MAWLYNNONG – Asia’s cleanest village !
Discover India mag first labeled this village in 2003.
And BBC flashed it across in 2005 and the news went viral.
Mawlynnoong is a healthy hamlet of eighty odd families in their ‘God’s Own Garden’ !
All roads are either tarred or concreted.
Open defecation abolished by building a toilet for each home.
Conical bamboo bins placed all over serve as litter collection agents 🙂
Cleanliness is not cosmetic. It is ingrained in their intent and action.
Right from age four, children are taught to throw the litter only in the bins. They are punished if they disobey.
I learnt to say ‘kublai’, ‘thanks’ in the local Khasi language. I needn’t have bothered as the entire village and the state of Meghalaya is 100% literate, thanks to the Welsh missionaries who pitched in here in the 18th century.
When you say ‘thank you’, you hear a ‘welcome’ with a clipped accent !k
You can walk around the village which looks more like a glorified garden – roses and bougainvilleas forming an enticing avenue.
There’s a sky view from where you can watch the bordering Bangladesh, mostly hidden in the fog !
For some strange reason I was reminded of the small village we all know very well in the land of the Gauls 🙂 but without the chaos 🙂
Please visit Mawlynnong – it will inspire you to at least keep your room clean 🙂
JAI HIND !
