In a highly disturbing tale that is a major blot on Meghalaya’s reputation as a tourism centric state, a gang of six men forcibly tried to enter the home stay room where a visiting professor was sleeping in Umshing-Mawkynroh recently, leaving the woman traumatised.
It was after midnight when Muhaya Sengputa, an assistant professor who was in town to attend a conference at the nearby North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU), was shocked out of her sleep by wild and raucous laughter as the gang tried to break down the door to her room at the homestay, called Manna’s Inspira.
The detailed account of this horrific incident has been detailed by Sengupta in a social media post dated March 2, which even includes a WhatsApp apology by one of the caretakers. As it does the rounds on the internet, the incident is another red mark against the safety and security of tourists and visitors, particularly women, in the state.
Money, time and energy have been poured into building up the image of Meghalaya as a safe destination for tourists and much has been made of its unique matrilineal traditions that falsely suggest that women are naturally respected and held in dignity unlike in other parts of India. But it takes one horrifying incident like this to completely erase that hype and lay bare the reality.
Sengupta said that what was worse is that her frantic calls to the two persons running the homestay went unanswered. It was shocking that there were no staff on call to whom the guest could reach out to and the way the men, who are believed to have been in an intoxicated state, were able to gain easy access to the building.
Sengupta reckoned that the caretakers were either in cahoots with the goons or mortally scared of them.
That the situation did not descend into actual physical assault or worse was only thanks to Sengupta being able to ring up the conference organisers, who quickly reached the homestay and evacuated her to safety.
In her social media post, she admitted that she had been the one to making the homestay booking, not the organisers, and she had chosen Manna’s Inspira due to its closeness to NEHU.
