"3 Banjaare" on astonishing expedition into Seven Sisters's Land from Bangalore - 4

March 14, 2017

Mrs. Tarzan wanted to take advantage of being in Guwahati and since they had been travelling for three and a half days with half of a day being wasted away owing to fuel emergency and curfew-like-Holi in Assam which didn’t even allow them to experience busy streets of Guwahati on the banks of Brahmaputra, she planned the day with a visit to Maa Kamakhya and then collecting ILP.

ILP or Inner Line Permit is still basic requirement to travel in Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Nagaland states of north east India required by Indians other than the natives. The ILPs are issued by the Issuing authorities of Government of Arunachal Pradesh with offices at Delhi, Kolkata, Tezpur, Guwahati, Shillong, Dibrugarh, Lakhimpur and Jorhat. It is issued online also but there are few hassles in that process.

They got up with new energy waiting for next course of events ahead with blessings of Maa Kamakhya but everything depended on fuel which was reading empty in the fuel gauge. Mr. Tarzan got to to know that the petrol pumps and the temple should get open by 6:30 am so he planned to start by 7 to allow the lazy peoples have more time to get ready for starving Cheetah with a background thought about whether they would really get the fuel. Mrs. Tarzan’s eye infection was worsened and had freaked her as she looked at herself in the mirror but nothing was open at that hour of the day so she had put it on-watch.

Deciding to accomplish the tasks in morning before checkout, they left the place by 7:30. As soon as Mr. Tarzan turned on the engine, mysteriously the range was blinking as 13 km, not sure from where the Cheetah had accumulated the reserved energy for calculus to fail. anyways, they fed the Cheetah at first petrol pump which was around 2 km away and was Mr. Tarzan's first choice, which fulfilled their first task and basic requirement relieving them from the tension they had been facing since last day.  Moving through the lazy street, they reached the foothills of Nilachal hills in couple of minutes from where it is about 5-10 min and 5 km drive to the parking area. The parking is actually random which is mostly along roadside as most of the space gets filled up soon. May be in early morning the actual parking lot would have space but it was a bright morning with ample people around so they had to struggle for finding one good spot and located some place in one of the streets before an array of houses not so far away. From there one has to walk up to the main entrance of temple which is guarded by narrow street of several shops, a general scene outside any temple, from where Mrs. Tarzan got the basket full of puja items and left their footwears.

The temple is dedicated to Maa Kamakhya who is the goddess of desire, holds historic as well as archaeological importance being a major Shaktipeeth out of the 51 Shaktipeeths where devi Sati’s ( incarnation of aadishakti (goddess Parvati)) body parts were fell down while Mahadev was carrying her corpse in agony performing Taandav(celestial dance of destruction) was needed to be stopped by Lord Vishnu to stop the destruction . There are many illustrative stories and mysteries associated with this temple which can’t be described in one go.

After taking few flight of steps they were standing against a big entrance to the temple which opens up into a big compound with the temple at the center and several facilities on your left and your right, and all of this was covered with pigeons . At further right there was a kund of holy water overlooking the temple and a big queue of people encircling the Kund ending on  its other end, which  was probably for the entrance to kund and the shrine. Mr. and Mrs. Tarzan were wondering from where to begin as there was quite a good crowd at that point of time, they proceeded toward Kund and after looking at queue turned back towards the opposite direction where there were office and other facilities, but again it had some queue.

They decided to get one panda and took tickets costing 501 per person for VIP darshan to cut short the waiting time. As they were walking, on the left there were offices from where one can get tickets or information, separate stands for agarbatti and kapoor or diya, other one was for coconut and so on . Towards the end there was entrance for the  temple on right and they entered the queue for VIP darshan which was not so long. There were 2 other queues, one of which was general and other one was reserved perhaps for army or so as that queue had all young boys in army cut hairstyle and some were even in their jumpsuits which looked like they came for a day out together after the training sessions, some of them even had their family members accompanying. At the end of all 3 queues was a small entrance looking at which Mrs. Tarzan was wondering how it would be at the other side of the door. It seemed the small queue was also moving slow and they waited for good half an hour in such state till Mrs. Tarzan being tired of run off at the mouth started peeping outside the grills next to her. There was a big antique clock at the backside wall of the campus below which there were several goats as well and were roaming here and there along with pigeons and the humans. The goats were fascinating specially for the kids, one such kid wanted to hug it so dearly but this goat was not patient enough to stay for even a few seconds. There was a water stand right next to them at the other end and a person stood there who was occupied with filling up glasses of water and would also bring a tray full of glasses occasionally towards the queue asking for water. This was indeed a touching gesture which one could not find in any temple. There was mess indeed but yet all was systematic. Another half an hour went pass by then and Mrs. Tarzan started feeling hungry and asked Mr. Tarzan whether they could get breakfast on returning the hotel. They both were uncertain and hungry and wished to get the darshan soon.

