Durga Puja in Shillong: Live blog
For my fellow Shillongites am putting together this little live blog, featuring posts on how people back home are celebrating.
Shillong
Shillong: Atop the abode of the clouds
In Shillong, rain is a recurring feature all the year around and umbrellas a constant companion.
150 and rocking: Shillong – a city amidst the clouds
Shillong. A city atop the abode of the clouds. A city that is a town in size but a metropolis in demeanour. A city that is now 150 years old.
A fidget spinner spins in ball-bearing carts sliding down Shillong slopes
The fidget spinner is easily the toy of the year 2017. And with a 5-year-old who keeps abreast of all the latest toy trends via YouTube Kids, it becomes difficult evading any such toy craze. While pondering about what to get for Googool (my son, aka Advay) at an airport duty free shop, noticed the [Read more]
APJ Abdul Kalam: The unofficial Google doodle
The ‘People’s President’ Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam died of a heart attack in my hometown Shillong. He was 83. A blackboard sketch featuring his signature hairstyle and the different facets of his person. Black to signify loss and blackboard to stress on his focus on education.
Adieu Hindustan Ambassador. An unofficial (and animated) Google doodle
The good ol’ Amby has finally shuddered to a halt. And here’s an unofficial Google doodle (albeit a little late) honking in honour of the grand old lady of Indian roads. In the hills, where I come from, the incline is steep and the load is heavy some Mark IIIs and IVs still ply – [Read more]
1962: Newspaper front page from 50 years ago when China attacked India
It’s been 50 years since the ‘Himalayan Blunder’ of 1962 when the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) unexpectedly rampaged into Indian territory and reached the outskirts of Tezpur in Assam before making an unexpected retreat. The war was fought much before I was born, but being born into North East India, I heard a lot of [Read more]
Vintage photographs of Shillong from 1948 (also Vallabhbhai Patel calling people of Assam lazy)
64 years later, Shillong is virtually unrecognisable. I could only recognise the Governor House on Bivar Road, then known as Government House, the characteristic Ward’s Lake and the Assembly House (destroyed in a fire on January 9, 2001). These photographs from Government of India’s Photo Division were taken when Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was on a [Read more]
16 years since that summer of 2001: What ‘Dil Chahta Hai’ meant to me
(Dil Chahta Hai was released on August 10, 2001. This post was first published in 2011 and I still feel the same about the movie in 2017) Summer of 2001. Bhopal. Bharat Talkies. Dil Chahta Hai. A decade later the experience is still as fresh. On that overcast afternoon, I stepped out of the [Read more]
How to speak on the telephone, the right way
It was an altogether different age, when having a telephone at home was a status symbol. And the waiting list for a new phone connection was sometimes years long. It was also the time when there was no pulse for local calls (at least in Shillong), it didn’t matter how long the call was, you [Read more]
The Bengalis of Shillong
The first Bengali, as recorded, who came to Shillong was the successful trader Golam Haider, who was the supplier to the Raj in Cherrapunji, the district head quarters. he established his ‘Golam Haider and Sons,’ the only departmental store in the centrally located Police Bazar in 1878.
Mahalaya: The Advent of Autumn
Today is Mahalaya, the day of invocation of goddess Durga in her Mahisasurmardini form (the slayer of the demon Mahisasur). The beginning of the ten days of festivity.
