Shillong, April 8: How does one describe a septuagenarian woman who gives up her family riches to live in a cave? Eccentric or compulsively adventurous?
Seventy-one-year-old Bris Sibon Basiawmoit’s lifestyle — far from the madding crowd and closest to nature — qualifies her to be branded a combination of both. Lovingly called Mei Deng by those close to her, she has been staying in a cave at Um Sharang in Ri Bhoi district for seven years now.
Ask her why she lives alone in a cave and Basiawmoit’s reply is a simple one.
“I am happy here, unlike in the cities, which are far and full of problems. I have enough of everything that is clean and fresh. Above all, it is peaceful here with nobody to disturb me. I only have my fish and hens for company,” she told The Telegraph, looking skywards to catch a glimpse of a Calcutta-bound Indian Airlines flight from Umroi.
Basiawmoit’s “home” is not far from the Umroi airport, which was reopened recently after a gap of over 14 years.
The cave that Basiawmoit calls home has a tiny bedroom and a living room just enough to accommodate her four-feet-two-inch frame. She effortlessly moves from her “rocky bedroom” to the kitchen and invites curious cameramen to photograph the inside of her cave.
Basiawmoit does not take offence on being referred to as “a cavewoman”. Instead, she reminds everybody who comes to meet her that the pressure exerted on cities and towns by a swelling population would soon force people to go back to nature.
The first thing that strikes anybody who sees Basiawmoit is her radiance. She is a truly happy person despite giving up all luxuries — she owns several acres of land at Umroi and Umiam, and her three children are well settled — for a spartan lifestyle.
Basiawmoit’s husband stays at Bhoilymbong with the couple’s two sons, while their daughter is a government employee based in Shillong.
On whether she might go back to her family one day, Basiawmoit said, “Nothing can make me change my mind.” She then disappeared for a few minutes, only to emerge from the other end of the cave.
“See, I am self-sufficient,” she said, displaying wooden weapons to stave off wild animals.
Each of the cave’s tiny rooms have dwarf-sized wooden doors and neatly carved out windows. A small bamboo extension at the rear is the only artificial touch to Basiawmoit’s cave.
The only people Mei Deng interacts with regularly are her sons and farmers who stop by to buy chicken and eggs from her.