Guwahati, Shillong, Dawki & Cherrapunjee

Day 1 - Guwahati to Shillong

Our trip began when we landed at Guwahati airport from Mumbai by noon. Guwahati - one of India’s ancient cities and one of the fastest growing cities in India today is an embodiment of the botched up growth of Indian urbanisation. ‘Pragjyotishpura’ as it was once called is the largest city of Assam and north eastern India and is strategically very important as it connects the rest of India to the north eastern region. It is rightly called the gateway to the north east India. Guwahati derives its current name from the Assamese words “Guwa” meaning areca nut and “Haat” meaning market. 

Located within Guwahati is the ancient Shakti temple of Goddess Kamakhya in NIlachal hill made by Ahoms (An important seat of Tantric and Vajrayana Buddhism). While I had been to this temple before, we made it our first and only stop in Guwahati before heading off to Shillong. This temple is one of the oldest and the most important of the 51 Shakti Peethas in Hinduism. According to legend it is believed that the ‘Yoni’ of Sati fell here after Shiva danced with her corpse. The main temple in a complex of small temples house 10 female deities with 3 of them housed in the main temple in what is referred to as a ‘Garbhagriha’ 

It is one of those sites, where active sacrifices of animals and tantric rituals are carried out till date and in the mornings you will see devotees carrying goats for sacrifice. I personally abhor this practice and hence we paid a short visit to the temple and quickly dashed out. 

Travel Tips - Kamakhya Temple:

• Be mindful of the temple timings. It opens for visitors at 8 am and shuts at 1 pm for lunch being served to the deity. The temple reopens at 2:30 pm until 6:15 pm for the visitors
• Be careful of the pandas (priests) who may fleece you of money by luring you into getting a pooja done / preferential darshan
• Do not miss checking out the resplendent carvings on the walls of the main temple and the shrines of the other deities within the temple compound

For more details on Kamakhya Temple visit - www.maakamkhya.org

Beautiful carvings at Kamakhya Temple

After just in time darshan at Kamakhya before it shuts for the afternoon, we stopped at a local ‘Whistling Woods’ dhaba on the Guwahati - Shillong highway. These are family run establishments which normally offer scrumptious non-veg meals with a limited but doable vegetarian fare. 

Post lunch it was a smooth ride of 3 hrs (~100 kms) directly to Shillong with the solitary break at The Umiam Lake viewpoint en route for an awesome cup of chai & some amazing views of the lake.

Hot Chai & Awesome Views - Umiam Lake

We landed straight at Hotel Polo Towers in Shillong. Our home for the next 2 days. It is a very good 4 star property with all basic amenities provided for. There’s a nice open air lounge on the terrace where they serve drinks and finger food along with an in-house pub and a nice multi cuisine fine dining restaurant. The rooms were good and the service excellent and the wholesome and hearty breakfast was the one we enjoyed the most. I would surely recommend the place to anyone looking for a good experience which is also easy on the pocket in Shillong.  

Hotel Polo Towers Website - http://www.hotelpolotowersshillong.com

After checking in and checking out the whole property, for the dinner we headed straight to the famous ‘City Hut Family Dhaba’ which was just a 5 mins walk away from our hotel. We had some of the best vegetarian food of our trip there. The portions were huge and there was ample of variety. The place served lip smacking Mughlai, continental and Chinese food. When travelling, one of the yardsticks I use in judging a food establishment is the number of locals eating there, and this place was literally full of locals and visitors. Thankfully we reached early by 7:45 pm and got the table, else would’ve had to wait. In case like us you’re a veggie - This is a must visit place in Shillong and has been consistently rated as one of the top restaurants in Shillong. 

Also, try some of these other joints in Shillong which I would strongly recommend:

• Cafe Shillong (Chill out spot with live music)
• Munchies (Awesome juicy burgers)
• Dylan’s Cafe (For breakfast)
• Dejavu - (Laid back ambience - Chinese cuisine)

Travel Tips:

• Book stay through any of the travel portals and not directly through the hotel. Portals are cheaper. We got a damn good rate through Make My Trip
• Take the halt at Umiam Lake View Point just before you enter Shillong - You get some fabulous tea from the lady vendors - both with and without milk variants are amazing. 

