Awesome Assam!!

Earlier, the only place I had visited in Assam was Guwahati – on my way to Shillong. And honestly, I did not have a very good impression of Guwahati – it’s not a very clean city, I felt very uncomfortable in the Kamakhya temple, many of the places we tried to see on a Monday were closed… And of course we had a “wonderful” evening cruise on Bramhaputra (that story, some other time… :-))

But Assam, as I found out in a week-long visit, is simply wonderful. And absolutely nothing like my first impression of the state based on its capital. Its beautiful and green, with abundant wildlife.  And tea gardens on either side of the roads… You also see a lot of open spaces and driving from one place to another is a very pleasant experience – well mostly, unless you come close to Guwahati – then it’s a big mess! I loved the small towns that we saw along the way and was just amazed at how many cows one comes across!!  And I just fell in love with the simple old type small houses that were everywhere…

We visited Tezpur, Nameri, Kaziranga, Shiv Sagar and Majuli. We landed in Guwahati and Assam started to weave its magic as soon as we left Guwahati and started towards Tezpur.  The most prominent color that we could see everywhere was green. And so many shades of it!! The trees, the fields, shrubs – everything lush green!!

Our formal “sightseeing” began in Tezpur with a visit to the Mahabhairav temple.

We then went to Chitralekha Udyan (for some reason we had thought this is a tea garden – we couldn’t have been more wrong…). But Chitralekha Udyan (or Cole Park) is a beautiful and tranquil plac. We also went to Agnigarh – as per the mythology, this is the place where Krishna’s grandson, Anirudh married Usha which was the cause for a bloody battle between Shiva & Krishna, and got Tezpur, which was earlier called Sonitpur,  its name (Teza in Sanskrit means blood). The view of Bramhaputra from the watch tower on Agnigarh was spectacular!

Road to Nameri  was pretty bad – that is to say, wherever there was road, it was bad… And so it took us longer to reach Nameri that what we had thought. But once we reached the Eco-camp, Nameri, we immediately forgot everything about the bad road etc. The place was wonderful. The tents were the most luxurious I have seen – ever!! Each tent had an attached bath AND a changing room!! And there were fans in the tents!! One felt really “relaxed”… But our experience with the activities done here with Eco-camp was not great.

We went for a hike/trek in the Jungle with a forest guard in the afternoon. We crossed the Jiabharoli river in a small boat and started our trek… This was a great walk in a deep forest, but it definitely would have been a lot more enriching, if the forest guard knew more about the flora and fauna. He was not interested in anything but walking as quickly as possible to the end point (which was a watch tower) and then on returning from the watch tower to the river bank.

Next day early morning (after it had rained cats and dogs in the night), we drove in a SUV towards Balukpong, thinking we were going white water rafting. But it just turned out to be a long boat ride on a raft. The boat ride was wonderfully relaxing. Moving gently with the river, watching birds and passing through small villages where odd fisherman (or woman) is fishing with the traditional fishing contraption is such a wonderful feeling… But it definitely was not rafting… :-)

After Nameri we made our way to Kaziranga. Drive to Kaziranga was good till we started seeing the national park on the left side of the road. From that point onwards it was simply great!!  We actually saw couple of rhinos in the park, at some distance even before we reached our hotel.

Kaziranga was awesomest part of the awesome Assam experience! We started our time in the national park with an elephant back safari at 5:00 AM in the western range – Jungle was still waking up and we managed to get really close to the rhinos and deer; also saw lots of birds… In Central and Eastern ranges we took jeep safaris instead. 20th April was a really beautiful day. On this day we saw many wild elephants and rhinos in Kaziranga.

From all the different safaris in Kaziranga, one vision that I just can’t get over is a tusker walking straight at us. He was in his own world, walking at a relaxed pace; walking so gracefully. But we had gotten scared. We had of course stopped the jeep and gone absolutely quiet– we were wondering if we need to reverse out; wondering if he will charge; and if he does what should we do…. And then we saw another elephant behind him! I can still remember that moment so clearly!!

It was mesmerizing and scary at the same time. The tusker in the front became aware of us when he was at about 50 meters distance; and there was a sudden change in his whole demeanor. It felt like he suddenly became more “formal”. He turned at a right angle and walked in away in the forest. The one behind, saw him turn and did the same…

We thought that nothing else would be really impressive after Kaziranga – but Majuli did impress us! Of course before Majuli we went to Shiv Sagar. The temples, pavilion and palace here were quite picturesque.  The desert pink stone temples and palace on the background of lush green fiends are really something!

And then we went to Majuli – it’s a completely different world. The satras there, their lifestyle and the way they are cultivating the arts – mask making, dramatics, music and dance…. It would be worth going to Assam to just visit Majuli! And the private performance of Gayan-Bayan that they put up for us, in the main hall of the North Kamalabari satra, was definitely an experience of a lifetime!

