SHILLONG, April 1 — The sleepy hamlet of Lynshing went agog last Sunday. The villagers had an occasion to rejoice — a function to felicitate their representative in the Legislative Assembly, Martle Mukhim. With nothing much happening in this remote village in the war area of East Khasi Hills, the simple function turned festive. There was music in between short speeches by village elders. And there was arrangement for the traditional Khasi bamkhana literally meaning community feast.
Except for a few, almost all the 1400 villagers gathered in the village field and enjoyed every moment of the day-long proceedings. They were all attired in their best — children, the elderly, youths and women with their infants too. Seventy-year-old Phirimai Longshiang, who was shy at first later offered to talk to a small group of visiting journalists, with the help of a translator. For her, supply of adequate safe drinking water to the village was of prime importance.
The villagers, mostly womenfolk had to fetch Um-din meaning drinking water in Khasi, from the natural source at Umshlem, she informed. “The supply of electricity to our village is also not regular and the government needs to improve the road too,” Phirimai pointed out. A mother of three and grandmother of eight, Phirimai grows broom-sticks on small patch of land. During season, she sells broom-sticks to traders who come from outside and earned Rs 15 to Rs 20 per day.
Another elderly man, who volunteered to talk to the journalists, stressed on the urgent need for a health centre in the village. The nearest primary health centre (PHC) is at Mawkynrew 3 km from Lynshing. “There are no medicines available in our village and we do not have enough shops selling essential items,” he informed. Five buses ply to and from Shillong everyday which are the only means of communication available to the villagers of Lynshing.
On the side-lights of the function, local MLA Martle Mukhim, who is a cabinet minister in the coalition government in the State took the group of journalists around the village where he was born. Pointing at a plateau, Mukhim informed that some 500 years back a stone fort stood on it. “Lynshing being a village of warriors, all the chieftains used to gather in the fort to chalk out to their strategies,” he added.
With villages situated on difficult hilly terrain in his Diengling Assembly constituency, Mukhim is thinking of introducing rope-ways for carriage of goods to remote areas. “As a teenager, I along with my friends used to walk all the way from here to Shillong as in those days there were no roads,” Mukhim told the reporters with an air of nostalgia.
“I am trying my best to improve the lot of the villagers,” he emphasised. “You journalists should take time off and visit such remote villages and explore the natural beauty,” the minister suggested. Towards evening the mediapersons left Lynshing with image of pristine natural beauty in their hearts which were already deeply touched by the warmth and hospitality of the simple village folks.