Umananda Island

 Umananda Island

As you walk past the Nandi, this beautiful path welcomes you

This Jalporee will take you across the Brahmaputra to the Umananda island

Assam Diaries Part 2

Sualkuchi was not on my tour itinerary. It was a backup. It was not on my list of places that I MUST see. It was more of an "if we had time to spare, we could go there" option.

Haflong, 350 km from Guwahati, was on the list, it was where I wanted to go. Assam, a plainland, has only one hill station and that is Haflong. Unfortunately, we couldn't go to Haflong. That entire week, Assam was ravaged by rain and floods in many districts. The railway station in Haflong was damaged and all the trains were canceled. 

Majuli Islands was on my list, it was another place I really wanted to see. It is supposedly the largest river island. However, there is a warning that the island will disappear in 20 years! As it is, large parts of the island is submerged in water for months. Assam is the state that has the rare distinction of having both the largest and smallest (Umananda Island) river islands. For Majuli Islands, we had to go to  Jorhat and from there, drive for 10-15 kms to a jetty and take the boat to Majuli. The boat leaves at 1:00 p.m every day. But due to the rise in the water of the river and the rains, the jetty was not an option. Also, there were no hotel facilities in Majuli and homestay was the only stay option available. Those too were limited and the ones we checked online, didn't look feasible or there was no contact number of the owner for us to call and enquire/book. We had to drop the plans of both Haflong and Majuli.

So we decided to see Sualkuchi, Hajo and Dipor Beel instead. Sualkuchi and Hajo both are in Kamrup district. Since we had the hired car, it was easy to cover all three in one day. 

Sual Kuchi is called the Manchester of Assam because it has a large number of handloom units. Some say around 2000 units! It is 35 km from Guwahati. It is a weaving village specializing in silk - Eri, Muga and Paat. 

Weaving is done here on the backstrap loom at home. 

We visited one of those looms. It was so dingy, barely lit, and no fan. The constant sound of the loom was overpowering. It seemed like a LOT of hard work. It is a pity the demand for handwoven silk textiles is dying in India, and mostly in demand outside the country. The handloom owner showed us the different materials packed neatly, with a proper seal that it is genuine silk, and placed in cupboards - all for export. At the time we went, there was an exporter lady who had come to place an order and check the quality. The skill of weaving is handed down generations. In his case, his father taught him but his only daughter may or may not take this up as her profession.  

The new approach to the village - beautified and welcoming. Apparently, a lot of foreigners visit the village, looking for genuine muga and eri silk textiles. 

Hajo Hayagriva Temple

Hajo means hill. It is said to be the meeting point of Buddhists, Hindus, and Muslims. The temple was constructed in 1583 by King Raghu Narayan. It has an image of hayagriva madhav. Budhists believe that Gautam Budha attained nirvana in the Hayagriva Madhava temple and it was here that he died. 

Hayagriva means horse-necked one. It is the horse-headed avatar of Vishnu. The purpose of the incarnation was to slay a demon who had the neck of a horse and the body of a human and hence was called hayagriva. 

Hayagriva is a special prasadam (the offering made to God) or sweet made in my native village Udupi. It is made from jaggery, coconut, and bengal gram. 

We had been there in the afternoon. There were very few devotees at the time and the place was serene. It was so calm and peaceful. It felt like we were lost, trying to find ourselves, in some far-away place. It was the perfect spot to just "be." Time had stood still and we were in no hurry to find our way back. 

The steps leading to the temple:

If you are in Guwahati, definitely make time and visit this temple. The journey and the destination - both are worth it.

The view of the temple lake below which has a very large tortoise in it:

Dipor Beel

Below is the image from the internet. I was fascinated by it. 

Dipor Beel is a place more for the locals to spend a quiet evening than for tourists to take the trouble to go all the way there. Yet, it is one of the places that frequently crops up when you search for places to see in Guwahati. I say, pass this one. Mostly, young lovers frequent this place, and occasionally, families looking for a drive away from the city. It is a great place for bird-spotting but bird watching takes time and patience, both of which are in short supply for a tourist.

