Women of Shillong | Police Bazaar

Photos from Iewduh and Police Bazaar…taken in January.

Kong(Khasi for sister) is a respectful term, and can be used for any woman irrespective of her age.
Although Mary, my host in Shillong, painted this picture(of a Kong) in my head, and I think the two ladies below get closest to that.

This lady is also my host’s domestic help. She walks everyday from Polo Hills to Risa Colony and back. That’s roughly about…7kms. a day? She is in her 70s.

“Old-fashioned dresses worn by Khasi ladies of farming families comprise – the ka jympien, a body cloth wrapped round and fastened at the loins with a cloth belt that ends at the knees or just below it. Over this next-to-the-skin undercloth they wear the ka jainsem, sometimes made of muga silk, which hangs loosely from the shoulders down to the ankles and is not caught in at the waist. It has a built-in pocket for small personal articles and is kept in position by knotting at both shoulders.”

However, what most of the women are wearing here is a Jain-kyrshah - a checkered cotton cloth knotted over one shoulder; sort of an improvised apron.

Even in heaven people eat Kwai - a popular saying in Khasi. Kwai is paan made of betel leaf, areca nut, and lime. Everybody in Shillong eats it. It’s a part of their culture, and is addictive(in a good way I suppose). It’s available pretty much on every street, and in winters, you eat it with ginger; it makes you feel warm.

A Kwai addict is easy to identify – red lips!

Kwai eating lady on the left.

“If she is young, she will be buxom and comely, with powerful calves that are admired as beauty.” Couldn’t have been more honest with the description.

Below: a woman selling Khui(Khasi slang for cigarettes) and Kwai..in Police Bazaar.

“When it gets bitterly cold in the hills, Khasi women wear long feet less stockings; in cases of the poorer families, ribbons or cloth wound around the legs like putties or gaiters.”

Text in quotes + the scans are from the book Dwellers of the High Hills – The Khasis of Meghalaya.

There is a good deal of unsolicited photography involved in my last few posts+in the ones to come. If I’ve photographed you, and you want your photo to be taken down for whatever reasons…let me know.

Next…look forward to photos of the Church going, Sunday people; people from Laitumkhrah; and people at the fair at Fire Brigade Grounds.

I am also considering blogging about houses of Shillong, and the way the city looked in January. The houses there are different and I photographed plenty of them. It’ll be a sort of digression from what I’ve been doing so far on the blog…

Men of Shillong | Police Bazaar

I spent a total of about 24 hours in Police Bazaar…during my 40 day long stay in Shillong, in January.
First eight photos are from Iewduh market; rest are from PB.

Iewduh is the Khasi word for Big Market..also known as Bada Bazaar in Hindi. It’s the largest open street market in north-eastern India. Practically everything is available here – fruits, vegetables, fish; to typical medicinal herbs and plants; to traditional wood, bamboo handicrafts, and woolen handmade shawls + all the other regular stuff. Most goods are reasonably priced.

And on every Sunday, from 5a.m. till the ‘good’ stock lasts(usually by 11a.m.), this place holds a different kind of market – only for clothes. Peddlers pile up their stock of clothes on the side pavements and push carts.

A typical pile contains mixed items of clothing- shirts, jeans, coats, etc…and sells for anything between sheepoh(10) Rupees to sanspoh(500) Rupees. Irrespective of prices being dirt cheap..bargaining is still the norm.

While Iewduh’s neighbour Police Bazaar is a major hub for all sorts of activities..and is packed with street side stalls of food, jewelry, shoes, clothes..to small underground malls and arcades + plenty of restaurants & hotels. And it’s crowded everyday like it’s a Sunday + it’s much worse on Sundays.

However, on any day, it’s difficult to take a full length photo without someone coming in your way.

Skinnies and tapered jeans with Converse sneakers is one of the most common sights in Shillong..although seen less on men and more on women. There are 2 exclusive Converse stores in Shillong. One, I’m sure, is in Laitumkhrah..I am not too sure if there is one in PB as well. But there are many street side shops selling Converse shoes just about in every market. However the point is..it seemed like every person in Shillong owns at least a pair of them. 

