Life at Guwahati

Life is something really strange! We always expect something and something else happens.But whatever happens, always happens for a reason.

This is how our life at Guwahati came to an end. The wonderful and most memorable 90 days. Now, It is only in our memories and all our captured photos, that we can talk about Guwahati and the beautiful days we spent there.

Our life’s journey for 3 months at this place started with a scared feeling of leaving family and home where we were used to having a comfortable life. But this changed completely at the end of 3 months, when none of us even wanted to leave this place.

The best of time we spent at our accommodation National Games Village and our office, at the NEDFI building: First to be mentioned, the worst of food we had there, Early waking up even if we did not want to, Sleepy and cozy nights, The lovely walk we used to have after supper (the best of all, because it comprised of all possible gossiping ), All the tension and pressure to finish our project, Waiting desperately for weekends to roam around the city, Hunting for all possible South Indian hotels and Running down 5 floors of our NEDFI building to rush into the bus and catch hold of a seat, for self and whole lot group of friends.

It indeed was a lifetime experience being there for just 3 months and exploring and experiencing so many new things in life.

Life at Guwahati paved us the way to understand and experience diverse culture, people, habitat and way of life in Guwahati. The Paltan Bazaar and Fancy Bazaar,  showcase the economy, ethnicity and lifestyle in Guwahati.  Dipor bil, Tea gardens, Khaziranga, Manas and Portibora national parks flourishes the natural vegetation, wildlife and people’s love towards nature. Kamakhya, Umananda temple, Balaji Mandir, Basishta ashram, Diwali and Durga pooja at national games village made us experience the wonderful tradition of not only Guwahati also the north east India.

As the weather had changed in Guwahati from high humidity, when we landed there to a highly cool place, when we left it, our life too had changed a lot, making us all a lot more mature, a lot more grown up, a lot more heavy hearted and a lot more happier too, carrying with us lifetime memories, which can never come back!!

The Scotland of the East : Shillong and Cherrapunji

This time it’s not only we 7. It was a big bunch of people on a tour to Shillong and Cherrapunji.  We didn’t bother much this time in making list of places to visit, stay and travel plan etc. Everything was handled by other associates who had been in ILP center with us. After the entire plan was set, the big group including people from Karnataka, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh started journey from national games village, Guwahati on 10^th November, 2012 early in the morning in two pre-booked tempo traveller to Shillong.

The journey in the mist covered road was really good. The plan was to go to Cherrapunji first day and second day to Shillong and back to Guwahati. So, after we crossed Shillong, gave a stop in some hotel to have breakfast. Since the group was big, we wasted lot of time in having breakfast. By that time we 7 had realized that the plan was going to be a flop and not going to happen the way we expected it to be. So, we decided not to waste much time on thinking what was going on around us and started having fun being in group of 7.

Finally, after travelling for long time we stopped for sightseeing. It was a valley view point. It was very beautiful; we took lot of snaps, enjoyed the nature and continued our journey towards Cherrapunji. To stress upon, the journey was nice. We were travelling in a valley, beautiful scenery to look at. Truly nature was at its best.

It was mid noon when we reached Cherrapunji. After wasting 2hrs in front of a hotel in Cherrapunji, the place to stay was decided. Not really a waste of time for seven of us. There was small stream flowing down, we happily jumped into the water, started taking snaps around and enjoyed the time we had.

We all got some time to freshen up, had lunch and started to travel towards seven sister’s falls. It was too much to travel from Cherrapunji city to seven sister’s falls. We could see Bangladesh down the valley.  The place was in India Bangladesh border. We  were able to see the seven waterfalls falling from top mountain ranges after travelling for some time long and finally some place on the road side we stopped where one of the seven sister’s falls’ was seen.  We happily jumped into the water, played for some time, took snaps and started our journey back to Cherrapunji. As expected, it was not even 4:30 pm in the evening and it was completely dark. We were tired of travelling and chilling weather did not let us enjoy outside the room much.

