In March 2025, Meera, I and Jacob were in Shillong admiring the traffic discipline on display on not so wide roads, having arrived from the snarling roads of Delhi and Bangalore. We were on our way to meet officers of the Meghalaya state and quite unaware of the pleasant surprise that awaited us. Earlier that crisp dawn, standing in the balcony of the 1898-built Pinewood Hotel, you could see fat sparrows busy twittering and feeding on moss covered tin-roofs under towering pines, adding cheer to the morning cup. Thanks to Donald Wahlang (Chief Secretary; we were together in Mussoorie more than three decades ago, now brought together by a common friend from those days, Udai) the Vidyadhan team signed an MoU with the state government the next morning as soon as the offices opened, before catching our afternoon flights from Guwahati.

The winding journey downhill from Shillong to Guwahati is mostly emerald green, but a striking irony is that the route is marked by the most polluted town on earth – Byrnihat (located in a low valley at the foot hills) on the Assam-Meghalaya border. A couple of days earlier, while on my way up to Shillong, I was thrilled to eat the best Aloo-gobhi of my life at a roadside restaurant as it drizzled outside. Must be the quality of the locally produced vegetables and the famous Lakadong turmeric grown in the Jaintia Hills.

Thanks to Patricia Mukhim, Editor-in-Chief of the Shillong Times and social activist (awarded the Padma Shri) the Vidyadhan scholarship launch was covered in the Shillong Times and reached a large number of eligible students in the state, and as we would realise later other capitals in the Northeast. As a result, the first batch of Vidyadhan students from Meghalaya, now in class 12, swelled to 88 scholars. Later, Patricia also interacted with these students.

Thanks are also due to the BSF in Meghalaya for helping Vidyadhan-Meghalaya Coordinator Balarihun navigate remote areas of the state and carry out the house visits (a critical element in judging the neediness factor) in the autumn of 2025.

The Shibulal Family Philanthropic Initiatives (SFPI)’s Vidyadhan scholarships then made their way to Nagaland in the summer of 2026. The climb from Dimapur to Kohima in some ways reminded of the Guwahati-Shillong road a year back, and it was dark by the time we reached ‘The Heritage’ (old DC Bunglow) atop Officers’ Hill, with its sweeping view of the city and the surrounding hills.

Our stay was next to the war memorial where the British Indian Army and the Japanese forces once engaged in intense combat in the summer of 1944. This was where the Japanese advance was halted after fierce combat, including hand-to-hand fighting. The Indian Forces had included – Indian Pioneer Corps, Indian General Service Corps, Indian Engineers, Indian Signal Corps, 7th Rajput Regiment and Indian States Forces. The Allied forces included – The Royal Berkshire Regiment, The Lancashire Fusiliers, 8th Gurkha Rifles, The Dorsetshire Regiment, and the Royal Australian Air Force.

Thanks to the sustained efforts of Dr Kekhrielhoulie Yhome, Advisor to the Government of Nagaland for School Education & SCERT, and his efficient team, the Vidyadhan team signed an MoU with the Education Department of the Nagaland government on April 28, 2026. The Chief Secretary, Secretary (School Education & SCERT) were present and Director (School Education) signed the MoU. A press interaction followed the signing.

As in Meghalaya, the response from the students in Nagaland has been heartwarming. The team plans to take the Vidyadhan scholarships (started in 1999, by Kumari and Shibulal, one of the co-founders of Infosys) to more Northeastern states in the coming years – to the beautiful people and land of the Northeast. Closing with a photograph of this splendorous orchid:

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