Travelling in the North-East in the summer of 2006
Guwahati >> Eaglenest >> Tawang >> Nameri >> Kaziranga >> Shillong >> Cherrapunjee
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The next morning, I started out to Kacheri Ghat on the bank of Brahmaputra. I was taking a ferry from here to Peacock Island – a small landmass with a hillock housing the Umananda Temple.
Peacock Island. You can see how wide Brahmaputra is. Infact this is one of the areas where the river runs narrow compared to rest of Assam
As my ferry took off, I realized how huge Brahmaputra is. It was summer time when most of the rivers in India empty or at least mellow, but none of that applies to Brahmaputra. Even when the water level is low, it still is wide and flows at a considerable speed. Despite being so large, the map shows that Brahmaputra flows in a narrow channel near Guwahati compared to rest of Assam. I got to see her again in Tezpur where the bridge across the river is a few miles long.
Ferry to Peacock Island
I got down from the ferry and walked around on a bridle path that took me around the island. It took less than 10 minutes to complete the circle. The island has a mix of Bamboo and evergreen tropical trees and is rocky at some parts. The tiny island housed lot of life. I saw a few Asian Koels, some warblers, a Grey Tit, Magpie Robins, Jungle Babblers and a bunch of Mynas. I returned to this island a few weeks later to get photographs of the Golden Langurs, and also shot pictures of a pair of Grey Tits. The Langurs are a star attraction of the island.
Grey Tit
Golden Langurs are endemic primates found only in Manas National Park bordering Assam and Bhutan. A priest of Umananda temple is said to have brought a few young ones to the island and let them free. They grew up in the island, confined by the Brahmaputra and have grown used to humans. They are so accustomed that you can sit right next to them like you would sit with a buddy, and they still ignore your presence. May be they would even be thinking about saying hello to you but are constrained of speech. The Langur’s eye is very human like and has a strange draw when you look at it. They also looked very bored and lazy as they have little to do but eat what people give them, and roam around in the tiny island.
A Golden Langur
Umananda temple is located at the center of the island on the top of a hillock. It is a small temple, with the sanctum sanctorum located below ground level. Sanctorum is lit by wick lamps and little sunlight enters in. The burning lamps and the darkness surrounding it create an atmosphere of peace in the room.
I returned from the island and checked if I can take an evening cruise on Brahmaputra. But the cruises were not operating owing to a holiday, so all I could do is to spend the evening in my hotel.
To be continued..
Travelling in the North-East in the summer of 2006
Guwahati >> Eaglenest >> Tawang >> Nameri >> Kaziranga >> Shillong >> Cherrapunjee
+Previous: Bangalore to Guwahati
+Next: Umananda Temple and Peacock Island, Guwahati
+Go to the beginning of the series
I had a free day at Guwahati. I had arrived a day earlier than I needed to, so I can hang around and get a feel of Guwahati.
When I started for North East, I had an impression of Guwahati and rest of the North East in my mind. I had presumed that Guwahati would be a small town nestled between hills with Brahmaputra flowing on one side of the town. I expected the weather would be pleasant to cold and raining at times. I had distinctly remembered reading a news report a year ago that Guwahati is struggling to grow and is suffering from lack of space, resulting in hills in the periphery brought down to make way for construction(illegally, I presume). The mention of these hills had reinforced my impressions of Guwahati as small hilly town.
When I cruised down from airport to the city, I could see that the town is really growing, and fast. Real estate business seemed to be booming like any other city in India. Half the ad-hoardings on the road were of steel bars, cement and the like. As we cruised from airport to city, I realized that Guwahati is not a small town, but fairly big and growing. The city lies in the plains of Assam sandwiched between the hills of Meghalaya on one side and the mighty Brahmaputra on the other side, leaving it without much room to grow. It was just the beginning of summer and it was already getting hot and sticky during the day, not exactly the weather I had presumed.
Eastern part of the city has many small hills that probably mark the end of the Khasi hills of Meghalaya. It is these hills that are slowly brought down to make way for construction. The way Guwahati is growing, it feels just like Bangalore – in a mess!
Next day, I got to see another problem that plagues the city – traffic. In city’s busy Paltan Bazaar area where my hotel is located, traffic hardly gets to move forward. Roads often get choked for hours. The traffic is so immobile at places that you don’t even have to worry about parking space – just leave your car on the tail of the traffic and come back after you finish your work – it is very likely that nothing around has moved an inch and your car is safe where it was left! It is no exaggeration – I did see someone doing just that!
