Shillong

O Shillong!

I lament what you have become

Your childhood long gone

The days of Laban, not even a memory-

A few houses, a market place,

A leisurely time chewing kwai.

Reknowned for learning, cleanliness, calmness.

O Shillong!

You've grown beyond that to a young adult-

Rebellious, forgetting the the ways of old.

Wishing to learn only through harsh experience,

Never through observation.

O Shillong!

Grown too fast for where you should be.

I cry in anguish for what you are;

A place I call home, yet when

I return to you, I see a change

So drastic it makes my heart ache.

O Shillong!

Waters where horses used to run

Now choked with plastic.

Verdant hills now only show colours of man's work

Concrete concrete concrete!

O Shillong!

The only place I call home

Yet i wish I could change.

Led by people who cannot see beyond today

And let down by all of your citizens who

Proudly claim you to be theirs

Yet do nothing to maintain the charm of your past.

If you could but tell us of times gone by,

How much more we must cry 

And convict ourselves 

For our inaction and passivity

We, who have let slip through our fingers 

-And let become just another city-

The wonder of what was 

The Scotland of the East.