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Guwahati A Place To Stay A Place To Savour |
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When we started from Delhi for an extensive tour of the north - eastern states, we did not think of Guwahati as a place of tourist interest.
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We assumed it to be a gateway t the north - east and a starting pint for a visit to the famed wildlife reserves of Manas and Kaziranga and places like Shillong, Sibsagar, Imphal, Loktak, Dimapur, Kohima, and Agartalla.
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Guwahati could be used as a base camp since most of the places are well connected with this capital city of Assam by road, rail and air. So we thought.
With these ideas in mind, we went to the Assam tourist office for booking conducted tours to Manas and Kaziranga. However, all seats were booked for the next four days for both these places. We could either go to these places. We could either go to these places on our own and face the uncertainty over transport and accommodation, or wait four days and simply while away our time rambling in Guwahati and its nearby places.
Not being familiar with these regions chose the latter and booked our seats for Kaziranga for the first available date. When we asked the Assam tourist officer whether there was a conducted tour for sight - seeing in Guwahati he said, "well, we had one but it had to be abandoned because we never got enough people interested in such a venture." Our misgivings about Guwahati as a place of tourist interest seemed to be coming true. This feeling was strengthened when my host said "well, there is hardly anything to see around in the city. Perhaps, you could visit Kamakhya if you have a religious bent of mind." Later we discovered he had not visited any of the places in his two years of stay in Guwahati and was giving opinions on hearsay.
Our delayed reservations to Kaziranga and Manas came as a blessing. Guwahati which derives its name from two words, Guwa (meaning, betel-nut) and Hati (meaning, little market) has much more to offer to tourists than mere sights of vendors in their traditional attire selling freshly plucked betel-nuts.
Exploring Guwahati on your own is not at all difficult. There are just two principal roads along which most of the places of tourist interest lie - the first running from Guwahati Refinery to the airport via the main market and the University area, covering a distance of about 40 kilometers and the second, running from Chandmari to Basistha shrine via the zoo and Dispur, covering a distance of 20 kilometers.
It is customary for anyone on his first tour Guwahati to first visit Kamakhya the Mother Goddess, second only to the mighty Brahmaputra, the river that has an undeniable presence in the town.
We intended proceeding early in the morning for this holy place but the heavy rains delayed our departure and we could move only by 11 O'clock - quite late by north-east standards because here, the sun rises at least two hours earlier than at Delhi and other places in the north. In a way this delay came as a blessing as we were spared the wait in the queue for the 'darshan' of the Goddess about which its is said, "Guwahati would be like a lost child without its presiding deity."
The journey from the city to the temple is quite refreshing and exhilarating. The road runs along with the mighty Brahmaputra-literally meaning " the son of Lord Brahma" - on one side and blue hills with thick foliage on the other. The sparkling green water receding into the creeks and crevices of the not-so-distant blue hills all along the route form the most striking view.
It is interesting to know why Kamakhya is considered to be the centre of Shakti (energy) worship and Tantric from of Hinduism. It is here that the yoni of Sati, the first wife of Lord Shiva fell when he was sorrowfully carrying her away for the last rituals.
The bus left us near the temple, which is crested in the Nilachal Hill. All around the temple, there are peacocks and several other birds, which make the area vivid and lively. We did not have to wait. We had a quick darshan of the Mother Goddess and after performing the ritual of "first visiting Kamakhya upon arrival to Guwahati," we were free to visit places of our choice in any order were felt like.
In the center of the city, with the magnificent backdrop of the Brahmaputra and atop Sukleshwar Hill stands the Janardan temple. A special feature of this Shiva temple is that it also has an image of Lord Buddha, which indicates how Buddhism was assimilated back into Hinduism. The northern side of the temple has staircases leading to the large bathing Ghats along the rive Brahmaputra. The water is sparkling clear, unlike the bathing Ghats of Varanasi or Haridwar. One can take the ritual bath here or simply sit and observe the mysterious beauty of the mighty Brahmaputra as it splashes its crystal waters. The hills on the opposite side and the poetically moving green arched ferries and boats lend an air of tranquility to the scene. The best time to site here is in the early morning or evening when the rising and setting sun reflects in the water and the silhouettes of the fisherfolk against of the red orb form a canvas.
