Found this amongst my pile of 'will do something with this one day' pile of papers at home! Brought forth all the memories of my trip to North-east... 1 week... different towns every day... amazing stuff to see and observe..
Digitized the contents over the weekend... its missing a few bits abt the best place of them all - shillong... i seem to have recorded only stuff i was maybe afraid of forgetting!! ;-) will add that part on sometime soon... (this is an example of the digital version of 'will do it one day' pile!!)
Kohima
12.06.03
North-east! A distant place only vaguely heard about – an adventure – if you had the time or the resources for it. Now am actually here – its beautiful. Simple. In some ways more than I expected, and in many ways lesser. But no denying its beauty.
This is just the 1st stop … every night a new city. Yet in some ways, the thrill always dies down when you’ve actually seen it / done it / had it…
6.20 am 13.6.03
Sunrise / sunset had stopped mattering to townies a long time back. This place seems to still operate ONLY around that. Its so bright outside – like it is at some 8:00 in Delhi! Everyone’s rushing around. It IS a diff. country altogether. Looking at it right now, no one can guess at the unrest of this place.
“None but those who know can tell…
What is a parting without farewell”
War cemetery --> 1939 – 45 – WW II
Japanese attack withheld
Avg age (of the dead) seemed to be 23
Hindus, muslims, Sikhs, Christians – all united in death!
Each grave surrounded with absolute beauty. ‘Serenity’ – the only mantra. 58 years gone by. Today it is a ‘tourist spot’ as well as… holder of many a dreams left midway. Scene of family reunions? Stuff movies are made up of – but then this was reality, right? Somehow death in whatever form - touches us in one way or the other!
A complete contrast – out side my window I saw an entire scene of a man cleaning a pen – putting out really huge bowls (if I can call it that), pouring out something very thick (he was actually using a big wooden stick to stir it) into these bowls, even bending to put those 2 huge black, shiny – pigs! (preparing them for their eventual life-nurturing death…)
Nagaland – Dimapur + Kohima 13/14th
Kohima people were very nice – flowers everywhere – in their homes, parapets, kitchen gardens (if u can call it that) and the biggest – in their smiles. Somehow I felt that before all the tensions came into their lives – they must have been a pretty happy tribe of people! Damn the politicians! They are yet to add color to anything – just end up removing it!
Naga homes – typically large families (3 – 4 kids avg.), loads of wooden structures / almirahs / cupboards. And of course the ubiquotus – TIN! I wonder how much busi. These tin guysmust be doing up here.
Life starts very early for people here – up wit the sun – 4.30 – 5.30 avg. breakfast at 6, lunch at 8.30 – 9.30! sounds trange to my townie ears – but I guess the entire clock runs about 2 – 2 ½ hours ahead of us. The diff. time zone idea definitely makes sense.
Their local language – Nagamese – a mix of hindi, Bengali, assamese. Not only is it unique becoz it has no script at all – but also becoz it is the one thing that unites the 14-16 diff. tribal languages!
Dimapur on the other hand – commercial, more of a mix of people – as good / bad as any other small town in a hilly region – just like something close to H.P. would be! Not much we could do, due to the ever-careful team. Anyways, bought 3 shawls – bright! So bright, I wonder it anyone else will even like it. Anyways shall see if I can pick up something more.
But one thing’s for sure – traveling needs a certain attitude – else you can just end up doing the rounds without ‘seeing’ much.
Just saw Brahmaputra from the air – its huge! Some of my geography lessons came running back – tributaries, meandering rivers, rice cultivation – ethg at one go!
Here we are in Assam!
2:00 pm Guwahati
Guwahati is like any other regular regional city. Local language all over. In fact, its much larger than I thought it would be. Also a lot more cosmo feel to the place. Its raining here… very romantic weather. In fact the entire trip is one you shd do with someone along – so you can cuddle up, share things you see … sigh! :-) next time…
Digitized the contents over the weekend... its missing a few bits abt the best place of them all - shillong... i seem to have recorded only stuff i was maybe afraid of forgetting!! ;-) will add that part on sometime soon... (this is an example of the digital version of 'will do it one day' pile!!)
Kohima
12.06.03
North-east! A distant place only vaguely heard about – an adventure – if you had the time or the resources for it. Now am actually here – its beautiful. Simple. In some ways more than I expected, and in many ways lesser. But no denying its beauty.
This is just the 1st stop … every night a new city. Yet in some ways, the thrill always dies down when you’ve actually seen it / done it / had it…
6.20 am 13.6.03
Sunrise / sunset had stopped mattering to townies a long time back. This place seems to still operate ONLY around that. Its so bright outside – like it is at some 8:00 in Delhi! Everyone’s rushing around. It IS a diff. country altogether. Looking at it right now, no one can guess at the unrest of this place.
“None but those who know can tell…
What is a parting without farewell”
War cemetery --> 1939 – 45 – WW II
Japanese attack withheld
Avg age (of the dead) seemed to be 23
Hindus, muslims, Sikhs, Christians – all united in death!
Each grave surrounded with absolute beauty. ‘Serenity’ – the only mantra. 58 years gone by. Today it is a ‘tourist spot’ as well as… holder of many a dreams left midway. Scene of family reunions? Stuff movies are made up of – but then this was reality, right? Somehow death in whatever form - touches us in one way or the other!
A complete contrast – out side my window I saw an entire scene of a man cleaning a pen – putting out really huge bowls (if I can call it that), pouring out something very thick (he was actually using a big wooden stick to stir it) into these bowls, even bending to put those 2 huge black, shiny – pigs! (preparing them for their eventual life-nurturing death…)
Nagaland – Dimapur + Kohima 13/14th
Kohima people were very nice – flowers everywhere – in their homes, parapets, kitchen gardens (if u can call it that) and the biggest – in their smiles. Somehow I felt that before all the tensions came into their lives – they must have been a pretty happy tribe of people! Damn the politicians! They are yet to add color to anything – just end up removing it!
Naga homes – typically large families (3 – 4 kids avg.), loads of wooden structures / almirahs / cupboards. And of course the ubiquotus – TIN! I wonder how much busi. These tin guysmust be doing up here.
Life starts very early for people here – up wit the sun – 4.30 – 5.30 avg. breakfast at 6, lunch at 8.30 – 9.30! sounds trange to my townie ears – but I guess the entire clock runs about 2 – 2 ½ hours ahead of us. The diff. time zone idea definitely makes sense.
Their local language – Nagamese – a mix of hindi, Bengali, assamese. Not only is it unique becoz it has no script at all – but also becoz it is the one thing that unites the 14-16 diff. tribal languages!
Dimapur on the other hand – commercial, more of a mix of people – as good / bad as any other small town in a hilly region – just like something close to H.P. would be! Not much we could do, due to the ever-careful team. Anyways, bought 3 shawls – bright! So bright, I wonder it anyone else will even like it. Anyways shall see if I can pick up something more.
But one thing’s for sure – traveling needs a certain attitude – else you can just end up doing the rounds without ‘seeing’ much.
Just saw Brahmaputra from the air – its huge! Some of my geography lessons came running back – tributaries, meandering rivers, rice cultivation – ethg at one go!
Here we are in Assam!
2:00 pm Guwahati
Guwahati is like any other regular regional city. Local language all over. In fact, its much larger than I thought it would be. Also a lot more cosmo feel to the place. Its raining here… very romantic weather. In fact the entire trip is one you shd do with someone along – so you can cuddle up, share things you see … sigh! :-) next time…
Comments
actually remember similar days as a child..very surprisingly in Delhi..