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.

Arunachal 3

I really felt that I would be able to cover Arunachal in two articles but it's so beautiful that just to  wind it up, would be great injustice to the land.

Tawang monastery is second largest in the world, the largest in India, and is enshrined by Dalai Lama himself after he visited it in November 2009. In spite of strong protests by China he was welcomed by the locals whole heartedly and Indian Government stood behind them stoically. In war of 1962 China had occupied the monastery for 6 months ! [ In fact most of Tawang district was taken by China in 1962 war, later about that .]

Monastery in  itself is a small village, having many houses where citizens still reside along with monks, which are around 400 in number.

 

Being situated at the height of 10000 feet, the view of Himalayas from the monastery is truly liberating in every aspect.

We also visited a monastery on the way meant only for women monks. A small girls was practicing Monpa alphabets in full earnestness. The lady monk who was attending to her was asked, 'Are these Chinese alphabets ?'. She was incensed to the core, retorted bit angrily. 'Why should she learn Chinese? These are our alphabets like Ka Kha Ga  in Hindi !'
The Tibetans who fled from China after 1959 annexation still hope that they may return to their homeland. Considering China's power today, in all respects, the hope seems bit far fetched.



Tawang War memorial was next halt. The one whose eyes do not get wet after listening to the officer who takes you on the tour , is not a true Indian ! More than 2600 Indians gave away their lives in one way war. In 1962, we were so ill equipped , that in the end it was one to one war with daggers ! And every part of India made its sacrifice. Likes of Kanhaiyakumar who blurt in Delhi about the freedom must be given a tour of this war experienced part of India, or made to serve in army at least for an year or so, after which they would not utter a word about freedom of any kind in or out of Indian ethos !



What is being Indian? I don't know. As a common man I can't define it within the frame work of our constitution. I don't know whether RSS's patriotism is laced with Hinduism and Leftist's is not, all I came to know about my being Indian is, when the officer described the bravery of Indian soldiers, it gave me goose pimples and   choked my throat !




On the way to Kaziranga we visited a water fall, named after other female accomplice of Param Veer Chakra winner Hon. Jaswant Singh Rawat, Nura. Nuranang falls. The myth  that goes is, after the death of Jaswant Singh and Sela in the war, Nura went into depression and committed suicide by jumping from the top of the fall , so the name .

 The river below too is known as Nuranang river and has all the beauty that Himalayan rivers have.

 While passing through the Himalayas we passed through many small Monpa villages. In one such village the Monpa urchins oblivious of the intruders went on playing with their game of hide and seek. Though the common staple food is rice, one of the houses had corn on the cob hanged outside to dry, for use in rainy days.

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The last halt in Arunachal was, Orchidarium at Tipi which is 3rd largest in the world having around 7500 orchids from 300 species.

 This one was unique in its own way. On closer look , it turned out that it has flowers within flower.

 

 It was impossible to have even cursory look at every variety so when eyes cooled off we decided to turn back to the bus to take  arduous travel again. To say goodbye to Arunachal was difficult. It brought so many moments back, laced with a tinge of sadness because of loss at the war, at the same time the feeling of oneness with the locals that we almost forgot that we have to leave.

On the way back it was same tortuous road zigzagging through the Himalayas, only difference was the absence of snow ! The climate was very pleasant but the shiver that went through the bones was missing, and we really missed it, it had given that much zing !

Arunachal 2

Oops ! I goofed up.The confusion occurred because of enormity of the travel and the similarity of Himalayan ranges. In fact travel from Tezpur to Bomdilla has nothing specific to offer except those wild bananas. Yes there is one this Nag mandir which we visited actually on our way back but the story behind it befits any 3rd grade Bollywood pot boiler like 'Revenge of Nagin. Part 3, so nothing great to write home about.  All the happening things are on the road from Bomdilla to Tawang ! So far what we did was just travel, travel and travel for more than 40 hours. Now it was time to explore Arunachal.

Bomdilla is a sleepy town not thickly populated. Like any hilly town it too is settled on different levels. Being at higher altitude, in winter months it's either covered under snow or clouds.