From the Sukleshwar temple you can get a ferry or a boat which will take you to yet another temple of Shiva - Umananda which is on the Peacock Island in the middle of the river. Its picturesque location is the site for the annual Shivratri festival. It reminded me of the famed Vivekanand Rock Memorial Temple in the midst of the ocean at Kanyakumari. The only difference is that the edges of the Vivekanand temple are splashed by the violent milk -frothy water, while this tiny island looks like a large emerald lapped gently by crystal blue water. The other difference is that while the temple at the southern tip of the country has a chiseled and well-structured building, the temple here is quite old and rugged with trees and shrubs all around. But this impenetrable wilderness has its own charm and it brings forth the primeval beauty of this island.
West of Chitrachal Hill is the unique temple of Navagarh dedicated to the nine planets, as its name suggests. Once a renowned seat of astronomy and astrology, it is possibly the reason for Guwahati's earlier name - Pragjyotishpur. The structure of the temple resembles the ancient Ahom (Assamese) architecture. Inside the temple, there are ageless representations of nine planets along with the sun as well as statues of them in human form made only recently by stone-workers called from Delhi. Predictably, Shani (Saturn) and Mangal (Mars) get the most attention.
To escape from the noisy turmoil of central Guwahati, pop across to the Basistha Ashram believed to be the hermitage of sage Basistha. As least half a day is required if one really wishes to enjoy the charm of this place. It is a popular picnic spot, too. Three distinct rivulets, namely, Sandhya, Lalita and Kamala flow close to the Ashram adding to the beauty and grace of the place. It is a place favored by nature. The gentle sloping hill forms a pleasant backdrop. At dawn and dusk nature can be seen at its creative best, unfolding glorious sights.
And this is not the end of the list of ancient temples in this land of immense ethnic and cultural richness, If you have enough time, it is worth visiting the many classical temples even if you have no religious bent of mind.
Among the modern temple, Dol Govinda situated near the Guwahati Refinery is the most popular. It has a well-landscaped garden around it where exotic flowers can be found growing in abundance. It is situated on a hillock and from here one can get a breathtaking sight. The crimson blushing sun melting in the distant blue hills. Watching the clouds and their changing hues cast by the setting sun is a rare treat you will find difficult to forget. Perhaps you feel Guwahati has only temples. No, there is much more to this capital city of Assam. Assam state zoo is not very far from the heart of the city. Having seen zoos in a number of metropolis and other cities, we thought it would be almost like them and there was no point in wasting time.
But on second thoughts we decided to give it a try. The undulating topography of the zoo three-side open enclosures for the animals, marshy patches and ponds make the zoo almost like a natural habitat for the animals. There were several species, which we had never seen before.
After visiting this zoo, I revised my opinion. Every zoo is unique in some sense or the other. One drawback, however, was that right in the middle of the zoo, in front of the visitors, animals were slaughtered for feeding the carnivores.
Guwahati has several museums, repositories of this State's ancient culture and tradition. The Assam state museum is the largest amongst them and has sections on epigraphy, sculpture, natural history, crafts, ethnography, arms etc. Besides these sections, the museum has a coin cabinet which bolds more than 4000 coins of different periods.
The natural history section has some exhibits of unusual species - anteaters, rhinoceros, the crocodile etc. In the ethnography section, articles of everyday use of different ethnic groups of Assam and their artwork have been exhibited.
Guwahati is at its best in the early morning. During our four days stay I enjoyed the morning walks the most getting up at four in the morning when the sun had not really made up its mind about waking up. In this half-light, the Brahmaputra is glistening silver and changes to gold a little late when the sun begins to rise. Faint pink lines run across the water and the air is full of muted birdsong.
Each day I strolled in a different direction a bit off the main road and each day my walk took me farther than the previous day. While wandering in the quaint by-lanes, I never bothered about whether or not I would lose my way, which I did everyday and had t rely on milkmen to guide me back.