Day 2 - Dawki - Mawlynnong 

After a relaxed night of sleep and scrumptious breakfast later, we were all charged up for the first day trip. We headed straight to the Indo - Bangladesh border check post at Tamabil. Located in the Jaintia Hills this friendly border post is used to ferry both people and a lot of cargo. As you cross the picturesque road from Shillong (85 Kms to Dawki)  and approach slightly closer you will see truck full of cargo, especially, coal being transported to Bangladesh. The town of Sylhet in Bangladesh is just 55 kms from here. The new Guwahati - Shillong - Dhaka bus route that was flagged off by PM Narendra Modi & his Bangladeshi peer Sheikh Hasina uses this border route. I’ve been to Wagah border earlier, but this was just a small trench, a nullah and a stone milestone pillar and some border security personnel strolling around on both sides. That was it. It is a great example of what a friendly border can be like, rather than the tense show of machismo we are used to at Wagah!

Indeed a friendly border!

Last milestone on the Indian side

Indo-Bangla Border Crossing at Tamabil

After clicking a few pictures here, we headed straight to the picturesque Umngot River in Dawki. The river runs from the Indian to the Bangladeshi side of the border. It makes the whole border irrelevant as we could literally see people on both sides walking about and inter mingling freely. Raises few pertinent questions about undocumented illegal migration. That apart, we indulged ourselves in the magnificent and tranquil boat ride in the river in a wooden boat with a Khasi boatman. The famous crystal clear green waters of the Umngot River was indeed pristine. There were locals and tourists both frolicking, clicking photos, some even rafting, others including kids trying out different types of summersaults from the perched up rocks. This was the perfect setting, not too crowded but enough to permeate a happy yet peaceful vibe about the place. We thoroughly enjoyed the boat ride. The boatman takes you to the far end of the river and waits for you for a short halt to take pictures amidst the pebble filled river bed before he brings you back to the starting point. The ride lasted about 25-30 mins and costed Rs. 700/- but was absolutely worth it!

Enjoying the crystal clear waters

The tranquil boatride...

Boatmen at the short halt at the rear end of Umngot

Panoramic view of Umngot River

We finished off our day with a visit to the famous Mawlynnong which was adjudged the cleanest village in Asia in 2003. Coming from a concrete jungle like Mumbai, we were really waiting in anticipation to see this beautiful village located in the east Khasi Hills. This village is 35 kms from Dawki and is best done as a circular day trip from Shillong - Dawki - Mawlynnong - Shillong. Some others who are nature lovers also prefer to opt for a homestay here and cover the famous Living Root Bridges and the surrounding village areas through an overnight halt. Honestly, we didn't find anything unusual about the place. It is a quaint and a remote little village with almost the same scenes you’d experience of locals sitting around trees, pets strolling around and the mirthful children playing around trying to tug at each other to make fun of the alien looking visitors in their blissful abode. The place is nice, but nothing special and the famed cleanliness also seems to be waning away. The award was won way back in 2003, it’s been 15 years now - principles of depreciation have applied here as well!!

More details on Mawlynnong - http://www.mawlynnong.com

Travel Tips:

• Unless you have serious budget constraint, avoid the public transport. Best to rent your own vehicle for the day trip. 
• Boat ride at the Umngot is a must do. Unique experience. Pre-book your ride before entering the boat at a tent which is perched up above the river bed

Kids at Mawlynnong - Always happy to pose!

Day 3 - Cherrapunjee & Back to Guwahati

We started the day early and checked out post breakfast. We visited the famous Ward’s Lake and Elephant Falls in Shillong on our way to Cherrapunjee. The plan was to cover Cherrapunjee as a day trip and get dropped back to Guwahati since we had rented out the car. I had been to Cherrapunjee in November 2005 during my earlier trip and had enjoyed the natural beauty of the place to the hilt. The wonderful waterfalls like the Nohkalikai &  7 sisters waterfall, the hills covered in green, the eco-park and the limestone covered Mawsmai caves all made for an awesome day trip then and hence was keen to go again. 

Elephant Falls, Shillong

Khasi Hills en route to Cherrapunjee

Eco Park, Cherrapunjee

Cherrapunjee was once famous being the ‘Wettest place on earth” receiving the highest density of rainfall anywhere in the world, but let me break the bad news to you, barring a couple of months of monsoon (July-Sep), the region has turned completely dry. Most of the tourists spots were in real bad shape when we went there, lying nondescript without much maintenance, attention or care. We visited the Eco Park, 7 Sisters Waterfall and the Mawsmai Cave - which was my favourite little 20 min adventure. After covering these spots, we headed straight to Guwahati in time for a late evening check in and called it a night after an early dinner. We wanted to rest well for the night so that we were fresh to take the next morning flight to Bagdogra from where our journey to the verdant hills of Sikkim and the 2nd leg of our journey was to begin!!

