By Gregory Shullai
Among the localities in Shillong at present it does not suffice to have just the weather, one is actually forced to look into other factors as well – water, neighbours, privacy, law and order etc. etc. In order to describe properly what these other factors mean, my first opinion is that it is necessary because Shillong is no longer the same as it was a few decades back, and for many, they find themselves as mere shadows among memories – these days there are very few memories left anywhere in Shillong. At the most there may be four or five special places where memories still linger in the minds of the older generation because they appeal to the old timers even more strongly now than they did then. They remind them that the present Government is no good – there’s more doubt, there’s more melancholy, more weariness of life, more hostility of life…even the optimists say this. But in the midst of all this pessimism some localities still have an incomparable nobility about them and are in general vastly superior to every other place that Shillong is still identified by. For the residents of these localities there is something to be thankful about having had the opportunity to settle down in these localities and to still be there regardless of whether they are in their prime or not, because for some, every time they have had to leave these places they have felt like they have left a part of themselves behind. But, according to life’s demands, in time the individuals’ will expands again and one no longer has the courage to be pusillanimous in the new locality one finally has to settle down in. This is what I was given to understand from friends who have had to leave Risa Colony for various reasons.
Risa Colony (estd 1952) – all who have resided and still reside in this village, are united in the reverent belief that the decadent ones who refused to accept settlement in this village in 1952 must be perceived ever more and more clearly as being wrong in the matter on which they decided. It proved rather that these young gentlemen of the 1950s themselves, and even the then Assam Government of the day, must have been alike in some physiological particular, in order to assume the same negative attitude toward the place – so much so that instead of settling the “big wigs” in this place they decided to settle it with tribals even naming it as “Tribal Colony” which literally confirms the disparaging attitude that anybody who was a somebody at that point in time had to the place. After all judgements and valuations of any place, whether for or against, cannot be true per se, their value only lies in the fact that they are observations – they can be considered only as observations – per se such observations are initially nonsense; the question of sense comes much later on, and in the case of Rias Colony – much later on. One must therefore endeavour to reach out and try to grasp this astonishingly subtle axiom that the initial value of a place must be estimated on future circumstances. A colony that is to be settled in initially has nothing to offer to the settler; it is the individual who must judge what he has to offer. And that is exactly what the first Rangbah Shnong (Headman) did. He changed its name from Tribal Colony to Risa Colony… “Risa” means shouts of joy and jubilation in Khasi, which he heard one afternoon when the Colony’s children were playing on the roadside. For a settler to see the problems of settling down in a place it is almost certain the person will be confronted with one objection after another against the wisdom he applies in his judgement – or a lack of it. What? In hindsight is it possible that all those white collared govt employees who declined settlement in Risa Colony were only decadents? – they were not even wise. However, let me return to the subject, viz Shillong’s best localities.
The present inhabitants of Risa Colony are largely the 2nd generation of settlers – most of the colonizers having passed on. The wisdom of the initial settlers has definitely rubbed off to the current generation because the locality has maintained the principles of the first colonizers which was of a one-way road with Assam type cottages on either side devoid of pavements. To judge from its origin, Risa Colony was never intended to be more than a residential area and that is what has been maintained to this very day – except for a few eyesores (Government Offices and residences of Government officers). As it is now Risa Colony is palpably the best place that one can think of to spend their decadent years, or to put it plainly their retirement years. In those early years it may not have been attractive, and the biting cold winters must have convinced even the most determined settler that it belonged to the lowest of the low areas that were singled out as settlements…the early settlers must have been the “Mob” because regardless of how cold it got in December and January and how during the summers when the rainy weather set in returning home was a damning experience with the miserable drops of rain soaking cloth and skin alike and causing an icy chill throughout the body and how it must have felt that it was a torture to think of the uphill climb when it was time to return home from office or market regardless of whether it rained or not which all added up to the oppressive problems it posed to nerve and muscle and time, but despite all they chose it. But what a dignified and beautiful Colony it is now. Not an urban concrete mess with endless pavements – not at all modern but a decent residential locality with a road that ends where the Colony meets the forest.
Everything about the locality tastes homely and friendly, neither a village with the wide-open spaces between one house and the next, but something in between. The early settlers gave the locality a respectable aristocratic calm with every road ending in a cul-de-sac and a general unity of taste even in the matters of colour, that has been maintained to this very day. The whole place was and still is forested interspersed with Assam-type cottages with the familiar red roofs and white walls held together by strong wooden beams and lintels – altogether a classical place for the feet and for the eyes. There still are no pavements and the road narrow, though the number of cars plying up and down the hill has increased exponentially. The local Dorbar functions from the residence of whoever is elected as the Rangbah Shnong (Headman) – the organization of which verges on the marvelous considering that everything here is as good as, if not better than anything that anyone experiences in any other locality throughout Shillong, especially when it comes to water supply.
Risa Colony is perhaps the only Colony in Shillong where the residents attend to their needs – fresh clean cool clear water from a perennial spring in the forest above the locality, disposal of waste from the locality and street lights all handled locally. One can live, it seems, more decently here than in the larger localities. With a population of barely 700 individuals (local census 2019) everyone is regarded as a neighbour everyone knows everyone here. Some of the houses are incredible – old Assam type cottages without any pretentiousness though a few have now evolved into the concrete buildings yet still with a cottage look. The road that runs through the colony is still clean and serious – only outsiders cause obstructions. Anyone who comes to Risa Colony always remarks on the inherent beauty of the place and invariably feels that the place is at least 2-3 degrees cooler than the rest of Shillong…this is one place where we do not know what it means when one calls the weather oppressive. Evenings on the balconies of the cottages is always glorious
After such pleasantries about the place, it should be accepted without offence if I speak of the problems and devote this last paragraph to them exclusively – problems created not by the residents but by the campuses belonging to the State and the Central Govt offices. Whoever wants to express something unfavourable about Risa Colony need only look at the houses and campuses of the State and Central Government. You can see it for yourself how out of place the houses and campuses of the Government Department/Ministries appear. Ugliness in itself is an objection but perhaps it is also a refutation among the Departments having buildings in Risa Colony. One would immediately ask “Are these really Government assets?” because one would expect Government assets to be the best, sadly the image they portray is something close to total neglect…are they really neglected? With these structures the beauty of Risa Colony is vanquished because with the present Government, neglect comes to the top. By commenting on the vile and ugly Departmental walls and buildings one might consider the author as a gloomy pessimist, but he’s got it out of his system, and is now enjoying a pleasant repose.
