By Patricia Mukhim
We have been reading stereotyped definitions and adulations of Meghalaya in the last few days – written of course by our own pen-pushers. Some of these claims are hugely exaggerated and culled from ChatGPT. We don’t need to over-sell or under-sell Meghalaya. Sure, we need tourism to boost up especially our rural economy but we also need to tie up the loose knots. There is need for realism and a reality check. At present there are nineteen to the dozen homestays that have come up in Sohra but ask any of the homestay owners if they know the difference between a homestay and a guest house and you get a blank look!
What’s a Homestay?
The Cambridge dictionary defines a homestay as a holiday where tourists stay in the home of a person they do not know. The homestay owners have extra rooms that they rent out to guests while they share the same living room. People choose homestays because they want an intimate experience of a place ; its culture, its sensitivities; what destinations to visit in and around the area; how much it would cost to take a cab to different destinations and also what are the local cuisines that the guests would like to savour.
In my experience I have found Ashok Lyngdoh who runs the Rock Cliff homestay at Dhankheti-Malki to be the most authentic of all in that he entertains his guests and they get to understand so much of our cultural nuances such as how to interact with people in the rural outback where the scenic beauty of Meghalaya is hidden. I had the occasion to meet with a couple from Bengal once at that homestay. The man was an Air India pilot and we had a nice time interacting and learning about one another’s professions and the challenges.
Ashok Lyngdoh’s home is like a museum with so a range of artefacts; a lush green garden and above all several vintage cars. This is what vacationers actually savour. However, Lyngdoh says he is very choosy about who he lets out his rooms to. I guess that is a personal choice since it’s important to have the right kind of guests in a homestay because of the proximity between the homestay owners and the guests. If you have unpleasant, rowdy guests who believe that holidaying also means drinking themselves silly then the homestay owner is unlikely to have sound sleep. So those running a real homestay also run the risk of having to interface with unpleasant guests. But the reverse is also true. If you have cultured guests who bring with them their own stories and life experiences there is so much to learn.
Sadly, in Shillong and elsewhere, homestays are located at a distance from the owners’ homes, hence knowledgeable tourists who choose a homestay with the idea of interacting with the owner/s and learning more about the culture of the place are left disappointed. Such is not the case in Arunachal Pradesh though. Homestay owners treat their guests with the dignity they deserve and spend time with them; cook the local food; offer them the local drinks too in case they are interested. Some of the homestay owners even take their guests to some of the sights and sounds. Tourists return home with unforgettable experiences and a desire to revisit.
Why Homestays are unique
The reason I am dwelling at length on homestays is because the Raghuvanshi couple – Sonam and Raja both checked into Shipara Homestay (shipara means siblings) at Nongriat. If the homestay owners had even engaged in a casual conversation with the couple they would have been able to tell the police a lot about the body language of the duo and their comfort level with one another. But obviously this was a homestay where the owner is semi-educated and does not care to make conversation. Or it could be homestay in name and possibly run by someone else; not the owner which is the case in 90% of homestays.
The other bewildering part is how Sonam knew the geography of the area and how she figured out that the area near Wei Sawdong would be deserted. It would appear that Sonam has either done a reconnaissance of the place before her marriage or one of her accomplices must have done a survey to know exactly where to commit the murder and where to throw the body and thereby throw off the scent. It’s true that the couple evidently checked out very early from the homestay. According to sources they checked out at 5 am and might have reached the top of the stairs by about 8 am. By the time they reached Wei Sawdong it would have been close to about 9 am and hence the place would have been quiet and isolated and hence it was easy to carry out the murder unhindered.
That complete strangers to the place could not just plan but execute an almost perfect murder plan should shake us up and push all the tour operators and tourism stakeholders to seriously consider the loopholes in the system that allow such gruesome murders to be carried out without anyone having an inkling that it was happening. The Government speaks a lot about community-led tourism but is everyone in the community really invested in tourism? How much really accrues to the local people from the tourism revenue generated? Someone should do a research on this. True that in the aftermath of the murder people got together to protest against the slur cast on the Sohra community but are they committed to work together to ensure that tourism is not just about revenue generation but more about a reputation that needs to be nurtured?
Meghalaya: From overselling to overkill
Many paeans have been written about Meghalaya’s natural beauty and its undulating hills and misty canyons but without mentioning its flip sides too – the deep gorges that beckon murderers to use them as a dumping ground for dead bodies and to therefore cast what the Khasis call “Ka Tyr-ut ( a curse) on all of us who live in these hills.
Meghalaya Tourism App an imperative
This is why the Government generated Tourism app will come in handy once the homestay owners/guests houses/hotels/ Air B&B’s all start using the app compulsorily. The app will link the names registered and the phone numbers to the local police station. This would make it easier to track down tourists in case something untoward happens to them.
Conflict over tourism locations a bane
Another point that needs mentioning is that if the Dainthlen and Wei Sawdong Falls were not abandoned due to claims and counter-claims between two or more dorbar shnong the place would not have been deserted as it is today. It is amusing that earlier when those places were not yielding revenue the dorbar shnong of the respective localities co-existed in relative peace. The moment the places started yielding revenue they became contentious. This is because tourism was promoted before putting in place a mechanism for revenue sharing and that is because there was no revenue model in place that would benefit both the dorbar shnong. It’s always a case of putting the cart before the horse and that’s why we land ourselves in trouble from time to time.
The Krangshuri waterfalls in West Jaintia Hills is an example of how a dispute between two clans resulted in the place being off limits to tourists as protestors squatted there with placards. In September 2024, the Meghalaya High Court ordered the squatters to move away or face contempt of court. The Court directed the District Tourism Promotion Society to put in place a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for managing the revenue generated until the disputes are settled. This was so unnecessary. It shows us up as a society that is incapable of working together in the larger interests of tourism because of the greed of each party in conflict to profit from the destination single-handedly and not share revenue with anyone.
Need for SOP to manage tourism destinations
To my mind all tourist destinations ought to be managed by the Government with revenue accruing to the communities if they are unable to resolve their disputes. At present even Nongkhnum in West Khasi Hills is under dispute. What next?
Has avarice overtaken Khasi society?
Has the Khasi society reached a point of avariciousness so deep as to lay claim over mother nature? We should be asking ourselves what right we have to sell a God-given nature and to profit from it without adding back anything to the environment. The truth is that none of the destinations are even asking for a waste management system. They don’t care about such nitty-gritty. All they are interested in is the money. It is this mercenary nature that will destroy tourism in Meghalaya. No apologies for soothsaying either!