Travel Tips:

• Unless you are going during or just after the monsoon season upto early November, you can actually skip Cherrapunjee from your itinarary. The waterfalls are all dry for the rest of the year. 

The Choice Is Ours...

The chronological history of India dates back to about 34,000 years ago, when the first traces of human existence on the Indian subcontinent were found. Since then, it has hosted some of the greatest civilizations that have significantly shaped up human history.

Right from the Mughal conquests to the Indian freedom struggle, from Vasco de Gama’s voyage to the partition of India post independence, the declaration of emergency or be it the demolition of Babri Masjid, these were all choices made by individuals which had far reaching after effects on the future of this nation.

Life always gives us choices. We can always chose to be, (or not to be) in a particular state of mind or have a certain opinion. Our nation and its history has been built based on these choices that various individuals have made at various points in time under diverse circumstances, the effects of which have been faced by generations to come.

On 26th November, 2008 we witnessed events which changed the way we lived forever. The trauma of these series of events can never be encapsulated appropriately in words. Language always looses out in the battle of superior relevance to emotions. The stark difference being, language is always expressed, but emotions, experienced.

The large hoi polloi of Indian masses revel in the values enshrined in our democratic character. We hope for emancipation through justice. We hope despite being duped of it several times before. But after all we’re Indians. We’re hardly trained to learn lessons from the past. We’re the superior breed. We celebrate Idiosyncrasies like “forgiveness”, “mercy”, “suffering”, “salvation through pain” etc.

Today, the verdict on the trial of Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving terrorist of the 26/11 attacks was announced. He was pronounced ‘guilty’. There were so many of us who were expecting that ‘justice’ would be delivered. The culprits will be ‘brought to book’. The wrong doers will be punished and the victims vindicated. Well ya right. The irony of this great nation is that we still have the ability to think so naively that we can make a lolly sucking toddler feel like Einstein.

Do you really think ‘justice’ has been done? Do you really think ‘justice’ can be done? Can Ombale, Salaskar, Kamte, Unnikrishnan and others come back? Will Karambir Kang ever be able to enjoy another meal with his family in the hotel which he manages himself. Will baby Moshe ever get his parents back? More importantly will the public prosecutor bring back my sleep which I lost in utter frightful disgust while catching up on all the live broadcast of 10 men raping the dignity of my city for 60 long hours?

The answer to all the above questions is a big NO. But some of us, will be calling this trial a victory of our “Democratic Process”. Well yea, friends, leave this bullshit for the politicians to mutter in press conferences. If this is a victory, I’d rather not win. I’m tired of such victories in Jessika Lall Case, In Malegaon Blast Case, In Babri Demolition Case, In Godhra Riots Case, In Bofors, In Fodder Scam Case, and millions of other idiotic legal proceedings which have overburdened our judiciary to the extent that it has even lost its relevance.

I’d be the first one to jump in to celebrate victory if the families of the victims of 26/11 would have been compensated adequately. If the public transportation and public places would have been protected enough post the incident. I’d have rejoiced had we pulled up our socks on internal security, had we been able to corner Pakistan to arrest Hafiz Sayeed and hand him over to India. I’d have danced in joy if we were able to extradite David Headly. The problem in India is that we’re just too accustomed to the judiciary stepping in and giving us illusionary solace of emancipation.

It just gives us this illusionary satisfaction that something has been done and takes our minds off the original reasons which caused the mess or the logical steps which should have been taken to prevent another mess from occurring. Which is why, I feel that Judiciary in India is the greatest constitutional cover up mechanism. It’s almost like a lifeline or an escape route available to every wrong doer in India.

This rant is just the emotional outburst of an anguished Indian. For the rest of you’ll who think this spoils your “celebration of justice”, save me the trouble of apologizing to you. Go to the nearest legal library and look up the law books (Which I think, if all sold as scrap, would wipe out the Fiscal Deficit of this country) on provisions of Appeals to the Supreme Court. You’ll find Kasab’s lawyers there chatting up over chai, about the next course of action. There’s this dude called Mohd. Afzal a.k.a Afzal Guru as well, who attacked our parliament in 2001. He’s been cheating imminent death as per his sentence. It’s possible because he’s a believer. Nahh… not in God, in the eternal hopelessness of the Indian system and the inherent idiosyncrasy of this concept called ‘Mercy Petition’. No wonder he’s called “Guru” – The dude’s got great insight on how things work in this part of the world.

