In this post, I am going to tell you all about my current hometown. Well, to start with, let me tell you that i'm staying in a hill-station currently, known as SHILLONG!
Shillong is a nature's paradise, to be honest. It's the capital-city of state MEGHALAYA. I've been living here for last 5 years now, visited all the possible tourist-spots, but still I know that the nature's real beauty is somewhere hidden, maybe in the dense rain-forests, or maybe in the abandoned regions, or maybe somewhere else. Long time back in the past,in 20th century, this city was even inhabited by the BRITISH. But mainly this city is inhabited by KHASIs. Other local tribes of MEGHALAYA also reside here and so do the other tribes of INDIA, specifically the NORTH-EASTERN states. Maybe that's why people call it as - "MINI INDIA", since you can find a portion of most of the tribes of INDIA out here. When I had just shifted to this city, its weather was much more cold than it is today, something one may expect due to global-warming. The KHASI-hills, a part of the GREAT HIMALAYAS surround this city.
Local-tribe of SHILLONG are known as KHASIs, as already named before above. They have their roots to the MONGOLOID-race, thereby it's obvious that they would have chinky-looks. Happy and cheerful people! That's enough to describe them. Their main occupation is agriculture, as it is for most INDIANS. But a part of them depend on coal-mining for their livelihood. There are large coal-mines in the state, most of the coal is of inferior type. But we must agree that coal-mining is the main industrial-business of the city. But a very interesting fact among the KHASIs is about their after-marriage rules. In most part of the world, including INDIA's most parts, brides shift to the groom's family after marriage and adopts the surname of her groom. But, as it is out here among KHASIs, the groom must shift to the bride's family after wedding! And he must adopt the surname of his bride. Moreover,all the property of the parents would pass to the daughter, and the sons would be practically empty-handed and dependent on their wives for most of their lives! But things have slowly started to change, although the real KHASI custom would remain the same. Maybe this custom makes the future of a woman more safe and secure. Moreover, you would mainly see the women selling vegetables, fishes, other commodities in the market while most of the men remain at home and do the household-works. But as I have already said, these customs are changing gradually because education is swiping through the local-tribes and these traditional-customs are becoming less important. For a long time, in the past, SHILLONG has remained the capital-city of ASSAM, when ASSAM included the entire of NORTH-EAST INDIA. So one can even find ASSAMESE-people in a large number out here. And one can even see the other local-tribes of the MEGHALAYA in this city, for example the GAROS, the JAINTIAS, etc. But interestingly, the people of SYLHET, a district(now in BANGLADESH) are also abundantly found here! It is because before the partition of INDIA, SYLHET was a part of ASSAM. So, during the partition, many HINDU-SYLHETIs(people of SYLHET) decided to move to SHILLONG as SHILLONG is very close to SYLHET, since SYLHET was going to become a ISLAMIC-state and became separated from INDIA. So, overall, SHILLONG provides shelter to all people, no matter where they originally belong to.
