The Barak River, Fulertal, Cachar District, Assam
Yeah, and that’s what happened for the major part of August, a return to the idyllic Barak Valley of Assam. Assam is steamy hot and humid this time; not as much rain this monsoon as compared to past years. The power supply as usual is erratic – ideal conditions for a steam bath and mosquito fest. This is where hand fans are still absolutely essential. Without places like these, the hand fans would have been extinct, confined to shelves in a museum. The local hand fans are of a rotating type – can’t really describe it – it’s something like a circular shaped flag with a sleeve on the handle, usually made with bamboo. You hold on to the sleeve and twirl it around, fanning service for the entire group of people sitting around you, cool huh?
Monsoon or not, Assam is completely green (as opposed to Dubai), with throngs of people and buffaloes planting rice in the paddy fields (it’s the paddy planting season). Come to think of it, Assam is always green whatever season it is.
Anyway, this time round we bought a house (or more like started the process to buy a house), in Silchar, the biggest city in that area. Silchar is difficult to describe in the short time I allocate myself to complete this blog entry. Let’s say that it is the antithesis of Dubai, if you know what I mean. The house is a somewhat worn-out medium sized Assam-type house (house built with timber and zinc sheets for a roof, I’m a sucker for rustic looks ok?). It has a small lawn in front (which is one of the reasons why I liked the house compared to so many others we’ve seen before). I don’t like the hugh monstrous concrete structures favoured by many of the locals there (land is limited, so they try to make full use of whatever land they have and build it high, three to four storeys typically, with no remaining space for a car park) – not a very smart idea for an earthquake prone area, I’d think. There was one night while sleeping, that I felt a small jolt, like somebody shaking my bed. The thing is, I was sleeping on the floor that night!
For the time being, here’re some photographs of the Barak Valley and Fulertal Village, Anu’s home village taken in March last year, when it’s not so hot, and the Barak River is nice. Nope, didn’t take any pictures of Silchar or the new house yet.
The Barak River aka Fulertal's public swimming pool - the one in purple is Anu
Bamboo floating down the Barak, view from a rocky island
Anu and 3 of her sisters, from left Rekha, Manju and Amrita
The kids, our nephews and niece, from left Kunal, Sonia and Raja
The boatman, ahem, just kidding hehe
1 comment:
I met a few people from Mizoram here. Only one guy called himself Indian/Mizoram. The others called themselves Burmese/Mizoram and are refugees...so I guess they must be on Burma territory.
Nice people, looks-wise, cannot differentiate from Malay/Philippines/Indon group...the Malay Archipelago.
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