Wandering in search of experiences & wonders!

It is not every day you feel that today might be the day you die, but when you do, you want it to be memorable.

It was during the early stages of my trip to Meghalaya in North Eastern India, when someone mentioned the Double Decker Living Root Bridges. These living root bridges were built many years ago in villages across the state as a means to cross thundering mountain rivers. I was told it takes precision and hard work to guide the roots of rubber trees across the river to form a stable bridge, sometimes taking almost 50 years to build. It was inviting, it was far and required a lot of trekking, which including climbing down (and up) more than 2000 almost vertical concrete steps. But then is the path to heaven said to be easy?

Once you cross the steps it is easy, nature takes over and must I add that nature is more helpful, the mud is softer, the stones smooth and you forget the foot ache which started due to the hard concrete and cement of the steps. But all that is forgiven as you see the lush green forests so well protected, the gushing crystal clear rivers and the smiling and innocent people.

As you start feeling that you have reached your end, you see them, hidden behind houses in (far off) Nongriat village and protected by the villagers, lie the true example of what human and nature can do together. Sturdy, living and unique, these bridges makes man made metal suspension bridges look like a joke. You forget your pain, you forget that you felt as if you would die; you just gaze at the two bridges, one upon another in perfect harmony and think of how together, humans and nature, we can create miracles.

You realise how selfish human nature has become when compared to generations before us, how much we have started to depend on instant gratification. How much would have the village ancestors sacrificed, toiled to make sure that their children and future generations could cross the gushing rivers easily. With love they must have guided these roots, gently they must have whispered encouragement, lovingly they must have caressed them, longingly they must have seen the ground across that soon might be within reach; only 40 years they must have said and you would be mine.

With time memories might fade and I would forget the climb back, made so easy after what I had seen and experienced. Only pictures will remain, but I will am hopeful that they would remind of the day, that I cannot forget, when I was humbled by two root bridges!