Ok this is going to sound complicated.
I was to take a flight to Calcutta and then one from there to Shillong. Simple enough? The previous day I got a call telling me that the Calcutta–Shillong flight had been cancelled and that I had been put on a Calcutta–Guwahati flight and then they would put us on a bus from Guwahati to Shillong. Since I’m on holiday, time is not at a premium, so I didn’t complain.
As always, there was a slip betwixt. The Delhi-Calcutta flight got delayed by three hours (thanks to fog in the City of Joy - and to think that I had got up at 0300 to catch the flight!). Anyways, the delay meant that I missed the connection to Guwahati. But the Air India people (despite the persistent bad press they get) were nice enough to put me on a Jet flight to Guwahati. Simple?
Except that that flight was also delayed. I decided not to get worked up by all these delays and inconveniences and enjoyed whatever few pleasures the Calcutta airport had to offer. But the others on my flight were throwing a right-royal fit. I actually felt a bit bad for the ground staff who were getting shouted at by all.
So after this rather cumbersome process I did manage to reach Guwahati. There was left the minor matter of covering the 100-odd kilometres to Shillong. I shared a taxi with these nurses who went puking all the way to Shillong. And to compound matters, Bhupen Hazarika’s body had come back from Mumbai the same day – there was total chaos on the roads. So the journey which normally takes 4 hours took much longer. So when I reached my hotel, I just crashed – the hotel itself was a reasonably shabby one near Polo Grounds (remember I’m travelling for atleast a year – can’t afford to splurge on a bed!).
Everyday I would make the 10-min trek to Police Bazaar, the rather dirty and crowded centre of Shillong, before heading for my sightseeing for the day. At Police Bazaar, tourists (I look like one!) are accosted rather aggressively by taxi drivers screaming ‘Guwahati Guwahati’. If you’re not careful enough they’ll actually force you inside their taxi, even if you don’t want to go to Guwahati. Fortunately, with some rather deft avoidance skills, I evaded being sent there!!!
Some facts about Meghalaya (known as ‘Scotland of the East’) – it was carved out of Assam in 1972. There are three main ethnic communities (the Khasis, who live in central Meghalaya, the Jaintias, who live in the Eastern part of the state, and Garos, who live in the western part). An interesting feature of the Meghalayan society is that it is matrilineal (lineage and property pass from mother to daughter!).
Now for the non-dry facts (sorry for the pun!). At one point Sohra (better known as Cherrapunji) was the wettest place in the world – now that honour goes to nearby Mawsynram. So yes, it does rain a lot in Meghalaya (the name itself means ‘abode of the clouds’) but I was lucky enough not to catch any of that famous rain during my 8-day long stay there.
Shillong derives its name from a deity who 'resides' in a cave near what is now called Shillong Peak – the view of the town (city?) from the peak is quite imposing. It is much more spread out and populated that I thought it would be. The District headquarters were shifted to Shillong from Sohra (Cherrapunji) in 1864 – that is when Shillong started to grow.
There are quite a few sights to see in and around Shillong. Ward’s lake is perhaps the most popular of these. When I first went to his (British)man-made lake, it was closed for the day (Tuesday) but on my second visit it was rather full of Bengali tourists who were enjoying boating there. My foray into the much larger Umiam/Barapani lake on the outskirts of Shillong was even less pleasant. As I landed there, I was quite impressed to see the beautiful, clean, and large lake (somehow reminded me of Loch Lomond in Scotland). A few sailboats, strategically placed in the lake, added to the picture-postcardness of the scene. When I saw a number of policemen and a mortuary van, I realised something was amiss – I enquired from a few people standing on the side – they pointed to something floating on the lakes edge and said that it was a dead body. The poor boy had drowned a few days back (during a rock festival at the lake) and his body had just surfaced! So much for picture-postcard!
I also visited the Elephant falls (a rather pretty 3-step falls) and Lady Hydari Park. Didn’t enjoy the latter as it also had a mini-zoo that had quite a few caged birds and animals (and that always makes me sad). But that sadness was compensated when I visited the Butterfly Museum. The museum, recommended by a friend, was not easy to find. I had to ask my way atleast 10 times and seem to be going around in circles when I finally spotted a ‘Museum of Entomology’. Could that be it? I had to wait for half an hour before I could find out (the museum opened at 11 and I was there at 10:30) – Promptly at 11 I rang the bell and after quite a while the door was opened by this person who did not look pleased at all on seeing me. Rather reluctantly he took me to the basement of his house where the ‘museum’ was. By now, I was beginning to get a bit disappointed. But the moment I entered the large hall of the basement, I was taken aback – there were rows and rows of butterflies (all dead ofcourse) – different colours, shapes, and sizes. Each more stunning than the other. That definitely made me forget the wait and the gruff reception. Besides butterflies, there were moths, beetles, and other insects too. What was amazing about the museum was that all these samples had been collected painstakingly by one person.
Another great museum I visited was the Don Bosco Museum – it showcased the ethnic and cultural heritage of the seven North Eastern states. As I wandered around the 7-storeyed museum, I realised how little I know of this part of my country. The museum had a lovely roof-top skywalk that gave a nice 360° view of the city. I also sat through a short documentary that showcased a dance from each of the seven states. Time well spent.
One unique sight I saw in Shillong was the large number of ‘Archery Counters’. On enquiring I found out that these take bets for the archery pool – the competition is held twice every day. Being the vela tourist that I am, I went to see the competition - about 30 traditional archers simultaneously shoot as many arrows as they can on a target. At the end of five minutes, the number of arrows that have hit the target are counted and that is what everyone bets on. It was a pretty interesting sight. While on sports, I even took my custom to a local football match. The crowds were enjoying it but I got bored after a while.