Two weeks later when I returned to Guwahati, it was raining and the traffic scene was worse. There was slush everywhere and the drains were overflowing but the traffic was no different, making it miserable for a pedestrian to move around.
To be continued..
Travelling in the North-East in the summer of 2006
Guwahati >> Eaglenest >> Tawang >> Nameri >> Kaziranga >> Shillong >> Cherrapunjee
+ Previous: Beginning of the series
+ Next: Impressions of Guwahati
Today is a day for commuting, and a boring one at it. I need to catch two flights and spend nearly 10 hours going from my home in Bangalore to my hotel in Guwahati.
I started early from home and reached airport as early as two hours before departure, fearing traffic jams created by early morning rush. It is after reaching the airport that I realized it was a Sunday. Such things are bound to happen if you are not going to office for many months!
The airport is crowded and it looks like a mess. I was hungry and there was no good place to eat. You don’t get a decent breakfast there, but some odd foreign things like sandwich and such sundries. I don’t understand why they can’t take some trouble to serve some local food. I would rather have Idli-Vada or Dosa in the morning than the stale yesterday’s sandwich microwaved to make you feel slightly better. It is the same story in other airports in India too. Why don’t they serve what people actually want to eat? A small restaurant that would serve idli and dosa in south or paratha in the north would make a lot more sense than the boring plastic wrapped sandwich. I have had Dosa in an airport outside India, but I haven’t seen an airport in the country that served it. Anyway…
The airport felt more like a bus-stand. The days of screens announcing arrival, departures, check-ins and boarding seem to be history. Now there were airlines executives shouting at the gates like
“Air Deccan Delhi… Air Deccan Delhi…”
“Jet Airways Chennai… Jet Airways Chennai…”
I wonder what comes next? Two different airline execs fighting for more space or time? Hope it doesn’t come to that.
I had plenty of time in my hands to kill before boarding my flight, so I settled down in a corner amidst the chaos, pulling out a newspaper. Once someone ‘shouted’ about my flight, I got in and settled down comfily in my window seat.
A nice thing about Bangalore-Kolkata flight is that it goes just above the coastline and you get an aerial view of the east coast. I remember seeing Chilika Lake during my last Kolkata flight but this time I fell asleep much before we passed above that.
I was killing time in Kolkata waiting for my next flight as I read through my boarding pass envelope. It read –
“You must identify your baggage at transit point. Unidentified luggage will not be loaded to the next flight”
That sounded stupid and funny. I spent a good amount of time and effort in Bangalore to get my baggage security checked, identified and tagged and left with the care of airline authorities. And as my transit point arrives, they don’t remember it anymore and want me to go back to them and beg them to board my luggage to the next flight! But the last thing I would have wanted is to see my luggage remain stranded in Kolkata airport while I moved on to Guwahati, so I went and inquired only to be brushed off by an unfriendly lady who said “that is not necessary, you can go to the gates and board the flight now”. As I moved towards the gate, I was glad to see that the gates were not in a mess like it was at Bangalore.
There is a change in the air in Kolkata-Guwahati flight. Flight attendants seemed relaxed, and removed their pretentious appearance and fake smiles. They often spoke to passengers in Hindi, which they never seemed to do in the main routes. But then a lot of people in the flight spoke neither English nor Hindi. An old lady sat next to me and she seemed to be unsure of what to do when she was served snacks. One of the air hostesses tried speaking to the lady but all attempts to communicate failed, as they knew no language in common.
We had a stopover at Agartala before moving on to Guwahati. It seemed strange – I never thought I would ever find myself in such a remote corner of the country.
As we took off from Kolkata, we flew over Bangaldesh before reaching Agaratala. From the top, Bangaladesh appeared to be completely devoid of trees. Nevertheless, every inch of the land was green, with paddy fields spreading as far as the eyes could see. Sunlight reflected from the thin layer of water covering the paddy fields. Brahmaputra looked wide and full even from high in the sky. It was a short 30 minutes flight, and we were back in the Indian skies ready to land in Tripura. We next flew over Meghalaya, which was hilly and green, its valleys filled with rivers and streams. It was early evening when I landed in Guwahati and made my way to the hotel in a taxi.
To be continued..