The traveller at heart An aspiring travel journalist! I am the happiest when on the move so want to do that forever!!!!!!!!!

“A local encounter that changed my perspective”

The early morning wait at the bus stop. A spiritual man, applying a mix of sandalwood and vermilion on my forehead, the ‘tika’. Offering me ‘Prasad’, chanting away all the while. Getting the front (the best seats) all due to a 10 minute long conversation with a well connected individual! Students cycling to schools and farmers carrying the best cabbages and other vegetables. The Spartan looking houses, each with a pond .The quick meals. Leaving the plains and ascending the hilly terrain of North Eastern India.
A happy group of people preparing meat, covered in leaves right on the middle of the road. Drinking beer straight from the bottles. The sudden application of brakes at the curves, the screeching sounds and a speed that would shame even the motor sport lovers. The bus breaks down .An army post a couple of meters away. A little waterfall right behind the spot, where the bus lay. The light fading away with every passing minute.
Little kids giggling away and splashing water on each other, while I watch them pluck the local spinach”saag” to be sold in the market and for personal consumption .Learning the simple recipe. Speaking, playing, sharing mischievous laughs and smiles with them, I wander into the orchid sanctuary. The green moist ground, wooden branches and a riot of the endangered species of flowers I have ever seen. A light drizzle transporting me to another zone, and the eerie silence accompanying me.
I walk out to see my father looking for me .The bus is fixed. The fellow passengers “relieved” get in. We see in amazement the the bus that had left an hour ahead of us and whose help was being anticipated, during the breakdown arrive only now. Smiles all around some scared ones follow and we leave for our destination “Bhalukpong”.That night I slept with a lot of images of my country that I did not expect to witness. The breakdown turned out to be a ‘blessing in disguise’, at least for me!