Stories from the Hills

Once Upon a time in Shillong

It was a month back when I was waiting in the cafe for my friend who was as usual late. I was getting bored and started checking out the framed photographs hanged on the walls of the restaurant. I looked around and saw an interesting photograph that has been framed. A beautiful portrait of the Nartiang Durga temple. I immediately felt nostalgic for the place that I was raised in. I asked the owner about the photograph but he had no idea or an interest and only told me he got it from somewhere.

The Nartiang Durga Temple is a 600 year old Durga temple located in the West Jaintia Hills district of Meghalaya. It is one of the 51 Shakti Peethas. The Hindus of the Jaintia Hills of Meghalaya believes that this temple is the permanent abode of Goddess Durga. The Shakti of Nartiang Devi shrine is worshipped as Jayanti and the Bhairava as Kamadishwar. The rites at the temple are not performed the conventional way as in the plains, but in a unique way. It is a blend of Hindu and ancient Khasi traditions. The local chieftain or Syiem (meaning the king) is considered the chief patron of the temple. Even today, during Durga Puja, the Syiem sacrifices goats.

It was like a beautiful walk down the memory lane that followed. Shillong which was my once upon a time homeland. The sleepy town surrounded with beautiful pine trees in every nook and corner of the town. A town where people walked often either from the market or from work or from schools or colleges. In Shillong people generally followed three things, walk as that gives you an opportunity to appreciate and connect with nature. Keep your state as clean as you would keep your house. Khasis would pride themselves and say cleanliness is a part of Khasi culture and hence they would make an effort to let people notice by keeping their city clean. And finally, work hard and be sincere with your work in the work days and celebrate life by having fun during weekends. Perhaps, it is for this reason that people would always hang out during weekends. Restaurants are full not only with youngsters but the whole family Including grandparents, parents, and their little children. A town where discipline, mannerisms and politeness ruled. It was a common sight for pedestrians to wait to cross the road and very often some driver would stop the car and signal the pedestrians to cross, where the pedestrians would again signal a thank you to the driver.

Late afternoon was marked by the playful screams of children who would play different games blocking the residential roads, while residents watched sitting in the huge verandas of their Assam type houses. Sometimes the enthusiasm of the kids playing games was regretfully obstructed by some driver, who would pass by the road and apologised to the kids for interrupting their games.

The town had no malls back then. All we had was the Laitumkhrah market for vegetables, fish and meat. It was always a delight to see the Kongs (sisters) referring to women respectfully, selling not only vegetables, but also skilfully removing the skin of the fishes and cutting them into perfect pieces. Glimpses of these women polishing their shoes and wearing lipstick from time to time was very common. Police Bazar was ofcourse the market where people would buy clothes, shoes, accessories and even bakery items like cakes and biscuits, which were staple tit bits to pair with tea in every Khasi household. Another local attraction for buying clothes, shoes and bags was Glory's Plaza. One would find quality t shirts, tops, jeans, stylish hand bags and shoes, mostly from across the borders. And the icing on the cake was that it was reasonable to easily afford it. Another attraction was the availablity of the latest pop and rock hits in the form of casettes from an uncle who was in his 60s but knew all the latest hits. Another ironic trend in Shillong was that no one went for movies in cinema halls as people mostly watched movies in their VCDs which most people owned and rented a CD from CD shops which was available in most commercial areas around the town.

Those were the days when I never got tired of watching the beautiful sunset from the peak of Cleve Colony. The beautiful sun would slowly crawl between the folds of the hills glowing the last of it's reddish light for the day which contrasted with the beautiful blue sky. As the sun set, a soothing breeze would follow and the leaves of the pine trees danced to its own tune.

Winters meant Christmas, and Christmas had its own charm in the sleepy town. The town would be decorated with lights in all the commercial markets. Bakery shops would sell Christmas cake weighing upto 10 - 15 kgs. Christmas carols from the last week of November could be heard every evening where groups from different localities would visit every house offering prayer and blessing to the house along with every member of the family. In return the family offered sometimes little cash and sometimes kind along with cakes, snacks, biscuits and tea.

A tiring walk from Police Bazar no later than 8 pm meant a warm cup of black tea, putting on the chula or smokeless charcoal, (which was a daily ritual during winters) making the bed with no mosquito net but compulsory hot water bag and a thick quilt along with a thick blanket. Winters also meant waking up not earlier than 8:30 am and still witnessing a blanket of a think sheet of snow on the roof of every house and front garden.

Hi there! My friend pats on my shoulders and I realise, "oh I'm in Guwahati!" some 100kms away from the place that took me back to some of the most beautiful memories of my growing up years.