"3 Banjaare" on astonishing expedition into Seven Sisters's Land from Bangalore - 14
Day 16
A fresh day after rains is what that boosts your morning. Tiny droplets over the green leaves and shower fresh look of the roses when you open your eyes is what makes you fall in love with mother nature. Cheetah had nice shower all night and was wearing sparkling droplets.
It was a beautiful morning after rains when you feel like just sitting amid the vibrant green plants and colorful flowers taking sip of hot tea, but that is not what you came so far for.
Mr. and Mrs. Tarzan left their night stay by 8:00 am to experience rains in the greens island of Majuli witnessing its life and activities. The kids were going school on feet holding their umbrellas while lost in their talks. Some of them were cycling wearing raincoats while some were enjoying rain drops. The dense trees lined up by the road were helping to filter rains, that the kids were enjoying walking in rain yet not getting much wet.
Mrs. Tarzan was experiencing being in the Japanese animation “My neighbor Totoro” herself through her cozy moving-cabin(it was a kid’s story based on beautiful Japanese village).
Reaching Kamalabari Satra brought her back to her adventure. It was another major Satra which had huge campus with beautiful garden and several small facilities. One was a museum behind the garden beside the main worship place, which bore lavender morning glories and the largest one along the side walls was residential area for ashram dwellers.
Several white dhotis were flapping while hung for drying whereas few of them adorned the dwellers of all sizes, i.e., young and old busy in their respective chores. When Mr. and Mrs. Tarzan entered inside, beautiful sculptures in the peaceful ambiance amazed them. They prayed and then sat there while the priests were chanting the mantras and augmenting the divinity of the place by playing traditional instruments which they had seen first time in their life. Such was the echo of the harmony that can relax any perplexed soul.
There was this another couple in traditional Assamese attire who also relaxed at the positive vibes in atmosphere by watching whom Mrs. Tarzan was elated even more. After being fueled up with positivity they headed towards another Satra.
Mrs. Tarzan informed Mr. Tarzan that this is most unique one and also known as mask making Satra, Samaguri Satra. It preserves the tradition running down through generations of the family very beautifully. The directions to the place were guiding them well until a point where they really got lost. Seeing one school boy, Mrs. Tarzan inquired in English and the boy guided them well after crossing the bridge. Elated at the new generation’s smartness in the island village she felt good of her country her people.
It was still raining as they stopped in front of a board reading Samaguri Satra against an entrance which would go rather unnoticed. After entering through it, there were a couple of houses in the premises where they stood confuse, “Where is the Satra?”
An old man with long white beard came out and asked them about their purpose and informed that this is the Satra, pointing to one of the houses. The walls of the houses were decorated with beautiful bright paintings, some of which were under progress and the front of the porch had sculptures and other artistic creations. They were hosted by a young fellow who took them inside a room full of masks and then leading to another room again full of masks and a statue which seemed to be worshiped. The masks were hanging from the ceiling till the floor, all were staring at them with big prominent eyes sending them thrills. There were several characters mainly from Ramayan and Mahabharat be it the lord or the human or the demons. He told them their stories and about their tradition while fascinating them wearing couple of masks with acting, responding to each question Mrs. Tarzan had. For Mr. Tarzan it was unique experience as he had no idea or any interest in masks but he was indeed amazed to see such art and its preservation. These masks are famous internationally and also available for sale, even shipped globally.
Mrs. Tarzan bought one Hanumanji mask and also longed for a dancing couple kept outside in the porch. It was most beautiful expressive couple she had ever seen, solely made of bamboo without any faces yet so strongly delivering the emotions with dance. The old man watching her awed, smiled and acted that dance mudra citing its name, which she did not even know. Promising herself to get it shipped once she reaches home, she left the Satra with another wave of positivity.
She also wanted to visit another Satra in her list, Dakhinpat Satra, but Mr. Tarzan had his other idea. He preferred queuing for catching ferry at Kamalabari Ghat since missing it would mean getting late by one day and even getting late by couple of hours would mean another struggle, again for a decent stay.
Understanding, yet grumpy, Mrs. Tarzan asked, “ Any plans for breakfast?”
Not willing to take risk of street food, he did not stop at any vendor but took her to one bakery at market center which looked decent enough. So, the breakfast was pastry and a box full of bakery biscuits which obviously would not serve for breakfast and she is not fond of so much of sweets. She was missing her place longing for samosa jalebi for breakfast. Anyways, at least they had something.
