Editor,
World Heritage sites are a crowd puller not only for their historical importance, treasure trove of archives but it cultivates awareness in society on why they are valuable and have economic benefits but in Shillong the term ‘caring’ does not sit comfortable with experts within different verticals of public and private organisations who are specialised in handling architectural conservation.
Another one bites the dust with the iconic British era structure of the Shillong Bar Association gutted to ashes some containing case to property files which are critical for the affairs of the State, this is where e-filing on cloud space and using technology is a significant change for dusty papers. It is too early to speculate as an act of God or sabotage, but it is definitely disappointing that we could never learn the lessons of the past.
It can be mentioned that in a small-sized country like Singapore, there is a focus on nurturing public spaces and colonial landmarks. Non-profit organisations like the Singapore and International Committee on Documentation and Conservation of Buildings (DoCoMoMo) Singapore are leading the way.
The urban landscape of Shillong is a catch-22 for planners with the National Building Code of India if there is such in paper to put it in practice but it is time to rebuild and restore many other sites through building audits with a clear roadmap before we are too late in saving the remnants to which future generations could relate to and proud of.
Christopher Gatphoh,
Laitkor Rngi, Shillong-10
