Scotland of the East - Shillong

My first article on The Viewspaper http://theviewspaper.net/scotland-of-the-east-%E2%80%93-shillong/, on the place I manage to fall in love with every time I am depressed, whenever I am alone...

The city of Shillong

Located in the North-East in the state of Meghalaya, about 5000 feet above sea level, the city of Shillong is captivating with its alluring beauty and its rich Khasi culture. Characterized by rugged hills, dense forest and lush green valleys and highlands, this place is rightly called the Scotland of the East. With the first rays of the sun falling, it wakes up every morning, dressed in mist and clouds to give its companions the most memorable experience ever with nature. With a rich flora and fauna and the usually low temperatures in summer due to its hilly terrain, it acts as a perfect paradise for people trying to shy away from the scorching heat of the summers. Also known for the heavy rainfall belt of Cherrapunjee and Mawsynram this place is a must visit for every Indian once in their lifetime.

Journey to Shillong

While joining IIM Shillong for doing my MBA, I planned to reach Shillong a good three days early to take my parents across this exotic place and enjoy a long awaited family vacation.  Known for its beautiful lakes and waterfalls, the journey started with the stretch of Barapani Lake along the way from Guwahati to Shillong. With their surrounding sylvan hills and grassy down, the place is a treat with idyllic picnic settings. After spending some time enjoying nature and the exciting water sports like kayaking and water skiing, we continued on our journey to reach Shillong before sunset. After a long tiring day, all we could do was make arrangements for the next day’s tour of Shillong city and take a peaceful nap.

Places to visit

Excited to explore the city, we got up early the next day and headed towards our first spot – the Elephant falls and the Shillong peak. The two level waterfalls with fresh milky water gushing down with a roaring sound will force you to freeze the frame and hold on to that moment for eternity. The water at the foot of the falls was chilling yet we could not stop ourselves from stepping into it to experience that thrill. While returning we stopped at Shillong peak to get a view of the city of Shillong covered in dense fog and enjoy the fresh air gushing through our faces.

Our next stop was the Wards Lake. The century old, world famous artificial lake located at the heart of the city is extremely popular for its garden walks and boating. Though we could not spend much time there but the beauty of the place is worth mentioning. Next we went to the Don Bosco museum. The museum has well laid out galleries containing artifacts, paintings, fibreglass figures, emanating knowledge effectively through art. By the end of the day, I was amazed at how perfect a blend of beauty and culture was the city of Shillong.

The Paradise called Cherrapunji

The next day we planned to take a full day trip to Cherrapunji. We went well protected, expecting a heavy bout of showers. The first thing that caught our attention was the clean, fresh look that the region wore. With majestic mountains kissing the snowy clouds, and the gushing stream of sparkling water in the fall, Cherrapunji was beauty personified. We passed by many waterfalls enroute stopping at a few.  Standing atop thousands of feet at the mouth of one such waterfall, I felt invigorated and allowed myself to forget all the anxieties of the days to come. Our next stop was Mawsmai caves. At the outset, we found the cave unwelcoming, given their low roof and dark and damp environment. But just as our feet touched the cool water in the cave, we were infused with a sense of exploration and were amazed at how the rocks and water led us on until we reached the end of the cave. We continued to our next spot- the Eco Park, created by the Government of Meghalaya. We lost ourselves in the fragrance of the multi-hued flowers and admired the ecological aspect of the attraction. We stayed for a while, wonderstruck at how a place could be so impeccable. The sun started to set behind the hills, and it was time for us to leave. Despite the fact that it did not rain at all during our visit, we were soaked in the beauty of Cherrapunji- A paradise indeed!

For Food and Fashion

The vacation at Shillong was made all the more special with its unique cuisine and fresh fruits. Known for its rich meat especially pork, we really liked a spicy preparation of rice and pork cooked in the traditional Khasi style. Also we couldn’t get enough of the tasty Momos which forms a special part of the Meghalayan cuisine. And the fresh pineapple, plum and peaches were something that we had never experienced back home.

What makes the trip to Shillong an amazing experience is an insight into the rich culture of this place. Driven by the matriarchal system, people in Shillong are extremely helpful and accommodating. An interesting fact which came to our notice was that drivers here don’t honk horns and hardly overtake in spite of the heavy traffic. The city closes down at 8.00 and wakes up early with the sun. They lead a disciplined life living in peace with the nature.

