The courageous and brave officer, who his colleague saw as highly disciplined, had another side when he was not in uniform.
"He never brought his work home. At home he was a live wire. Not a single morning passed without Raymond's jokes and funny text messages," says Banman Blah, Saphimosha's brother.
And these were not recycled jokes or forwarded messages, Saphimosha adds. "The first thing he did every morning was spread the newspaper and go through each and every column. He would then either pun on the day's headlines or twist the news to make jokes out of it. Only after he sent the messages would his day begin. And he always used to say the letters to the editor were more interesting than the news itself," she remembers her husband, who also had a Master's degree in English literature.
This lighter side of the stern police officer could be partly explained by the stressful nature of his job. "He was a very busy man. And the region being what it is, there was always something or the other. The little time he spent at home was all that he had. He always used to say the time he was with me was when he forgot everything," says Saphimosha, a lecturer in Shillong's St Mary's College.
A movie-buff, Diengdoh loved animated movies. "Ask him why he loves them, he would say that when a man has a job like mine, then it is small things like these that are a relief. They matter a lot."
The two met in 2005 and married on October 10, 2006. "We got married on Raymond's birthday. But shortly after he had to move to Ri Bhoi district in May 2007. I even asked him if I should quit my job and move with him. He said I should keep the job and one should never be idle. Even when I used to crib about the job, he was the one who taught me to see the brighter side of life. I once asked him how he can be so carefree. He said life is short and if we realise that, everything becomes right and we end up doing the right things.
"He would say if you like something, if you want something badly, do it right now. He would never leave it for later. For him life was to be lived then and there," she said.
Image: The Diengdoh family. Raymond Diengdoh's father, Phillip Basaiawmoit, mother Annabel with a framed photo of her deceased son, sisters Betsynia, Evagracia and Sonia. Photograph: Sanjib Bhattacharjee.
Also see: Tukaram Omble, the Lionheart
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