Being an Assamese outside North East India

The other day someone told me that she thought I was from the same family who owns Choi Kim. Choi Kim is a Chinese Restaurant in the neighbourhood and it is run by a family whose ancestral origins can be traced to China! So you can imagine what she was referring to. I look different. No I wasn't offended. I am too used to this now and I just laughed it off saying  " No I am completely Desi".

You see I come from Assam which is in the North East of India. People in these 7 sisters of North East India, actually 8 including Sikkim, look little different. For rest of the country we look like Chinese, Japanese, Nepali but NOT Indian. Can someone please tell me How does an Indian look?

Little Bihu Dancers

This HUGE country with so many regions distinctly divided geographically and culturally how can one have a common Indian look? Who came up with that idea of "typically Indian look" in the first place? What is typically Indian? I donot have any problem with any part of the country. I am as much as an Indian as the girl in Lakshadweep or the boy in the last village of Ladakh.

Since I do not fall into the "typical Indian looking" category, there are certain things that I get to hear too often. While some are hilarious, there are some which are plain stupid and sure make me go " HUH!"

1. When I say I am from Guwahati, Assam they ask "It's somewhere in North India right?" What can I do if you did not study Geography properly at school. At times I so want to ask " What do you think about that part of India hanging at the Eastern most side?" "What do you think that state /s is/are called?"

2. There are those who say " Your accent say you are Bengali but you look like a Nepali." Well can't even blame them. They never realised there is India beyond West Bengal and there "Indians" look different and speak different languages. 

3. Do you have malls in Guwahati? Dudes it is the biggest city of North East India. ALL the domestic airlines fly there. And if one judges a place by the number of malls and showrooms, Guwahati will appear in "top 5 tier 2 cities suddenly got big" for sure.

4. Then there are some who say "Assam is totally hilly area. The weather all year round must be so good." No it is not and no to both.

5. "Is it safe to go to Assam?" a big resounding YES to this one. Come once and see for yourself. Like every other place, Assam and whole of North East also have seasons and off seasons. Come during Spring or Winter and you will understand.  

Noh Kalikai Fall, Meghalaya

JUG Ho!

Who is your Jug? Asked Blog Adda. That got me thinking ..yeah who is actually my Jug? Do I even have a Jug? The answer did not come to me as a surprise. I do. 

I shared my love, laughter, tears, adventures, misadventures with my Jug. My Jug has been with me forever. But yeah the workings of the relationship has changed a bit. When I was in 4th Std I first met my Jug. I did not know that that friendship will last this long. But it did. Even after a brief separation our relationship continued. I would always lay bare my heart to my Jug. And my Jug always listened patiently. 

I remember the first separation. I was in 9th or 10th Std may be. Few people found out about my strange fascination with my Jug and no one understood that. I had kept that hidden till then. I just never thought it was for others to see and judge. That relationship was mine and mine alone. Not to be shared with the whole world. But alas! People found out and we were humiliated. I was hurt and confused. I was made to think that it was "not correct"; whatever being correct meant. We broke up. Rather I did. Vowed never to get into a relationship with another Jug again.

It took me good 15 years to be back with Jug again. But this time it was there for everyone to see. I never kept it hidden. Then something very strange happened. I came to know that there are creatures like me and they are in fact accepted in this world. There no one laughed and raised an eye brow about my relationship with my Jug. That left me wondering where was I all these years! 

For you My Jug

You must be wondering why am I referring to My Jug as My Jug all the time. Because My Jug doesnot have a gender.  My Jug is my blog “Dear Diary”. I used to keep a diary as a child and used to write whatever (non)sense I wanted to. Noone back then understood that. Someone found out my diary and a very humiliating public reading followed. Somethings were never meant to be shared. Those were strictly for Dear Diary’s pages only. Yes I had named my diary “Dear Dairy” back then too. I burnt my diary and never kept one for a long time to follow.

One fine day I discovered blogging. I started to write. My first blog was in an website called bihu.in It’s not updated since 2007. I myself opened that today as I am typing these words and look what I found. My last post was in 17^th April 2007 and I wrote about Memoirs of A Geisha. In fact the page did not look like this back then. Anyway, in 2007 I had moved to Blogger and started Dear Diary. Again a gap of few years and this quirky relationship is continuing on and off. My Jug is my Dear Diary where I write about “Everything that makes me smile”. Age and time have made me slightly cynical. I now know where to draw the line and when and how vulnerable you should appear to the world. But I feel alive and liberated when I scribble on the pages of Dear Diary. That’s what a friend does; right?

BTW do you know the song that I want for my Jug..."Jug ghoomiya thare jaisa na koi.." Yeah I know I should crack better jokes than this. :)  

Image source 

“I am writing about Jug in my life for the #DearZindagi activity at BlogAdda“.

5 Bollywood songs I so love

I admit I have grown up on heavy dose of Bollywood. Such a filmy keeda I was, that now when they show some of those films on TV, I cringe. How could I and how did I, I wonder. But this also meant listening to many songs; good, bad and ugly. And no matter what, I firmly believe that Bollywood offers a song for every occasion in our lives. So here I am looking back and trying to figure out the 5 Bollywood songs that always bring to mind something special.




1. Tere Bina zindegi se koi : This is the very first love "love song" I fell for in my teen years. I mean such poignant lyrics and when I finally saw the complete film " Aandhi" I realized what the song meant by
" Without you I have no complains against life ;
   But without you there is no life either"

2. O Hansini Meri Hansini : Some songs bring with them a beautiful memory. This one sure brings  the wonderful memories of that special one year in Gwalior at the tourism institute. All my batch mates would agree to this. The scorching summer in Gwalior made us sit out in the lawn till the whistle for girls to return to hostel went off. During such sessions one of our batch mate Mohanty  would sing O Hansini and we all would join in. The wide open lawn, the breeze, the night and Mohanty's silky voice; Memories aah memories.

