The Great Shillong Staircases
Shillong’s staircases are like life; easy on the way down, pure struggle on the way up. These sneaky shortcuts don’t show up on Google Maps, but every Shillongite knows them well. They seem like the quickest route, until you’re halfway up, gasping for breath.
Conversations get serious on the way down, but disappear on the way up. Gossip flows easily downhill, like the rain, while wisdom struggles against gravity, stopping every few steps to catch its breath.
Going downhill is effortless–this Shillong Jottings member walked through hidden alleys, feeling like an explorer on an adventure.
But the moment the climb began, the legs gave up, the lungs started complaining, and even a half-empty backpack felt like a sack of bricks.
Just when things couldn’t get worse, an old lady in flip-flops casually overtook, not even slightly out of breath. To make things worse, she gave a small nod, as if to say, “First time?”
The Asphalt Aristocrats
In the city’s narrow roads, traffic definitely is not only about moving, it’s about knowing who really runs the roads. And at the top of this unspoken hierarchy sit the trucks, and the goods carrying vans, moving at their own pace, answering to no one.
When two of these giants meet on a hairpin turn barely wide enough for a bicycle, time doesn’t just slow down, it comes to a full stop. The drivers, perched high in their cabs like emperors on thrones, take a moment for an important roadside summit. Four minutes of deep discussion follow, as a traffic empire forms behind them, stretching back in a long, honking queue.
Their exchanges hold weight. Meanwhile, impatient cars behind them honk in futility, drowned out by booming laughter from the truck cabs.
The rest of us, stuck in the jam, know the drill. Some aggressively honk, others simply sigh. Another delay, another excuse for being late. Because here, the kings of the road move when they please, and the rest of us just wait.
Following the trend that’s taking over, here’s a Ghibli reimagination of Shillong, or maybe just Shillong itself. With its lush hills, dreamy cottages and winding roads, the line between the two barely exists, almost as if Ghibli had imagined it all along.