Shillong, other than being known as the fashion capital of India(along with Kohima?), is also known as the rock capital of India. About 90% of the people I met, knew how to play at least one musical instrument really well. However the tag ‘rock capital’ is not quite correct..as they’re all inspired by music of all kind – from Eminem to Poison to Dave Weckl to Bach, and they do make a lot of music other than rock.

Also, Bollywood is their last source of inspiration for anything…but they do like the regular cheesy Bollywood films.

For most, the influences vary from Korean pop stars(Rain, Shinee) to Japanese films(Crows Zero) to the regular mainstream American sitcoms and music videos. If anybody can think of anything else, please add.

Out of place tourists? It won’t be quite right to single out people, call them tourists from other states, just by looking at the way they dress. Nevertheless, it’s kind of an obvious fact that men in quintessential Indian clothing(kurta/ pajama/dhoti) can be found everywhere in India.

A knife maker above wearing Puma sweatshirt(fake, of course), and a watch seller below.

I loosely connect the way this watch seller is wearing his watches, to this style that has been on the runway here at Jean-Charles de Castelbajac SS 11 show.
Although, multiple time pieces around the wrist is nothing new for fashion bloggers, and this style falls in the same category as the multiple belts - serving no real practical purpose…but still..interesting to document.

Next up : some of the most common men’s hairstyles in Shillong.

P.S. I know it’s kind of weird looking at all these winter photos in summer. 

Small Town Women & English Braids

Photos taken in January…in Police Bazaar, Shillong.

Nobody wears pyjamas with shoes anymore.

..particularly in reference to black leather shoes..loafers in this case. It’s common to find old men in small cities wearing them with white pyjamas, but very rare in big urban cities…and very rarely would be seen on young men anywhere.

Man on the street. Photographed in Janurary at Bosco square, Laitumkhrah, Shillong.

Dheeman Agarwala. Jacket: Govinda Mehta. Black tee: H&M, Pyjamas: local darzi, Loafers: Red Tape.
Location: Versova, Bombay. Photographed in April for my street style story for Bungalow 8.

A rare sight

An oversized coat, scarf over a woolen cap, shirt over a sweater, blue lungi over pants, oversized bag, and red gloves – worn out of necessity and privation.

Although, the rare sight is not the clothing, but spotting a beggar in Shillong. Very rarely you’d find one on the streets.

Locals say they are less in number because of the cold, elevation of the city(about 1600metres), and absence of rail connectivity. “It’s a good thing that there are no trains else they’d bring more of them. No beggar would want to sit in a bus, or take a cab, just to come all the way to this height to beg!”

Photo taken at the entrance of the Fire Brigade Ground, on one of the days of a 20 day long fair affair, sometime in January.

P.S. Text in quotes is the view of two Shillong locals…and not a general consensus.

Laundry Girl

..waiting on the roadside with a bucket, a bundle of clothes, and some detergent. Photo taken in January..in Risa Colony, Shillong.

Polka dots & Peter Pan Collar

Polka dots & Peter Pan collar have been bloggers’ staples for the longest time. The collar keeps coming back on the runway, on the carpets, and on the wish list of men who are obsessed with polka dots. Meanwhile the dots have been everywhere from houses, to music videos, to insects….

Below, they can be seen together on a fashion blogger from Singapore; on a fashion blogger from Europe; in the Summer Collection of a London based fashion label-Dahlia; on an 18 year old art student from Wales, here.

However, the point of all that I mentioned so far is that during my stay in Shillong this January, I photographed a girl wearing something similar….

..and I find it amazing how different people, from different classes of societies, from different countries, geographically and socially oblivious of the other, end up dressing the same.

The girl above works at a tea shop in Laitumkhrah, Shillong.

Torn

Ekta Rajani. Senior Fashion Editor, Grazia…endorsing my visiting card..wearing head band & floral brooch from H&M, top from Forever 21, belt – a vintage sash from some flea market, silver chain from Accessorize, and gold chain from Chanel.
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A young drifter in Police Bazaar, Shillong…a little hesitant to talk, wearing his father’s shawl as a head wrap, and other old hand-me-downs, acquired from people he couldn’t seem to recall.