As I said, the choice is ours. We can view this verdict the way we want. Call it our success or our collective failure. Life always gives us choices. We can always chose to be, (or not to be) in a particular state of mind or have a certain opinion. Our nation and its history has been built based on these choices that various individuals have made at various points in time under diverse circumstances, the effects of which have been faced by generations to come….

Off to seek blessings....

It is strange that I’ve been blogging for more than a year and half but I’ve never really shared my daily experiences or my travels at all through my blog. Call it the strike of sudden wisdom or just plain realization, I intend to dynamically update my blog henceforth with everything that matters to me or impacts me in some significant way….

Well, now to start off with, something I’m really excited about…. Yesss… A vacation, holiday, a pilgrimage, a family outing all rolled into one.

Tomorrow I’m off to this place called “Nathdwara” which is about 48 kms away from Udaipur. I’m super excited because I’m going with all uncle, two aunts and two cousins…. Whoa… what a family outing. Anyways…just to give you a background, Nathdwara is a revered destination of worship for the “Vaishnav” sect of the followers of the Hindu religion.

The main attraction of this place is the unique temple of Lord Shrinathji. This is one of the most loved, admired and revered avatars of Lord Krishna. Everyone in my family is a devout believer of Lord Shreenathji. It’s been a part of our upbringing. I’ve been there 4 times before, making this my 5th trip to the place.

I love the hectic daily routine of “Darshans” or worship of the God 8 times a day. It follows a pattern of daily routine of the Lord, right since the time he wakes up (Mangala), to the time he dresses up for the day (Shringar), followed by his outing to graze the cattle (Gwal), then his lunch (Rajbhog), followed by evening darshan post his rest (Utthapan), and then just his prayer just before he retires for the day (Aarti), to the time he heads off to sleep (Shayan).

I’m so looking forward to this 5 day break…. Besides getting lots of blessings from Him will only help my cause!!!! Adios… till I return and post the updates and experiences of my trip….:-)

Wake Up!!!

"I have a dream..." exclaimed Martin Luther King, a few decades ago, and that sparked off a civil upsurge in the United States of America. Today, several years down the line, we celebrate the accomplishment of that dream!

A black man has claimed the white house!!! The son of a Kenyan father, who until just 4 years ago, was not even a senator, has today risen to stake claim to, arguably the most powerful constitutional position in the world!

How many people would have given this man, whos middle name reads "Hussain" the chance to be called "The President"? This shows that America has risen again, to the call of democracy by electing Barack Hussain Obama as their 44th President. This is a great testimony to the maturity, enthusiasm and great foresight shown by the American electorate. Brushing aside issues like name, caste, colour and religion they have reposed overwhelming faith in a leader who signifies Change!!

It is time India woke up to the qualities of mature use of the right to adult franchise as we too are faced with a General Elections soon. This race for the White House has thrown at us, certain significantly important learnings in operationalising a successful democracy. The most important of these lessons is the need for greater seriousness of the election campaigns. Both Obama and McCain campaigns were extremely praiseworthy, for having put forth the genuinely pressing issues which concern America today.



It is high time we learn from it & start talking "Real" issues. Our fracas for the "Son's of soil" need to be buried deep down the same soil. It is the economy, foreign policy, housing, inflation and the environmental needs of India which need a louder voice. Fiscal deficit, farmer suicides, reservations & quotas, infrastructural development and issues of social security deserve far more public debate and attention over the age old caste based politics which raises its ugly head time and again during the "Great Indian Election Tamasha"
We are poised at the threshold of global dominance. It's our time now, and we must not let this opportunity pass due to our callous approach towards politics and governance. Let us all get together and imbibe our collective wisdom in electing a young new resurgent Lok Sabha in the coming months which will put our nation on a robust path of sustainable growth.



We must also ensure the growth to be socially inclusive. Explore all possible public - private partnership opportunities and venture out bravely into various forms of social entrepreneurship. As I said, it's our time now, let everyone realise it. Today, the world is just emerging from a global financial crisis. We too are faced with some real problems at hand, and we need some real leaders who will help us solve these problems by giving us real solutions.



We do not want false promises or glorious sermons, we've had enough of it! We need action oriented leadership which will help us get things done... It's OUR time India.... WAKE UP!!!

An Idea for India….

