Away from home

              A couple of days far from the madding crowd always helps to rejuvenate one’s spirits  especially if the recluse is a hill-station.It was the end of 2013 that gave us the chance to take a short trip to Shillong –a trip that we thoroughly enjoyed and shall remember for long.We reached Guwahati on twentieth December only to hear that a strike had been called in all over Assam that day.Anticipating that problems may arise further in the day,we immediately hired a car that took us to Shillong.A nice,tree-lined and not too crowded Shillong impressed me at the first instance and it was within one hour of us reaching there that we were seated in a local taxi that would take us to the local tourist spots.We went first to the Elephant falls,a gurgling fountain falling in three steps in a quiet,sylvan setting.This falls was originally called ‘The three steps’ by the Khasis.Later the Britishers named it the ‘Elephant falls’ after a rock situated left of the fountain that resembled an elephant.The rock was destroyed in an earthquake but the name given to it remained.The air force museum,our next destination was a place that inspired respect for the contribution of the Indian air force.Helicopters,fighter-planes.missiles used in various wars(especially during the Bangladesh war)have been maintained by the museum authorities and several others types of defence aircraft ,uniforms of pilots and of air-crew are documented in the well-maintained and fascinating place.The museum also has a detailed model of the Garo-Khasi-Jaintia hills and displays the ethnic dresses and lifestyles of the native tribes.We stopped at the golf-link(the grassy undulating stretch of land that covers miles) for some time before going to see the house where Rabindranath Tagore stayed whenever he came to Shillong and where it is said Raktakarabi and Sesher kabita were conceived.The present  owner of the cottage was out of town and so we had to satisfy ourselves by just walking through the gates and looking the stone carving that acknowledged Tagore’s stay there.It was disheartening to see that most of the tourists were interested to shop or visit the parks and the Wards lake(a local place for people to sit and gossip)instead of stopping by the museum or Tagore’s house.Even at the church which has splendid architecture and serene surroundings,people were only posing for photographs instead of sitting in the prayer hall or looking at the architecture.We ended our local trip for the day by stopping at the police bazaar(which was crowded with people shopping for Christmas) to buy a few souvenirs for relatives and friends back home before returning to the hotel.

     Five years back I had read an article in the TTIS about Mawlynnog which it was stated,is Asia’s cleanest village.We had wanted to visit the place since then and the village being about ninety kilometres from Shillong,we knew we had to visit the place even if we missed out some other attraction.We came across another hamlet called Nohyet on our way to Mawlynnog .A watch tower has been built at Nohyet with only bamboos that has the strength to bear thirty people standing on it at a time.The architect of the wonderful structure was a shy man.When we managed to strike up a conversation with him(with our driver acting as the translator)he told us how he made the bridge,how some minister has praised it and how despite a minister coming to visit it not many people come to see his craftsmanship.As we talked with him another group of Bengali tourists came.Neither the viewpoint nor the fine water containers made by the villagers and displayed there seemed to impress them.They were rather taken aback to see us marvelling at the villagers’ sense of cleanliness and beauty!We spent some more time at Nohyet buying a water pitcher and glasses from the villagers,sharing chocolates with the children and posing with them for a photo or two.Before we left,our architect shook hands with us and asked us to come back while the children,who though shy at first had opened up after getting chocolates waved us goodbye.I had been unwell since morning that day but as we got into the car I felt as if the place had helped me get better.Mawlynnog  is the place that every Indian should visit to learn a lesson on cleanliness and sanitation.Perfectly justifying its tag of Asia’s cleanest village,Mawlynnog is truly the most perfect village that I have visited.We saw toddlers picking up dead leaves from the road and dropping them in cane dust-bins,women washing clothes with water stored in small tubs cut out in the rocks,solar-plates laid out in the gardens to tap sunlight and the spring-water being tapped for domestic and other use.The best thing about this village is that no villager sits idle or whiles away time in gossip.The children  are either going to school or lending their hands in household chores  or playing among themselves,the women are either busy in the households or manning the small restaurants that offer refreshments to tourists,the men are at work or busy catering tourists.Poverty continues to hinder many dreams but the people at Mawlynnog do not complain about them.We were greeted with smiles and “please visit us again”from a little girl who was on her way to school,the girl who served us food,her brother who struck up a conversation with me about the kind of festivals that we celebrate,a young mother whose baby was very happy to be in my mother’s arms for a little while and a labourer cum teacher who shared with us his dream of bringing more number of the village children to school.Before heading for Shillong we walked for a long way to reach the Living roots bridge,that has been naturally made by entwining roots. The next day we went to Cherrapunji and from the time our car crossed the mile-stone bearing the name of the place,I was amazed by the beautiful scenery.Hills lush with greenery shone in the warm sunlight,the roads were very good and my parents(who had been to Shillong and Cherrapunji before)repeatedly talked about the improvement in the roadways and of the maintenance that has been done.We stopped at a bridge(I don’t remember its name)from where one can hear the nearest river gushing by the green foothills,at a viewpoint from where one can view the winding roads disappearing at the turn of every hill (it was one of the best places of Cherrapunji and more so because of the lack of tourists who avoid climbing the hill),a waterfall named Noh ka Likai,meaning ‘in the lap of Likai’ and the Ramkrishna Mission of Cherrapunji.The mission has a school adjacent to it and I could not help but imagine how lovely it would be for the pupils to attend school that is situated in such a breathtaking place.The hills and the vales stretched for miles;still brooks,small churches,patches of wild flowers made the journey simply wonderful.We also went to the seven-sisters falls,a hill top from where one can see seven streams  of water meeting the Brahmaputra.It was a foggy day and we could only see the sketchy view of four streams making their way down the hill-slopes.On our way back we were greeted by Cherrapunji in its own self.Once known as the place recording the highest volume of rainfall(Now,a small station called Mawsynram ,a few kilometres from Cherrapunji is known to be India’s wettest place.),we literally sped through clouds.I have always had a fascination about cloudy skies,rain and wheeling down the window I tried to smear myself with clouds.Cherrapunji is one of the nicest places  that one can go to and although it was winter(my parents had been to Meghalaya in the monsoons when they said,the hills,the waterfalls and the streams teemed with newly showered water!),our trip was most memorable.

