Time for a reckoning dear Motherland.

I read this article today in one of the magazines that I subscribe to. Most of the time it’s a very sensible, apolitical rag. That was why I was surprised to see a very sensationalist theme to the month’s cover. Radical Islam, it screamed out. After a 20 minute read through the articles forming the main cover story I was left a little bemused. I am from a state that is being secretly infiltrated by people from another country and the majority of the them are muslims. Perhaps the editor would like to mark this as an area of interest when he next makes a list of places to visit for fact finding.
And I have just read that the Indian state is a monolithic structure formed by the very chaos it has mid-wifed in the form of caste, creed and religious differences. This in a time when there are people willing to engage themselves in activities tantamount to murder and massive public damage to carve a fiefdom in the form of pseudo democratic ‘states’. No words with the part ‘mono’ come to mind.
We Indians are a perplexing lot. If people are not in agreement on this too, they just need to look at the power structure of the nation, Hindu fundamentalists, Islamic bigots, communists, ethnic figureheads, moneyed non-interested individuals. These are people we have sent to the parliament to argue for the case of the common man. If none whom we send to that mecca of corruption and verbal heroism are common, ask yourselves, would anyone really plead our cases. Case in point, is our judiciary. Proudly we proclaim, truth is blind. It apparently is heartless too. Kasab becomes a terrorist icon and when they finally decide to hang him after all the tribulations and media drama even the dust from the bodies of the people who died that horrible day is gone.
And now to localize this. Guwahati is the very gateway of the entire North East. It does business going into hundreds of crores every week. All main projects that the government or any other body/group wants to roll out, it has to be done here. People are needed, manpower in the form of sheer muscle and presence. In our vanity, we the people of the land have decided in the majority that these tasks are beneath us. How many assamese youths will you find pushing the brick trolleys, driving bulldozers, mixing cement, fixing drains, pulling rickshaws, driving autos, doing menial jobs? In our arrogance has our weakness thrived. In the beginning our brothers and sisters from other parts of the country trooped in to fill this void that we left. They were welcome. If not to certain extremist elements to the general populace. But in the last two decades we have seen influx from the somewhere else. Even the famous student’s moment back in the 70’s which literally birthed one of the more influential political parties of the region failed to stop this. People remember the IMDT act, and have only heard. None will see this go into action. Vote banks, religious discrimination, linguistic discrimination etc etc all of these and more arguments will spring up against it.
Do we heed our common sense, do we even have the strength of heart and will to follow that if we do. Ofcourse we do. After all we are in the Land of the seven sisters, the biggest of all of them. We face a different problem now that the generations before us haven’t had to encounter, our very identity is under threat of being lost. For you see the people of the state give her identity, if the people themselves are gone……

Ami Asomiya nohoi Dukhiya, Bhupen Hazarika’s famous line ,everyone remembers this. Not many sing the next verse, Ajir Asomiyai Asom nisinile Asom mogoniya hobo. It was bugle call to all of us who proclaim ourselves proud Assamese to rise up and make a stand.
It is high time we heed it.

Ever charming Shillong

I took a walk down memory lane last night when I was sitting on the front porch of my small 2 room house in Shillong and looked at the vision that is this place at night. As if stars had in actuality decided to get up close with us mortals . I remember Shillong of a decade ago, a soft, whispering town in the hills. Chilly at the warmest and icy at the moodiest. The pretty hill people walking along in that peculiar gait that is attached to these regions. A town of merry drinking , beautiful women, winding windy paths, captivating sunrises, never ending rains and warm cups of tea, all rolled into one of the most comeliest places to go to if in a mood to let the hair down.

Much has changed and some not all.

The sunrises are still there, glorious, intoxicating and rejuvenating. A sunrise from the Polo grounds is indeed a sight to behold to be convinced of it’s magnificence. I know there are vistas all over the world that have appeared in newspapers, magazines and the like that will most likely put a shade on my claim. None the less, I ask, please stand on the 5^th hole of Golf Links grounds at 5 o clock in the morning and watch the sun rise in a slow crawl on the East khasi hills. If nothing else the play of the rays on the dew drops on the grass will captivate you. It is one of my most favorite things about this town.

So are the windy paths, but a better modernized version, with sleek cars zipping past. 50 cent and the gangstas’ music replacing the boy bands of yester years. Shillongites like their music diversified and sometimes eclectic. Just walk into any of the cafes that are now littered all over town to find proof. I used to remember when we had to walk all the way to Glory’s plaza to have a bite of Aunty’s momo. Delicious. Even now. Now Police Bazaar and Laitumukhrah is full of momo places. Roadside vendors selling the vegetarian option. Not that they aren’t delicious. From automobiles to food ,change is everywhere and most evident. There’s even a Dhaba, a proper Dhaba here.

New buildings, new roads, new localities. Shillong is indeed now expanding. Almost rivaling the rate at which it’s nearest City, my home town Guwahati is growing. But along with the outlines and colors of it all the identity has morphed as well.

The identity of the city has changed. No longer a place of rest and recollection. It has become a bustling business hub. There’s a office of almost every major business house of India now located in Shillong. Small, wooden cottages have become a rarity. Replaced rapidly by multi storied concrete giants. Hills have made way for more of these. Trees in the city while intact are not as dense. The color of money has grown greener. There are daily traffic jams in on the main roads. So much so that parts have to be blocked from time to time. The coffee shops of old have given way to swanky cafés. Costlier and less cozy. Restaurants have changed, the hotels have changed, a whole new plethora of bars, both discreet and colorful have come up. And the pace at which it is happening? Astonishing.

Shillong has changed beyond all comparisons from it’s previous avatar, yes. And yet it still manages to charm me, time to time.

For you see the rains are still magical, the women still beautiful and the sunrises magnificient