Will the clothes ever dry?
Will the clothes ever dry? That is the existential question of the season in Shillong. As the rain gods continue their blessings, the rest of us are left in a soggy state of laundry limbo.
In this city, where sun sightings are becoming increasingly rare, the noble act of washing clothes has turned an uncertain sport
Residents now suffer from what maybe called a drying delusion, a condition where you’re not sure whether to wash more clothes, rewash the half-dry ones, or just give up and start a new fashion trend of damp-chic.
Until the skies show some mercy, we remain hopeful. Or hopeless. Hard to tell when your last three outfits are all hanging on a single chair and refusing to dry.
Reminiscence of a 90s kid
Marbles, spinning tops, hopscotch (lehkai sohtyngkoh), hide and seek, betting wrestling picture cards, sliding down on sloping areas (shong syntuid) — the hands of time went back for a reader of the Shillong Jottings who started reminiscing about the good ol’ days between 1992 and 1997 when he was just a boy of 8-13 years old.
What made him travel back in time, you ask? An SJ piece from last week!
“The WiFi Kids” struck a nostalgic chord in this reader who couldn’t help but write to us about his heydays. He writes: “I feel very interesting of the story… We played marbles, spinning tops, hopscotch (lehkai sohtyngkoh), hide and seek, betting wrestling picture cards, cricket, football, sliding down on sloping areas (shong syntuid), Khasi games like mawpoint, siat dieng-kynphlok, lehkai-ia-beh, etc, flying kites, cock fighting, climbing trees, and running around freely (sic).”
He remembered how him and his friends played and danced in the rain and threw hailstones at each other. “There were times (when) we used to laugh, cry, quarrel and fight; and we enjoyed this carefree life a lot,” he said.
“To conclude, the good childhood days that I had experienced were among the best experiences in my life,” he recalled, almost with palpable emotion.
For readers who missed this piece last week, the story — in a gist — talked about how the lives of today’s kids are plastered with screens of all sizes. Electronic devices seem to have taken over their lives — almost as if the innocence and magic of childhood is buffering, waiting to load again, if at all.