Shillong is a treat for shopaholics. From fashionable items to handicrafts to guitars, it has an extensive range in all items. You have to get on to the streets of Police Bazaar at least once to see the wide range of fashionable clothes, winter wears and accessories at minimal prices. Rightly called as the Rock City of India, it houses high quality guitars at reasonable prices. We couldn’t stop ourselves from spending a few bucks for a special handicraft showpiece and hand bag for my mother and an electric guitar for my brother.

Fly to Heaven

The only troubling part of this journey is the remote location of the city. We travelled by train for around 36 hours from Hyderabad to Kolkata, followed by Kolkata to Guwahati and then finally a three hour road journey to Shillong. On contemplation, I think a flight for the same route would have been much more convenient and time saving than the train. In spite of all this, the three days at Shillong made it appear all worth and the satisfaction became deeper after the initial struggle. As it is rightly said, the joy of reaching the destination increases proportionally to the difficulties faced during the journey. Our stay at Shillong was so fulfilling that I would happily be willing to take this journey again and again.

Never managed to cross it.. Did I!

Few days back I wrote this.. And here I am again, at the crossroads of life..

Blessed was I to walk into this world,

In hands which cared and caressed me all times,

‘Papa, papa’, a distant voice I could hear,

I wanted to respond, but had to wait so long.

I stumbled and I walked and then walked too far,

Now when I turn, I see nothing but despair,

I wish I could go back to the same old days,

Into the tenderness of her love and care.

Rugged as I may look, so am I from inside,

Wish I could keep the selfish desires aside,

Free like a bird I want to fly again,

Wish I could get back my wings for the ride.

Folded those wings, to get another flight,

Not sure though, if it is right after all,

Entrapped in my own shell I want to break out,

To breathe again, and to live some more!

Immersing into the greens..

The natural vegetation of Shillong is a treat to watch, a beauty to imbibe and an experience to relive every time you step into the green outdoors. It has been less than a month and I have already been to a lot of trips enjoying the clear blue skies, lush green lands, mountains and valleys, cloud covered lanes and the crystal clear waterfalls. But this one trip to the sacred forests of Mawphlang organized by our own faculty at IIM Shillong was expected to be something completely different. I hadn’t heard of this place before until our professors told us that it has a sacred power associated with it, a power which hurts anybody who tries to hurt it. There have been stories that people who have disturbed the ecology of these forests have suffered from illness thereafter and some have even died! Though the stories didn’t captivate me much but I was quite excited to undertake this trip as it would be a ‘date with nature’ as described by our professors. And what made it even more interesting were the ground rules set by them, which said that we weren’t supposed to carry any packaged food, no cell phones, no ipods and most importantly we weren’t supposed to utter a single word while inside the forests. That looked like quite a difficult task but as I could see the sole motive was to make each one of us experience and appreciate God’s biggest gift to humanity – The nature.

                                

We started at 5 a.m. in the morning and reached Mawphlang by 6 a.m. When we got down from our buses all we could see were unending green grasslands covered with fog as far as our sight could go. I was wondering, weren’t we supposed to go to a forest. After walking for a few kilometers on the green carpet, we finally reached the coveted place. It was like a big porous green wall which we were about to break into. Standing on the fog covered grasslands on one side and looking at the entrance of the dense green forest on the other, it reminded me of some fantasy world like Narnia. Curious and excited, without further thoughts, I stepped into it with my friends. And mesmerizing would be too small a word and too short of an emotion for what I experienced thereafter.

Few of the local Khasi people accompanied us in our journey, to brief us about the forest and its history but more so to guide us with the path, since without them we sure would have got lost in the greens. The first time we stepped into the forest, we couldn’t stop praising this scintillating piece of natural beauty. The floor was covered with a thick layer of dried leaves which helped us walk through the turns and slopes in the forest. The trees acted as our ceiling protecting us from the light drizzle and allowed only small streaks of sunlight to reach us. When we looked up, it felt as if a source of light was trying to enlighten us in this divine place and it rightly managed to do so. The freezing streaks of water were playing music which we had never heard before and the tall green trees were bending over to talk to us, it was literally a date with nature full of romance and intimacy. The chirping of birds further added to the perfect desirable ambience. It was one of those moments when you want time to stop. I wondered how life has evolved, something which was a part of our routine few generations back has become a vacation now. I wished I could go back to that generation and continue to live this vacation forever, if only that could happen.

