Temporary refuge from reality

With an increase in the disposable income in an Indian pocket, Indians have been ardent and religious about venturing into the travel fashion and the parallel world of Instagram and other related mediums. Well, there are a lot of speculations made about this culture of travel, whether in India or abroad. Getting into the statistics one realizes how travel and tourism has led to a boom in the economy after 1990s.

A temporary refuge from reality- Not Always! There are times when I have visited the most distinguished places. Far away from the bookmarked pages of the Lonely Planet and they were infact no refuge from reality but a step ahead towards what is Real and non fictitious.

It was back in July, 2010 that I started looking for these frequent hideouts. Fresh out of the high school, I was attending the KM college at the Delhi university (which I later dropped out) that I scheduled for a trek in Himachal after meeting this local at Dharmkot. I wasn’t a professional trekker, neither had I met Kabir Bunny through Ayan Mukherjee.

July 2010, Dharmkot, Dharmshala

The famous Triund Trek back in 2010 used to be the one that was often done with the nomads, whom you met on your way to the pass. It was way more virgin and pristine.

I generated this comparison after trekking the same stretch twice in the last 8 years. That’s how a place metamorphoses, grows, evolves, remodels in the course of time.

Disseminating love, Primitive Tinder.
Love quotes and messages that were retained

This takes me back to restoration project I was working on in Rajasthan where an old fort was being converted into a resort. The fort had once been under the Tomars and then even Ain-i-Akbari quotes about it. Right before the fort was undertaken by an Indian hotelier, it had seen a different time and phase before restoration began. Love messages were all across the walls. What’s really interesting is that those messages and quotes to the beloved were not completely removed during the refurbishment of the fort. Those too had become a part of the building’s life.

With so many unplanned trips for leisure and work so far and beautifully curated itinerary right during the course of travel, I strongly believe that an unplanned travel leaves you with prodigious transition in your lifestyle, ideology towards the human civilization and undoubtedly a gamut of memories that are far more sacred and genuine than the Instagram posts that you often update to consistently inform the peer and folks linked to you on social media.

In my last post on this blog where I had mentioned about my stay in India’s Northern most village on the Indo Pak border, I ended up my post with an insight of how strongly  I believe that some stereotypes and practices need to be simply left unattended or probably ignored because the transition in any society or civilization takes almost generations to happen, and that change infact is also towards a new change. Additionally, this new change might end up being outdated and characterized as a stereotype by the generations that are to follow us. My sole intention in giving this last statement is to understand how we often miss the charm and elixir of our lives while struggling to achieve something which has all been planned. Yes I believe in Karma and deeds!

rain round the clock
clicked from the cottage room

In May 2018, I had traveled to the North east of India to the states of Meghalaya and Assam. In Assam, I managed to hit a conversation with this young lady from Bangalore who runs a cottage hotel in a small village which is known to be the World’s largest island in an active River.  Firstly, this river is Brahmaputra. Secondly, I will emphasise that it is massive and surreal at some locations. Its as giant as the sea and very hostile and treacherous at some points. Calmer the flow of the river, deepest it is at that very point.  So the young lady from Bangalore who lives in this village Majuli had a good vision of how this very Island had changed and is reducing in area because of the increasing water level of the mighty water body around.The village is approached by a lot of Travelers, Film makers, Designers and Craftsmen from across the world. Amidst this, I was enlightened about the people living in this part of the country and their claims, struggles, demands and attitude towards the rest of the country. It’s merely a stretch of 17 kms of land which is a bottleneck that separates north east to the major part of the Indian subcontinent. I was interested in this interaction especially because it was not a local talking positive about his/her land. It was a resident who had relocated to Assam a couple of years back and had some genuine vision of the people of this place.

Assamese platter, @ Nagaon

I am a vegetarian and didn’t find any constrain in feeding myself in Assam and Meghalaya.  I was informed that the only place in the north east where I might have to struggle for food would be Nagaland.  But I am certain that the Marwaris and Jains who have settled in the north east since generations, must have made some provision for me even in Nagaland. I am a liberal vegetarian and a menu that I saw at a local dhaba which mentioned about beef didn’t surprise me. The only saffron I found there was the saffron which was being sold by a few kashmiris in a flea market.  There are certain tribes that are against the Indian government  but that too is because they are being enforced to shun their identity, their civilization, their values in the realm of patriotism and nationalism for the Indian mainland.  It was for the first time I did find some logic in the reservations that the Indian government makes, while I was told about these tribes. Well unfortunately, these reservations are often being misused by people who undoubtedly fall in these categories but do not really need it. I always pester that it should be the first generation learner that is to be catered to but their resentment to the Indian government makes them reject any such reservations and stay in utter isolation. They eat dogs, monkeys and pigs in some areas in Nagaland. Interesting, thats what the food cycle is all about. I still wonder why do people talk about banning some dog eating festival when they just had chicken ham for lunch! Interestingly, they also eat bamboo.

Majuli was a short stay of my travel and towards the end of my stay in the north east after covering Johrat, Kaziranga, and Guwahati. Before the aforesaid areas of Assam, I had already covered  Meghalaya.  Shillong was the hub and the hotspot. Extremely lively and a different vibe it offers. The main market shuts at 10pm, but till the time the market is open it manages to hit the zenith of celebration, charisma, liberty and frolic. The local buses played guns and roses, the lady running the wine shop suggested me this local rice beer, there was live music all throughout the day in some or the other cafe that made the main market (Police bazaar) a place to visit and grasp the feel. 

Shillong is blessed to have such vivid places of interest in the vicinity that one can plan a single day escape to these places that are geographically and culturally very different to one another. Owing to the fact that it is that part of the Himalayan belt which is less explored, places like Mawlynnong, Nohkalikai, Dawki, Mawsmai hold a very different character , quite contrary to the Himalayas of the Northern India.

This is how locations are
 in a Manirantnam's film

Sunset by the Brahmaputra
Travel partner-Hero Roadster

Maylynnong holds the title of being the cleanest village in India. There you see the gush of tourist disembarking their respective cars hunts for the locally made wicker dustbins to contribute to this village. The Indian tourist and traveller who reaches here is often excited to dump the trash in the readily available bins therefore adding a feather to his cap.

Welcome to Mawsmai, Right from the geography lessons you hit the caves that are an escape to the stone age with live stalactites and stalagmites being formed over centuries.

At the local barber in Kaziranga.
discovering this new revolution
 in the country or maybe world, Undercut!

#postmyloveletter
@Majuli

 India once had three time zones. Bombay, Madras and Calcutta which I personally believe is precise for country like India. This is owing to the fact that while the DJ is rolling the last track of the extended night part in a weekend home at Sainik farms in Delhi, the following day has already begun in the North East and the cattle has reported marked its presence in the paddy field on the shores of Brahmaputra.
Additionally, there are also a few observations that cnnect this country on a very intangible front. The first being Indian post’s post offices with their red and yellow logo being spotted almost everywhere and the other being the State bank of India. I often find these two very apt. Almost an year back I started of capturing Indian post offices in whatever location I spotted them hashtaging them as #postmyloveletter 

In addition to the above two, a recent addition to this has been the Undercut, Thats no less than a revolution!

With an insight about the north east and  what differentiates the seven sisters, it was time I head back to Delhi. I had covered two of the seven but a fair good understanding of this region of the country and a triggered desire to plan for the Hornbill festival and the Zero festival in future. ;)

Back to the grind, back to the Mudra.