From this point, the road goes straight till dead end to fetch ferry at ghat. Interestingly, the road did end but did not convey any signs about boarding a ferry. Confused, they paused for a while until a loading auto went past them in the dirt trail ahead. In couple of minutes another vehicle went in same direction. They both wondered, then immediately responded to their reflexes believing that’s the way to ferry !
Google map showed that dirt trail to be blue i.e. supposedly a water body but there was no water, only dirt; which means that according to water level the ferry boarding point might have shifted beyond !
So, the great researchers-cum-explorers followed the vehicle at slow pace owing to a bumpy dusty ride till the horizon where it disappeared. On reaching that horizon, they followed several overlapping tyre trail in a certain direction till they could notice something at the other horizon. The tyre trail helped them reach to that something, which eventually did seem promising when they approached. It was surrounded by vehicles and huts and people.
On approaching further it revealed a platform, then on getting closer some movement was also visible on the platform. In couple of minutes they could see water beyond the platform, and that the platform was a ferry itself which served as a “mobile ferry station”. The vehicles were lined up in front of it and one gentleman advised them to be in that queue first or someone else might break in. So, Mrs. Tarzan and Cheetah stood in the queue while Mr. Tarzan was on the move around.
Laughing their insides out, that they drove into an island the previous day and now drove in what is supposed to be the water !!
Crazy indeed :)
Ferry service was supposed to start by 10:30 am and they still had some time to say goodbye to this island. There were lot of stalls for tea and food if one has to wait too long in the queue. Luckily they were the third vehicle apart from cycles and bikes. Soon the ferry arrived and all cycles and bikes boarded on the platform, then to the ferry from where they climbed to its roof very disciplined. After two wheelers was the turn of four wheelers. The first car in queue was broken so was pushed with trouble.
When it had settled in, Mr. and Mrs. Tarzan were called next due to Cheetah’s built. It was quite challenging task for Mr. Tarzan in spite of his crazy and literally no-road or slush-road trips and first timer for Mrs. Tarzan who had to step out to let them both board, alone !
Cheetah had to wheel in on a raised platform putting forth its left tyre and then right tyre slowly over the wooden plank which was okay being the platform rigid and source a firm ground, followed by guidance from the expert men who on-board and off-board daily. Now, it had to climb over the thin inclined wooden planks equivalent to tyre’s thickness to reach an oscillating ferry. This is an interesting technique as the vehicle may slip or plank may skip making the vehicle fall on a minute mistake or miscalculation. First two men will hold the planks firm on the opposite end so the fore tyres can climb slowly, and once it reaches the mid section they step-over and push the midsection so as the hind tyres would climb until the front tyres get on the ferry. Then, to finally get the vehicle on board, they would hold the plank at its initial end until the vehicle gets completely on board. But getting on board is not as simple since there is only an inch gap to its next vehicle making the driver to get down from the co passengers door !! So, Mr. Tarzan mastered in one more skill that day :)
As the 3 four wheeler stood an inch apart by their sides, now was the turn for the two legged creatures to board the ferry. They took tickets and had to be seated in the lower compartment of ferry, far from their beloved Cheetah. It was first time when they were with Cheetah but not inside, actually far from its sight. Also, it was first ferry ride for the trio !!
The breeze was cool and there was no rains, sun was also shining dimly through the clouds. Mrs. Tarzan climbed over the deck to sit along with the bikes letting the breeze gussle through her hair while Mr. Tarzan leaned against the compartment wall beside her. The river was too wide despite of the fact that today it was lesser than its original might. It had several islands whose edges were carved by the river into weird shapes. Some of them even had some sort of vegetation and visited by migratory birds.
There were different species of birds flocking over the islands and would fly so close to them. And then one of the bird flew very close posing in front of them, it would get seated on the island and again repeat same till the last island it could find. Mrs. Tarzan enjoyed and captured its company that half of the ride on ferry got over in no time. They could see the bank of the river with a boat stationed in the water and several vehicles behind each other forming a queue.
The first ever ferry ride for the trio had been pleasant and relaxed when none of them were doing any task while being transported that Mr. Tarzan was pretty bored towards the end of around an hour long ride :)
They reached the bank in next couple of minutes where there stood a bigger boat with our national flag looking at which they both feel pride every time. Mrs. Tarzan got down first before Cheetah’s turn to move out using same technique with which it got boarded and then climbed up on the dirt trail towards the approach road.
