Nehu

Working up here at the North Eastern Hill University in Shillong is a bit different from a regular city job. We are part of the University Engineer’s setup. The air is always a bit cooler up here and sometimes the clouds just roll right into the office windows during the monsoon. It’s a quiet place, mostly. We spend our days looking after the buildings and making sure the campus keeps running like it should. There’s always a leak to fix or a wall that needs painting somewhere on the grounds. It’s a lot of walking because the campus is spread out over the hills. We don’t have a high-tech setup with glowing screens everywhere. It’s more about registers, physical tools, and a lot of patience. The students pass by our window all day, and sometimes we have to tell them to move along if they’re getting too loud near the workspace. Shillong rain is no joke, so we spend a lot of time dealing with damp walls and roof issues. It’s practical work. We don’t write long reports about synergy or anything like that. If something breaks, we go out and fix it. Some days the internet is slow, or the power goes out, and we just sit and talk until it comes back. It’s a steady life up here in the hills, and we wouldn’t trade the view for a fancy office downtown. It is just a simple way to spend the day.