Gentle Whispers

After a recent spate of Strangers in the Mist posts, I have now decided to move on. Cause quite frankly speaking, I was tired of looking at them every single time I opened the damn blog. But what I am sad about though, is that there's so much of the trip I haven't written about. Some of the most beautiful, touching moments and I feel a distinct sense of loss there. Anyway, this post is not about that. This post is about friendship and knowing when to accept things as they are and move on. To give other people a chance to realise where they're wrong and make their own amends and not let them off the hook that easily. I'm one of those people who can never say 'No'. I didn't know it myself but I had an epiphany recently and I realised that in fact I do get dumped on a hell of a lot. And I don't mean in material terms, I mean in terms of heart and soul. All those who know me, will attest to the fact, that I'm a hot-tempered person. But I am as quick to f...

It's the end of a long, tiring day of travelling and we are now at Dimapur in Nagaland. I somehow don't feel like I'm in the north-east. It could be a small, dusty town anywhere else in India and it seems to have more migrants than the original inhabitants. The fabulous dress sense of the people here continues to astound me. They are always so chicly attired and I am so so envious of the way they put things together. Other than that, today was a fairly interesting day. We left from Nameri pretty early and I was quite disappointed to leave. It weas such a beautiful place and one that I would definitely love to visit again. The road to Dimapur led through Kaziranga National Park and for once we were lucky enough to spot some one horned rhinos. Th rest of the ride however was long and boring and hot and saw me dozing pretty much throughout it. The army and security presence here in Dimapur is considerable and on our evening walk, we saw quite a few security personnel totting ...

10/05/2008 18:46 pm It's Day 2 at Nameri Tiger Reserve and I have finally been bitten by a leech. Not once or twice, but four times and all on my right leg. It's not particularly painful though and unlike the rest I'm quite okay with being bitten and haven't made too much of a song and dance about it. On the contrary, I was quite excited about being bitten and part of the elite "Leech Club". This has been a day of learning and I am still trying to absorb some of it. And the more I learn about discrimination against the North-east, the more it infuriates me.We heard a lot of stories today and my mind is reeling. For instance, when the Chinese Prime Minister visited Mumbai, north-eastern students who were leaving college were picked up by the police and kept at Lamigton Road police station all because they were ' chinky ' and looked Tibetan, which was a gross injustice by any standards. Most of them were just leaving college when they were picked up and ...

09/08/2008 19:30 pm Nameri Tiger Reserve is where we are today and I for one am completely awestruck. Nameri is situated north to Tezpur which is in Assam. We are staying at an Eco Camp, a little way into Nameri and this place is amazing. It is truly what I would expect a camp to be like with grass tents, lush greenery, a campfire spot, plenty of space to run around and play in. The evening started off with a one and a half kilometre walk to the riverside and ended with us plunging into the river. As of now, we are at a session being conducted by our Professor and we have a local and ex-Wilsonian Chombe telling us about the tribes and languages of Arunachal Pradesh. As I sit here, I wonder what the bloody hell was wrong with me that I actually thought of dropping out of this trip and I now know that if I had missed out I would regret it for the rest of my life. Who knows when, if ever, I will visit these places again and even if I do, there is no guarantee that I will be with these sam...

08/05/2008 11:00 am Sometimes in life you just need to stop and stare and here at Eagle's Nest Sanctuary in Arunachal Pradesh, I have experienced one of those moments today at the waterfall with the clearest water I have ever seen. And I had to spend some time there. Sitting and soaking it up. And bird-watching. The walk back wasn't the best though. It was long and painful what with the jeeps breaking down and everything. But it was still fun. At the end of the day however I am just about ready to collapse. If I survive tonight I will let you know.

06/02/2008 20:00 pm Pakke National Park, Arunachal Pradesh I am not an easy person to silence and it takes a lot to get me to shut up. Something very very special happened today and it happened the moment I stepped into the Pakke National Park behind an Asian elephant with a penchant for breaking wind. The forest itself was beautiful, one of the best I've seen and I fell in love with it immediately and I didn't want to leave until I saw all the forest had to offer both in terms of plants and animals. With the animals undoubtedly being the high point. The sight of surprise on the face of the wild elephant and then watching them crashing through the underbrush and the Great Hornbills soaring majestically through the sky are memories that I will always carry with me. On some levels though, I am filled with regret that I didn't get to see a tiger or a clouded leopard though I tried my darnedest. But oh well, C'est la vie. The leeches were an experience that I will never for...

* I wrote this during my recent trip to Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and Nagaland and it's in the form of a diary. And now that I read back on it, I'm longing to edit it out and make changes, but in the interest of being true to myself, I'm going to do no such thing* 6th January 2008 16:05 pm The train journey lasted a very long while and while most parts were fun, bits of it were quite boring. After arriving in Assam and now Arunachal Pradesh, I am awestruck by how beautiful it is and how absolutely little I know of the country I live in. Though I must admit that I'm a little bit better than most. What saddens me most is that for these people, they are not Indians but are made to feel like outsiders, that some of them do not feel Indian, that they are called ' chinkies ', that we generalise all the states in the North-East whether Assam, Manipur or Mizoram as North-Eastern. That we fail to see them as states with different cultural identities but just as people wit...

Tashi Delay And in case your wondering what the hell that means, it's Tibetan for "I honour and respect the place in you in which resides courage and wisdom ." And I for one, love this greeting. So much better than just ' Hi '. May has been a month of traveling and I don't know where to begin. But everything has to start somewhere. And I'll start with my Wilson College Nature Club trek to the North-East. I filled in pages and pages in my notebook on this trek and I'm going to do my best to put some of it down here. As much as I can before laziness overcomes me. But before all of that, there is something I have to mention here. Something that has touched me so so much and is one of the best awards, (also my very first award!!!!)I could have ever received. It's nice to be important But its more important to be nice And it comes from HomeCooked . And I just cant find the words to thank her enough for this award. “This award will be awarded to those th...

For those two and a half people who will actually notice, I'm going on holiday. A trek to be precise. To Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland for an entire 13 days. And I will be back on the sixteenth. See all of you on the 16th. Assuming I survive the three day train journey each way through Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Pray for my soul and also that my luggage isn't stolen on the way! See you on the other side.

what's with the whole new list of food blogs on my blog. I have a new obsession with food blogs after the Mommy ones that is and spend virtually all my free time reading them. And I decided that I needed a new list of just food blogs, that I could access without searching through all my bookmarks. And here it is. I was also going to create a separate list of Mommy blogs, at which point I woke up and realised that I need a life!