Part 2: Assam

While studying Geography, we had to parrot the names of different airports in India. Dum Dum airport seemed to sound as the more fancy one and I would picture as to how the airport really was like. Unfortunately, we did not have google at that point of time and therefore I could only imagine the fanciness of the airport against the fanciness of its name. Of course once I grew up, it became "dumb dumb" airport after one of our friends described the airport!

Now christened as "Netaji Subhash Airport", it seems like a bit more bigger than Patna airport. And now I dont know what to mind- the fact they changed its name from Dum Dum or the fact that they insulted the most active revolutionary in India's independence struggle and renamed it after him!

I reached a bit early and after checking in, I strolled around the few shops imposed inside the airport and picked up a big fat book for my general entertainment. My flight got delayed by almost 2 hours and I was happy to have a book in handy. Meanwhile Pinkie's flight had also been postponed, yet she was already in Silchar. My flight was announced amidst a lot of confusion on other delayed flights. I made the short way into the tarmac and saw the ATR 72. I had seen ATRs from a distance in a lot of airports but had never been in one. Small planes are preferred in mountain terrains and I realised with excitement that I would be seeing the landscape of Manipur and Assam quite closely this time. The flight was mostly empty and I had no company in the next seat.

I love kingfisher because they serve you some kind of food in all their flights. I got a cold veg sandwich with coffee and I was happy to keep munching and watch the scenery outside. The plane landed at Imphal (atleast this way I can say I have visited Manipur!) and I realised I had an air force pilot for company this time. His friend was sitting across and they both started flirting with the air hostess! Meanwhile I tried in vain to capture the landscape with my camera. Manipur seemed mostly made up of low hills and vast plateaus with pencilled rivers. While Kolkata was chilly, Manipur seemed to be basking in heat.

It was a 45 minutes flight flight to Silchar from Imphal and I soon occupied myself with the second sandwich I received for the second leg of the journey! I arrived at Silchar and met Pinkie after almost 2 years. Pinkie was clearly restless after all the waiting she had done for me and she pushed me into her father's bolero and we started the ardous road journey to Karimganj! I had developed a slight back pain and now I was scared that my spinal cord would snap off my back any moment! There were parts where roads were trying to be built but the rest was like a big mud road with lots of potholes.

After 3 hours of bone rattling journey, we reached her place in Karimganj. My phone received a sms from Airtel- "Welcome to Bangladesh! Now blah bluh blih rates for international roaming and so on and so forth!" Thats when I realised that Karimganj is right next to Bangladesh!

After freshening up and having lunch, we both dozed off till evening. Since her father was not there, we decided to have a bit of fun. She had beers lying in her fridge. So we had dinner quietly, waited for the cook to go and then made ourself comfortable with our beers. While we were catching up and having wild swigs of the beer, the cook walked right in and froze. We both froze mid-sentence and mid-swig and eyed him for reaction. I cannot say honestly as to who was more scared- him or us! Then he meekly addressed Pinkie- "Didi, dont worry I wont tell anyone!" Pinkie barked back- "Yes, you better not!" He quietly made a U turn and we hoped that was the last of the matter!

The next morning, I am kicked out of the bed by Pinkie at about 6 am. We started off from Karimganj at around 7:30 am. Before we hit Silchar again, Pinkie takes me to that part of Karimganj which is right across Bangladesh border. A small river called Barak divides the two countries, I can see the farms and villages on the other side and I see no difference. Indian side has a pucca road while Bangladesh side has mud road. Boatman with their respective countries' flags are ferrying people across. Many Bangladeshis visit India to work and sell their products. I take a snap and find a commando next to me asking me to stop shooting. I apologise and keep my camera away, to be hounded by another guy who recognises Pinkie but gives me the best "I am suspicious you are a spy" look! So my interrogation starts with questions on my family, education, work place, blah bluh blih! Pinkie is going red while I am losing my patience. It turns out that he is deputy police something and he takes his job a bit too seriously around the wrong people! Eventually we run from there after I give him my office card.