Maa Kamakhya Temple

When I first heard about this temple, I was intrigued. It is a temple where there is no Murti of the Goddess. The yoni or womb is worshipped and the deity is known to menstruate. 

Menstruation is a symbol of a woman's creativity and her power to give birth. The temple celebrates this Shakti or power within every woman. In fact, the deity's period is celebrated as a festival, the Ambubachi Mela, once a year, and lakhs of pilgrims pay a visit.  

The temple is one of the 51 Shakthi Peethas and is in the Nilachal hills, also called Nilakuta, Nilgiri, and Kamagiri Hills, in the ancient texts and scriptures. It is around 600 feet above the plains. The  Brahmaputra river flows from these hills. 

The scriptures tell us Lord Shiva had asked Sati not to go to the Yagna organized by her father, Prajapati Daksha, as they were not invited. But Sati went. At the Yagna, Daksha insulted Lord Shiva. Sati could not bear the humiliation and took her own life. Lord Shiva was enraged and broke into a Tandav (dance of destruction) with her corpse on his shoulders. Lord Vishnu tried consoling him but in vain. He then dismembered Sati's body into 51 pieces with his Sudarshan Chakra. The place where each part fell is known as the Shakti Peetha. 

Kamakhya or Kubiika Pitha is the place where the Yoni (female genitalia or the Vulva) fell. Even today, in the month of June (Ashaada), the temple is closed for 3 days as it is believed the deity menstruates and the Brahmaputra river turns red. 

Kama or Kamdev, the God of Love, built the temple. The place is named Kamrup because Kamdev, who was cursed by Brahma, regained his beauty (rupa) after worshipping in this temple and the deity is Kamakhya, meaning one worshipped by Kama. Kamakhya stands for Goddess of Desire. 

When the mighty Ahoms came to power in the 17th Century, they took a keen interest in the upkeep of the temple. 

 

Offerings to the goddess include animal sacrifices. 

 

I wanted to start the Northeast tour of Assam and Meghalaya with the blessings of Maa Kamakhya. The temple was the first place I wanted to visit and it was clearly etched out in my tour itinerary too.

It didn't happen. Our first night in the city was in a hotel on Mirza Road, in Kamrup, 8 km from the airport but 25 km from the main city of Guwahati.  

Finally, on a Wednesday, four days after we landed in Guwahati, we left our hotel early in the morning at 7:00 a.m. Almost everyone we spoke to, had warned us about the humongous crowd at the temple, and had asked us to leave early. 

The temple was just 2 km from our hotel, 10 mins drive. We booked an Ola taxi. Fare shown was Rs 170. But the driver demanded Rs 250! Nowhere does an Ola driver demand more than the fare shown on the app. That fare by itself is high as it includes Ola's commission. In other cities, they ask to be paid in cash but they don't ask for extra. Here, they openly demand more. 

The distance and fare ratio is unimaginably exorbitant in Assam (AS). For a distance of less than 2 km, autos routinely ask for Rs 100 and Ola drivers Rs 250! In Bangalore, for Rs 200, I can travel 15 km in Ola auto or mini. 

We canceled the Ola and boarded a local bus. One good thing in AS is that the buses have destinations written in English. It is very easy for outsiders to use the local transport. In Chennai, it was a nightmare.  Everything was in Tamil. Oh! What a pain it was.  

The bus ride cost us just Rs 10 each. And we reached in 15 mins. From Rs 250 of Ola to Rs 10 of the bus for about the same time for travel, not bad we thought. Maa Kamakhya was making it easy for us to come to her. 

The bus conductor gave us Rs 10 and asked us to offer it at the temple. We were touched by his gesture. He helped us by pointing to a lady passenger and told us to follow her as she was also going to the temple. 

We got down at the main gate. The lady passenger smiled at us and very sweetly, pointed to the line of Maruti Vans. Having experienced the brusqueness of the Khasi women of Meghalaya, she seemed like she was dipped in honey!

The taxi, with 8 other passengers, took us to the top of the hill, to the temple, for Rs 30 each. 

The drive up to the hill is similar to the drive to Sri Chamundeshwari Temple in Mysore, only less scenic, and less enjoyable. The way everything is organized and maintained in Chamundi Hills is awesome. You will absolutely cherish the drive for a long time and want to keep going back. 

