Bidding adieu to June
“I am way too good at goodbyes,” but June is bidding farewell with a dramatic flourish, sending heavy showers and flooding the entire city as a preview of the upcoming monsoon season.
While elsewhere June brings summer vibes, in Shillong, it’s a blend of gusty winds, brief summers, and torrential rains. It’s as if the city can’t decide whether to sunbathe or swim.
The end of June also comes with one serious reminder: half of the year has flown by. With just six months left in 2024, it’s time to make those changes before the year slips through our fingers like raindrops down a windowpane.
Daunting danger of drivers glued to their mobile phones
As if navigating our daily traffic jams weren’t already a Herculean task, a new menace has reared its head – motorists and car drivers glued to their phones. These modern multitaskers seem to believe their calls are more important than their lives, and woe betide anyone who honks at them. The icy stares they give would make you think you were the one breaking the rules!
Traffic police personnel of the city, already overwhelmed with managing the relentless gridlock and understaffed, now have an additional challenge.
Expecting them to both control traffic and catch phone-obsessed drivers is akin to asking them to perform a magic trick with one hand tied behind their back. Perhaps it’s time we find a different pair of eyes to handle this digital distraction dilemma.
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The taxi drivers, on the other hand, have mastered the art of nonchalance, in Shillong.
The times that one has been standing on a bustling street corner, hand raised high in hopes of catching the black and yellow ride, and it finally comes along only for the driver to give you the classic “Shillong Shrug” as he cruises past.
These drivers have an uncanny ability to make you feel like you’ve been cast in an invisible movie where they play the lead role of “The Unbothered Chauffeur.”
Sometimes, it seems they enjoy the game of cat and mouse, weaving through traffic like seasoned pros, leaving potential passengers in their wake, bewildered and amused.