reputation of the state as a warm and inviting tourist location. The consequent loss to the state exchequer as also the fringe workers surviving on tourism has indeed been immense.
Elaborating on the worries that besiege the state is hardly gratifying. This fleeting detour into a few of them is only to make us alive to the reality that festivals are little more than mere entertainment. They offer excellent opportunities to create harmony. Festivals also serve as effective platforms for cultural exchanges besides preservation and passing down of traditional cultural identities to the posterity. Festivals are opportunities to mutually understand and share our cultures thereby helping us foster friendship amongst people of diverse cultural hues. India, in general, had always celebrated her festivals in this spirit. Inter-religious, inter-ethnic participations have always been the glitter atop our glories.
Christmas is a befitting time to invite ourselves to introspect as to how the maladies afflicting us could be redressed. Opinions do differ depending on the perspective from which one looks at an issue but all may perhaps converge to agree on the point that empathy and compassion can substantially help us in handling much of our predicaments. Sonam Wangchuk, an engineer by profession from Ladakh may stand out as a case in point. In 1988, he, inspired by his mother, established a school for the kids considered rejects by the society at large and attracted national attention. His novel innovations in quest of sustainable solutions in difficult terrains such as the ‘Ice Stupas’ and ‘Solar Heated Mud Huts’ later put him on the global radar. “More than inspiration,” said he, “it was empathy that led me to find solutions in areas that had been plaguing the lives of common people. Be it the water issue or education for children, these were people in need, and I was driven by this irresistible empathy to resolve their issues.”
People of the ilk of Wangchuk are our hopes at a time that, despite its hitherto unmatched developments in science and technology, actually seems so hard to live in. Wangchuk is not a celebrity in the ordinary sense but those of us who had seen the movie “3 Idiots”, may take delight in knowing that he was the inspiration behind making of the unforgettable character of Phunsukh Wangdu in that film. Christmas celebrations can unfold in an enabling and illuminating perspective to us if we draw our inspiration from empathetic go-getters such as Sri Wangchuk.
At a personal level, Christmas this year has a special significance to me. In all probability, this would be my last Christmas celebration in my birth city. After serving for almost four decades in different academic institutions, it is almost time for me to say adieu to my beloved city. In general, teachers and academic administrators here are yet not under the cover of any social security scheme. As such, sustenance after retirement in this city with its steep cost of living, for a retired teacher, especially a ‘dkhar’ without an inherited ancestral home, is a formidable challenge. A humble teacher, no matter what his length of service is in the city, is neither eligible nor enabled to have a small cottage of his own to spend his remaining days in this city of his love. Leaving this city for a new destination to live amidst people we have never lived with, as such, seems to be a must. Shillong, however, shall always stay in the heart not simply because it happens to be my birth place but also for making me whatever I am.
Impending partings usually are tinged with a spirit of sadness and are unbefitting of at Christmas time. Christmas is a wonderful occasion to remember the scores of friends who adored this life and enriched it in so many ways and to thank them all for the colours they have added in this mundane life by making it liveable all these years. In thankfully acknowledging their unique contributions, may I, with all humility, wish my dear readers a splendid Christmas. May the star of Bethlehem ever keep shining over your home and hearth. May peace, love, prosperity and all that you desire and deserve be yours. Have a Merry Christmas and a splendid New Year.
(Debasish Chowdhury is OSD (Examinations, North Eastern Hill University and can be contacted at [email protected])