Our journey was refreshing and by no means easy. People slipped but got up, were tired but walked on, cribbed but continued to laugh. It was as if we were willingly trapped in a green maze and the fact that we will somehow manage to come out was the only motivation as well as the only deterrent. When it all got over and we were back on the grasslands, it was a moment of achievement for all of us, an achievement to have finally been able to understand nature. Our trip was named immersing into the greens and it was literally so. And though the time has passed and its memories continue to linger, something which will remain with us forever is the sense of responsibility for preserving this nature in where so ever we are and by what so ever we can. I wasn’t sure if it was the end of a beginning or the beginning of an end for me. 

The shepherd boy and wolf

The following incident was narrated by one of our professors of Business Ethics at IIM Shillong and I couldn’t help but sharing it..

Everyone must have heard of the story of the shepherd boy and the wolf. The moral of the story was straight forward “A liar's truth is seldom believed”. Ever wondered of any other moral that could be derived from that story? Before you proceed to read on, just think for a moment and try to come up with an alternative moral. Don’t worry if you are not able to come up with anything else, that is what happens to most of us who have a restricted frame of mind. If you are able to come up with something sensible then I must admit you have an excellent ability to unlearn things.

Pause for 5 min and try to think of an alternative moral for the story…..

There are two separate incidents which I will share, both involving kids. Both of which will show you a glimpse of the innocent intelligence of children. The first incident took place in Kolkata, where a father narrated this story to his son and asked for the moral of the story in the end. He was amazed on listening to his son’s reply. His son said, “Dad, what kind of story is this. There is problem in the first line of the story itself. How can a shepherd boy go to work, this is child labour and it is illegal. I do not accept it.” A child talking about child labour, touching indeed!

The second incident happened in Punjab, where a school teacher narrated this story in class and asked the students to give the moral of the story. There was one kid who stood up and said, “Ma’am, this tells us that when we lie everything good happens with us but when we say the truth we get hurt”. The teacher was amazed at the child’s thought process.

I myself was amazed by both the replies. Even at this stage when I think of the story, the only moral that comes to me is the traditional one. I guess that it has been in grilled in us for so long that it now becomes too difficult to part ways with it. This happens not just with stories but with many other learnings which we have encountered in our life. Our professors at IIM Shillong keep telling us that the best way to learn something new is to unlearn your previous learning. After listening to these two stories I couldn’t agree more!

5 things I love/will miss about Hyderabad

There were a lot of things in my mind when I was leaving Hyderabad and I was not in a position to collect all of them. Now that I am alone at home, I finally decided to pen down my thoughts. Though the list is endless, this is just the top five in the list of things I love/will miss about Hyderabad.

5. Watching Movies - Well, I know watching movies anywhere else would probably be the same but I wonder when again I would be in those spirits to watch any random movie for no reason at all! Well the only reason I can now think of is that "it is a weekend"! And hence I ended up watching movies like the super duper hit - Prince and the retro style all time favourite comedy - Action Replay! Though I should add that I had awesome fun watching them, after all it is the company that matters. Now, that there are no theaters in Shillong I will definitely miss it even more.

4. The grand architecture – Within my first month itself in Hyderabad, we went for a full day Hyderabad darshan trip and I was awestruck with the beauty of the grand palaces, forts and museums. Looking at those massive structures, a tiny part of me dreamt of being born in the Nizam’s family. The history is even more interesting. Cannot forget to mention the beautiful laser show at Lumbini park, the famous Charminar, the glowing Necklace road, Hussain Sagar lake and the literally enlightened Buddha statue. As a child I had always dreamt of going to these places at night with friends and this wish was fulfilled on my last birthday, what more could I have asked for.

3. Hyderabadi delicacies – By the time I came to Hyderabad, I had lost interest in Chicken and Rice was never a favourite! But the Hyderbadi chicken Biryani changed all my taste buds and no matter how much I crib about having put on weight but I just cannot resist when that delicious bowl comes in front of me J Hyderabad undoubtedly, is a delight for foodies and especially non-vegetarians. Be it the expensive multi-cuisine restaurants or the average roadside chicken centers, taste is something which is never compromised. Though I will enjoy shedding some unwanted fat from my body, but the Paradise Biryani will truly be missed.