A campfire was planned. After taking rest for some time, all of us got ready and went behind the hotel, where campfire was set. We enjoyed the heat of firewood, played few games. Finally had dinner and since the plan was to start our journey early in the morning, went to bed without wasting time in a hope that we will get to see more places at least next day.

Early in the morning we all got ready and went to Mawsmai caves. It was a very nice place which brought out the adventure hidden inside us. We readily started exploring the cave. It was dark inside, with help of mobile torch lights we entered deep inside the cave. Water dripping from the walls glistening in the interior of the cave, it’s difficult to imagine, how a force of nature so insignificant can dictate the forms of such hard stones. It was a splendid display of the force of nature. Various shapes and forms of limestone jutting out from the roof of the cave, the rock formation that looked like the feet of animals and faces of ghosts and Natural light sieving inside the cave from the forest above were really beautiful. All these filled us with the enthusiasm and joy that we had lost the previous day. After enjoying the beauty of caves for long time we had breakfast and went Eco Park.

Eco Park is located in the east Khasi hills district in Cherrapunji, it was established by Meghalaya Government. It offers a breath taking view of Sylhet Plains of neighbouring Bangladesh. We had amazing time seeing the waterfalls, beautiful lush green landscapes. It’s starting point of the waterfall, the way the calm water falls into a gusty flow of water. The whole ambiance is mixed with beautiful roar of waterfalls. A must see site. After enjoying the view of Sylhet plains we headed back to Shillong.

After we reached Shillong, we went to Elephant falls. It’s a three stepped waterfalls. The first fall is broad and hidden between trees. The second fall is tamed and almost negligible in winter, when the water level recedes. The last and the third waterfall is the tallest. Elephant Falls is characterized by clear water flowing over dark jutting rocks with no particular forms. After enjoying for some time in waterfalls, we decided to go Shillong city market to do some shopping.

It was almost evening when we reached Shillong city. We rushed readily to Madras Café restaurant, to fill our appetite. Truly it was home away from home. Every south Indian if missing Dosas in north east, must visit Madras café. The best dosas you can have in North eastern states. After enjoying the city life of Shillong and ethnicity we started our journey back to Guwahati.

Map : 

                                                                                                               

Crown of The Brahmaputra - Peacock Island

To properly set the mood for futuristic utopia, combine the elements of winter season and coldness in Guwahati, we planned to visit Peacock Island, the crown of The Brahmaputra.

We started our journey to the Island at dawn through different transits. First we reached Basistha Chariyali( Junction) by cycle rickshaw,  and from there we travelled in private bus to Paltan bazar,  from there we walked to reach Brahmaputra river jetty where we had to take a boat to reach the Island.  

We managed to get a separate boat for 7 of us. Boatmen agreed to take us in his big motor boat by charging 100 INR per head; they also told us that it would take around half an hour to reach the Island from the river jetty. 

Adding to the fear of flood in The Brahmaputra, water level was high enough and there were many high current whirlpools. After a fun filled journey of half an hour, we reached the Island. We could see the peacock shaped island after we were half way through.

After reaching the destination, we dated with nature for some time and enjoyed the beauty of Brahmaputra.  After that we made a visit to god Umananda temple, a Shiva Temple which is located at the Peacock Island in middle of river Brahmaputra, built by the Ahom King Gadadhar Singha.

Shiva is said to have resided here in the form of Bhayananda. According to the Kalika Purana, in the beginning of the creation Shiva sprinkled ashes (bhasma) at this place and imparted knowledge to Parvathi (his consort). It is said that, when Shiva was in meditation on this hillock, Kamadeva interrupted his yoga and was therefore burnt to ashes by the fire of Shiva’s anger and hence the hillock got the name Bhasmacala. This mountain is also called Bhasmakuta. The Kalika Purana states that Urvasikunda is situated here and here resides the goddess Urvasi who brings Amrit (nectar) for the enjoyment of Kamakhya and hence the island got the name Urvasi Island.

The priest in the temple asked us to chant some mantra but we were not able to understand their language and as usual like other priest, they demanded us to put some dakshina (Donation) and we witnessed one among the rarest species of monkeys, The Golden Langur.

