Shillong, Aug 16: Please forgive me, if I haven’t told you Bryan Adams’ December concert in Shillong shares a connection, in a mysterious way, with the North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU) and other educational institutions.

Rewind to the Summer of 69, more precisely to 1973, when NEHU was established as a central university. It was about the same time that Meghalaya was carved out of Assam.

Across the Atlantic, Bryan too was getting started when he bought an imitation Les Paul (one of the first mass-produced electric solid-body guitars) at a Five and Dime store in Ottawa, Canada in 1971.

After buying that guitar, Bryan strummed and sang in a raspy voice to declare to the world: “Here I am…Never give up on a dream”. NEHU too, like Bryan Adams, had its own “rock n roll” moment inheriting a city crooning of dreams.

The University inherited from the colonial era educational institutions such as Pine Mount, established in 1900, St Anthony’s (1901), Loreto Convent (1909), St Mary’s (1913), St. Edmunds (1916), and others.

In fact, NEHU is one of the oldest Universities in the northeast, established after Gauhati University (1948) and Dibrugarh University (1965). It was probably established in Shillong, as this city was considered as a pivotal educational hub of the region.

Therefore, much before Shillong was thrust the moniker of being the “rock capital of the country” by some sassy PR firm or the GK books leaving blank —- is the Scotland of the east, the closet fit and unsaid moniker for Shillong was “it’s the educational hub of the northeast”.

Fast forward to Bryan’s concert and he would be performing his “So Happy that it Hurts” India tour concerts in Bengaluru, Shillong (December 10), Kolkata, Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai – Pune is missing here this time.

When we take a closer look at these cities, we find many of these are educational hubs. Be it Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Shillong and of course the metros.

In Shillong, students from all over the northeast come for their studies. With the confluence of students, there is a healthy mix of ideas, culture, languages, food habits, dance, music et al giving it a cosmopolitan aura.

There is a saying: “In Shillong everyone can strum the guitar”. This is more of an off-tuned guitar strumming a song on generalization. But yes, a good majority would have raised a guitar with friends, strummed the As, Ds, Cs, and belted songs, including those of Bryan’s, and felt like a rockstar.

Shillong also has some good music schools, like the Shillong School of Music, Aroha and others. Pine Mount school has music as a subject and piano lessons are provided. Moreover, who can forget the Shillong Chamber of Choir, Lou Majaw, Rudi Wallang and a whole new generation of wonderful musicians (mostly western).

Taking an example of another city, maybe Pune that hosted many western musicians over the years including Iron Maiden, Boney M, it can be said that Shillong and Pune share few things in common.

Pune has a great history and environment for western music. The Poona Music Society has been promoting the study of western classical music from 1946. There are many good music schools providing piano and violin lessons, apart from being an educational hub.

Concert promoters spotlight density of young adults (students) as one of the major factors for the success of hosting concerts in a city. So the choice of cities for concerts such as Bryan’s is factored upon hosting history of concerts, cosmopolitan outlook, student population, security, fan, economy and others.

That was the happy part. Now coming to where it hurts, we can’t ignore the recent National Institutional Ranking Framework report. It cuts like a knife to say that NEHU’s ranking is sinking and so too Shillong’s reputation as an educational hub.

On the other hand, Assam now does have some great educational institutions – some have come up in recent years. Mizoram has one of the best colleges (35) in the country as per the NIRF report. Many students from the northeast now prefer going elsewhere, instead of coming to Shillong.

Moreover, the fluid security situation in Shillong is another major concern, hurting tourism and other sectors. So, a serious rethink is required and taking a cue from one of Bryan’s song: “All of these miles and where I been/All of this time that I´ve wasted/All of my dreams they´re just gone like the wind/Ya – I´ve got to face it/Where do I go from here…?”

Read: Five Mottock organisations stage protest over non-granting of ST status to the community

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