Nation: why everybody is confused ?

They have been successful in raising the dust about patriotism [ or is it nationalism ] and sending the real issue behind the curtain of dust so created. Whose is best? Left's "Salaam Lal Zenda" they shouted is better, RSS said 'Saffron is the colour of patriotism.' Muslim were always with green so unfurled green.
I asked many a learned friend, as I was extremely confused by the definition of the nation itself. None could come forward to help. The confusion is so omnipresent, that more the people more the confusion! As for myself, I found none. Is it the map delineated by arbitrary lines drawn on the paper? Is it the geography or is its topography? Is it its people, their culture, their language what exactly it is!
Nationalism comes later, patriotism even later, much later. Because one has to be sure when he says 'This is my nation' when everything about it is just arbitrary! And only after one defines nation to which he belongs to, the word patriotism comes into being because it means loyalty, unbounded love, a deep sense of belonging to the Nation, a concept he nurtures to his cores!
Recently I had been to, two international borders of India. Indo China And Indo Bangla Desh.
The border between India and China passes through Bum La Pass in Tawang, which was fiercely fought in the Indo China war of 1962. We were told by a very authentic source, that there is no border as such. Chinese and Indian soldiers stand in front of each other and if one retreats or advances in others territory the border changes! So the vigilance has to be 24 *7 *365! One bad step on part of the soldier on the duty, India becomes smaller by a few feet! India's border, in short, is that volatile! So are those few feet India, The nation?
On the contrary Indo Bangla Desh border the post we visited at Tamabil, was having barricades, definite precautionary boards about the customs, the boundaries, surprisingly above all, friendly sentries on either side. Nonetheless, Indo Bangla border at many places is equally porous and arbitrary at times passing through the mid-river!
The point is, the nation defined by its borders, which at most of the times simply are arbitrary, how one can define!
Once while going to Keukenhof in the Netherlands from Belgium I was eagerly waiting for such a scenario of well-dressed sentries, the barricades painted in yellow and black, a gate with an immigration personal vicariously eager to pounce on me for my passport. Nothing of the sort happened! Not even a board welcoming you to 'Netherlands.' I asked my son in law, ' If such is the case, how do you know that we have crossed the border ?' Smilingly he replied, 'By number plates on the vehicles and traffic signs on the highways! The language changes.'
If the language then defines the nation where should we put the multilingual states, [and practically all are.] like China which has more than 100 local languages! Switzerland speaks in 4 languages, even in America, in southern parts, Spanish is spoken more than English! So is it Spain or part of America the nation that speaks Spanish? And us The Indians? Oh less said the better. It's said and accepted too, that language changes every twelve miles! Oh, how many nations within a nation we would have then? I am exhausted just at the thought!
The culture? The Religion? Useless yardsticks again. Give and take a few variations Europe practically has one religion but the nations are different. The countries like Pakistan, UAE have same religion but are they cohesive enough to be called a nation, really? So religion takes a retreat. The culture within the groups, even apparently similar, varies so much in the rituals they practice that sometimes it would be ironic to call them one group, to call them a nation would be a distant dream!

Then what it is ?!

In my opinion, its THE  Feeling which shows empathy to a fellow being even though he/she is remotely related to you in all aspects and respects in the distant corner of the world far away from your land, it's the storm of emotions which engulfs you giving goose pimples when the tricolour is unfurled in any part of the world, reminding you the flavours of your soil, its that bond when your eyes get wet when you know that, that one unknown soldier laid his life for you to enjoy your freedom of speech.

Why you want the definition of a nation on a constitutional level, it's a gut feeling that tells you to do what's correct and it's definitely not in, to break what is so beautiful!

Guwahati

It is surprising to know that Guwahati was never the capital of Assam, except in prehistoric times of Kamrupa. In modern times when Assam was undivided, it was Shillong, and now when 7 sisters are individual states, the capital of Assam is Dispur. Name also is extremely misleading. Gohatti as it was known in the middle times too connoted family of cows, bulls, and Bison, 'Go' and 'Hatti  meaning elephant. Even it's not derived from Gawa ; a Bison and Hathi ; an elephant but it's a combination of two words, 'Guwa', a betel nut  in Assamese , while 'Hati' comes from the word  Haat, meaning  market place.