 

My bubble about rest in Bomdilla, burst in no time.Tawang which is THE place of Arunachal, was still a day's travel away, that too in the mountains again.On the way to Tawang we visited a smallish monastery of Bomdilla. 

Young ones are indoctrinated into Buddhism and are taught at the school run by the monks. This young one refused to utter a word, may be because of extreme cold !

One has to lunch on the way while in travel as the distances are  cumbersome. From Bomdilla to Tawang it's more than 150 kms, that too again up the mountain , down the valley. Its takes around 6 to 7 hours to reach Tawang depending on the climate.The dhaba that served the food served typical all Indian food and not the cuisine of the locals. I actually wanted to taste it ,but that's what you get when you travel en mass. Surprise was Karela bhaji cooked in typical Marathi style.May be it was asked for ! The staple food all over Arunachal is rice with Yak meat. Of course we were never served Yak meat, but we devoured the milk  of Yak cow !

We named her Yakee ! Her milk is thicker ,sweeter and bit salty than the usual milk available elsewhere so the tea without sugar too tasted sweet ! Yak seems to be a mixture of bull and buffalo but has more fur, naturally ! 

Tawang , stands in turmoil even today due to variety of reasons. China border is just a few kms away and danger of annexation to China still lurks large over the head of every Tawang Resident !  The main reason for political dispute is, Tawang was considered part of South Tibet during British regime and the controversial MacMahon line was always refuted by China.

So when China annexed Tibet  it was claimed by China that Tawang too, automatically should come along. But due to India's presence of mind it did not happen, so the perpetual unrest ! Situation today is more delicate. Actual border being not there, the imaginary line between the two soldiers, one Chinese and other ours, is the the only international border between 2 countries .If Indian one recedes even a few steps and Chinese comes forward a few steps there forms a new boundary ! And that's why our army has to guard it 24 *7 relentlessly without even blinking for second ! Extremely stressful and difficult task !

Tawang and its surrounding area has 20 different types of tribes, Monpa being prominent and in large numbers. Monpas resemble Tibetans and seemed amicable. On the way 3 young girls waived at our bus for hitch hiking, as it was extremely cold we allowed the driver to let them in ! And within no time our small bus was filled with laughter , continuous giggling like any other teenager was their hall mark. And to our utter surprise they burst out in Bollywood songs in melodious voice ! And how many songs they knew !                                             

                                                                             Common Tawangian on the street , though does not have any thing in common with the rest of India, be it a language, culture, religion, their very own Mongolian features, and though does not allow you to peep into his mind [ probably ?],  always treats you politely and converses in Hindi [ That too is a surprise] ! Every single one praises Indian army for protecting them from the would be onslaught of China but nonetheless every body seems to be aware of the developments carried out by China just across the border in Tibet ! In comparison, India seems to be just surviving. So what lies behind those chinkey eyes still could be a mystery !

But there is a difference, even corroborated by the army men whom we met time and again, naturally it has got tremendous presence in Arunachal, every mile or two there is an Army check post. Some even Marathi from Satara or A'Nagar ! In Kashmir though the scenario seems parallel locals always abuse army in spite of always being helped by it, here army men too vouched for good heartedness of the locals. 

Just stone's throw away from town of Tawang there are few beautiful lakes. But like any other word in Indo/Burmese or Tibetan languages the pronunciations are tongue twisters. Two or three consonants come together with hardly a vowel in it. So the lake that we visited was Ptso or Pankang Teng Tso lake. Shonga-Tser lake was bit away but because of incessant snowing we could not proceed further. Heartening thing was , because Madhuri Dixit did a dance number here for Bollywood film 'Koyala' now it's known as 'Madhuri' lake.

Nonetheless Ptso lake too was picture perfect. Fortunately when we reached, clouds took retreat and the sun came out of perpetual veil and then whatever became apparent was simply breathtaking !

But the favor by sun the almighty was not to  last long so within 20 minutes or so the entire terrain got covered in fog and the lake again went behind the veil !

P.S: I am not a researcher or student of political sciences. The views expressed here should be taken strictly as common man's , as first impression without any bias whatsoever.