Every time I visit a hill-station,the departure from the hills make me want to cry.It happened this time too,especially because Shillong impressed me more than most other hill-stations.By the evening we had checked into a hotel of Assam Tourism in Guwahati and though we had no prior booking for a packaged trip to Kaziranga,my father’s continuous phone calls to the Assam tourism authorities finally got us a two day trip to the home of the rhinos.It took us about four hours to reach Kaziranga National Park the next day.We checked into the Rhino Guest House and soon after lunch the caretaker came to tell us that a jeep-safari has been arranged for us.Soon we were riding along the dusty road that makes its way through the extensive grassland.Tall elephant grasses mark the outer zone of Kaziranga National Park.We saw a number of rhinocerous near and far away,and also a mother rhino with her baby.A vulture sat on the branch of a tree like a meditating saint,a turtle enjoyed the warmth of the departing sun,cranes and pelicans(other migratory birds too flock to Kaziranga in the winter)flew over the lakes and settled in groups on the grassy patches in the pond.There were bisons and elephants too,busy in their own circles.Further deep in the forest,our driver showed us the claw-marks of tiger on the bark of a tree.Tigers,he said sharpen their nails on the barks and mentioned that one of the trips,a tiger had walked alongside the car for as long as twenty minutes(in a night-safari which unfortunately is temporarily not conducted in the park).We were taken to a watch-tower,from where we watched some more rhinos and two spotted pelicans.From there the jeep took an about turn for the day-the vast stretch of grassland and forest was lit up with the yellowish orange rays of sunset and it was indeed a lovely godhuli(well there was much dhuli but not that which is generated from the hooves of cows)!Next day at about four in the  morning we took an  elephant ride into the forest,my first any such ride.The experience was simply amazing.As the elephants moved through the grassland we saw herds of deer resting at one place,bisons making their way through the grass,pelicans flying over the lakes and rhinos moving in their slow,heavy steps.Our elephant was thirty-five years old,named Moromee and the mahout told us how tiring and difficult it is to train the elephants which includes making the elephant learn to walk through the grassland(a nine-year old elephant was frequently stumbling on its way through the mud),taming it to cater to the needs of the tourists,bathing it,and arranging food for it.After a full hour of elephant ride we dismounted and on the order of their trainers all the elephants saluted the tourists,a new and exciting sight for us!I loved the trip to Kaziranga National Park as ,much as Shilllong,the vast area covered by the park is not only a free abode for the animals but a quiet and pretty tourist attraction too.

The tour officially having come to an end,we toured Guwahati on our way back and spent the night at the house of a friend of my father’s(their friendship goes back to their old trekking days) at Maligaon.The whole tour was one that I would cherish for years to come and needless to say given an opportunity Shillong would be the hill-station that I would love to visit again and again.