The Land of Lahe Lahe

Cyrus Dadachanji & Mohit Midha
21^st March, 2007

Today is a momentous day as a week has passed since we hit the road. Weve covered 2 countries and 2000 odd kilometres, which means a quarter of our journey is already over. Obviously time flies when you're having a good time.

Today we crossed over from picturesque Bhutan, where time seemingly stands still to the North Eastern Indian state of Assam. Not for nothing has Assam earned the sobriquet of the land of 'Lahe Lahe'. Put simply, things move slowly here. Whether it's the traffic or the speed at which people work. It's a gentle, lilting way of life that seems to be one with the cosmos. So, we were expecting a gentle, easy going drive into Guwahati, the capital city. The local administration had other ideas.

The transition from Bhutan to India was so smooth, that it did not even seem like a border crossing. All thanks to the cooperation between officials of the two nations and the tireless efforts of the CII team. In fact, people from this district cross over to Bhutan daily to work there and return back to India at night!

The moment we rolled on to Indian soil, we were led to a small reception by the Bodo Hill Council Committee. The local Bodo tribals have claimed this region for their own and established a separate territory called 'Boroland'. Each of us was welcomed with a scarf and treated to a display of local dances and folk music. The easy going movements of the dances were reminiscent of the ones we'd seen in Bhutan the previous night, making us wonder just how much difference there really is between SAARC nation communities. As one of the participants commented, "The landscape is Bangladeshi, people look Bhutanese, but we’re on Indian soil – that's a 3-in-1 experience!"

We were travelling with a local minister who took us on a small detour to see his village, before we plunged deeper into the heart of Assam. A few kilometres down the road, the tree cover became denser, resembling a sub- tropical forest. The radio crackled to life and we were informed that this was the Western border of Manas National Park, which extends from India to Nepal. This world heritage National Park is home to elephants, rhino and rare species of birds. As expected all eyes were on the road, in case we received a 'jumbo' welcome to Assam.

A little later we found ourselves on National Highway 37, headed for Guwahati. It was then that the sheer power of the Assamese administration slowly dawned upon us. There was not a single car coming towards us on the highway. A 200 kilometre stretch of highway had literally been cordoned off, to all us to zip to Guwahati in style. Not satisfied with that, they also barricaded highways passing through towns to prevent people from straying into our path.

We made the most of the open highway to reduce our travel time and yet greet our well wishers in style. Each time we reached a human corridor, alternate cars in the convoy would greet people on one side of the road. So car one would veer a little towards the left, while car two would greet people on the right. This seemed to work perfectly for the convoy and the well-wishers. Smart move.

We stopped for breakfast at Bongaigaon Refinery. A basketball court had been converted into a performance-cum – reception centre. We gorged ourselves on traditional Assamese snacks like 'Komol chawal' - rice with jaggery and curd and 'Pitha', a kind of crisp sweet sesame spring roll! The children of the local schools put a delightful dance performance and Priya and Doc Joshi joined in the merry making. One wonders how often these school girls actually have members of the audience dancing to their tune! I suddenly felt very nostalgic, as this is my third visit to Assam, a state I dearly love!

Back on the highway, we picked up the pace of our bonding too! Acting on a suggestion Ajay Khanna asked the Indian team members to give the rest of the rallyists a brief introduction. As member after member spoke, it emerged that we were truly in august company. Rally champions, editors, amateur bird watchers, high-flying hair dressers, writers, successful business persons, car testers and HAM enthusiasts and TV presenters - all of whom love cars!

Suddenly we realised that we had cheated Assam's easy going nature to arrive in Guwahati at lightning speed - by Assamese standards. The rest of the day was spent catching up on some much needed sleep, before proceeding to a cultural extravaganza at the cultural museum 'kalashetra'. A panorama of North Eastern culture unfolded before us as over a dozen dance troupes represented each state as well as various dance styles Assam. I was obviously in seventh heaven, and recalled another comment made in the morning – "My only mission in this rally is to break the ice and make as many friends as possible." Assam achieved that in record time - a single evening!

Back