After some more time finally they got their chance and entered that small gate which opened into a small yard with couple of elevated platforms, an architecture in surrounding walls and ceilings joined with the thick pillars, to which Mrs. Tarzan was looking gazed. By the gate there stood their panda who guided them to the temple and also tried to explain about the temple in quick synopsis which Mrs. Tarzan could not follow 100% due to his ascent while Mr. Tarzan was nodding his head at every sentence. He took them to the garbhgrah  among the crowd which was very dark cave at some depth and illuminated with several lamps and Maa Kamakhya was seated on further descent which is in the form of rock. He performed small puja and also told them to touch the holy water . He had put the small garlands around their neck as blessing of Maa Kamakhya. Merrily they came out following the panda who guided them to agarbatti and diya stand and then for coconut offering, then finally gave him dakshina and went ahead to roam around in the campus taking photos. There were enticing sculptures engraved on the temple walls. They went near the kund, had pictures and had darshan but did not join the queue as the clock was ticking and they were very hungry.

There are few more temples located nearby on the hill and within the campus; Bhuvaneshvari, Bagalamukhi, Chinnamasta, Tripura Sundari, Tara, Kali, Bhairavi, Dhumavati, Matangi and Kamala Temples. However, they kept their visit for the next time and proceeded to their original course.

They returned to Cheetah, took it out , stopped for a picture of the grand entrance at the foothill and were back in hotel room by 11:30. Since it was already late morning, the breakfast was not available and they did checkout around 11:45 pm without waiting for food as ILP was their priority.

Mrs. Tarzan was furious then as she was hungry since Mr. Tarzan did not listen to her when she suggested to have breakfast before leaving, anyways it was already 7:15-20 when they were leaving and it would add just few more minutes. Actually, though she had bird’s stomach but she gets trouble with empty stomach. However, Mr. Tarzan has an stomach of camel which when fed once would last for couple of days with only catalyst i.e. tea. He had this other thought in his mind since morning that he wanted to rush to DC office for ILP in order to not waste another day staying at Guwahati itself. As nothing can be done for the loss, Mrs. Tarzan took the charge and guided him to the highway to Dispur for DC office which was not tough to locate. This was supposed to be the same highway which they would be continuing to Shillong, where they should have reached a day ago. They were officially a day behind their schedule but keeping in mind about morning darshan and ILP that would count as half a day behind the schedule. Continuing on the diversion to the office,  Mrs. Tarzan located a small house which had a small sign board reading DC office to which Mr. Tarzan didn’t pay attention going out of sync and then had to make a u-turn a few meters ahead. After parking over couple of stone slabs in front of it, they collected forms for Rs 5. Mr. Tarzan asked Mrs. Tarzan to fill the forms meanwhile he had to go out in search of xerox shop to get copy of one of the documents. She filled some details and waited for several minutes by looking over in the office, doing time-pass on her phone, lending pen to the folks around, and reading all the boards for information listed. As he returned she told that it is written that forms submitted before lunch will be given after 4:00 pm. Again, he didn’t pay much attention as he was in let-us-see mood.

Well, after some time their turn came and one officer verified their documents redirecting to the next room where the officer bearing a profound look was going through the names of places mentioned to visit in Arunachal Pradesh over and over again muttering them, while Mr. and Mrs. Tarzan also looking at them and the officer alternatively, confusingly. Finally she turned over to them and asked if they are going to visit all these places. As they both nodded she asked them to get two more forms and explained that these places can be covered in three circuits, increasing their knowledge quotient. They were in deep thoughts, exchanged their thoughts, “If we had been also going to Changlang and neighbouring village that would be the fourth circuit” , and laughed to themselves. The officer was very helpful and marked the 3 forms for them carefully and to avoid wastage she also reused Mrs. Tarzan’s form for second circuit as they were both travelling as a couple. They had filled the duration in the forms as per their plan plus a couple of days extra fearing that they might be denied the permit if they asked to stay longer, to which she planned their stay in a way that if there is any change in plan or route they still have permit for long enough. Merrily they left the place with Mr. Tarzan a bit grumpy when he was told to collect the permit at 4.