15th August, 2008: Instead of the regular and almost ritualistic wake up trance on the Independence Day morning of watching the PM’s address from the Red Fort, this time I did something rather different.. Or indifferent I must say. It was a Friday and yes, today I would get my copy of the Economic Times, *(I don’t subscribe to it on weekends due to affordability issue – it costs Rs. 9 on Sundays). So cherishing the great opportunity of browsing through the ET early morning, I came across this masterpiece compilation in the “Corporate Dossier” supplement of the ET. 9 of India’s CEO’s had volunteered to write for the special publication. It was truly a special issue which indeed brought out the varied opinions of these CEO’s on nation building, articulating their ideas for India’s future. It was truly insightful. I’m just attempting to summarize what I gathered from their opinions with my own inputs here. Let’s see if An IDEA can change our lives….

Henry Luce, the legendary founder of TIME, called business, an instinctive exercise in foresight. So is nation building, said the learned CEOs. Let us acknowledge the fact that in the history of this world, nations sometimes find themselves on the threshold of opportunity, it is then that their adopted actions & policies that determine how successful these nations emerge as global powers. There are various such opportunities that time has given to the world. Be it the World War, Cold War, Humans going into space, birth of atomic & nuclear warfare, or the more recent global economic slowdowns. The series of events have always thrown up opportunities in times of adversities.

India is today faced with the great paradox of population. Where today every 6th person in the world is an Indian, where do we see our country going ahead into the future? We as the people of this country must decide how we want India to be positioned at the turn of the next decade. We have some inherent strength in the form of our young populations, a pervasive & strong democracy and the naturally entrepreneurial spirit of our people, but is it enough to make us a superpower in times to come? Certainly not…

Despite having one of the best democracies in the world, ironically Indian polity faces the chronic disease of opportunism & petty shortsightedness. Most of all, it is the sheer distorted priorities of leadership in this country which has posed a most ghastly scare to the nation’s progress. Just to sight an example, the CM of Maharashtra offering a Rs. 10 lakh reward to Abhinav Bindra, the millionaire shooter Kid of a millionaire father. This is not to undermine Abhinav’s magnanimous achievement in bagging an individual Gold for India, but just goes to show the completely distorted priorities of our leadership. Does Abhinav actually need that money? What does Maharashtra specifically have to do with Abhinav, who is actually a resident of Chandigarh? And then they complain that farmers are committing suicide in Vidarbha!

With the inflation at its peak, and the world facing a financial slowdown, the Government is busy making its point by proving its majority on the floor of the house, just because a handful of old fashioned red obsessed Bongo Malyali comrades thought that the Nuclear Deal is not in India’s national interest. Also if all this drama wasn’t enough, our old protagonists at nationalistic drama, the saffron brigade pull out a sensationalism & wannabe’ishness personified cash for vote sting, which was nothing short of Rakhi Sawant antics thrown in the media just to get undue attention. The Hon. Speaker of the house of Lok Sabha is suspended from his own party and bundles of notes thrown in front of the parliament. Multiple bomb blasts across Gujarat & other cities across the country are only few of the examples of the high handedness with which this country is Governed.

Nandan Nilekani, the Co Chairman of Infosys in his article (which I could relate to the most) writes that Policy Makers need to recognise that free markets and reforms in themselves can be pro poor. We do not need the glam high but brittle promises of thousands of crores of farm loan waivers. He wonderfully describes India as “Limited Access” state. The rapid growth that India witnessed over the last 2 decades is fuelling new hopes amongst Indians, for better lives, incomes and employment. But there is too much that still barricades the way. And the reason that so many Indians remain cut off from the economy is that we have yet to fully embrace what ought to be the core idea behind reforms – expanding access.

Air Deccan, a wonderful model of expanding flying experience access to marginalized people has been dumped because of the taxation policies of the Govt on Surcharge & taxes on Air Fuel & Airport development. The lack of capital means, average Indian finds it difficult to take loans to start up his business. A weak subsidy system means that poorer Indians lack any kind of safety net to take big life risks, such as attempt higher education or migrate for better jobs. Only 15% of our farmers have bank credit. With our Government run schools in dismal state and almost 90% of our populations still languishing in the underpaid, underdeveloped unorganized sector we sure have a reason to regroup and rework our strategies.

If we have to match upto the “Great American Dream” of the 1950’s and the 1960’s or walk head to head with the Chinese Great Leap of the 1970’s and 1980’s we need to expand access of basic resources to the most poorest of the poor. We need many more “Lead India” & “Teach India” campaigns. Many of us will find this goal a struggle. But then, most of our past triumphs have come after a great struggle. All our battles that we have won have been hard fought. We are seen as a country which exemplifies struggle. Now, we must ensure that the world wakes up and takes notice of the sheer power of the hopes and aspirations of 1.1 Billion people. After all, it is said, that a single idea can change your life…