Road from Shillong to Guwahati being national highway was really good. It was funny to note that, 40 kms from Shillong there are two country liquor bars on the highway just next to each other, one named 'Bak Bak' and other named 'Wat Wat'. Both meaning in Marathi , Insensible, irrelevant talk, in short 'Blah Blah.' Naturally, after a peg or two who talks sensible, rather that's the permit to talk insensible nonsense !

The major difference between the states we visited so far, was 'Religion.' Assam is predominantly a Hindu state having rich mythological past. Buddhism and Christianity which were common so far, are relegated to even less than 3%. Language too is of mixed origin deriving many words from Prakrit and Bengali. Though it has many words from Bodo and other tribal languages too.
Guwahati is a buzzing city with many notable institutes and is the busiest commercial center of north east, only next to Kolkatta in east. Having its own University, professional colleges and industry,  metropolitan area allows to reside more than 1.2 million people.

Guwahati has so many temples that it is also known as 'City of Temples.' And it reflected in our itinerary of Guwahati too. Tour operators took us to the temples after temples of different gods.

The first stop was 'Balaji temple'. It seemed recently erected so was spic and span clean. Bit away from the hubbub of the city ,  was sparsely crowed probably less believers of this god in Guwahati ! It's serene, peaceful, and quiet abode to Tirupati , an incarnation of Vishnu and is replica of Balaji temple at Tirumala in Andhra Pradesh. Built in alpine white marble you really feel one with the God here , if you are pious enough. It has temples of few other gods/goddesses too, in the perimeter, including that of 'Padmavati',estranged wife of Tirupati,incarnation of goddess Laxmi. It seemed to be managed by the priests from  south, clad in veshti with typical anointment on the forehead.

                                                                                                                                                         Only jarring note was this mechanized drum beat at the entrance of the temple. Not to offend the religious sentiments of anybody but I strongly feel 'Why do Hindu Gods like so much of noise ? Do  they not understand ," if something is asked for softly or that comes from the heart ?  DO THEY HAVE TO BE SPOKEN TO, ONLY IN LOUD  EAR SPLITTING NOISE? " Aaraties too are recited from the top of voice , louder the voice, BETTER the aarati, that's the logic, more popular the devotee he becomes, and once the hysteria sets in then there is nothing to hold back , as there is nothing, that can stop it !, Spoiling the serenity  of entire Mandir, elders giving few words of good advice are treated like dust, exam going students are left in lurch but the sleeping God must be woken up at any cost ! May be Balaji temple at Guwahati is having  shortage of these helping hands, so the mechanical player !

 Exactly opposite was 'Kamakhya Devi' temple on the hills of Nilachal.The devotees thronged the temple in 'N' numbers. Ultimately it was all 'C's. Chaos, Cacophony, Clamor and Crowd, Cleanliness being absent, in big way ! Was I expecting anything otherwise ? Most of the devotees looked low brows [ extremely sorry to say ], probably fearing the Goddess more than loving her.

The road to the main temple was lined on both sides by the shops. They were full with the things normally are offered to the goddess, mainly garish red  cloth interwoven with shiny plastic threads, flowers, garlands, sweets and Haldi Kunku.





As the temple was built and renovated many times some of these scriptures and carvings date back to 8th or 9th century and thus do not have any definite architectural pattern. Along with sanctum sanctorum it has 3 halls built in different eras giving it a hybrid architecture that's now known as Nilachal type.

 This is not the idol of goddess Kamakhya but is the carving on the outer wall. In fact the sanctum of Goddess is at a lower level , in a basement and very dimly lit. Due to the crowd of the devotees I could not even have the glimpse of the goddess. But whatever I gathered afterwards was intriguing. There is no idol of Goddess as such, but there is a stone having features of female genitalia, that's worshiped as goddess.The story that goes, was beyond me, curious ones can look into Wikipedia.