After visiting the temples, we started taking pictures in different corners to capture the beauty of sunset in The Brahmaputra. Wish we had a high resolution camera with us, no offense; we managed to take good enough display pictures.

After spending 2 to 3 hours in peacock island finally we said goodbye to Peacock Island. We all set our journey back to main city in same old luxury boat with same boatmen enjoying sunset. 

To know more about Peacock Island visit Umananda Island

Map :

Basistha Ashram

A gloomy day, not to miss our weekend routine, we planned to visit Basistha ashram.

We started from National games village Guwahati, went to Basistha Chariyali(Junction), hired an auto to Basistha ashram which is around 3 kms from the junction. Since the area was more remote, we were little scared. Finally when we reached the ashram, the gloomy day turned out to be refreshing one looking at the ashram which stood on the banks of mountain streams originating from the hills of Meghalaya.  

Basistha ashram is a Shiva Mandir constructed by Ahom King Rajeswar Singha in 1764. This Basistha Ashram and the temple are said to belong to the Vedic age, which was founded by the great saint Basistha (Vasistha). Muni Vasistha is believed to have meditated in a cave inside the ashram.

The temple and location is endowed by the terracotta and stone sculptures which can be seen in the premises of the temple and nearby hills and stones. The temple is located in that very place where Muni Vasistha brought an end to his life. After praying, we took some photos with statues of Muni Vasistha and Mushika vahana(Rat) at the entrance of the temple.

Then, we started to play in the waterfall very next to the temple. It was very refreshing to play in freezing water, climbing rocks and posing for snaps.

Since it was getting late and there was no transportation, we chose to walk in a route which was under forest territory and was short route to our accommodation. We felt as if we were walking in our homeland.  

  

We enjoyed the calm nature throughout our visit. 

Map:

Arunachal Pradesh - Land of The Rising Sun

Traveling is a celebration, celebration in a way of cherishing and appreciating the bountiful beauty of nature. We decided to indulge in such a journey into the land of the Rising Sun, mystical Arunachal Pradesh and India’s eastern-most state. Arunachal Pradesh literally means “The Land of the Dawn-lit Mountains”. Due to its elemental forces of nature, all playing their best in a single ground, this tour was one crazy tour and the plan was crazier.

The first week of December 2012 had filled us with ideas to go on a trip out of Assam viz. Sikkim, Darjeeling, Nagaland, Bhutan and Nepal along with other co-trainees which was planned (?) by “The Bluffmaster”. We seven had foreseen that these plans were not going to happen and on 6^th December we planned (master plan) to visit Arunachal Pradesh which was presumed impossible by every other person in ILP.

We seven, like a secret mission, to make the impossible possible, started hunting travel agents to book the vehicle and to get the inner line pass to Arunachal Pradesh. We had lot of challenges, foremost is we had less than 7 hours to get the pass from Deputy Resident Commissioner, Government of Arunachal Pradesh. Next one is to convince our facilitators to allow us for this plan which they had thought was not a good or safe idea to execute. Last but not the least there were landslides happening on the way for which we had to take all the care.

The night of 7^th December 2012 was filled with excitement, with the coming day to be bliss as we would be in the Land of The Rising Sun, the place about which we had read only in books and visited only in our dreams. It was really a dream come true for us, visiting the most exotic places like Dhirang, Bomdila and Sela Pass.

We had a roller-coaster of a ride at night, journeying towards Bomdila and reached around 8:30AM in the morning. It was a beautiful small town, with brilliant landscape and snow-clad mountains of the Himalayan Range. We had our first stop at the Buddhist Monastery, the repository of culture which was a mind blowing experience. We were unfortunate that we could not visit the Craft centre and Shopping centre, since it was a Saturday and they were closed, which would have given us a feel of the local version of Himalayan Buddhist life.