I left Assam after spending just a week there, but its definitely a place I have on my “to visit again” list. I also have added Assam to my list of most spectacular places I have visited in India!!

Do you remember that movie?

(This is for my sister, Motiya, and at her own suggestion too…:-))

When we were small, there was no easy way to refer or search for information about the movies, actors, musicians, directors or lyricists. There was no easy way to get the lyrics of the songs you liked. It was almost impossible to listen to your favorite songs as and when you liked. The only radio stations that played movie songs were Vividh Bharati and Radio Ceylon.  We tried and listened to Vividh Bharati as much as we could. And when it played a song we loved, we wrote down the lyrics!! And if there were 2 of you writing the lyrics together, then it was better – then you could get most of the lyrics down in one go!!

So many times we wrote down the lyrics, but didn’t quite remember which movie the song was from. And many times we knew all the songs from a movie, but didn’t know who were the lead actors in that movie or the situation in the movie a particular song was for.

And the avenues to watch movies were very few.  There was only one TV channel, Door Darshan and there was only one movie shown on TV every week. So, on Sunday evening we watched the movie on TV, if and when we weren’t doing anything else like playing outside with friends or made to do something else by parents like study, especially when exams were approaching. And if the movie was not “censored” by the parents. Oh AND if we had electricity at the time of the movie!!
We went to movie hall to watch a movie very few times.We would go to the movie hall hardly ever when school session was on and just once or twice in holidays. I remember in one summer vacation I had felt really privileged because we had watched all of THREE movies in the movie hall.

Going beyond all these restrictions when we were able to watch a movie, we weren’t too choosy. We were happy to watch whatever movie was on the TV any given Sunday. And we mostly went for whatever movies my parents let us go to or took us along with them. (Well, of course except for a phase when I just HATED all the movies, and didn't want to go watch any movie!! ).

We told stories of the movies that we watched. And this story telling could go on for hours – because you had to explain things in detail – like the kind of saree the heroine was wearing for a particular scene or the jacket the hero wore, the facial expressions of the comedian – oh and the “adda” or den of the bad guy, which had all sorts of mind boggling instruments and contraption for torturing the "good people".  And we also had to tell our understanding of why characters were acting in a particular way. Many times this was not explained in the movies – it was our interpretation and COMPLETELY off the mark. When you watch the same movies after many years, you very strikingly realize this.

Then sometimes, when you were trying to remember a movie, you asked each other “What was that movie in which blah blah blah happens?”  And if your sister or mother or friend could not place the movie, you gave more hints – like who was the hero or a song from the movie you remembered or a little bit of the plot….

My sister, had a unique “gift” shall we say, in this game of “Do you remember that movie”. Here is how the dialog with her will go on –

Motiya:   What movie is that, do you remember?
Me:         Which one?
Motiya:   You know in which the hero is very poor and his mother is always smiling?

Now that described more than half the movies shown on Door Darshan in that period! Most times the Hero was poor and struggling and his mother was unusually “nice”, always smiling, even in hard times.

Me:        What else?
Motiya:   And his mother makes “Gajar ka halwa” for him, because he loves it?!

Again, every poor hero liked “Gajar ka halwa” and his wonderful mom always managed to make that for her beloved son even in dire poverty!!

Me:        Who is the hero?
Motiya:   Don’t remember. It could be Dilip Kumar or Rajesh Khanna oh, or maybe Kishore Kumar?!

Now this was really going across generations of heroes, and different types of movies!! And of course there was a very good chance that the actual hero was someone else altogether!!
But we still continue our efforts to figure out…

Me:        Who is the heroine?
Motiya:   She was someone, I don’t know at all…

Now that really helps, right??

Me:         So what else do you remember?
Motiya:   Well, towards the end, the hero drives a car on a mountain road, very fast!!
Me:         And?
Motiya:   Then there is a fight at the villain’s den!!

Right!!

Me:         Do you remember any songs?
Motiya:   Yes!! There is a song sung by Asha Bhosale! Or maybe it is Lata Mangeshakar.

In those days, I think about 95% songs for women actors were sung by one of these 2 sisters. It was like there was no other female singer around!!

Me:         Do you remember the song?
Motiya:    I don’t remember the words, but it is something about “pyaar” and “duniya”… But I remember the tune!!!

Now "remembering a tune" and being able to reproduce it correctly are two different things!!

Thinking that she was humming the tune currectly, my sistent then started to hum the “tune”.  And that really  sounded like a mosquito’s humming to me!!! “Hmmmm hmmm hm hmm hmmmmmmm hm hm hm”

I just gave up all the effort to figure out the movie, at this point!!!!
And anyway, by the time we reached this point, we both were really angry with each other.

One outcome of this was that we didn’t talk to each other for quite a while. Which I am sure, my parents thought was a blessing!!!

Of course, needless to say, we would repeat this game again and again every few days!!! And everytime it would go like this with exact same results!!! :-)

Now I really miss those days......