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  It's said that along with the floral offerings the goddess is offered sacrificial animals too. Though we ourselves did not see any animal being sacrificed, these anointed rams were wondering in the temple premises randomly. For someone like me who is enamored by the philosophy of late Dr. Narendra Dabholkar, though I am not an active member of his movement, it was too much to take. For a moment I felt proud for my Maharashtra being more progressive and pragmatic, especially as compared to these northern and north-eastern states, where breaking away from the shackles of religion, tradition and  blind faith seems well nigh impossible. Immediately I came down like a thud, realizing the fact that in same Maharashtra he was killed, and killers are at still at large ! All in all, it seems that ,we Indians are all same, a shade better or worse, here or there ! May be I should take pride in, that Maharashtra at least produced Dr. Dabholkar !. For these states, it might take even centuries, to have some one like him !
A thought just flashed, though I as a person, won't justify it myself. Every devout Hindu offers the food cooked  for any pious, religious occasion first to the God, 'Naivaidyam' before it is consumed by the commons , if a non vegetarian offers his food to the god first and then devours...... ? [ The point to be noted here is, as it is put, most of the time wrongly, India is not a country, Strictly of Vegetarians. Barring Jains and few High caste Brahmans especially from South, practically 65 % of Indians have meat or eggs in their diet at least once or twice in a week ]
When we left the temple, vibes definitely were not positive and the godly feel ... that was light-years ago,  but to every body his own.
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 To top the things, the third visit too was to a temple, Umanand Devaloi , [ Pronunciation so much nearing the Devalay in Marathi] a Shivalay built by some medieval king. Only redeeming factor was a boat ride to the temple as  it is situated in the mid stream Brahmaputra river, on an island known as peacock island





 It is built in 17th century but yet to have properly built up wharves/jetties  on either side for boarding or alighting the boat ! The slope of the bank is steep, slippery and without any handles or bars to climb down with ease !

 And how big is Brahmaputra ! Even though it's not  as wide in Guwahati, the other bank  is just not visible, waters, waters waters every where ! No wonder that it is referred to as Male in the rivers.







Though the island  is having lot many baboons, this one seemed docile and accepted offerings from the tourists without making any fuss. On the contrary  he was accepting the gifts gladly and unlike the baboon, politely ! [ that is, not snatching away from the hands of the tourist !]

Some extra enthu tourist like her even had photograph with him and surprisingly the baboon too gave it with a pose like seasoned model !

A short cursory visit to the local shopping market at 'Ambari' in Guwahati, in the evening brought full stop to our daftly executed tour of 3 sisters Arunachal, Assam and Meghalaya out of 7,[ Mizoram, Tripura, Nagaland Manipur, being the remaining ones] by Veena World, more about it , directly on Facebook. Later ! But in essence it definitely was memorable experience !
THE END !

Cherrapunjee

I fail to understand why do the North eastern states are always at cross with the center, if put boldly, Mainland India ? To my utter shock I came to know that, even today, 15th August and 26th January though holidays, are not celebrated in Shillong the state capital ,forget about the interiors, but every enterprise remains closed as if in protest. As a tourist, locals might be putting up a facade but if you land up there for a job ? I don't know what the outcome would be? I am putting this after talking with many men on the street ! Of course many places in these states have yet to see even the  'P' , as in the progress, but the ball shouldn't stop there. Rather than having total freedom it would be better for all the states to remain together and have more autonomy within the frame work of constitution, may be with newer, wider agenda. Few learned people from every state should sit together, chart out minimum beneficiary program and the rest should rest with the states, so this constant bickering with the center and also among-st the states won't be there, which is hampering the progress of India as a nation in general. [ European Nations realized this, so came under one flag of EU. Every nation had different identity, but for the common goal of progress, all decided to come together, even having same currency and We ? We already ARE together, question is of understanding the need to be together. ]

I have been saying it again, that I am not a political student/ observer of any kind, but this is what I felt as a common man and I think it should count !

Back to travelogue !

The Elephant head falls on the way to Cherrapunjee are practically in the town of Shillong. Fall is in 3 tiers but extremely American. That is too much tourist friendly. No raw touch of nature anywhere, whatsoever. Nice steps, nice railings on either side to have proper hold and few streams of water rolling down lazily pretending to be waterfall. Nothing spectacular to keep mouth gaping!

Cherrapunjee. The wettest place on earth ! A definite short note in geography exam paper. One hears so much about Cherrapunjee so many times since childhood, that you start feeling as if you know the place by heart. But how many of us know that it is  known by yet an another name ? Yes it's also known by name Sohra. Though historical , it's more commonly used now ! Another pin to the bubble. Cherrapunjee does not hold the title of THE wettest place on the earth any more, it has been snatched away from her by small place known as Mawsynram ! Well do not want to go into details, tour manager gave the information, I checked it, and it turned out to be correct.