This place is called Nimati Ghat situated in Jorhat and major boarding point for ferries. The approach road later opened up to the highway connecting Dibrugarh and easternmost of Assam serving as backbone to other sister states towards the south.
Being a late morning it already made their hunger to grow silently, so Mr. Tarzan stopped by a decent looking restaurant. However the food experience was really not worth it, anyways it was better than having nothing. Only thing good there was decent music and a bunch of beautiful flowers in the garden.
The highway was rough having lot of potholes and insane traffic, cattle on road, and people having no traffic sense or even common sense. Hence, to ease their agony drizzle had started and then there was lesser traffic as well. Mr. Tarzan pulled over to enjoy tea in rains.
Couple of hours later they reached Sibsagar. Mrs. Tarzan had already jotted down cities and places of interest in north eastern states which was proving its worth now. Since past few days they had been roaming on adhoc plans and destinations depending on their location and timing.
Sibsagar is historic town with lot of tanks and temples depicting the glory of Ahom kingdom. Most important and their first destination in this town was Shiva dol which is a temple dedicated to Shiv ji at the bank of Sivsagar tank. Besides this are two more temples, Vishnu dol and Devi dol built with same architecture and equally glorious.
The approach road to Shiva dol itself is wide and beautiful, full of greenery which takes you to a huge campus facing the Dol and the tank inside the gated premises.
After parking, one has to buy ticket which is pass to the other historic heritages also. Entering through the gate pushes you into lush green garden with bright flowers on your both side walking you down straight to temple. From here you can see the huge structure till the mid section inside. It is built in Ahom style architecture with several carving and sculptures of god and godess on the wall and the huge tank beside adds to its glory. The other two temples are also built in same style.
The next destination was supposed to be an old palace situated at Garhgao which was mostly ruins, popularly known as Talatal ghar as basement of seven storeyed structure called Kareng ghar.
Mr. Tarzan is fond of ruins and this place offered a pleasant evening to spend amid lush greenery. Huge premises welcomes its visitors with beautiful small garden surrounding cannons at both the sides of the entrance under enclosure.
The pathway to the palace is long enough to justify its enormous remains be witnessed on huge ground covered with bright green grass to imagine its glorious past. And by the way several storks also accompany their visitors who keep on digging into the grass.
They went up and down and to the farthest corners of the palace to see all of its might. On the terrace, they also found a small temple where one can spend few minutes even more peacefully.
And when you get down from one of the stairs on its right to an open area which houses few more ruins, there is one small water body surrounded by bunch of trees thereby reflecting the dark green colour inviting Mrs. Tarzan to take a break. She wished how dearly to sip a cup of tea with Mr. Tarzan here.
They explored the ruins to every corner.
The evening was growing which made Mr. Tarzan to push her to take leave as she loved the place most than any ruins ever visited. And it indeed was incomparable for its beauty that you wouldn’t believe it exits in such a not-so-popular place in India.
Next place they visited was rang ghar which showcased the artistic side of the city being of theatrical importance, but being tired they did not explored much and longed for a return journey.
Now the question was where to head? Mrs. Tarzan was thinking for Dibrugarh being the nearest point from where they can head to Myanmar border and other attractions. Though, deep inside they were getting impatient to visit Meghalaya.
Within minutes it was decided to proceed towards the direction of Guwahati as far as it was achievable. Then came this idea to Mr. Tarzan, that halt at same government stay from the previous week when they visited Kaziranga National Park.
It had started getting dark and they were moving at a good speed, but it was not meant to be smooth for long. At a deserted patch one of the tyre got punctured and the spare one was weak and patchy, this also got them delayed by 40 mins. Mr. Tarzan got damn tired while changing it and was tensed to get the tyre puncture fixed.
To some relief, there was a petrol bunk at little distance where both the tyre and the Tarzan got fixed (Mr. Tarzan with tea of course). After this hiccup they were finally approaching Kaziranga National Park when it was already around 8 in night, hoping to get accommodation at the same place from where they started this journey.
They reached the stay at 9.30 without any hope to get availability, however Mrs. Tarzan luckily got the nod from the reception, surprisingly it was a better room this time.
They had same dinner what they had previously without much exploration, followed by a good prolonged bath in hot water and sound sleep.
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