Beautifying the already beautiful
September is here, the wind’s turning a wee bit chilly, and the days are getting shorter, while the nights are stretching longer — these are but subtle reminders that ‘Winter is coming.’ But when you look up, blinking against the cool breeze, what do you see? Clear blue skies on most days, the moon glowing brighter than ever, visible ‘almost’ every night.
However, amidst nature’s own display of beauty, something new demands the attention of Shillongites: the massive Tricolour, flying high in Barik above the city, courtesy of the grand “Shillong beautification” project.
Besides this, the cityscape also flaunts additional beautification elements — huge posters of the upcoming festivals, which can only be perceived as the genius of Meghalaya government giving final touches to transform the city into a visual paradise.
Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, and if you’re beholding billboards and flags as the pinnacle of aesthetic perfection, you must be living in the Shillong of 2024.
After all, as we stumble into October, with Green Day echoing in our heads, “As my memory rests, But never forgets what I lost, Wake me up when September ends”, we might just look back and realise that maybe, just maybe, Shillong didn’t need all this after all.
