An Ode to Shillong

An Ode to Shillong

 - The sacred  forest of  Mawphlang (Khasi Hills)

Image courtesy : Google images

A large part of my life was spent in Shillong, a place I still call "home" when it comes to owning up my roots. I do not live there any more following the turns of events in my life. I have been drawn to so many tales of people reminiscing about their growing up in Shillong, in Meghalaya ; on how people have recalled their Shillong connect, tales of their lives- about the houses they lived in, the neighbors they had, the schools, the teachers. About the bright skylines, smell of the pine trees, Fetes in schools (where boys were treated with suspicion!).

There has been a great deal of discussion on -Momo (pork momo for me please), how Squash was grown in the backyard jostling for space with Plums, Apricots and Nashpatis, Puja celebrations, Shidol (including the type of leaf it was best wrapped with!) and the Carts with ball bearing wheels  and Church bells going.

I could go on but hope you all get the drift and the essence.

Leaving Shillong was not a choice we made on our own volition, it was our destiny, a combination of various factors best left as of now.

Fact is diaspora, displacement and migration are de-rigueur now.

The journeys we have made are akin to the Hispanics in USA, Indians to the sugar plantations in Mauritius, Guyana, Trinidad, Surinam and the Jews when they were dispersed from their home lands and the Anglo Indians when they migrated to Australia, England, Canada in large numbers in the 70s.

But every displaced person carries a tale, a ritual, a bond about the land he left for it helps him to stay mentally connected and bridge the geographical barriers.

Slowly he gets subsumed by the culture of his new “home” but the pangs of dislocation do not go away fully.

Wish I could have gone on, but I will end this with a quote from the Rig Veda (have taken the liberty of abridging it)

“There is no happiness for him who does not travel, Rohita! The fortune of he who is sitting, sits; it rises when he rises; it sleeps when he sleeps; it moves when he moves. Therefore, wander!

Stay tuned for more...

Ward's Lake, Shillong..