The road to Cherrapunjee was excellent but the mountains through which it went ? Well, little disappointing. They did not at all look like Himalayas, texture was mostly like our own  Sahyadri, western ghats. But Sahyadris are better afforested, these seemed to be having less trees than seen so far, practically bereft of trees at places. Was it the hint mother nature was giving us of the things, those were in the store ?  May be, because this part is mined for coal and we saw  heaps of coal at many places with that peculiar smell  pervading  the air.
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And the bubble burst. Cherrapunjee is absolutely nothing like one expects. It turned out to be damp squib ! Only damp , not even wet !  I expected dense forest ,so dense that making it difficult for the sun rays to penetrate. Flora and fauna in so much of abundance that one finding it difficult to keep the tracks. None of it whatsoever. On the contrary ,it's a barren plateau, bereft of any trees, forget about typical dense rain forest like terrain ! It was difficult to assume that once it was wettest place on the earth.

Another piece of information was more devastating. Cherrapunjee  at times faces water shortage in summer months !!!! 

I did not know how to react ! Had been to Egypt. In Aswan the last rainfall was 16 to 17 years ago. So the boys in their teens don't know what the rainfall is ! And we ? India as nation ? Even God is not helping us, and why should he/she ?

Ramakrishna Mission runs a school here that holds high standards. Had a chance to speak with one of the swamijees there. According to him the conversions are still being done and the reason for it seems to be economical. Girls from the local tribes aspire to seek education but the boys laze. The learned girl does not want to get married with tribal buffoon so changes the religion and gets married to the boy who is highly educated, but from other religion, mostly Christian. Every where ultimately 'Do Waqtki Roti' is most important !

The thing to be proud about is, the school admits Christian boys and girls but do not attempt to reconvert them !

Due to heavily descended clouds and dense fog we could not see any of the falls of Cherrapunjee. Nohkalikai fall is the tallest fall in India, falling straight 1115 feet down and named after a woman who committed suicide, jumping off the cliff. This was happening second time and I did not understand the logic. To be named after, why one has to jump off the cliff. There are dime a dozen institutions in every part of India named after the 'Royal' family of India , its every member, but it's never heard that anybody of the clan jumped off the cliff ! [ Take it as black humor, nothing personal whatsoever ]

Waited long to see 7 sisters fall on the other side. Same story got repeated, not even a glimpse due to dense clouds, so gave up and headed for Mawsmai caves.  And these turned out to be real adventure.

These are lime stone caves full with stalactites and stalagmites.At places you have to literally crawl other wise there are 100% chances that you will break your head. It took as if years to cross it and its not even one of 1st twenties in the state!

Back to Shillong. Took a round of Police Bazaar. Again nothing new. Now tiredness was telling its presence but few more days , one in Guwahati and one in travel !

Meghalaya

Meghalaya. Carved out of erstwhile Assam in 1972. In fact all the 7 sisters were initially parts of Assam only. May be due to locals' aspirations or may be for political reasons one by one all were separated and now they are independent states in their own right.

The road to Shillong being national highway was excellent barring few spots. We visited tea gardens at Hathikuli owned by Tata's on the way.

Normally the tea plantations are on the slopes. Because though the tea plant requires lots of water , if it stays it kills the tea bush. But here they were on the planes and no one could explain why. The tall trees planted in lines had crawlers up their trunks. They were of pepper corns and even their leaves tasted pungent. We did see typical Bollywood type tea gardens on the slopes elsewhere, rather every where but for want of time could not visit.

Shillong was the capital of old Assam , now it is of Meghalaya. Though Shillong welcomes you at its gate with beautiful lake, Umiah , the first impression of Shillong leaves you wanting for more. It was the capital of old Assam for a very very long time so should have had the charm of old world, at least that's what I felt, but whatever you see today can not  be called even the skeletons of its old beauty. I was hoping it, to be like demure bride hiding behind lush green canopies of tall trees, red roofed old world charm bungalows built in British style, small cobbled lanes coveting big streets lovingly.... oh so many things. Today's Shillong is, no[ bad ] words. It's big conglomerate of chaos, extremely narrow roads laced with  slums almost every where, though not absolutely  filthy, does not suit to be the capital of a state. We were supposed to go to the hotel directly but decided to detour and went to Umiah lake for a small boat ride

    Popularized by Airtel 4 G [ irritating ] girl , Umiah lake is lot better than seen in the advertisement. This one is from the viewing gallery on the top

Taking this picture in blue monochrome added an eerie mysterious quality to the scene that made it more glamorously beautiful, of course with adjustment on the camera

.From above it was enchanting from near it was breathtaking. Sunsets normally leave sad notes but this sunset was so mesmerizing, almost liberated you, taking you to a new high.

