A day in Assam
Assam is beautiful......
Assam is much more more beautiful than I ever fathomed. Images of riot happy souls, crowded villages, suspicious looking so called Bangladeshi immigrants tramping around, half of Bengal doing business was in my simple fallible human mind.
But that was not to be. Assam is beautiful.
The most striking villages in Bodoland, well kept Muslim villages, rice flowing all around, even the mofussil towns were neat and clean. Assam took my breath away, even more so than what I saw of the Arunachal hills.
The view from Tezpur to Guwahati as we ran parallel to the Tawang hills was romantic. That early morning on a fast running bus, I was almost sleepy with delight.
Guwahati was not bad either and we had a great time roaming around the town, embellished no doubt with a beautiful museum. What was more interesting perhaps was the ride in the Brahmaputra. As we went to try out the river cruise of 250 rupees, we found it to be full. We did what was the next better option. We took the local ferry to the other side and then came back. Nothing better than this....... And Brahmaputra took my breath apart......
The next morning was an exercise in spirituality. It was a strange decision as I had intended to go to the temple and run away as fast as I can. But that was not to be. We, me and Ashwin actually stood in line for 5 hours a glimpse of the goddess. I still can't fathom where I got the strength from, but that is what we did. Stand in line for hours with faithfuls all around us. And the entire gamut of spirituality or whatever it may be called - Kamakhya temple was bustling with energy. Goats being cut, yajnas being conducted, people patiently standing, a few fights, a few pushes, devotees all around. The sanctum of the temple was hazy with smoke, almost dipped in centuries old oil and we saw the goddess for all of a few seconds. I still do not know whether I saw the goddess or one of her friends. But that was what it was and we came back.
Back and then on to my next journey to Mizoram......
Assam is much more more beautiful than I ever fathomed. Images of riot happy souls, crowded villages, suspicious looking so called Bangladeshi immigrants tramping around, half of Bengal doing business was in my simple fallible human mind.
But that was not to be. Assam is beautiful.
The most striking villages in Bodoland, well kept Muslim villages, rice flowing all around, even the mofussil towns were neat and clean. Assam took my breath away, even more so than what I saw of the Arunachal hills.
The view from Tezpur to Guwahati as we ran parallel to the Tawang hills was romantic. That early morning on a fast running bus, I was almost sleepy with delight.
Guwahati was not bad either and we had a great time roaming around the town, embellished no doubt with a beautiful museum. What was more interesting perhaps was the ride in the Brahmaputra. As we went to try out the river cruise of 250 rupees, we found it to be full. We did what was the next better option. We took the local ferry to the other side and then came back. Nothing better than this....... And Brahmaputra took my breath apart......
The next morning was an exercise in spirituality. It was a strange decision as I had intended to go to the temple and run away as fast as I can. But that was not to be. We, me and Ashwin actually stood in line for 5 hours a glimpse of the goddess. I still can't fathom where I got the strength from, but that is what we did. Stand in line for hours with faithfuls all around us. And the entire gamut of spirituality or whatever it may be called - Kamakhya temple was bustling with energy. Goats being cut, yajnas being conducted, people patiently standing, a few fights, a few pushes, devotees all around. The sanctum of the temple was hazy with smoke, almost dipped in centuries old oil and we saw the goddess for all of a few seconds. I still do not know whether I saw the goddess or one of her friends. But that was what it was and we came back.
Back and then on to my next journey to Mizoram......
