Author Archives: TARIQ ABDULLAH

I, Saraswati Dhakal Sharma, legally wedded spouse of No. 10246308N Hav Gopal Sharma, hereby declare that now I intend to change my name from Saraswati Sharma to Saraswati Dhakal Sharma and also my correct date of birth is 20.04.1988, vide an affidavit sworn before Notary Public dated 28th April, 2026 at Shillong. Henceforth I shall be known as Saraswati Dhakal Sharma for all intents and purposes.

(AP) MONTREAL, May 25: Kimi Antonelli went from furious to victorious. A day after clashing with Mercedes teammate George Russell in a heated sprint race, the 19-year-old Italian star won a wild Canadian Grand Prix on Sunday for his fourth straight victory. Russell dropped out with an engine failure after the title-chasing Mercedes duo put on a show in a thrilling fight through 30 laps, trading the lead several times and coming dangerously close to making contact. Then trouble struck for Russell, giving Antonelli a clear path to the finish – and a commanding championship lead. Antonelli finished more than 10 seconds ahead of Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton. The spotlight shifted to two longtime rivals once Russell’s day ended, with Hamilton chasing down Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in a throwback to 2021. The seven-time world champion finally overtook Verstappen for second with six laps to go in cold and windy conditions at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve for his best result since joining Ferrari last year.

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(PTI)

NEW DELHI, May 25: Tokyo Olympics silver medallist wrestler Ravi Kumar Dahiya and Paralympic high jumper Sharad Kumar have approached the Central Administrative Tribunal seeking regularisation of their services as Assistant Directors of Education (Sports) with the Delhi government, alleging that they have been kept on repeated ad hoc extensions despite discharging regular administrative duties for years.

In separate but similarly worded petitions, the two athletes argued that they had left secure government jobs to join the Government of NCT of Delhi after being offered Group ‘A’ positions in recognition of their international achievements and with an expectation of eventual regularisation.

Sharad, a bronze medallist at the Tokyo Paralympics and silver medallist at the Paris Paralympics, stated that he had resigned from a permanent position with the Sports Authority of India, where he had served as athletics (Para) coach, to join the Delhi government in 2022.

The petitions contended that although the appointments were initially described as ad hoc for six months or till regular appointment, the memoranda also contained a two-year probation clause, creating a “legitimate expectation” that the athletes’ services would eventually be regularised.

Both athletes said they have continued to perform “perennial governmental functions” in the Sports Branch, including supervision of selection trials, inspection of stadiums and sports centres, evaluation of coaches and work related to Khelo India programmes.

PARIS, May 25: At age 39, Novak Djokovic can still wear opponents down.

Even opponents nearly half his age – and in front of a hostile crowd.

Djokovic came back from a set down for a 5-7, 7-5, 6-1, 6-4 victory over 22-year-old home player Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard in the first round of the French Open on Sunday in his record 82nd Grand Slam appearance.

“Obviously playing a French player, centre court at Roland Garros is never so easy. The crowd gets into it and then you feel the pressure even more,” Djokovic said after the 2 hour, 51-minute encounter.

“But all in all it was a good match to be part of: Three hours, just what the doctor ordered at age 39.”

Grunting during long rallies and digging deep on the opening night session on Court Philippe-Chatrier, it wasn’t until 1 hour, 45 minutes in that Djokovic finally found a way to break his 6-foot-7 (2.01-meter) opponent and even the match at a set all.

The crowd was pumped for a potential stunner – after all, Djokovic hasn’t lost in the first round of a Grand Slam in 20 years. But after two tense sets, Mpetshi Perricard seemed deflated of energy.

Djokovic, meanwhile, was just getting warmed up in only his second match on clay this year. In his other match on the surface this season, Djokovic lost to Croatian qualifier Dino Prizmic at the Italian Open after two months out due to a right shoulder injury.

Just by stepping on court two days after his 39th birthday, Djokovic set the men’s record for most Grand Slams contested – one more than Roger Federer and Feliciano Lopez. Djokovic has won a record 24 of those 82 Grand Slams.