Boat ride was smallish, lasting only for ten minutes but invigorating after a long travel of almost six and half hours.

Though the first impression of Meghalaya was depressing it presented its real nazara in days to follow. As usual early in the morning we left for the bridge formed by live roots near cleanest village Mawlynnong. Pronunciation at  everybody's own risk !

The climate was always clouded but as soon as we reached , it started drizzling though not a heavy one, but bothersome. All the umbrellas and the  wind cheaters came out. Walk to the root bridge was in itself an adventure. Steep slope with slippery stones and mud to add to the woos.

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Root bridges may not be natural wonders as it is made out to be. Khasi people have learnt the art of building such bridges and the expertise shows. The roots of the rubber tree or banyan fig tree are entwined to build the bridge. Surprisingly such bridges last even for more than 100 years.

Important to note is , these bridges are 'Living.' These are known as aerial roots. As the rubber tree/ banyan fig tree roots are very elastic, local Khasi people guide them with the help of betel tree trunk to go in the right direction. To build usable root bridge, it may take15 years or even more. Whatever ! It was out of this world and even though the rain gods were not helping, we made our own day ! .

Not only the bridge but the surroundings too, were exhilarating

Typical Khasi woman and child. Most of the Khasis practice Christianity and the first conversion occurred probably in last to last century around, 1890s and today more than 70% population is Christian. Buddhism that is the religion in Arunachal has only 0.33% disciples in Meghalaya while the original tribals have been marginalized to meager 8%.  Surprisingly  1.67 % of the population speaks Marathi , more than the few local languages. Oh how Wikipedia enlightens!

The cleanest village in India ,Mawlynnong, awarded prize  by UNESCO[?] in 2003. It is just nearby, at a walk-able distance and clean even today. Bamboo has been used liberally every where from fences to making grass roofed small houses. .Inhabited mostly by Khasi tribe, which has matriarchal system, means the women are the heads of family, and the youngest daughter inherits the property. As such also, men folk in North East hardly work. They booze [ not drink ] eat betel leaves with betel nuts day in and day out and laze mostly doing nothing.Women do everything and if asked about the system, don't show any grudge, on the contrary say ' He gave me children, what more do I want ?' !

 The village headman has put a warning for tourists, " Not to bring plastics, PET bottles into the village or the group leader would be fined ,Rs. 5000/-". But Indian tourists being Indians threw the litter on the road anywhere they pleased ! I myself picked up few plastic wraps and bottles and put them in this beautiful cane dustbin !

 My impression about the international border between India and Bangla Desh totally went haywire. I was under impression that  it is on the western side of Meghalaya. It turned out, after reading the map  that Meghalaya is sitting on  the top of Bangla Desh and shares it southern border with Bangla Deshe's northern border. Dawki river divides the two nations at Tamabil. Visit to the border was altogether a different experience, though not glamorized like Wagha border, all the same it has its own simple rustic charm. [ Of course that  Border is between INDIA and PAKISTAN and not between India and country cousin Bangla Desh !] Met one Maratha Gadi from Shirdi at the check post but he refused to pose  with us for a photograph, citing security reasons. [Was happy in his post and was not longing to go back home. Felt proud for him.] On the contrary Border security force soldiers of Bangla Desh posed for the camera gladly. The shop seen behind the barricade, stores linen from Bangla Desh. On sensing the tourists the shopkeeper came running to sell his goods to us. The sentry prohibited us from buying, but the goods too were of inferior quality and expensive for the quality, so there settled the matter.

On the way back, as the rain god had showered his bounties, there were many seasonal water falls. Bipholl was one of them. Cascading from the hills at different levels creating rapids, at places going cool, it just washed away the tiredness of travel.