At 8:45 a.m, we reached the temple. And believe it or not, at 9:30 a.m, we were out of the temple and sitting in a bus to take us back to the main gate. Yes, in flat 45 mins we had finished the "darshan" despite the rumored "swelling crowd". 

How is that possible? We were surprised and felt something was wrong somewhere. Everyone had told us we had to keep an entire day aside for darshan at the sacred Maa Kamakhya Devalaya. It would take us a minimum of 5-6 hours in the queue. Yet, here we were, done and dusted in 45 mins. 

This is what transpired at the temple. 

When we entered the temple, there were some people waiting in the queue and some around the temple. We did not find any 'crowd.' A South Indian knows what an actual temple crowd looks like. Across temples in Karnataka, Andhra, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu, we are accustomed to it. Lakhs of people visit Sri Venkateshwara Temple - Tirupati, in Chittor, Andhra, thousands visit Sri Meenakshi Amman Temple in Madurai, Tamil Nadu and hundreds visit Sri Manjunatha & Kukke Subramanya Temple in Dharmasthala, Karnataka and Sri Guruvayoor in Kerala. 

Compared to that, here, it looked like the kind of crowd we see every day in our neighborhood temple. In spite of that, we were ready to pay for special darshan because we wanted to save whatever time we could and get back to the hotel as soon as possible. Our kids were still sleeping. Since we had left so early, we didn't wake them up. 

The special darshan counter was closed. We enquired at the information center. The lady said regular darshan will take more than 4 hours. We couldn’t afford that time. 

By the way, the special darshan tickets are priced at Rs 500 per person. Yes, Rs 500! The highest I have ever come across in any temple in any part of India that I have visited so far. Even in Tirupati, which is literally the Father of Temple Crowds, it is Rs 300. There, people are locked up in huge rooms that easily accommodate 100+ people. Water and food are provided to the devotees as they wait, sometimes the whole day, for the rooms to open and be allowed to go for the darshan.

Anyways, here, since the special darshan counter was closed, we were clueless. We couldn't spend 4-5 hours in the queue. We were looking around wondering what to do. 

One person, a priest, or Panda as they call them here in AS, approached us. Clearly, our faces showed we were looking for a special darshan and we were not locals. He said, "Special darshan Rs 500 closed. I will take you for darshan, give the same Rs 500 to me. Plus what you are planning to give for hundi, you give it to me. How much are you planning to give for hundi? You will get the darshan but you cannot 'touch'. If you want to touch, pay the money I said and wait minimum 2-3 hours in the queue." 

We agreed. We were okay with just the darshan and did not want to touch or wait in the queue for 2 hours.

The darshan was over in less than 10 mins. He left. We walked around.

And that is when we got the shock of our lives. 

We realized he had taken all that money to take us to a place that was already open to all! It was an open place, from all sides, anyone could enter from any side and leave from any side! We did it and no one stopped us. We went back to the same place he had taken us. Many were doing the same. For free!!!!

My heart sank! I saw that the panda was already 'trapping' another family. I wanted to scream and shout at him. But my mouth was dry. I could barely hear my own voice. My eyes had started welling up. I could not believe we were duped in such a sacred place. This temple had such a history and lineage and significance and power! And the temple staff was looting devotees like this! Cheating - Openly and nonchalantly!

I thought of how much I had longed for the darshan of Maa Kamakhya and, how much I revered the temple. The trip was planned in April and I had been longing to see the temple since then. The devotion was replaced by despair, a sinking feeling. It felt like a stone was placed on my chest, the weight of which I was not able to bear. 

Even in Dwarkadeesh in Gujarat, the situation is somewhat similar. Priests wait for gullible devotees at the footwear stand. They scan you,  approach you, and smooth talk you into making donations at the thulabhara complex. But there, at least, he did not demand any particular amount. He said give whatever you feel like. And he showed the complete temple and explained the importance and history of each part of the temple. And he really helped us beat the crowd. 

