[Reader-list] 3rd posting, with apologiesfor the delay: Outsider?

[Renee Lulam]

The Shekhawati Agarwal family have been here for 120 years. Their story
speaks of the changes in Shillong, as a community, as a place, and as a
home. Business till the early sixties was conducted as a community, where
all the businesses of Shillong, 'local' or 'dkhar', would pool in finances,
and orders would be made from Calcutta. When the goods arrived, there was no
bikering. A sense of honour existed in taking what one's share was, and not
more. As businesses grew, and the bulk increased, so did competition. That
they necessarily need 'local' support and business to survive does not
escape them. The communal resentments that flare up occasionally however,
have inculcated a deep rooted insecurity, 'for those who have seen
everything with their own eyes, like me, there is always the insecurity'.
But the question is, if after 120 years here, they don't belong to the
place, who does?
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