We stop at Silchar for breakfast and head towards Mizoram. The roads in Assam are terrible and inspite of the vehicle being a bolero I was worried about my back.

Assam for most part is similar to West Bengal. The bamboo fencing around the house, ponds here and there and similarity of Assamese language to Bengali makes you wonder what is the difference between them! Pinkie explained the cultural heritage of Assam to me. Assam has been immigrated upon by many races. But the most notable were the Ahoms from Thailand who occupied Upper Assam and ruled for many years. However, she also agreed that the coming of Bengalis had changed the Assamese landscape a bit. (Now the above information has been provided by Pinkie! For any contentions, kindly contact her!)

While deep in our discussions, we realised that there were mountains looming ahead on the road. As we started climbing the mountains, the driver informed us that Mizoram had started! And just like everytime, the plains suddenly gave away to hilly ribbons, startling us with the observation that Assam looked so flat and Mizoram was so hilly!

Part 1: The escape to a holiday!

How does one plan a holiday? With me more often than not, it is a pure random process. You have holiday conversation with hazaar friends, discuss hazaar places and budgets, and then one day you just fix it with the last person you ever thought would actually go beyond the planning stage!

So it happened that after exploring potential places like Lakshwadeep, Himalayas and so on, Pinkie actually invited me to travel with her to Mizoram and Tripura. I had been wanting to take a break and with an opportunity to do so in Dec-end and Jan-beginning, I decided that this was a good idea.

We agreed that we wont really plan. We will go wherever we feel like going, stay wherever we felt nice and just make sure we reach Agartala at the end of the holiday. Pinkie offered to take the responsibility to get information on places and hotels, and to my lot felt the job of booking my own tickets to reach Silchar, Assam.

I suck at net banking and credit cards. Life for most of us has become a series of passwords- each password unlocking life services to us..from banking, to laptops to mails to etc...And my memory struggles to keep up with the live stream of passwords that keep getting formed with every new account, atm card, password protected document and email account! So here again I struggled with forgotten passwords and failed....loathe to call the customer care and get a new password sent to my adress..I simply got it done through my net and password connected friend a.k.a Pinkie!

So the travelling day dawns and my mom is more worried about my packing than me! She is scurrying in my room, watching me pack with a restless zeal and commenting on every aspect of packing- ofcourse negatively! Even after I am done with packing, she keeps reminding of the smallest of things I should be carrying and is convinced that I will still forget and leave something of importance behind! To add to the stress, I realised that my train was not being listed in the Indian Railways website nor in the phone enquiry when I tried to find out if it is on time! Calling up the station was useless as no one was picking up. I decided to go ahead to the station and find out for myself! So to cut the long story short, I reached the station and found out that my train did exist and that indeed for the first time in my life, I had not forgotten anything while packing!

The train was to Kolkata, from where I had to take a flight to Silchar to meet Pinkie. I entered a train full of chattering bengalis, which made sure that I could not watch any movies nor read a book. As soon as thet train reached Bengal, one co-traveller loudly exclaimed- "Oh so good to see bengali script and to be rid of those jalebi scripts (read kannada, telugu and oriya)!"

My friend Madhu had come to pick me up in Kolkata and I entered the city with an excitement that I generally feel when I am in old cities. I love the feel of the history that perpetually hangs between old buildings and intricate by lanes. But my travel plans kind of destroyed my new year plans and city roaming plans!

I reached Kolkota on 31st and my friend with the worry that I would not be able to catch my early morning flight, cancelled her new year plans to stay at home! So some interesting party at some Bowring Club passed us by while we tried and celebrated the same with the old residents of the building! And there I became the curious case of the girl with a backpack and travelling to north east! The watchman who helped with my bags was flabbergasted and kept telling the residents that the backpack was taller than me and I was insisting that I would carry it myself! So the dinner turned out to be a question and answer session about what I did, where was I going and so on. So Madhu and I had my dinner as soon as possible and scooted from there! And the new year arrived and I left for airport in the wee hours of morning- my holiday had in reality started now.