Djokovic also tied French players Richard Gasquet and Antoine Gentian with a men’s record 22nd appearance at Roland Garros. He has reached at least the quarterfinals in 19 of the last 20 editions and raised the Coupe des Mousquetaires trophy in 2016, 2021 and 2023.

Novak Djokovic of Serbia serves to Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard of France during their first round men’s singles match at the French Open in Paris, on Sunday. (PTI)

Djokovic taunts the pro-French crowd

The 80th-ranked Mpetshi Perricard had plenty of crowd support and the fans erupted into chants of “Gio-vanni, Gio-vanni, Gio-vanni” when he ripped a forehand winner on his fourth break point to conclude a long rally during a tense game at 5-5 in the first set. Mpetshi Perricard then finished the set off with consecutive aces – the first of which clocked in at 223 kph (139 mph).

Djokovic said afterward that Mpetshi Perricard – who he played for the first time – has “one of the most tremendous serves in terms of precision and speed that I have ever faced in my career.”

Djokovic couldn’t convert a break point until his 10th try when he concluded the second set with a drop shot that Mpetshi Perricard couldn’t get back. Then Djokovic held his hand to his ear to taunt the pro-French crowd.

Late in the fourth set after he pulled off a delicate half-volley winner, Djokovic skipped back to the baseline in apparent glee. And when it was over, Djokovic performed a celebratory wiggle on the baseline.

Djokovic can’t meet Sinner until the final

Despite his reduced schedule of late, it should be remembered that Djokovic reached this year’s Australian Open final where he lost to Carlos Alcaraz and has made the semifinals or better at five straight Grand Slams.

With Alcaraz, the two-time reigning French Open champion, sitting out Roland Garros and Wimbledon with an injured right wrist, Djokovic sees a chance for himself in the lower half of the draw. He would meet top-ranked Jannik Sinner, who is on a 29-match winning streak, only in the final.

Along with 2015 champion Stan Wawrinka, who is playing in his final French Open, Djokovic is the only former men’s singles champion competing in Paris.

Match-fixing whistleblower

Djokovic wasn’t the only player at an advanced age in the win column at Roland Garros on Sunday.

Marco Trungelliti, who at 36 recently became the oldest man in the professional era (since 1969) to break into the top 100 of the rankings, beat Kyrian Jacquet 6-4, 6-2, 6-2.

“I’m reaching my peak (at) 36,” Trungelliti said.

Trungelliti partly attributed his late development to being ostracized from the tennis tour years ago when he became a whistleblower against match-fixing in the sport.

“Really hurt me back then,” said Trungelliti, who still lives in exile in Andorra and feels uncomfortable going home to Argentina.

“I was very innocent in the sense that I was expecting that the system would help me out a little bit, and it was completely the opposite.

“The whole package of institutions were never there, and they are still not there,” Trungelliti added. “I have a spine in my heart, and it’s going to be there forever.” Sorana Cirstea, another 36-year-old who this week became the oldest player to make her debut in the top 20, beat 17-year-old Ksenia Efremova 6-3 6-1.

Wawrinka waves emotional goodbye

Wawrinka waved a fond goodbye to the French Open after losing in the first round on Monday.

The 41-year-old Swiss, the 2015 champion and 2017 finalist, is retiring at the end of the season. He made his final Roland Garros appearance 21 years after his first.

Jesper de Jong finished off Wawrinka 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 with a whipped forehand winner, then urged the fans to applaud Wawrinka, whose face was almost as red as the baking-hot clay. Temperatures in sun-soaked Paris hit 33 degrees C.

“It’s hard, it’s hard to say goodbye to you here,” an emotional Wawrinka said. “It’s because of Roland Garros that I wanted to become a tennis player.”

