The French Connection

Lachaumiere is a picturesque locality somwhere in the middle of Shillong- a kind of mid-point between Laitumkhrah and Police Bazaar. Pretty houses line the narrow roads that climb up gentle slopes and descend meanderingly, in the way that's typical of Shillong. Quiet and dignified, this residential area spans the entire space from the slope leading up to the Loreto gate all the way down to the old Secretariat, very near AIR. The cross-section at the top of the hill next to the said gate is a vantage point of sorts: a three pronged-fork as well as a peak with what would have been a commanding view wasn't it for the large school wall and numerous residences around it. An air of calm, perfumed with the scent of pine and eucalyptus from the Loreto playgrounds hovers over the place.

It seems that somewhere during the British Raj, a king of Dhaka (under Assam then, now in Bangladesh) had, for his summer house, a little house right atop the hill, adjacent to Loreto, then a school for the daughters and wards of British generals. This king had a French lady serving his household, presumably a governess for his children. Of course, this abode could not hold a candle to his opulent palace back home and so the mademoiselle named it Lachaumiere, the French equivalent for 'Thatch-House'. Perhaps it was such then. What remains now is an Assam-type house where that used to be; sold by the royal, no doubt, long ago. And of course the name remains to this day, spelt and pronounced differently, but no less French, and all the more exotic.