Water Falls

En route to Cherrapunji- the wettest place on earth!

Occasional herds of cattle were spotted on the road. This was a lazy group of cows jaywalking in the perfect weather conditions. The calm postures of these animals made me contemplate about my life, and the road ahead...

The roads towards Cherrapunji from Shillong are the best mountain roads I have traveled in India so far. I felt I was in Nappa Valley! I secretly wished to drive the car on these beautiful roads. The place is not called Scotland of the East for nothing!

A bit of grey, blue and green and a hint of red and brown...makes for a perfect picture with Mom and Dad. :)

Towards Cherrapunji, Meghalaya

Sight Seeing, Shillong

These are the evergreen pine trees. This photograph was taken at the Shillong peak region. Pine trees are found extensively in the mountainous regions of the northern hemisphere, there are about 115 types of this species throughout the world. Pine trees are gymnosperms and hence do not bear flowers, rather they have the male and female cones. The male cones, situated at the lower branches of the tree, are thinner and smaller and release massive amounts of very fine wind borne pollen which find the much larger female cones situated at the upper branches of the tree. The cones are visually very appealing and are often found lying at the base of the trees. People pick them up and take them home as souvenirs!Don Bosco Church. The biggest and best known church of Shillong. It is a beautiful building and has a very peaceful setting with loads of open spaces and a nice stairway up to the church.
A common dog resting peacefully in the shade off a wall. These dogs bear resemblance to wolves and have a thick coat of fur...
Mom enjoying a hot cup of tea at the Shillong Peak area. A conical wicker can be seen on the right, placed on a tripod, which is  being used as a dustbin. These wickers are made out of bamboo and are used for various purposes. People even use to carry wood, rock, vegetable etc.

This photograph is also taken on the premises of the Shillong Peak. The pine forest on one side and the beautiful road straight ahead with a commoner approaching towards the camera, completes the picture.

Our Hotel- Shillong

Our hotel, Blue Pine, was uniquely shaped in the form of a triangle. It was a very nicely done room with wooden walls and a nice and cozy bed. The feel of the room was very European with those big windows, framed pictures of fruits, wooden finish from ceiling to the floor, the soft lighting etc. Though the service was a problem as there were hardly and house-keeping staff available and we had to travel about 200 meters to another hotel. Itotally loved this tiny triangular room :)


With Mom and Dad. Took this photograph on the self timer with flash. The pic turned out to be pretty good.

Shillong Peak

This is a wonderful place located at the highest point in Shillong. The place is called Shillong Peak and is situated very close to the Air Force area. This is the best place to see the entire Shillong city in a beautiful panoramic view. I have taken a few photographs of the place and also had mom and dad pose for the camera :)

Here Dad is seen wearing a beret which I bought from a nice boutique store in the city- near Police Bazaar.

A Panoramic view of Shillong City from the highest point- Shillong Peak

This is one of my favourite panoramic shots taken off Shillong Peak. The shot covers an angle of approximately 270 degrees. If you look closely you might be able to spot the golf course, the main city, and the city's most important market- Police bazaar...

Golf Course- Shillong, Meghalaya

Meghalaya, literal translation: 'The Abode of Clouds' is one of the most picturesque states of India. This state was previously a part of Assam, but in 1972 it was made into a separate state with Shillong as the capital city. Incidentally Shillong was the capital of Assam till 1972 and after the state was broken up, Guwahati was made the capital of Assam. This photograph was taken at the golf course of Shillong, a very beautiful and picturesque place indeed- you can't probably look more photogenic when you have a backdrop such as this!


Pine trees in the backdrop...mom collected a lot of cones that had fallen off from these trees.

Nongpoh- a small village situated between Shillong and Guwahati

This small village, Nongpoh is where the drivers take a break while going towards either Guwahati or Shillong. It is about 36-40kms from Guwahati. This town is very strategically situated between two big cities. The roads are mostly very clean, but when we went there the roads were being widened and there was dust and sand everywhere, and there were so many trucks on the road. It took us almost five and a half hours to travel 125kms to reach Shillong.

Zoological & Botanical Gardens- Guwahati, Assam

This was one of the best Zoos I have ever seen in my life, very naturally situated for all these wild animals. We got to see tigers, lions, rhinos, giraffes, deer, birds, langoors, hippos...etc, in their natural habitat. Coming from Calcutta, i was always proud to proclaim that we had the biggest zoological gardens in India, but this little zoo in Guwahati completely shattered my pride in terms of the quality of the natural wildlife at show!

Cityscape- Guwahati, Assam

This photograph was taken from top of the Nilachal Hills in Guwahati. It was a breathtaking panoramic view of the entire city from up here. This is probably the first of the many panoramic shots I have taken in the trip. Beautiful place, if you look closely you will find a long serpentine train in the picture.

Guwahati, Assam

Our driver and guide in Guwahati. He was a great guy with a lot of patience, never complaining even once for the long waits while we made our visits to the local sites. He accompanied us to the local zoological gardens which was the best one in India i have seen so far!

