Story-telling amid Shillong’s cherry blossoms
CM Sangma’s strategy is built around music, sports and literature to fuel economic growth.
Updated At : 02:29 AM Nov 28, 2025 IST
Innovation: Celebrated authors like Francesc Miralles, Banu Mushtaq and Shehan Karunatilaka participated in the Shillong Literary Festival. photo by writer
IT’S that time of the year in Shillong, capital of Meghalaya, near but also far enough from the Assam valley, where high-voltage political challenges and pressures play out on a daily basis. The flow of life and the rhythms of days here are different: the sun is warm, the skies are blue and the AQI can be, as in my neighbourhood, below 10. Eat your hearts out, Dilliwallahs and all those from the most polluted cities in the world, a majority of which are located in India. The cherry blossoms are in bloom, their fragile pink blossoms bursting from the branches.
