Both of them are involved with numerous organizations and working towards the promotion of Hindi language. Both of them have been writing poems, short stories, articles as well as working on various research papers, all in Hindi. Considering the fact that Hindi is our National language and it’s not much spoken in the north eastern part of India, their aim is to popularize Hindi among the non Hindi speaking people of this region. Currently Dr. Susmita Das and Dr. Manju Lama are pursuing their MA in Hindi. Some of the awards and felicitation received by Dr. Susmita Das includes Aajker Shillong Sahitya Samman in the year 2006, Sulabh Sahitya Academy Puraskar, All India Poetess Conference Award etc. She also participated in many seminars and wrote scripts for many shows which were aired by All India Radio and Doordarshan. At present she is a Hindi teacher with Umpling Girls’ Secondary School, Shillong. Dr. Manju Lama is presently working as a teacher with Nongthymmai Nepali Higher Secondary School, Shillong. She has her work published in many newspapers and different magazines all across India. She wrote Geeton Bhari Kahani for AIR and her program Kavi Gosti has been telecast from Doordarshan Kendriya, Shillong. Her short stories ‘Sharifo Ka Mohalla’ was translated in Punjabi language as well. She was felicitated by Sahitya Academy, N.C.B.S (Meghalaya), Meghalaya Tamang Buddhist Association, Bhanu Jayanti Samaroh, Vishista Sahitya Samman to mention a few.

Not only in Meghalaya but in the entire country there is this belief that without knowing English, we cannot progress, which is a wrong notion and I blame our political scenario for  this misconception.

Q1.  Inspiration for taking up Hindi language

Dr. Manju Lama – I did my schooling in Hindi medium only. North eastern part of India was and still is highly influenced by English language. At that time, the students of Hindi medium school were looked down upon by others. Even I used to feel that why am I studying in Hindi medium, but later I realized that there is a lot of scope in Hindi language and hence forth I appeared for my metric exam in Hindi medium. Later I joined Shatriya School as Hindi teacher and felt that Hindi should be promoted in our north eastern region of India. Then I joined the Nepali school at Nongthymmai as Hindi teacher and I am still teaching there. Students in this part of the country are interested in learning Hindi language but there is a dearth of quality Hindi teaching teachers in this region because of which the students get deviated towards English language. If students get better scope to educate themselves in Hindi language, more interest will be generated among them to learn the language. Before I used to write in Nepali, but now I mostly write in Hindi. I also wrote a lot of music based stories for All India Radio. Also did a lot of programs and hosted shows for Doordarshan and through all these my awareness towards Hindi language increased and all these experiences inspired me a lot. I wish to spread the Hindi language in the entire north eastern region of India.

Susmita Das – My mother tongue is Bangla and I did my education in Bangla medium. When I was young, my neighbour was a Hindi speaking family and I grew up playing and speaking to them in Hindi language and the sweetness of the language generated interest in me. I was always interested in literature and my mother was an avid reader and used to regularly read upannyas and other poetry to me which inspired me a lot. Since childhood I started writing short stories and poems. Later in the year 1996 when I completed my education and got married I entered the field of teaching. In the year 1998-1999, I got associated with Hindi Organization and during one of those training programs; I got a chance to present my poems in front of other people for the very first time. I got a lot of appreciation for the same and that inspired me to write more and more. Later I was associated with a publication named Aajker Shillong and Hindi newspaper Purvanchali for quite some time. In this way I was associated with both Bangla and Hindi language simultaneously. I am associated with Meghalaya Rastriya Bhasha Association and also with many other publications within Shillong as well as of other states. Both of us are involved in writing articles, poems and also do a lot of research based work. There are places where we submit our research papers.

Q2. You have received a lot of awards and appreciation? Which is the most valuable of all the awards that you have received so far?

Susmita Das – The first recognition that I got at the national level, that memory will always remain with me, because it was the first chance that I got from All India Poetess conference which is a women’s association to participate in the program in Pune. The program was being organized by MYiers MIT. Many renowned personalities were present during the program including Vishwanath Karerji and other members of UNESCO and I got an opportunity to meet all of them, talk to them which was extremely memorable. There we got a chance to stay in the house of actor Late Raj Kapoor. Secondly the title of Doctorate that I got recently is also very precious to me. The one thing I would like to add is when we got this title of Doctorate, along with us from the same stage the Chief Minister of Gujarat Anandi Bhen Patel also got the Title of Doctorate, which her husband received on her behalf.

Dr. Manju Lama – For me the important award that I got is the Bisistha Sathiya Samman from Assam. Most of my stories, articles and poems were published by Samanya Purvouttar which reaches every nook and corner of the country because of which people started to recognize me. Through Samanya Purvouttar, I received the Bisistha Sathiya Samman from Assam. After that secondly in the year 2012 I got the Title of Doctorate which is very important to me.

Q3. Development of Hindi Language in the North Eastern Region of India?

Dr. Susmita Das – Regarding the development of Hindi language, firstly I would like to bring to your notice that I am a teacher of Ad-hoc school and ad-hoc Hindi teachers are not that well paid. Related to this issue I also started an organization All Meghalaya Teachers Association, through which I did a lot of research and also met some officers of the Central Hindi Department. The problem in this region is that I feel the people here don’t want to acknowledge the importance of Hindi language. Our central Government has provided many schemes to develop Hindi language. There is this Scientific and Technical Terminology department which recognizes Indian Languages. 22 Indian languages have been recognized so far in our country. Recently Bodo language was given recognition in our constitution. Not only in Meghalaya but in the entire country there is this belief that without knowing English, we cannot progress, which is a wrong notion and I blame our political scenario for this misconception. Our higher education is in English, whereas China and Japan by educating their children in their own language is far more developed than us.