A personal thanks to all  of you for your bountiful wishes on my birthday. 

Being wanted or even the feeling that there’s some one out there is the mantra that keeps humanity moving . When we are not wanted, we turn mad. Tensions increase, depression sets in & we get desperate. This is evident in India’s NorthEast.

Dr.APJ’s demise at Shillong was a blessing in disguise for North East as it pitchforked the area in mainstream  news for a few days. Barring this, we seldom hear anything about the existence of Manipur,Mizoram, Nagaland,Tripura, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh. Our neglect is pronounced. Tata Docomo does not have any service – atleast in the entire state of Assam. Assam Shares its borders with all the above states and is rightly called the gateway to the North East. Dr. APJ’s last trip was by road from Guwahati Airport to Shillong (Meghalaya).

Most flights to Guwahati – Assam’s capital invariably go through Kolkatta. We have covered a little bit of Kolkatta in earlier posts. Hence only a small rejoinder- before we go to Assam. In Kolkatta, immediately after you cross Shyam Bazaar  ( thinking about our dear Shubbs ) on the BT Road, you come across an uncelebrated engineering marvel – the Talla tank – the world’s largest elevated steel water reservoir ( 9 million gallons). It has been in service for 109 years and still going strong. It was built before its better known steel marvel sibling – the Howrah bridge ( 6th largest of its type but the world’s most busiest; best explored on foot.) While at Kolkatta, do not miss dining at the famed 6, Ballygunje Place for some good and carefully dressed hilsa’s – world’s tastiest fishes ( Veggies –excuse – please convert to non veg temporarily, have a dip in Hooghly and reconvert ).

All NE states are well endowed with water resources. Agriculture is the mainstay industry in Assam. Tea & rice grow side by side. In contrast to  hilly tea regions of  Darjeeling or Munnar or Conoor or Ooty, tea in Assam is grown on the plains. You can see tea estates all along the Assam Trunk Road from Guwahati to Dibrugarh. Trees are planted at regular intervals in the tea estates in such a manner that the tree provides an excellent shaded canopy over the tea gardens. The canopy compensates for the lack of hilly climate for the tea. The priciest tea at the auctions are sold at Rs.450 per Kg while what we have at Tamil Nadu or Gujarat neighborhood shop starts at Rs.150 a Kg.

Assam has good road connectivity served by both government and private busses. The Assam Trunk Road passes through Kaziranga National Park and you can spot a lot of Rhinos – I beg your pardon – billboards stating “Beware –Rhinos might cross” . But you cannot spot anything in the day time. Possibly in the night when you hire the open top Maruti Gypsy for a safari,  you can get to see the Born Tough Ceat Tyre Mascots.

Carom was a staple in all BHEL township houses of our era.  We’ve grown up fighting with our brothers & sisters over many games on the board.  Carom is the most popular outdoor sport in Assam today. carom boards  in public places , taxi stands etc. in the open or under the tree are present everywhere. You can join on any board for a game, have chai and move on.

Non Veg is a daily must and evening markets selling fish, chicken, pork are busy. Naga restaurants serving pork based food (including pork intestine) varieties are quite sought after. The guest house cook, where I dropped unannounced at the last minute for lunch felt sorry and was hesitant to serve as there was only veg items left. But for me, that was what I wanted.

Motimahal the  restaurant at Delhi which claims to have invented the tandoor has its origins at Dibrugarh here bordered by the Brahmaputra.

The eco-friendly building ways that Assamese follow is a lesson for rest of India. Wherever there is a small pond or a water body, shops, houses are built high over them on bamboo stilts. Elsewhere in India they are filled with construction debris and a plot made out of it. Mud and bamboo are the only materials used to build shops &  houses. Almost all buildings and house sport tin roofs.

One cannot fail to notice the numerous cement company ad hoardings – the only hoardings -  across all of Assam, alongside all Dhaba & hotel name boards etc. As these companies business here grows, the eco friendliness would be dying slowly.

Assamese are peace loving people and extremely simple. Life cannot get complicated here as there is nothing to complicate but rice, tea, carom and non-veg. Why, where and how the words of ULFA, Bodo militants etc. came into existence seems a mystery. Perhaps our neglect of the region may be the cause. To be wanted is the mantra that keeps humanity sane