He was given an ovation at Court Simonne-Mathieu, where he got fans to do a Mexican wave before leaving. Wawrinka was scheduled to face Arthur Fils but the rising French star pulled out of the tournament with a hip issue. (AP)

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DA NANG (VIETNAM), May 25: India continued their impressive run at the U-23 Wrestling Asian Championships with freestyle grapplers Akshay T Dhere and Vicky claiming stunning gold medals here on Monday. Akshay set the tone in the 57kg weight class by edging past Kazakhstan’s Yela-man Amangeldi with a gritty 4-2 victory to claim the title. Vicky soon doubled the joy for the Indian camp in the 97kg division, pulling off a thrilling 7-5 win against Uzbekistan’s Sherzod Poyonov to secure the top spot on the podium. In the 53kg final, Muskan beat Vietnam’s Thi My Linh Nguyen, registering a comfortable 6-2 win to clinch the title. Tapsya was even more dominant in the 57kg category, securing her gold medal with a victory by fall over Kazakhstan’s Altyn Shagayeva while leading 4-0. Bhagyashree H. Fand added another gold to India’s tally in the 62kg division, blanking Kyrgyzstan’s Tynys Dubek 4-0 in her title clash, while Pulkit (65kg) continued the gold rush with 4-0 and 4-1 wins over Kyrgyzstan’s Tynys Dubek and Mongolia’s Narkhajid Nyamsuren respectively. Amruta Shashikant Pujari took home the silver in the 72kg division after a 2-4 l to Mongolia’s Odgerel Edene Ochir. (PTI)

By Our Reporter

SHILLONG, May 25: Shillong Police has asserted that all efforts are on to trace the culprits involved in vandalising the vehicle of Rev. Mcdonald Pyngrope, a pastor at Mawkhar Presbyterian Church who recently flagged the alleged misappropriation of church funds and filed an FIR at Lumdiengjri Police Station.

East Khasi Hills SP, Vivek Syiem said that the police are trying to ascertain whether the crime was an act of arson or whether it was committed with ulterior motive.

The vehicle was targeted while parked near the Wahumkhrah fencing at Lawmali Pyllun. The pastor had been attending a cottage gathering at a church member’s residence in Wahingdoh and noticed the damage—a smashed right rear door—only after reaching Jaiaw Pdeng.

The pastor has been leading efforts to address financial irregularities within the church. His earlier complaint alleged that an internal audit for the 2023-24 financial year, supported by findings from a legal team and a special audit report, revealed acts of fraud, forgery, and the diversion of church funds for personal gain by certain individuals.

Local Businesses Should Not Mean Paying Any Price

By Balakmen Suting (The writer is an MBA in Tourism and Hotel Management, NEHU)

At the entrance of Iewduh known as Shillong’s great beating heart of commerce, the oldest and most beloved bazaar (Iew) of the Khasi people, there is an archway that every trader, every ven-dor, every customer passes beneath. Carved into that archway, above the bustle of vendors and the scent of fresh produce and smoked meat, are four words in the Khasi language: “Kamai da ka Hok” which means “Earn with righteousness”.

It is not merely a decora-tive inscription. It is a cov-enant, a promise made by a trading community to itself, across generations. It says: “we will sell, yes, but we will sell fairly. We will earn, yes, but we will earn with honour. Every shopkeeper who ducks beneath that archway to open their stall inherits that prom-ise. Every customer who passes under it trusts that it will be kept.

I thought about those four words for a long time after an afternoon that left me quietly troubled.

I had gone to a small bistro in the Mawkhar area of Shillong, the kind of mod-est local eatery that I have always been glad to support. My purpose was simple and sincere. In a city where money can easily slip away to large chains and outside enterprises, I wanted my rupees to stay local. I wanted them to pay a neighbour’s rent, a cousin’s school fees, a family’s grocery bill. I wanted to be part of what economists call the “circulation of wealth” which means money moving through the hands of our own people, building our own community from within.

I ordered what I love most in all of Shillong’s rich culinary world: ‘Ja stem’ – steamed rice, clean and fra-grant, served with Doh Nei Iong, that deep, dark, slow-cooked pork dish that carries the soul of the Khasi kitchen in every bite, and Sohbaingon Dieng chutney, sharp and alive on the tongue. A plate of two small pieces of meat. A small portion of rice. The kind of humble, hon-est meal that has nourished generations.