Meghalaya. Abode of [ or is it ,to ] clouds. A Sanskrit name. Bit, out of place in Meghalaya., because all the languages spoken in Meghalaya do not have any semblance  with Sanskrit. They belong to Austroasiatic or Tibeto-Burman group of languages. Local people, the main tribes are, Khasi [ in the central Meghalaya],  Garo, [ Western Meghalaya] or Jaintia [ Eastern Meghalaya],  too resemble Burmese in their features. Mongolian no doubt, but not fair skinned like Monpas from Arunachal. They are darker,  with crooked teeth due to constant chewing of betel nuts [ Surprising, though we, as Indians differ in culture, language, religion even race, in this case, this habit of chewing betel leaves with betel nuts seems to be universal for India, Interesting ! ]. The official language of Meghalaya is English. So though the name Meghalaya is far from the local culture it stands to its meaning in more than one way. 

Clouds playing a game of hide and seek with the mountains was treat for the eyes. Never felt satiated.


  

 
 In real sense of wold it turned out to be Meghalaya. Enchanting, beautiful, top of the world !

Kaziranga

The next halt of the sojourn was at Kaziranga. In Assam. Like Bengalis Assamese too pronounce their 'A' as 'O' and 'ssam' is 'sum', thus the true pronunciation of Assam is 'Awesome' and truly it is. Mere Kaziranga passes with high colors, but that does not mean that the other parts of Assam are not awesome. They equally are but Kaziranga takes away the crown.

From Tawang to Kaziranga is like traversing the entire world in every which way. Distances kill you really. From Tawang to Bomdilla it's 170 kms, from Bomdilla to Tezpur it is 153 kms and from Tezpur to Kaziranga it's 94 kms. Not only distances, topography along with climate too, changes drastically. The jackets and warmers those are worn to combat the deadly cold of the mountains slowly start  getting down one by one . Kaziranga is on the planes of Assam and is on the banks of great river Brahmaputra. So the climate is hot and humid. We crossed Brahmaputra for the first time near Tezpur. Imagine the greatness of river, when I say, 'The bridge built on it near Tezpur is 3.5 kms long.' It took as if eons to cross it !

Like the battalion that takes halts after halt to reach the destination we too, took a night shelter again at Bomdilla , lunch at  the same dhaba that served Karela bhaji and reached Kaziranga at around 6.00 in the evening, being east it was pitch dark by then. But the journey was not uneventful as expected. One of the buses conked off on the ascents to Bomdilla.Huffing and puffing it was trying to negotiate the curve with steep gradient. It tried but gave in, in the end. Now what ? We were stranded in the middle of no where, nearest help point was 30 kms away down the hills.Repair was not the problem, cutting the time was. But we were prepared for the calamities like this and what's better than the play of cards. Tarpaulin was borrowed from the tour assistant Arindan and we had pleasure of playing cards in the wilderness ! But we could not finish even two rounds. Montoo our maverick driver rectified the mistake within minutes and we were on the beaten tracks again.

The scenery around  was too astounding, I could locate this small house hiding in the deep jungles from the prying eyes but my tele lens could capture it beautifully !

As usual Himalayas never cease to wow ! 

The snow capped peaks, with mountain ranges in different hues of blue, were though oft seen, never prevented from uttering 'Ah !' It just escaped!

 

Our Hotel in Kaziranga  was par excellence. Lavishly spread over acres of land, the Borgos was like a dream in the jungles.Use of wood in large quantities added a different splendor to its' rich interiors.

But it turned out be bad for us.

It was 31st March and it was the day we had semi finals with the West Indies.On spacious lawns of the hotel, a projector and big screen was arranged for better viewing. With heart held in hands we saw the first few wickets falling like bungalow of cards. To add to the woos, it started  drizzling. Distant thunder increased the anxiety. Later players, especially [as usual] , Dhoni and Virat rekindled our spirits when we reached 150s. By then it started raining heavily. Though hotel management arranged for the umbrellas, it was projecting system that was at stake. So we had to abandon the match from our side and had to go for dinner with question mark in the head.The tin roof of the dinner hall made so much of noise, making it amply clear that it was really a heavy downpour. Surprisingly within shorter time than expected, showers stopped and finishing the dinner we rushed to the lawns to watch the Windies play. It was another shower. Of runs and it came down heavily, really heavily that we lost the match, though not miserably, but lost all the same, wiping  away all our chances  to reach the finals.With small faces and heavy hearts we returned to our rooms consoling ourselves, saying, ' We have to get up early in the morning , have to go for elephant ride.'

