Loi
Loi is the manager of the Nohron bus. The Mawlang and the Nohron bus take the same route from Shillong till the detour from Pashang, about three hours from Shillong. The Nohron bus turns right from Pashang and the Mawlang bus takes the kutcha road from this point.
We did not know Loi very well; in fact, we had never spoken with him. However, Bah Deng Nicholas, a regular of the Nohron bus, suggested that he would ask Loi to take pictures of his bus, the journey and villages that lie along the Nohron route.
Getting the camera back from him was a trying experience. Three days, one week, ten days, almost two weeks passed by. Every time we would meet him at the Anjali bus stand, we would ask him if he had finished the roll. The constant refrain – he had finished about 20 and couldn’t click more because it had been raining at his place. We did not know what to think- did he take similar pictures like Kunum and was shying away from giving us the roll? Did he spoil or lose the camera? Did he want to keep the camera for himself and not return it at all? Finally after about two weeks we managed to collect the camera from him and on developing the roll, realized that it had been well worth the wait.
Loi took his pictures at leisure. They were many photographs of the village and the landscape – mountains, clouds, and villages on hilltops. He took a few photographs of his friend, a road that was being constructed or maybe repaired because of the monsoons and some photographs of his bus. The photographs threw up a beautiful sense of his village and the terrain of the villages along the Nohron route.