After eating, I asked how much I needed to pay for two plates of Ja stem, chutney, and two pieces of meat. I listened carefully, wondering if I had heard correctly.

“Two hundred rupees.”

I asked the shopkeeper gently, without argument to confirm. Yes, they said. Two hundred rupees.

I paid. I left. And I walked through the afternoon street of Mot Phran, Shillong car-rying something heavier than a full stomach: the quiet, uncomfortable feeling of a trust that had not quite been honoured.

I want to be very careful here, because this piece is not written in anger, and it is not meant to shame any indi-vidual or establishment. The people who run small food businesses in Shillong work hard. Prices of chicken, pork, fish, rice, firewood, cooking gas all have climbed steeply in recent months and years. A shop owner carries costs that a customer never fully sees: rent, staff, early mornings at the market, long hours over a hot stove. I respect all of that, and I say it sincerely.

But there is a difference – thin, yet important be-tween pricing that reflects real costs and pricing that leaves a customer feeling taken advantage of. That difference is not just about money. It is about the rela-tionship between a seller and a buyer. It is about whether commerce in our city is built on trust or on surprise.

And it is about whether the words inscribed in Iewduh’s archway, “Kamai da ka Hok” are still alive in the practice of our daily trade.

There is another dimen-sion to this, that troubles me equally: customer relations.

When I asked the shop-keeper to confirm the price, there was no warmth in the exchange. No explanation. No acknowledgement that Rs 200 for a small bistro plate might seem unexpected to a customer. Just a flat con-firmation, and silence. Keep in mind, this is my personal experience, hopefully others customers do not have the similar experience.

I understand that not ev-eryone is born with the gift of easy conversation. But in a small food business, the way a customer is spoken to, or not spoken to, is part of what is being sold. A smile costs nothing. A brief, honest ex-planation, “Our meat prices have gone up this season” or “This is our special recipe, so our pricing reflects that” can completely change how a customer receives a bill that long costs more because you use better-quality pork, say so. If your portions are smaller because ingredient prices have risen, tell your customers. People under-stand hardship. What they do not easily forgive is silence in the face of a bill they did not expect.

People will pay more for food when they feel respect-ed. People will not return even for food they enjoyed when they feel dismissed.

As the old bazaar wisdom says: ‘a customer who leaves happy will return with ten more. A customer who leaves hurt will warn a hundred.’

Shillong stands today at a genuinely exciting mo-ment. Local cuisine like Ja stem, Doh Nei Iong, Jadoh, Pumaloi, Tungrymbai, is drawing interest not just from across India but from around the world. Travellers come to our city hungry not just for food but for culture, for au-thenticity, for the particular warmth that only a small lo-cal kitchen can offer. This is an extraordinary opportunity for our food entrepreneurs.

But that opportunity is built on a foundation of trust. And trust, in commerce as in friendship, must be tended carefully.

If visitors leave Shillong’s bistros and local eateries feeling uncertain, wonder-ing whether they paid fair-ly, whether the experience matched the cost, they will not return. Worse, in the age of social media, they will say so loudly, and the whole world will hear them. Conversely, a restaurant that makes every customer feel genuinely welcomed and fairly treated becomes, in time, an institution. A legend.

The kind of place people travel back to, year after year, and bring their friends to.

That is the choice before our local food business com-munity right now.

For local food businesses, a few thoughts offered with respect:

Show your prices clearly. A handwritten menu board even a simple one removes uncertainty before it begins. Customers who know the price before they order feel respected. Customers who discover it only at the end feel ambushed, even when the price itself is reason-able.

Price fairly and explain proudly. If your Doh Nei long costs more because you use better-quality pork, say so. If your portions are smaller because ingredient prices have risen, tell your customers. People under-stand hardship. What they do not easily forgive is silence in the face of a bill they did not expect.