2. Night life - Coming from Nagpur, I had hardly walked on the streets after 11. Though it is a safe place to hang out but there is hardly anything interesting open after 11. Hyderabad gave me a whole new opportunity to enjoy the so called “night life”. It started with the dream bike rides and roadside (Bomarillu style) ice cream and ended up with the long car drives and fancy ice creams. Our lift used to be shutdown and building used to get locked at 11 but in spite of those hassles we continued our adventure as the ice cream was too sweet to resist and the fun too much to give up.

1. My Shreetam – I have taken the liberty to call him mine and I will try not to fall short of words at least this one time. When I first met him in Hyderabad, I learnt about the concept of selfless service to friends. On spending some time, I learnt the art of understanding and exploring the various facets of life. I started to think, started to live meaningfully and more importantly started to love! I have seen life like never before. It will be difficult to give a name to this relationship so I will just call him my Shreetam (just as we say my friend, my love etc) :) Leaving Hyderabad this time, I left a part of me behind and I will definitely come back to this beautiful land to reunite with that inseparable part.

my childhood memories

Childhood memories seem to be the best part of life, especially when you are a grown up man but crave every moment to re live those golden childhood days. And when you are at home, suddenly all of them keep coming back to you one by one. When I think about them, I get such random pictures, like our green colour landline phone, today who uses a normal bsnl landline phone without a caller id. When I think of it, I realise why it is such a distinct memory. I have built beautiful relationships with so many people- friends, cousins, relatives over the years talking on that phone.

When I was packing up my stuff while coming back from Hyderabad this time, I came across a decade old letter which I had written to one of my school friends. It read somewhat like this:

Dear friend,

                How are you? I am fine. I got 90% this time. How much did you get? I am enjoying the holidays, also missing school. What are you doing in these holidays? Why did not you write to me? .. and so on.

I went through it again and again till I hadn't got enough of it and couldn’t stop laughing there after. After reading that letter I recalled that we were a gang of four friends who used to exchange letters every summer to keep in touch. I cannot recollect how it all started but I am glad it did. This piece of paper keeps reminding me of those friends and though I am not in touch with them now, I still feel close to them. I guess this is how at each stage life keeps on storing some memories for us here and there which become important only when we have completely moved on to the next stage.

I am glad facebook has made the world so small, that everything now is just a search away. Recently one of my friends posted a childhood photo of her playing in a swing in front of her house. When we were kids, we have played on that swing day and night like crazy and it was so nostalgic recollecting those days. Their family was very close to ours and had later shifted to some other place. It was awesome fun when they used to come to meet us but the only part I remember now is that when they used to leave, every time, I used to cry like the entire universe was coming to an end! All our neighbours used to make fun of me the next day. I have so many bigger concerns and issues to think about now and drop a tear but those tears still seem precious to me for the sole reason that those days might never come back again!

I was kind of a studious kid in my childhood (some would say even now!). Being sincere, I was never scolded while studying or doing homework but some how I still remember crying. When I asked my mom she told me I had this insatiable urge to get everything correct the first time. And she particularly recollects that I used to cry a lot while writing the letter ‘S’ as I could never get it correct. I can completely understand, for an analytical mind like mine, the artistic ‘S’ must have been more difficult than other letters. Today, while I was helping my mom get a hand on the computer, I got a little irritated by her continuous questioning and just when I was about to give up my dad told me, “Child, this is exactly how we taught you to write ‘S’. Look at yourself now. Do you think we gave up on you.” For a moment I felt ashamed but it was an awakening call. Life does come about as a complete cycle.


(dedicated to all my friends who have made my childhood memories special..)

Dear friend..

Dear friend, walk in to the world with open arms,
But remember what you want to reflect or absorb,
Discover, that is what took you to new places,
But don't end up using it for your own selfish needs,
Invent, that is what brought us from darkness to light,
But don't end up turning the clear blue sky dark,

Be ambitious and have aspirations,
But remember that satisfaction holds the key to all happiness.

Stand up for what you think is right,
But don't end up carrying too much hatred instead,
Try to fight for all your rights,
But learn to adjust when the situation demands,
Learn to love by everything you have,
But don't let your expectations ruin it all,
Be fearless in all your actions,
But do fear the one who has a watch on all.

Travel as much as you want and as far as you can,
But don't forget to pause and reflect in between,
Live and enjoy your life to the fullest,
But don't give this as an excuse to your responsibilities,
Be a part of the sweet music around,
If nothing exists then make some of your own,
Don't hesitate to dance to the tunes of life,
But do make sure that the steps are your own.


(dedicated to all my fellow human beings....)