One of my friends took me for an interesting wine festival – it was held at the local swimming club. The pool-side setting was excellent – there was a band (‘Straight Brothers’!) that was belting out classic rock. Local wine manufacturers had set up their stalls where they sold all sorts of interesting wines – banana wine, passion fruit wine, ginger wine, and even coffee wine. It was great fun as we jumped from one stall to the other tasting (no spitting please!) the different wines that were on offer. After we were suitably inebriated on the tastings, we bought a bottle of the coffee wine and went about ‘tasting’ it in greater detail!
From there we moved to a lounge-bar where an upcoming band (‘Lavender Groove’) was playing. Many of the well-known singers/rockers of Shillong were there to watch the performance. The great part of a small city like Shillong is that it is all so intimate. Everyone seems to know or atleast know of each other. Must be real fun to live there - think of all the gossip one could do if one knows everybody.
On the Sunday I was there, there was a huge Catholic procession. What impressed me most about the procession was that, despite the fact that it was huge (people had come from nearby towns and villages), it was very very orderly. No shoving, no pushing, no hurrying, no trying to get past. Made me ashamed of my aggressive Delhi heritage.
Unless one hires a cab or one has one’s own vehicle (and a rather good map!), it is not very easy to explore Meghalaya outside. So I decided to do the day-tours run by the Meghalaya Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC). These tours, run daily are conducted if there are enough people wanting to go. I was able to take a couple of their tours – one to Sohra/Cherrapunji (which is by far the most popular), and the one to Mawlynnong. Unfortunately, the ones to Mawsynram and Nartiang had no takers. I would go to the MTDC office everyday to find out if there was any one who had booked the Mawsynram or Nartiang tours. So much so that the ladies at the counter started recognising me. In exasperation, they took my phone number and said that they would call if someone booked any of those tours. They never called. So I missed seeing the Mawsynram, and had to manage Nartiang on my own (more on that adventure later in the post).
The drive to Sohra / Cherrapunji is stunning – the lush-green countryside is punctuated with streams, rivulets, and waterfalls. Though this was the tourist season (which starts from October onwards), the waterfalls and rivers were rather dry (they’re at their furious best during the monsoons, namely June-September). Sohra has numerous water falls – ‘missing’ falls, ‘seven sisters’ falls – but my favourite were the ‘Noh Ka Likai’ falls. These falls, about 1000 feet, are really imposing. There is an interesting story behind these falls – a local woman (Likai) remarried but one day her second husband fed her pieces of her daughter from her first marriage. In remorse she threw herself off a cliff. Hence the name - 'Noh Ka Likai' ('leap of Likai').
The flip side of taking these tours was that I had to share the bus/mini-bus with people who were not used to mountain-driving (I used to be the only non-Bengali around) and were constantly emptying the contents of their stomach. So I was sitting in one corner trying very hard to avoid the pieces of breakfast that were flying around. These Bengali companions would oooh-and-aaah whenever the guide would point out Bangladesh in the distance.
Mawlynnong is supposedly India’s cleanest and greenest village. About 500 people live in this village and on my visit I definitely found it to live upto its reputation. There were wicker waste baskets almost every 20 metres and there was not an iota of rubbish to be seen. Green trees and flowers accentuated the beauty of the place – the scene was completed by butterflies flitting about in the fresh air. If only every village / town was like that.
I got chatting with one local and after the obligatory talk about the cleanliness of his village I asked him if it was true that the village had a very high rate of literacy too. He looked offended and clipped me with a ‘Sir! We have 100% literacy here”. And then we again got talking about the level of cleanliness in the village. He told me that every one takes pride in keeping the village clean. As if on cue, two little boys (about 5 years old) came onto the scene with a wee basket into which they were putting any rubbish they could see (they had to make do with leaves. There was no rubbish!).
Close to this village is the village of Riwai which is know for its living roots bridge. There are many such bridges all across Meghalaya – they are fashioned out of the live roots of nearby trees. They make for a really fascinating sight. After taking millions of photographs of this bridge, I walked back to the village and noticed a wee Government school. The door of one of the classrooms was open and I peeped in. There was a youngish looking lady teacher who seemed to be checking the notebooks of the 6-7 young pupils in the class. One of them saw me (or rather saw my camera) and smiled. That was my cue to ask the teacher if I could take a couple of photographs of the class. She nodded and the young ones broke into a smile to pose for me. That made my day.
The most interesting adventure was to Nartiang Monolith Park (about 60 kms from Shillong). Since there were no takers for the MTDC tour to Nartiang, I had to do it on my own. I had to first get to a town called Ummolong and from there it was another 10 kms to Nartiang. So first, it was a packed-like-sardines cab to Ummolong, then another shared cab to Nartiang. After sightseeing when I was looking for a cab to get back to Ummolong, all I could find was a really crowded Sumo, so along with some others I had to clamber onto its roof (needless to say, the ‘wind in my hair’ experience was the highlight of my trip to Meghalaya).
In this excitement I forgot to tell you about the Park itself. The Khasis and the Jaintias erect monoliths (menhirs) to commemorate various events. So this lovely (though not too well-maintained) park has lots of monoliths (some of them quite big) that were erected between 1500 and 1835.
That was my last outing on the Meghalaya trip.
Seen:
- Almost all women with children carry the young ones bundled up on their backs. And all women wear a green/blue checked ‘wrap’ over their dress.
- Everyone has red stains on their lips and teeth. That is from the consumption of ‘Kwai’, a sort of betel-nut taken with a leaf wiped with lime. It causes an immediate flush (of course, I tried it!)
