The North East Travel
The planning for this year summer
travel was low cost budget travel. We
were looking at Darjeeling-Gangtok-Lanchen Valley-Pelling or Dehradun belt or
the North-East (NE) belt. The straight flight Indigo from Chennai to Guwahati
clinched in favour of NE. One of the other main interest to travel to NE was to
understand their Christian roots. So it was Guwahati and Shillong this time.
Stephen Victor annan connected us to two committed pastors, Bro. Jesson in
Guwahati and Bro.Thompson in Shillong. They helped us in booking a Baptist
guest house in Guwahati and at Shillong a Presbyterian guest house.
We started from the Chennai
airport on 23rd May, 2016 by Indigo, 5am and landing at Guwahati by
8am. We had booked My taxi right from
airport and straight we went to the Guwahati
Zoo. Hmmm can be better maintained and professionally run. When we visit any new place we would love to understand its history and culture. But Mondays
the Guwahati state museum is closed. But the Srimanta Sankaradeva Kalakshetra
Path, Panjabari, Guwahati is a must in
the city visit itinerary. This place is maintained well and gives a complete
overview of Assam and also NE.Their small cafeteria was also good.But we missed
the govt museum which we understood is also good. It was around lunch time we headed to the Baptist
guest house in Pan Bazaar. This is called as CBCNEI conference center and is in
the center of the city and along the banks of the Bramahaputra river. We
quickly got into our room, had a shower and some rest. The first taste of local
food was in the guest house canteen. The Assamese preparation of NV and rice
was very similar to our southern taste palate, enjoyed it. Later that afternoon
we went to the hill top around Kamakya. It was a beautiful sight to see the
magnificient mega Brahamaputra, also in the other side of the mighty river the
beautiful IIT Guwahati campus. We booked the sunset cruise with Alfresco, bit
costly Rs.250/head. It’s a floating
restaurant in the morning and also during the cruise, bit expensive. But the
scenic sunset in the evening was worth the money though. We could have tried
the less expensive boat buses but need to sacrifice the comfort ! Late evening
we walked out through the Pan Bazaar shopping but missed our way to the guest
house ! We were to meet Bro.Jesson and his wife but was getting late. The
automan or the people couldn’t guide us.
God’s Grace made it to the guest house. The meeting with Bro.Jesson was
simply awesome. He and his wife are a
man and women of God with so much of dedication and commitment in taking God’s
Love to the unreached communities. They had come back from a Bible study. We
spoke on many things related to their ministry. I enjoyed his sensor of humor.
His burden for God’s Church was something marvelous !
Next morning, we started to
Shillong with the same taxi. The road from Guwahati to Shillong is a 4 lane NH
and one should appreciate Vajpayee ji and the following govts have made this
stretch very comfortable. In only one stretch it was two lane. On reaching the
outskirts of Shillong our driver put on his seat belt ! We could see many
Maruti 800 as taxis. There was heavy traffic, took more than an hour to the
city center. But we could not locate our guest house. That evening we were in
the guest house cafeteria enquiring about other good hotels around the city. A
gentleman calmly enquired whether I am a south Indian. After exchanging some pleasantries
we starting talking about our roots, he was Joel my brothers BCom classmate and
benchmate !! He is with BYM and his wife is a native of Shillong. How God makes His people to get
connected at unknown places !! He was with Pastor Comfort, an amazing man of God,
a heart of love for people ! They quickly networked to identify a guest house. Shanti
sojourn is run by a Rtd Presbyterian theology college principal family. Its
good, costs around Rs.1400/night at downtown,lower Laban. But next morning Joel felt it was not a good deal.
Meanwhile we took a local taxi and went for local sightseeing. The mountains
were breadthtaking. We went to the topmost upper shilling view point of the
city. Khasis and Garos are the major people communities in Meghalaya. It was
nice to be on their outfit for few moments ! On the way down we could go to the
Airforce museum, met a airman whose family is in South Chennai ! World is too
small. Meanwhile, Pastor Comfort and Joel have found a good hotel in the city
center, it was luxury, courtesy people with God’s love ! But we have not yet
got a wind of the Christian roots of the place as every place and people were
in a very Christian way. It was late
evening and took another 800 taxi and headed towards the Don Bosco museum. It
was just amazing ! They have the entire history so systematically done in four
floors, well maintained with very cordial and enthusiastic staff. Though the
entry ticket is expensive it is worth for any visitor to Shillong to have a
look at it. It throws light on the first Presbyterian missionaries who took God’s
love to them and also made local scripts for their language, brought education
and social reforms along with them. Though, they could not root out certain
habits and traditions of the local community. They are now generations of Christians and that could be seen…Evening
was the brightest time of the visit, met Bro.Thompson and his family along with
his Bible study church members. One of the brothers was getting transferred so
they had a good chicken biriyani and the fellowship of God’s children was just
awesome ! He dropped us back and Love of God’s people in unknown land and
languages was marvelous !!
The
next day we had booked the MTDC bus to mawlynnong.
It was around 3 hours travel and a break in between to see
the one tier tree bridge, innovation at its best ! Beautiful views…truly
Megalaya was God’s own garden !! Next was mawlynnong, a small village, clean
and made into a tourist spot but have not destroyed the environs in any
way. Others could learn many a lesson from this place. We
had lunch at a locals house, I enjoyed the rice, chicken gravy and egg. The Presbyterian
church was being renovated. A CNI church too was there. After this we head back
to Shillong and was a tiring day. ! Evening was an awesome time with Joel and
his family with Pastor Comfort and his family.
It was time which we will never forget in our lives !! God’s love unites His
children anywhere in the world !
The
next visit was to the most wanted place to visit of the trip, Cherapunjee. We couldn’t
get the MTDC ticket for this trip. Pastor Comfort helped us to get a good taxi.
When we just crossed in this district it started to rain ! Breathtaking
mountain views..The elephant falls is the first one.Then Nohsnithiang falls,
Nohkalikai falls. Finally Mowsmai cave..Oh mine the walk inside the cave was
risky but worth it ! It was truly enjoyable. Then the driver said he will take
us to a south Indian restaurant! The dosais was indeed very much the Tamil way.
Orange roots restaurant is run by a Madurai based tamil Mr.Denin Rayan along
with his local wife. A well organised, very hygienic place in the outskirts of
Chreapunjee. They also run the Cherapunjee holiday resort which could be a
place which we may try next time
Next
day was the day to packoff back to Guwahati and then take the late evening Indigo
flight to Chennai. Joel and Pastor Comfort family joined us for some quick
shopping. Then started back to Guwahati. The taxi drive was good. Saw the big
lake on the outskirts of Shillong which we missed. Yes Meghalaya is truly the
God’s own Garden !! Our only prayer is that they preserve their culture and
foundations on which they are built and keep away from all commercialization that
breaks the environs and all the divisive forces which may try to get foothold
into this beautiful place. Praise God for helping us through this yet another
learning trip.
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