Whichever direction you travel in, the multitudinous greens of Assam will exhilarate and soothe you - the pale shades of the fields, the dark glossy green of frangipani and all hues of teak, bamboo coconut leaves and betel-nut trees and unfamiliar bushes and thickly clustered shrubs which press close to the road and railway track. Going for a walk becomes an sort of adventure with discoveries at every turn - a secluded village pond, used by the villagers to bathe in and inhabited by fish and a family of ducks, the dark cool compounds of mud and thatch houses, the textures of coconut matting and tiles and green light filtering through trees and shrubs, a milkman in a cricket cap cycling past…
The town planning conceived with an amount of artistry is discernible even as we see how the hillocks that surround Guwahati have been used to accommodate buildings while the lower part of the city is alive with business activity. But you will rarely find such buildings or houses on the roadside. What you are most likely to find is a neat little gate opening into a quaint cobbled path that runs into a garden and set in the heart of the garden, a house, asleep within ivy covered walls. Verandahs admit the light and living rooms sieve it through bay windows covered with light muslin cloth.
The market in the city bursts with a bounty of vegetables, fruits, flowers, coconuts, betel leaves, betel nuts and a hundred odd things that are needed by the housewives. There are more than a dozen varieties of leafy vegetables (saags) - many of which I had never seen before and when cooked, were a gourmet's delight. There is a small, seedless, tender variety of jackfruit which, when cooked, tastes like a non-vegetarian preparation.
Customers twirling the marvelous revolving cane hand-fans that old men make sitting on the pavements; bamboo poles balancing an amazing variety of cane-baskets carrying anything from dozens of eggs to traditional utensils, old women selling handwoven mekhla-chadars (Assamese women's costumes); tribal girls with earnings selling shawls - these are the sights in the market which you may not witness in every city.
The most loved drink of the city is the tender coconut water appropriately referred to a s nectar water because of its various therapeutic values. There is a special loveliness about the bunches of the greener than green coconuts hanging on the bicycles. The coconuts are very fresh and never even a day old. Here, they have a very special taste because they are grown on the banks of freshwater resources unlike. In Bombay, Calcutta, Madras of Puri where they are grown on salty land.
When in Guwahati, don't forget to savour its sweets and Assam thali, Chhena (cottage cheese) sweets especially spongy rasogolla, sandesh and kalakand have a delectable taste. There are also wide variety of sweets prepared from coconut to choose from. An Assam thali is a real treat. Perhaps, you will taste for the first time a chutney prepared form succulent pineapple and watery dal containing leaves of tart, bright-red strawberry shaped tengamara which give it a delicious tangy flavour. A dinner of Assam-thali will leave you with a taste that will haunt you for days to come. Non-vegetarians have an assortment of fish preparations to choose from.
We were so immersed in savoring the beauty and taste of the city that we were unaware of time passing and before we knew it our days wait was over and still several nearby places remained to be seen Saulkuchi, famous for the Assam silk industry, situated 32 kilometers form Guwahati; Hajo where religions "meet"; Daranga; Chandubi lake and many others. We flew back from Guwahati with promises to come again with some more time at our disposal.
GETTING THERE
Guwahati is well connected by air, rail and road.
By Air
There are regular air services from New Delhi and Calcutta - daily morning flights. From Delhi it is a journey of three-and-a-half-hours.
By Rail
There are rail connections with Delhi, Calcutta and Lucknow. Three trains daily from Delhi. It is a 36 hour journey.
By Road
Guwahati is 2160 kilometers form Delhi, 3104 kilometers form Bombay, 2688 kilometers from Madras and 595 kilometers form Darjeeling by metalled National Highway.
Local Transport
Organized conducted tours for local sightseeing within the city, excursions to nearby places of tourist interest, as well as tours to the famous National Park, Kaziranga and the Tiger Reserve and Wildlife Sanctuary of Manas. There is also a well-organized network of tourist omni buses, tourist taxis, Government tourist cars, a city bus service and travel/excursion agents.
Shopping
Famous Assamese silk - Muga, Pat and other handloom garments, shawls, intricately woven gamosas (towels) etc. Handicraft products of bamboo and cane, brassware and artifacts and curios.
Places To Visit
Local: Kamakhya, Navagraha, Umananda and Sukleshwar temple. Vasistha, State Museum, Institute of Historical and Antiquarian studies, Guwahati University.
Excursions: Chandrapur, Chandubi, Hajo and sualkuchi.
Courtesy : Discover India
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