Train in hospitality, not just cooking. The best food in the world is diminished by a cold or dismissive interac-tion. Warmth, eye contact, a genuine welcome are skills that can be learned, and they are worth learning.

Think long-term. A cus-tomer who feels well-treated today may return thirty times over the next year and send twenty of their friends. A customer who feels over-charged once may never return at all. The arithmetic of loyalty always favours fairness.

Remember: supporting local is a partnership. When a customer walks past a global chain to eat at a neighbour-hood bistro, they are making a statement about what they believe in. That statement deserves to be honoured.

And to us as customers, a word as well. Choosing local means choosing to invest in our own community and investment requires patience and grace. Quality ingredi-ents cost money. Running a small business is hard. We should not expect local food to be cheap simply because it is local. We should expect it to be fairly priced and that is a different thing entirely.

One uncomfortable af-ternoon will not change my belief in local commerce. I will return to our neighbour-hood bistros and our market stalls. I will keep choosing Ja stem and Doh Nei Iong over fast food and franchise restaurants. That choice is not naive, it is deliberate, because I have seen what our local economy can become when it is built with care.

The archway at Iewduh does not say earn as much as you can. It does not say charge whatever the cus-tomer will bear. It says some-thing simpler, and harder, and more beautiful: Kamai da ka Hok (Earn with righ-teousness).

May every plate of food serve in our city be seasoned with that spirit. May every bill presented across a coun-ter in Shillong carry the quiet pride of fair dealing. And may our local economy grow not only in size, but in the trust and warmth that make a community truly worth belonging to.

THE status of education in Meghalaya has been abysmal and this is borne out by statistics. The latest all-India ranking puts Meghalaya at the 10th grade which is the lowest in the country. This however is not news. State Chief Minister, Conrad Sangma has belabored this fact times without number. Meghalaya has a total of 14,582 schools and pays 55,160 teach- ers. Of these schools, 2269 schools have single digit enrolment meaning that there are too many schools in a small village competing for student enrolment. There are 206 schools with no students at all but the teachers are being paid. The drop-out rate at 22,000 students annually at different levels is also very high. School dropout rates in the state vary drastically between regions, with a staggering 90% student attri- tion rate across six specific districts transitioning into higher secondary levels. According to UDISE+ sta- tistics, while the state average for secondary school dropouts sits at an alarming 21.7% (nearly double the national average of 12.6%), rural and ethnically distinct pockets face far deeper problems.

The education sector in Meghalaya struggles with a highly fragmented school system. Thousands of schools were created not because they were needed but because of political compulsions. In the same village there would be a church run school, a private school and a government school. Naturally there were not enough takers for all three categories of schools. Schools were set up without mapping the needs of the village and without looking at the vi- ability factor. They were treated like one-time invest- ments where the teachers were paid by government but the maintenance and upkeep of the school was no one’s responsibility. This is the real reason for the existence of schools without students or only 5-6 students with an equal number of teachers. The right thing to do now is to streamline the entire system and close down schools that have no students or too few students and ensure the students from such schools are enrolled in the nearest school. It’s time for the Government to invest in school transportation systems since most schools, especially high and higher secondary schools are located at a distance away, sometimes requiring that students cross rivers and streams on their way.

The empty and near-empty institutions continue to draw public funds and keep teachers on payrolls without serving any learners. And while some schools suffer from teacher shortage other schools have teachers but no students. This over-saturation of schools spreads the state’s Rs 1,967 crore annual teacher salary budget thin, preventing meaningful investment in modern learning materials, electricity, or clean drinking water for functioning schools. To counter this crisis, the state government is moving forward with a school rationalisation policy. This strategy involves closing or merging nearly 2,500 under-enrolled facilities to scale down the total number of schools to roughly 12,000, allowing the Education Department to reassign teachers where they are actually needed. Also the state intends to review and consolidate school grants and imple- ment the Meghalaya State Education Commission (MSEC) report to structurally reform the system. This requires political will and the present MDA Government has to take a call, no matter what the political costs.

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