Arunachal 1

Arunachal. The farthest state in north east of sovereign nation called India. My India.It shares its borders on north with China, on west with Bhutan and on east with Burma. Once you say Arunachal it connotes distance for somebody staying like me, on this side of India. And that's it.  Far, distant, distant in every aspect. Travel, language, people, culture. every thing. 

There is nothing that directly connects Itanagar its capital or Bomdilla or Tawang its major towns to the rest of India. Recently Army has built a highway that reduces the distance to Tawang which goes through Bhutan but is only for the use of army. Common man has to take a tortuous hilly road starting from Tezpur in Assam. Taking in to consideration its strategic international position, a bit precarious one, even genuine Indian citizen from other parts has to take special permit from Army to enter Arunachal , Known as ILP. [Inner Line permit]. 

Though tortuous, narrow, hilly, treacherous whatever you may call, but the road from Tezpur to Bomdilla is just picturesque. Slopes on one side and deep valleys on the other all the way to Bomdilla never allow you to sit idle. Surprise to me was, it has heavy plantation of banana trees on its slopes. A very rare sight on any other mountains in other parts of India. Entire slopes of mountains after mountains are covered with these wild bananas. Surprisingly hardly any bore fruits. Normally banana plantations are mostly done for commercial purpose but here nature had it in bounties without any caring eye taking care of the most devoured fruit all over the world.. After inquiring around it turned out that most of the plants are males and the female plants are rare to come by. Mostly spread by asexual route known as sucker. The fruit has bigger seeds than the normal banana and tastes almost the same. Just to add to knowledge even if wild bananas are not taken in to account India is the largest producer of bananas. Hurrey !

Out of literally thousands, we could locate this rare one in the deep jungles some where on the way.

Picture post card scenery does not cease to wow ! As we climbed higher and higher mother nature unfolded her treasure in heaps and bounds. Trees bereft of leaves stood tall against the cloudy sky while the mountain ranges chided clouds to touch them at the summit. which obviously they could not.

After many mountains up and many valleys down we reached the peak on the road to Tawang,Sela pass, named after a brave woman accomplice of brave Indian Rifleman Jaswant Singh of Garwhal regiment, martyr of Indochina war of 1962. Sella pass was totally under snow. At 13700 meters in March it was not unexpected. Unexpected was the skidding of one of our vehicles. Roads were absolutely slippery as snow had turned into ice and was not allowing the tyres to have the grip.More the driver tried to move , more it skidded and started its march towards the slopes of  deep valley on the Right. We held our breaths, many hands went up in the air to pray and Montoo the ace driver of our bus jumped out and singlehandedly managed the show. His skill to maneuver the vehicle was par excellence and he executed it like a magician with swift hands, and once the bus hit the right tracks every body heaved a sigh of relief and shouted hip hip hurray for Montoo.

The lake on the other side of the pass, also known as Sela lake, is very beautiful sight to watch very soothing to the eyes.It's mostly frozen in winter, so much so that one can ski/skate on it. For us the climate was just right, though snowing heavily it was not as cold for shiver to reach the bones. So the Sela lake was still not frozen. But some one probably heard it and cursed because as we climbed down at Jaswant memorial to have small snack and tea, cold caught us like nothing before. My hands were shaking so much that half of the tea spilled out of the cup.Hastily I wore the gloves and held the smallish cup in two hands, a task by itself, but to  take it to the lips was a mammoth effort.

Rifleman Jaswant Singh had no one to help when Chinese Army descended upon Sela pass in 1962 17th Nov. He, barely in his 20s ,along with his two female accomplices Sela and Noora, fought a valiant battle and killed more than 250 Chinese soldiers. Chinese were so flummoxed that they  failed to understand from where the guns were being fired in reality there was only one. He gave up only after all the ammunition was over and breathed his last under a tree that's still worshiped. This memorial is built to commemorate his valor. His mother received his full pay till the date he would have retired, unfortunately she died before, so his niece inherited the honor.
By the time we reached Tawang it was getting dark though only around 4 or 4.40 in the clock. Somebody said, 'It's East.' Yes it was east.