Kaziranga national park is spread over more than 400 sq.kms, 430 to be precise. Limited on one side by Brahmaputra which becomes bane and boon at the same time. It's the huge water supply for the marshy land that flourishes flora and fauna, but at the same time, as it is  low level marshy terrain, during floods Brahmaputra submerges acres and acres of Kaziranga, at times killing many animals  simply by drowning.

It's home to many animals including Tigers, Bison, dears, elephants and last but not the least single horned Rhinos. As estimate goes the park has more than 1600 rhinos, more than 100 tigers [with highest density in the protected areas ] and innumerable swamp deer, fawns and bison, wild buffaloes. Elephants are there but are rarely seen in the open though it's good breeding site for them.

The park management has made excellent provisions at Bagori for elephant rides. Montoo dropped us from our hotel in Kohora to Bagori very early in the morning at 6 AM. Surprisingly there were many early birds before us ,who had come to take the ride at 5 AM! It was such  because there are only two rides in the morning and whole play finishes before 8 AM for animals to have their natural freedom. And it really does not matter because even at 5 AM in the morning it's like 8 AM in Mumbai.

Mounting on the elephants is really made easy by the management. The platform to ride  the elephant is as high as the elephant and one can easily get into haudah without any problem . Each elephant carries 6 people in haudah, 3 on each side. Haudah is safely locked so there is no danger of falling off the elephant.

Once deep in the planes, [it's jungle of medium level grass and  bushes mostly, may be better breeding place for rhinos and tigers,] it was like raining rhinos. May be they are used to daily elephant rides, so at times they don't move even an inch, by approaching elephant. Rhinos of all hues, shades, sizes, and ferocity were grazing lazily without giving two hoots for the encroachers, us !

The skin of rhinos seemed so thick at times that some of us named them after our popular local heroes , like the Pawars, the Bhujbals or the Laloos. [ Strictly tongue in cheek, no malice towards anybody whatsoever] The conversation thus went like this,"Look how that Bhujbal is pataoing Pawar, probably wants something in return.'' "See that younger Pawar , has gone exactly after his uncle."or "See, How Laloo is lying lazy after grazing on lots of grass."

 It was really sight to watch. Due to heavy body of mother rhino, baby rhino can not suckle the udder from the sides like  babies of other mammals, so it has to go behind, between the legs for feeds.

The purse of one of the tourists from our haudah fell down. We felt. its gone now. In grass infested [!] with rhinos it was definitely risky to get down and retrieve the purse. Our mahout was definitely used to such catastrophes. He goaded his elephant in some sign language that elephant understood. And wonders of wonder , he picked up the purse with his snout and returned to the owner !

All in all, in the morning session all the rhinos looked dull, almost looking like pets.But in the afternoon session, in open jeep, one literally charged towards our vehicle menacingly terrifying the driver. In a flash of a second driver accelerated the jeep to get away from him. Luckily there came another jeep, and with the noise of that jeep he retraced his attack and disappeared in the tall grass. We wanted driver to wait a bit more but he was more knowledgeable so refuted our request and continued his driving. 

Full grown rhino may reach one tonne even more in weight, but at the same time can achieve speed of more than 80 kms/hour while running, thus can easily topple vehicle like jeep even if having obese riders, by sheer momentum !

Thank god we took morning session of elephant ride, because in the afternoon session of jeep ride, it has to go on stipulated rough road and can not reach the rhinos or any other species from close quarters. If  you see tiger in its natural environment you are damn lucky. Even after straining our eyes for eons we could locate neither tiger nor  wild elephant even. Could see only few bison, tamed elephants and few beautiful birds which we could not identify.

This one was the villain who attacked our jeep.But retraced back putting his tail between the legs after realizing that THE Benurwars are riding in the jeep !

 

We did not want to waste the spare time that we got at Kaziranga. So explored the village nearby. Normal Assamese house in the interiors has to have a pond next to the house for fresh fish. Staple food is no hard guess, rice again. So the houses are near paddy fields and have small kitchen vegetable garden always attached to it.
 

 Typical Assamese house with pond attached to it. To get to the water it has that peculiar ladder.

 Interiors of the kitchen of small farmer's house, with bare minimum utensils and provision.

 Bamboo shoots, used as vegetable.

Paddy fields. Development has reached. at least to bare minimum. It has electrical water pump to water the fields in absence of rains.

It was sayonara time for Kaziranga .With heavy heart we said bye to all those Rhinos and headed towards our next destination, Shillong, the capital of Meghalaya.