SONG OF THE SOUL

Did you know about the whistling village of India? Read about Kongthong, where villagers are not known by a name, but by a tune

- ANJULY MATHAI

Nestled between Meghalaya’s Sohra and Pynursla ridges—in a lush, cloud-covered valley 65km from Shillong—is a serene village called Kongthong. When the clouds part, one can get a glimpse of Bangladesh. But it is not the village’s beauty that has been attracting hordes of tourists from all over the world to it. It is, rather, the ancient tradition of tune-giving, or Jingrwai Iawbei (tune in honour of the root ancestress). Each of the 700 villagers in Kongthong is not known by a name, but by a tune. Within a week of a baby’s birth, the mother assigns the child a tune, which becomes their name.

Until a few years ago, Jingrwai Iawbei remained an obscure practice unknown to those outside Kongthong and a few neighbouring areas. One of the people who has been working hard to put the ‘whistling village of India’ on the world map is a Kongthong community leader called Rothell Khongsit. Everything about him seems uneven—his hair, teeth and the way he speaks English—which gives him the air of a Bollywood sidekick. But the perpetual smile in his voice is refreshing, as though things are always sunny in his world.

The impression might be misleading, because it has not been an easy journey for Khongsit. He studied up to class 7 in the village and then moved to Shillong. After completing his BCom, he joined the Meghalaya Village Development Society. As part of his job, he visited all the rural areas of the state, and the experience instilled in him a spirit of service. But slowly, a sense of dissatisfaction started creeping in. He was working for the state, but was not able to do anything for his own village, which remained without a figurehead to guide, inspire or motivate the people. So, he quit his job.