A Much-Bombed City

Ahem… as usual, my end of the month blog…


Guwahati, Assam

This is Guwahati (or Gauhati in colonial times), the de facto capital of Assam state. (The real capital is actually Dispur, a suburb of Guwahati). Guwahati is named after the betel nut – ‘guwa’ means ‘betel nut’ and ‘haat’ means ‘market’ in Assamese (according to Wikipedia, I don’t know Assamese). Assam and betel nut are practically inseparable. The betel nut culture is so entrenched that Assamese actually sounds like a language spoken with a mouth full of stuff …betel nuts I suppose. As the largest city of North East India and the gateway for the North East to the rest of India (and the world), Guwahati has become the favourite place for local separatists to bomb.

North East India is made up of many types of people with different cultural and religious backgrounds. Many of these people have their own terrorist outfits so that if they’re bombed they can retaliate by bombing back their bombers. An eye for an eye! The most well-known terrorist group currently is ULFA (or the United Liberation Front of Asom), which is the Indian Army’s favourite suspect for everything that is not right in Assam.

At times of peace, Assam can be very interesting because of its diversity. The original Ahoms who ruled Assam for 600 years were ethnically and linguistically related to Thais but are Hindus. The Bodo and Dimasa people are also Hindus but are of Tibeto-Burman stock. The Khasi who are mainly Christians are related to Khmers (Cambodians). And then there are the Bengalis and the Assamese who are mainly either Hindu or Muslim. Add a few dozen more tribes and communities and bang! you get present day Assam, land of diversity, beauty, terrorists and bombs.


The mighty Brahmaputra River that flows across Tibet, Assam and Bangladesh




Kamakhya Temple – Temple of the Mother Goddess, where sacrifices of goat and doves are an everyday thing.

Legend has it that when Sati, the wife of the god Shiva, died, he became so grieved and furious (at her father for forcing her to commit suicide) that he took her burnt body (she died of self-immolation) and began prancing around heaven in sorrow. In the process, different parts of her body fell onto different parts of the Indian subcontinent, and in time became prominent places of worship. Her vagina (yeah, you read correctly) fell onto the site of the Kamakhya Temple.


Anu & her momma at the Kamakhya Temple


Anu on the Brahmaputra


Mom-in-law on the banks of the Brahmaputra


Gary & mom-in-law at the Umananda Temple, on an island in the Brahmaputra

Look beyond the terrorists and the bombs and you’ll find that the majority of the people of the North East are peace-loving and rather laid back. North-East India has tremendous potential (according to me), it is abundantly fertile and rich in natural resources. The diversity of its people creates a cultural mix so rich that it’ll be hard to find anything close to what you can find here. (And the varieties of food? Simply unimaginable …fancy dog meat!!!?, pop into an everyday restaurant in Aizawl, Mizoram). The diversity also means that the command of English and other languages (as a means of communication between different types of people) is better than many other parts of India. The main problem of this area – remoteness and inaccessibility. Wanna travel by road from Aizawl to Kolkata? – 3 back-breaking days when the weather is good. (It takes 1 hour if you fly! Yes, when the weather is good).