TO SCOTLAND OF THE EAST…- Srinandini VR

Initially, I felt, we all were digging a foundation where there is not even a plan of building house.  It was about our study tour to Shillong. But, all of us , with so much optimism went into deep planning and we did create waves. Good fortune befalls only when opportunity and planning coincides.

The only hassle was a long train journey to the East. It seemed that all nature enthusiasts throng Guwahati in large numbers for the same purpose as that of ours. The pace of each day taking us near to the destination was the most appreciable factor in the train.

Institutional visit is an inevitable part of any educational trip. The North Eastern Hill University(NEHU) awaited with the unexplored, unseen, and totally scientific “working” equipments- the Nano drops, QRT PCR, chromatin immunoprecipitator, rotating evaporators, UV illuminators, amplifiers and even the confocal microscopes worth crores! This signals us how central universities can nourish one during doctoral programmes or projects without making our hearts heave hard for facilities.

The place was as that of the “God’s own country”; but the extra was the chills which might make us yearn for the warmth of a good summer, only at the worst though. The most appealing tourist spot to me was the Krang suri waterfalls, as blue as the sky. The greenish blue pool pushes you for a deep plunge. The boon of the vision indeed gave the impulse to keep a picture of my own; the real time vision beautiful than any camera. Same was the feeling to see the sister falls at Dympep valley. All of a sudden, the step down at Dawki was a chance to wave a “HI” to the neighboring Bangla state.

One of the wettest places on Earth, Cherrapunji  surprised us with its own magnificent beauty. The story of the Nohkalikai falls there goes like this; Ka Likai was a widower with her infant daughter. She had to work to sustain their living; but had to leave her child all day long unattended for the same. Taking the flaws in her parenting as a single mother and for the love that a daughter deserves from a father, she marries for the second time. Against her expectations, an air of jealousy grew in her husband since       Ka Likai devoted all her attention to her daughter. The man kills the infant one day and cooks the flesh, hiding all the traces of the cold murder. As the mother returns so hungry, even after noticing the empty house, she eats the cooked meal to her full. On deciding to chew a betel leaf, near the chopping stone, she finds a chopped finger. She realizes what happened and in deep anger , sorrow and guilt, she jumps to death for she had a meal of her daughter like a cannibal. The valley from where she jumped was named the Nohkalikai fallsas a reminder of her tragic life.

“The greatest joy in nature is the absence of man”. The current scenario of the world with better air, and water may account for the same it seem! Well, the clean air, the transparent waters, the hills abode of clouds and the sunrays caressing in cold breeze chills- everything accounted for the evidence of how man can just be a string in the web of life; uninterfering with the wholesome wilderness, bothered only about the “need” of the day! Scotland of the East is just like heaven on Earth under your feet…..