Kamakhya Temple- Gwahati, Assam

One of those poor lambs on the premises of the temple for the sacrificing. Beautiful creatures!

Kamakhya Temple- Gwahati, Assam

This is a photograph of Mom and me on the premises of Kamakhya Temple. On the sidewalks we saw lots of goats and lambs were tied up for sacrifices. I initially didn't know that they were for offerings to the goddess to fulfill the mannat that the devotees make. There were also pigeons kept in cages for the same purpose.

Kamakhya Temple- Gwahati, Assam

The Kamakhya Temple is a Shakti Peeth temple situated on the Nilachal hills in Guwahati. Its current temple structure was constructed in the year 1565, its in a form of a beehive. It is an ancient Khasi sacrificial site, and worshiping here still includes sacrifices. Devotees still come here to sacrifice goats, pigeons and buffaloes to the goddess. A beautiful temple which leads to a man made cave where the goddess and a few other gods are worshiped everyday. Its a very long wait where the devotees have to wait in long queues. The longest queue doesn't require any tickets, but it takes the longest time, then there are tickets priced at Rs 100, 200 and 500. It was about 3 hours for us to come out seeing the insides of the cave and the goddess...was a good experience. Mom didn't go because she feels claustrophobic in such caves, and she had visited this temple before as a child when she went in and felt sick. So Dad and me went in for the offerings though we didn't sacrifice any goats or pigeons, but just a coconut :)

Ariel view of Assam

On our way to Gwahati from Calcutta. the sky was clear and I could capture some breathtaking ariel photographs with my new camera Sony DSC HX7V

Mothers believe in your abilities...even when you have serious doubts about yourself!

I have this tendency to be too casual about things thinking that everything will fall in place and I wouldn’t have to worry... And one time that I really wouldn't want to forget is when I appeared for the entrance exam at St. Xavier’s college for Mass Communication in 2006.

Since the very beginning I knew that I would be studying medical, and if not, then maybe English or Mass Communication. That’s why I focused mainly on Biology and English (English because I always heard that the prettiest girls are found in the English Dept in any college, and Biology because...well...i love anatomy). Sadly when I didn't even get anywhere close to my ambitions of getting through medical or cracking into the best English dept in town, Jadavpur...plan B followed in automatically!

I started preparing for Mass Communication as a result of my failures in my other pursuits, plus...I had heard the second place where the best looking girls go was...yes you guessed it right! The due date with the exam  was on a lazy Sunday afternoon, and the moment I stepped inside the big iron gates of St. Xavier's College, I  clearly fell in love with the place ( read: with a lot of women who had come for the test!)

More than 500 students had come for the exam, and there were only 35 seats to be taken...my grit was shaken seeing the frenzy...but the beautiful faces motivated me all the same!

The exam was a bit high on creativity and less on knowledge. If at all anything, the imaginative side of the students was at play hand in hand with their creativity and graphical prowess. A lot of sketching and scribbling was required to wring out all the content that the brain could hold onto the plain white sheets of paper.
One part of the question paper asked us to develop an already given plot by taking it forward, using some props such as: paint, grenade, some rope, a stick...etc. The paper also tested the knowledge about world cinema and current affairs. There was some English grammar and comprehension which was not at all a problem for any one of us. 

I finished the paper on time, but it wasn't all that great. I leaked the gk portions off my answer sheet, and it was only the sketching and scribbling part that I did well. I thought I had very little chance of actually clearing the screening test to the next round. I came back home and wasn't too upbeat about anything. My brother told me that I had royally screwed up my chances the moment he heard that the gk part was a sitter and I missed questions which were pretty much expected of me to know.

Now, mothers are the most optimistic people in the world after the Poets, and they know what their children are capable of. My mother was no exception and she was the only one who believed that I should at least go and have a look at the shortlisted candidates once. She convinced me to go even though I had to miss playing football that evening and travel by bus in the hot afternoon and then walk a kilometer to reach the college, but I listened to her (maybe she blackmailed me into doing it...). And when I reached and checked the list of the shortlisted candidates, I could hardy believe my eyes! I witnessed something which I couldn't ever describe ever with words- My name was there on the list.... It was the last day before the second round started! And all these days I could have very well prepared myself for the interview only if I believed a little bit more in myself and had dragged my lazy arse to check the shortlist a little earlier. And there was no way that I could have ever known that I would clear the screening if I had not listened to my mother that day!
The college took only 50% of the total shortlisted candidates and I did make it. And nothing would have been possible if I hadn’t trusted my dear mother's instincts. I owe her my graduation degree. Now I am an MBA from another good institute in Bangalore, and am getting ready for placements, and the nervousness has again set in- what company will hire me, what job will I get, what money will be up for grabs, will I at all get a good job in this financially stressed situation, etc. But I can just close my eyes and believe in my mother’s words that “what are you worried for, you are good enough, and like everyone else you too will be placed in a good organization soon!”
So moral of the story: Mothers don’t just blindly believe in you, they know you better than you would ever know yourself and they love you more than you'd love yourself. Their love drives you to the path of success, and it’s very unfortunate of the sons and daughters who don’t have faith in their mothers.