Indian Traffic & Life

Travellers from outside India, when talking about their first impressions about India, will tell you that they were completely shocked by the traffic. That when they were being driven around in cars, they were extremely scared. Indians who have lived in countries in Europe or the US, even for just a few years, come back and find it difficult to understand the traffic here. When people have lived outside India for sometime, they are really scared to drive here... EVEN people who have never gone anywhere outside India find the traffic really horrible most of the time.

And of course there are many factors that make it what it is. The two main categories are -

• Infrastructure & authorities
• The condition of the roads
• The way the constructions /repairs are being done on the roads
• The amount of traffic compared to the size of the roads
• Insufficient & sometimes careless authorities (even people responsible many times do not know what is right and what is wrong)
• BAD drivers
• People who drive on the wrong side
• People who do not follow the traffic lights
• Many, many people who drive without knowing the rules

I get very annoyed while driving mostly because of the bad drivers. We all travel on the same roads, so the infrastructure factor is common for all of us. But the second factor, bad drivers, make it even worse. And they make it especially bad for the drivers who follow the rules.

Having said that, recently it has struck me that Indian traffic is really like Life!! :-) The traffic in US, for most part is very orderly. No body's life can be like that. And if it was like that it would probably be extremely boring.
In Indian traffic we start with an idea of getting some place by certain time, but will we get there in that time, no one can be sure. That's so much like what happens in life!! Also, in Indian traffic people, carts, cycles, two wheelers or cars, basically many different things keep coming at you from any direction at any speed - that's how life is! In life too, things keep coming at you at different speeds and from various directions. In Indian traffic, we see many people getting ahead of us who we know don't deserve it or we feel are getting there with wrong means. That too is so much like life!!

And sometimes you are taken completely by surprised and you have a wonderful experience with people being fair, following rules not being too pushy and you managing to get someplace ahead of time. Is this about (Indian) traffic or life??? In my opinion, both!!

Earlier travelogues

So, earlier I have written a little about my travels. And that time I put it up on MSN Live spaces (because I was on messenger, and had the ID and it was so easy you know....)

Anyway, now it all has been migrated to wordpress. So that is where some of my earlier travelogues are. You can read about my trek in Kanchanjunga National Park,Sikkim (June 2006), my trip to Hampi (Nov 2006) and trip to Germany & Austria (May 2008), on wordpress at http://sonaligogate.wordpress.com/.

Imagination - what can it do?

It happens many times. When we expect too much out of something, we get disappointed with the actual thing. Be it a movie that our friends praised a lot and told us that it is a “must see” or a dish that was said to be “to die for” at a restaurant. Or even a car that was supposed to be the “dream machine”. I have myself felt this on many occasions and of course I have heard this from many people. So when we expect a lot, what we get in reality does not meet the expectation and we are disappointed. And that is because we use our rich imagination when someone describes something as “too good”. Imagination wins over reality every time.

Similarly, when you get into something with no expectations or really low expectations, you are many times very pleasantly surprised to find that you actually don’t dislike it as you expected. In fact sometimes you actually like it – it may even become your favorite.  This is because you have either used your imagination to expect something really bad or not thought about it, not used your imagination at all.

So does this mean its better not use one’s imagination? No, I don’t think so! No, of course not! How can one advocate not using one’s imagination?  Imagination has given us so much.

Imagination of many great men has been the cause for many scientific discoveries and inventions; imagination of other great people has made them create beautiful paintings, wonderful sculptures and amazing melodies that would sooth our soles. Even capturing those melodies in tapes, records or CDs has been possible only because some scientist, some technician first imagined capturing them and preserving them. And if not for the imagination, what would we have in name of literature?

Actually, anything and everything that is good and is of any meaning has its origin in someone’s imagination. Of course, we can’t deny that imagination can also be cause for hatred and actions based on hatred. Imagination can also be cause for overindulgence sometimes and for ravaging of nature.

So obviously imagination itself is not enough to decide whether a person will be good or bad. And just imagining things will not do anything for a person. Just imagining things is called day-dreaming, living in a dream world. On a daily basis all of us are imagining something, about something we want to do, something we wish to see, something we want to happen, someone we would like to meet or something we want to eat. And of course it can be very enjoyable to just sit around and imagine things. But as we all know, just imagining does not do anything for our progress or growth. It does not do anything for our own good, forget someone else’s good or progress.

Imagination gives us wings – it gives us our dreams. Not only the dreams which we dream in our sleep, for those too come from our imagination, but the dreams you dream in wakeful awareness. The dreams that make one want to become a scientist or an artist. But to turn this dream into something real and meaningful, you need to firstly apply your thinking to the imagination. While the imagination itself is one type of “thinking”, one needs to apply a different type of thinking, a more logical thinking which takes into account ground realities and can define what your “aim” has to be for your dream to come true, can break it down in smaller steps if required and can come up with a sort of an equation of how to start with what you have and how to reach your goal.