Walking down the memory lane

Memoir of Meghalaya

Episode -1

(God Tussi Great Ho-1)

I did not see the sea until January 1992 when arrived at Mumbai (then Bombay). But the tremendous attraction towards wilderness, particularly of hills and mountains lured me to a great extent that my words fall short to express straightway. Having passed the Bachelor of Science degree examination I alike any other unemployed youth began my hunt for job. I joined as an off service trainee Opthalmic Assistant in Guwahati Medical College and Hospital, (now M.M. Choudhury Memorial Hospital) for a mere stipend of Rs 200.00(rupees two hundred) per month that I received from health department. It could not fulfill my innumerable needs. Obviously I was in pursuit of better opportunity and God did listen to me. Thank God because He helps those who help themselves. I got one offer as a science teacher in a Christian High School run by a Presbyterian Church of a village Laitkseh near Nongstoin, West Khasi Hills District Meghalaya for a much better payoff. I gulped the offer without delay like a thirty pedestrian in hot summer and set out for the job. The place was very new to me and in fact this was my first visit to a place outside my home state. As it ought to be, I was a bit tizzy about the traditions, social environment and communication problem as English had been the only lingua franca which too only a small fraction of people could speak well.

A Khasi gentleman, Mr Adual Dkhar from Riatsamthiah of Shillong, whom I met at Guwahati, knew him since 1979 as a businessman dealing in sales of quarry products, led me up to Nongstoin. Nongstoin, a town nearest to this village, is headquarter of West Khasi Hills district. On a shiny day of August 1982 I was accompanied from Nongstoin by two students deputed by the Headmaster of the school who happened to be Pastor of the Presbyterian Church too, up to this village. A short journey of half an hour or so by bus and then another for forty to forty five minutes on foot took me to my destination of life’s second phase of job hunt.