Later, I read the Google reviews of the Maa Kamakhya temple. Many people had written of similar experiences. The temple management creates a fake atmosphere of panic forcing devotees to be alarmed at the manipulated crowd length and charging them Rs 500 and again making them wait in the queue for an hour or more. The line is kept waiting to make the oncoming devotees feel there is a big crowd.

And then some priests walk around trapping poor devotees promising them a darshan where they actually just take them to the open room. 

Sigh! 

Assam Diaries Part 1

I have thought of Assam many times in the past. Assam tea hoardings and ads are thrown at our faces. Assamese people thrive in Bangalore. But the thought of ever actually visiting Assam was always deferred as the distance and cost are huge. 

I had been to Assam, once, in 2015. It was a work trip and hence I didn't pay anything from my pocket. I had been to NIT in Silchar for campus recruitment. 

Finally, we planned a family trip to Assam. Our trip was from 14 May 2022 and we booked the flight tickets a month in advance on the 4th of April itself. Just the flight tickets (Vistara onward flight and Indigo return) cost us Rs 50,000/- for four of us including my 4-year-old daughter. That amounts to Rs 6000/- per person one ticket. 

This is the problem with going to certain places in India. Going to Guwahati will cost you the same as going to Nepal or Maldives as far as flight cost is concerned. Nepal/Maldives ticket charges are the same! Might as well do an international trip at the price of a domestic one. But I am so obsessed with traveling to all states of India, at least once before I die, that we took it with a pinch of salt. 

Of the 8 nights, and 9 days of the trip, we had planned 50% of the duration for Meghalaya. 

Our Vistara flight was at 9:30 a.m. It is a three-hour journey to Guwahati from Bangalore. The first impression of any state always comes from its capital city. As we landed in Guwahati and took the cab to the hotel just 8 km away, on Mirza Road, it felt like a village. Dirty, not developed enough. Rundown houses line the roads, some unfinished, some unpainted, old worn shops, and bad roads. The initial imprint on our minds was one of squalor. Knew right away we would not be able to spend too long here. We would want to get away as fast as we could. 

If Guwahati was not the Gateway to the North East, as it is famously called, we would not even land here. In the future, if we ever have the fortune to visit Arunachal Pradesh. which I truly want to see, Guwahati is only going to be a "cannot avoid" stopover to catch the next flight to Tawang, the capital of AP. 

Here are some of the things I found to be interesting or unique or just different from my city:

      Tea made in a large bowl                           Sugarcane cart 

 

Chicken sold in cane cage on a cycle                Fooding Only!!

The worst aloo paratha of my life eaten in Paltan Bazaar. There are different versions of it - from thick maida to ones deep fried in oil like you fry a puri. Aloo paratha fried like a puri.

That BIG piece of Aloo 

Aloo Paratha - Assamese version

Can you believe our joy when we found idlis in Guwahati? That too butter-soft ones? With yummy chutney? At just Rs 40 per plate? It was a South Indian restaurant in Paltan Bazaar frequented by every Kannadiga, Malayali, Tamilian, Mahashtrian, and Teluguite who were fed up with the puris made of maida.

At the Planetarium, here is what we saw. This, I thought, was completely unfair. No show in Hindi! Not a single one! 

Huge bags! Big enough to carry a child in it! Rs 200/-

 

  

In the picture on the left:

The varieties of tea available in this one shop. Look at the flavors - Mango tea! Choco tea!

In the picture on the right: The price of the different kinds of juice varies according to the quantity given and quantity is clearly mentioned in milliliters!  

So many options in local transport! Plus buses and taxis.

     

The broom: couldn't help but notice the first one

 

common variety

The paintings on the trees near the Dighulpuri Park area reminded me of Kakinada, a district in Andhra Pradesh. It has a road where all the trees are painted beautifully. It is a nice way to beautify a street and add color and life to it. But I am not sure if the paint harms the trees in any way.

The last I heard of this was in the story of Shravan Kumar who carried his parents like this to fulfill their last wish. I can't believe it is still widely used in Northeast. Saw this on a busy street in Guwahati, the capital city.  

The Meghalayan version of aloo paratha with moong dal halwa Rs 75 was so yummy. That gravy is a staple in both Assam and Meghalaya, it accompanies both puris and parathas.