3. ALL the songs of Hero : I am referring to Subhash Ghai's film Hero. I know I know this film has awesome songs. In my earliest memories of road trips in Assam, the album Hero finds a very special place. It was our driver Robin who was more like a family member and still is, would play the songs. We were too young too choose or pick songs to play. Those trips from Golaghat to Jorhat and Sibsagar with the songs of Hero playing still are so fresh in my mind. And everytime I hear "Tu mera jaanu hai" I remember our old Ambassador car, I, my siblings and my parents travelling in all our excitement to our Grannny's place.

4. Mahi ve : Ok this is a very recent addition and for this I have to thank our cab driver from Srinagar to Leh who played this song. Unlike most public transport drivers, he did not play eighties and nineties tragic hindi songs. This song came up at a time when I was slowly falling for the rugged terrains of Ladakh. From the movie " Highway", this song is THE song for the highway for me now. Everytime I hear this song, I feel the road calling out to me to be on it, going somewhere soaking in the changing landscapes!

5. Yeh Dil Deewana : No heart break story attached here. Just that this was the favorite song of one of my favorite teacher in college - RC sir. In fact most of the students just loved him. In our first year of graduation, he taught us Dr. Faustus and Dylan Thomas' "Poem in October". In all honesty after first few classes of English Literature I was so confused that I wanted to change my subject to History. But slowly then the magic of the gems in English literature unfolded and I could make some sense out of it. A major role is played by RC sir. I have no idea how this song became his favourite, but it was and he would never shy away from admitting that.

This list just a tiny drop in the vast ocean of Hindi songs that I love. But these few songs carry a memory with them. Of course there are others too. But they remain my all time favourite.



PS : I have only shared the links to the videos as found on YouTube. All credits to uploaders of these videos.

Jab We Met

It all happened with a simple post on the FB page of "our Group". Our group is the IITTM 2002-03 batch group. IITTM - Indian Institute of  Tourism and Travel Management. We all were in the Gwalior branch of the Institute. The main branch. Our course PG Diploma in Tourism Management (PGDTM)

It was a year that all of us love to call " A year long package tour". Yes we had fun, went to 2 Major trips and few small trips. We studied about Tourism, tours, packages, cargo! Not to forget a foreign language. I took French; and during the 10 long years, never used once. Well I donot blame the teacher. She was a wonderful lady. Its just that I never had to use French in my professional life.

It seems like yesterday at times. We all were in Gwalior, in the sprawling campus; fortress like hostels, classrooms,a mess, a lawn. We even had our own Marine Drive. During the unbearable summers, all the girls had to sit inside the rooms when all the boys would loiter around the campus (some out of it) like free birds. We would be jealous. Icing on the cake was those hours and hours of power cuts. The deadline for girls' to enter the hostel was 9pm. Believe me there was a whistle which the hostel warden Sushma Ma'm would blow sharp at 9pm All of us would run back to the hostel.

Honestly dont exactly remember studying hard during that year. Only may be during the 2 semesters, had to go through the notes, the books. In second semester, I had to take up "extra classes" for Accountancy as I was and still am really bad with numbers. Thanks to Ruchira, Nitya and Sushmita, I managed to score the passing marks. In that one whole year, I was the one who spent most of the time in the Girls' Common room; watching TV or talking on phone. Yeah; even would talk on "wrong numbers"...those were the days.

The campus selection placed all of us in different places. Most of us landed in Delhi. After 3years in Delhi, I moved back to Guwahati, my hometown. Then in 2010 I reached Mumbai. All these years never really stayed in touched with each one of the batchmates. But trust me even though we hardly met, all of us surely remained connectoed somehow. After all how do you not think of that One Year of Packaged tour that we all had spent together in Gwalior.

We all had gone our own ways. But on 14th Dec, many of us managed to come and meet at Nehru Place. It was a simple affair. Nothing fancy. But meeting whosoever could come was so wonderful. So glad to know what the other was doing or who is where.

We all have changed. Grown up, mature, more cautious with our words, appearances changed. Have become wife, husband, father, mother. But I am sure when we sit down and look back, there will always be a year which all of us had spent in Gwalior;just being us. Simple as that.

Mary had a little lamb

              

         At the stroke of midnight, I woke up with a startle. Oh God, I have fallen asleep while reading this book and with lights on. I got down from the bed to go to the bathroom before switching off the light and going back to sleep. As I entered the bathroom, a little voice came drifting from downstairs..

   "Mary had a little lamb, Its fleece was white as snow. 
    And everywhere that Mary went, Mary went, Mary went, 
    Everywhere that Mary went.
    The lamb was sure to go."

               Must be some parents coming from some weekend party and making their child recite the nursery rhyme while they park their car. What the hell, now this is taking things too far. You are making your child practicing her nursery rhymes in the middle of the night. I will check with the watchman tomorrow morning I thought.

               I went to back my bedroom, turned off the light and lie down on the bed. Then I realised that I stay in the 13th Floor and there is no way I could hear sound from parking lot. Also the flat exactly below my flat is unoccupied.

            I froze.

This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda

22/11/2007

Dear Diary,

Hi! From today, will scribble on your pages my wandering thoughts, mood swings,confused blabberings.

Be my friend.