We had a scrumptious meal in Hotel Siphiyang Phong after which we experienced the real cold for the lifetime. Then we left for Dhirang, which was a journey of about 2 hours along the valleys. We reached by dawn and found place for our stay. Even though it had turned dark, our enthusiasm was at its best and we made our way towards the hot water spring in Dhirang. This was highly adventurous as the whole town was out of power and we had to use our flashlights to reach this place, feeling all along like sleuthing Nancy Drew and Sherlock Holmes. We returned to the place of our stay, had a late dinner in that chilly night, the temperature dropped subzero and were freezing away, never feeling sorry for the experience. We went to sleep hoping to see the ice-capped snowy peaks the next day.

The next day started off at 5.00 am in the foggy morning and a nice drive through the narrow and steep curvy roads that lead us to Sela Pass. The inexorable charm of Lilly white snow, meandering water-bodies and prominent hillocks refreshed our mind, heart and soul. The snow fall we experienced was breath taking wondering many a times if it was India or Switzerland.

We literally had gone crazy throwing snow on each other, taking as many clips as possible, skiing, jumping around and trying to feel every second we stayed there. In fact, we were not ready to face the truth that we had to leave the place.  It was indeed a thrilling experience to be in this part of India.

After two long lovely days, our celebrations came to an end. With all this amazing, astonishing and memorable experiences we had, we started off towards Guwahati. Though the trip is over, the memories of the beautiful days are still fresh in our thoughts, the thoughts we oath to cherish for an eternity and beyond.

Such journey of ecstatic moments can be experienced only by experiencing it.

.
Memories of Arunachal Pradesh :

To know more about Arunachal Pradesh Tourism, visit Arunachal Pradesh 

Map :

Much Awaited KAMAKHYA!!!

Our stay in Guwahati would hardly be complete without a visit to “The Kamakhya temple”, situated somewhere in the middle of Nilachal hill, 800 feet above the sea level, the holiest Hindu shrines of Mother Goddess Durga as it is believed for centuries that this is the place where Mother's Yoni dropped after Lord Vishnu cut Sati's body in 52 pieces, to stop Lord Shiva's dance of Destruction (Tandava Nritya), which he was doing out of anger after his wife's death. This temple is also associated with Tantric activity and sacrifice.

We started from National Games village around 9:00 AM and reached the temple at 11:00 AM. Beware of the shopkeepers at the entrance of the temple who would force you to keep your footwear in their shops for free. Later on they would demand you to by puja materials which would cost more than 250 INR!!! So make sure that you leave your footwear at the temple gate.

Since it was a Saturday the temple was highly crowded and we had to decide to take the ticket for direct entry, we finally took a ticket of 100 INR per person. We managed ourselves to join the long queue. By the end of an hour or so we were inside the temple. The temple is built with stone and very narrow with sloping, dark stairs inside the Sanctum Sanctorum.

We were absolutely blank and had no idea where to go and what has to be done inside the temple. At this moment we could see many priests who were waiting to help and guide us (Money minded people). We had to select one among them. The priest accompanied us throughout our visit inside the temple, teaching us various mantras and rituals to be followed in the temple, which we enjoyed as we weren’t able to repeat what he was chanting! The temple consists of three major chambers. The western chamber is large and rectangular and is not used by the general pilgrims for worship. The middle chamber is a square, with a small idol of the Goddess. The walls of this chamber contain sculpted images of Naranarayana, related inscriptions and other gods. The middle chamber leads to the sanctum sanctorum of the temple in the form of a cave, which consists of no image but a natural underground spring that flows through a yoni-shaped cleft in the bedrock.

In the temple sacrifices are still very much part of worship. We could see groups of devotees with goats to offer to Shakti. The environment inside the temple was not very pleasing as none of us were ready to witness the sacrifice. Hence we made our move out of the temple. We did click few snaps capturing the rare beauty of Kamakhya which holds an ancient history.

The priest didn’t stop even after coming out, he still was making us to do some rituals during which he chose one of us and put a garland, kumkum on all our foreheads and gave a smile showing that he has used all of his experience to fool us without giving a hint of it.

Now it was time to pay the priest, because the priest was demanding a huge amount, we guys had a tough time in deciding it. We landed up giving 300 INR and finally made our way towards Woodlands Hotel as it was time for lunch.

 Know more about Kamakhya Temple, visit Kamakhya Temple

Map :