Beautiful mountains, clean crisp and fresh air, slow paced life, not yet touched by our so called commercialized world , yes my dear friends thats our beautiful and mystical north east! I had heard lots of stories about north east from my grandfather who served there for Indian army when the region was called NEFA, or NORTH EAST FRONTIER AGENCY. And then father and he would have discussions about air maintained posts where there were no roads and everything was air dropped.My grandfather would tell how the nagas would cut off army guys legs just to get the boots. sounds scary ?? yes it was very scary !! My father had also served in one such area when he had just joined forces. so hearing so much about the place i had a fascination to see it but had lot of apprehensions but finally we had a chance to visit and live in north eastern part of India , the first visit lead to a love affair with north east, In which i fall more and more in love with north east with each of my visits. I have been to arunachal and lived in a place called along , we stayed there for three years and in those years i saw lot of interior Arunachal as well as Assam, Meghalaya . The connection with NE did not stop there , since dad was a very honest and upright person and being counterinsurgency expert, he was posted in lots of interior places where no one wanted to go and people would try every approach and get recommendations from seniors and politicians but my father always took such postings as challenge and i feel blessed that from a very young age i learnt that its good to take up challenges as my experiences of living and travelling in such far off places and enriched my life beyond words! we were posted again in Nagaland and there i got to see not only nagaland but also manipur and mizoram. I have made some amazing friends in north east and over the years the visits were not only for fun and sight seeing but also to attend marriages of my friends from different tribes of north east! Here i would share some less known facts about north east and I am sure all of those who had a chance to visit north east will have even more wonderful memories to share with all of us!
First let me share some info about north east, as many you must be knowing it is called seven sisters. the seven sisters are the seven states , ASSAM, ARUNACHAL PRADESH , MEGHALAYA, MIZORAM , MANIPUR, NAGALAND AND TRIPURA.some people feel sikkim is also a part of seven sisters but thats not true . Arunachal means the land of rising sun and yes the sun really rises very soon there:rotfl well not really, actually since we follow same IST in all over india , so we feel the sun is rising very early here. At 4.30 am in summers the sun will rise and set by 6. Life was so slow paced and everything was basic , which led to so many adventures in trying our hands at farming and trying to grow some veggies to rearing hens and fishes My first journey to north east was also a big adventure which i had shared with you all in another post. Once we reached there the first thing which stuck us was not the beauty of the place but that we were given a big house with a even bigger garden and there was no light and lot of mosquitoes!!:rotfl:rotfl Anyhow we managed to sleep and next day we were to go to our new school so there was lot of excitement!
Hi That was a nice post, Cute Monster. You have written with feeling about your stay in the North East. Many years ago, I had an oppurtunity to stay for some time in Assam. I visited the capital city of Guwahati. Do you know that there is a place called Jeypore in Assam. It sounds just like Jaipur of Rajasthan. I am struck how many cities in India sound phonetically alike. Assam is famous for its tea. The state has won the Geographical Indication (GI) for its tea. It is also known for the rhino in its famous Kaziranga National Park. The park got flooded in the recent floods. Looking forward to more such stories about the North East.
yes satchi , i have pictures. although most of my albums are in my mom's home but i will share few pictures which i have here.
hi asha! thanks for the fb! I have heard about jeypore, infact a few months back one of my friends from NE posted pics of a dehing patkai wildlife sanctuary , he mentioned how they drove through dibrugarh and went till changlang in arunachal. I think they also have some festival there. hey you know what about similar names, jeypore , when i first saw my friends mention jeypore i thought it was in orrisa. one of my friend who was with me in college was from jeypore which is in orrisa!
Very nice post CuteMonster. Though i have never been there but really want to explore it once in my lifetime. I am looking forward to hear more stories of NE states. Thanks.:thankyou2:
Hi friends ! here i am posting some pictures of my school, brings back so many nostalgic memories ! this is the school entrance, even in the jungles of north east we had such a wonderful school. it had three wings, Montessori, and secondary and senior secondary. besides that we had big auditorium , prayer hall , boys hostel, dining hall. since there were a lot of tribal students we were taught how to be self reliant , we had carpentry , printing press, dairy farm , fish farm, and even taught typing and stitching and embroidery , besides music and dance classes. and yeah how i forget the school bakery from where i would get fresh bread loaf and cake for home! when i first went there it was a bit strange for me as i had studied in convents till then and this was a vedic style school. we touched the feet of our principle. it was not compulsory but out of respect. when i met the senior most swamiji after many years in kolkata in belur math and i touched his feet out of respect and such overwhelming emotions that he also became very emotional! i have many fond memories of my school!
These are the corridors where we had prayers and also morning assembly ! since it rained a lot so this was the best way ! oh it makes me so nostalgic!
This is the back side view from the classrooms! It was so beautiful , with dense forest and so much greenary! you know we even used to sweep our classroom , its not that school could not afford sweepers but it was a way to teach all the students that no work is demeaning . everyday three students had turn to sweep the class!