So, finally Mr. and Mrs. Tarzan were allowed to think about lunch. Mrs. Tarzan was watching  the streets spotting decent restaurant from the window as the moved towards city. However Mr. Tarzan was more concerned about how to spend couple of hours well, to which she gave several options like roaming around in the city or visiting temples or going by the river bank but he didn’t like any of them much as a compensation of his ruined schedule. So, she only commanded to go to riverside and have food there followed by roaming around in the street or visiting the island in the river Brahmaputra. As she was guiding in that direction, they were snapped with the closed road and they were diverted to go ahead making her to find another route to the river. She was reading all the sign boards (in addition to those of eateries) she could catch on the way and asking Mr. Tarzan if he likes the name, suddenly stopped reading Barbeque Nation. Quickly she asked, “How do you like it?” An indifferent Mr. Tarzan replied, “Do you want this?” They both were asking each other, and meanwhile Cheetah screeched getting them in the parking lot of the Barbeque. The both smiled and entered the restaurant. So, Mrs. Tarzan called it a pre-birthday celebration for Mr. Tarzan. She was overwhelmed at this coincident, they had planned trying barbeque in bangalore 3 times but unsuccessful every time and here barbeque itself pulled them inside. Anyways, they were having a grand party compensating for the missing breakfast. They officially started at  1:20 pm and went on laughing, eating and talking for 2 hours. The waiters were so happy serving them and would not let them breathe by offering some or the other items at regular intervals. Mr. and Mrs. Tarzan have the charisma that no one could resist and befriends them !!

They were in war room somewhere in between discussing about their destination whether they are still going to Shillong or spending the evening in Guwahati on its bank viewing sunset or somewhere else. Mr. Tarzan gave weightage to keep moving and eventually they came to conclusion. Based on Mrs. Tarzan’s input they decided that if they could book their stay at Kaziranga they will visit the national park in early morning and then proceed towards Tawang. Mrs. Tarzan at once showed him one of the government stay which was mentioned in one of the reviews which she had collected while doing her research. Mr. Tarzan called the phone number given by Google Baba but no one responded, making them think on plan B with another round of snacks. Suddenly Mr. Tarzan’s phone rang and it turned out to be from same resort and they confirmed about availability. Mr. Tarzan was happy now and booked the room over phone informing that they will be reaching by evening as the place is not so far and they should be reaching in couple of hours. With a round of desert they celebrated their lunch ending up with a paan kulfi.

They left the place at 3:30 pm to be back at the DC office in 10-15 mins to get the ILP earliest, but it seemed it was not a First come first serve on basis of person but on the application. Finally in half an hour their no. was called and then they were handed over their ILPs and were also wished luck for their journey. The ladies at counter were also fascinated with their endeavour and got involved in conversation with them about their home, work and journey, finally bidding bye and wishing good luck.

It was 4:40 pm already when they left the place with Mr. Tarzan running for xerox leaving behind a waiting Mrs. Tarzan who after few minutes left for secret mission of finding balloons for him as she had planned to celebrate Mr. Tarzan’s birthday falling in that week. Actually she had a lot of plans in her mind for unique kind of celebration in the chilling Arunachal, but unfortunately after searching several shops near by she couldn’t get them and Mr. Tarzan also returned few minutes later.

They started moving ahead on the same highway towards Tezpur from where need to take a diversion towards Hathikuli, their night halt, a total of 200km. The sun had already started settling down but disappointed and angry Mrs. Tarzan couldn’t enjoy it as she had also started feeling sick and her infection was also discomforting her. She was already feverish since morning but couldn’t tell Mr. Tarzan, and it was increasing by the dusk. Perhaps he knew it but couldn’t stop playing Mr. Rock but quietly let her slip into sleep while he was taking her to their stay near Kaziranga National Park. She would get awake in between and would check the route and then silently fall asleep.

They reached tourist lodge by 7:45 pm and when enquired about the room they got one nice room with twin beds. Being a government property they were expecting it in rickety condition but it was decent enough. The reception area was built in traditional style with a collection of Kaziranga gallery and had a souvenir counter and a big tourist map of Assam by side of staircases.

The cold was increasing degree by degree, however warm shower and hot tea ordered by Mr. Tarzan got some strength in Mrs. Tarzan to get down to the dining hall with Mr. Tarzan. The food was okay or perhaps it was tasteless for her being sick following which she was escorted to the room where she slept over one of the twin beds while waiting for Mr. Tarzan. When she woke up in the midnight she could find Mr. Tarzan clinging to her cot half hanging at the foot of the cot over the blanket leaving himself without any trace of thick sheet over him. She gasped and then smiled, and then tried to pull him little up covering with blanket leaving her cot for him to sleep well. While laying down in next cot she could notice Mr. Tarzan turned and  stretched out more comfortably. This is Mr. Tarzan’s way of being sorry and that he cares a lot for her… she smiled and went back to sleep wearing that same smile with content !!

Distance: 214 km( + to and fro DC office)

Toll:
Diesel:
Hotel:  Aranya tourist lodge(Kaziranga national Park)

Part 3 Part 5