The 2021 Global Dialogue Security Summit organised on November 24-25 by the independent thinking Global Dialogue Forum of the Global Dialogue Review, focused on ‘Managing Cyberspace in the Indo Pacific’ and was held at the impressive Convention Centre of Shillong, the state capital of Meghalaya. The Konrad Adenauer Stiftung foundation supported the event. My husband and I travelled to Shillong to participate in this conference.
This was my first visit to Shillong and I was excited long before the details had been worked out, for Shillong is home to the Cherry Blossom Festival in October-November.
Last year the Festival could not be held due to COVID-19. Thankfully, this year, the festival was inaugurated at Wards Lake, Shillong on November 25 by the Meghalaya Chief Minister, Conrad K. Sangma, along with the Ambassador of Japan to India. The main objective of the Cherry blossom festival is to promote music, art, and culture. Talented artists from across the state get to come together, while budding local musicians and artists can showcase their talents at the festival. During the festival, several contests are held including singing and dancing, fashion shows, local wine-making, among others. This year’s three-day festival was made special by the first edition of the Shillong Literary Festival.
The beautiful Ward’s Lake park, with its cherry blossom trees, looked festive at night with colourful paper lanterns strung across the park. The food stalls did good business as people came to enjoy the singing and dancing. The traffic jams in the area were a nightmare to navigate even late at night in traditionally sleepy Shillong!
I was curious to find out how the cherry blossoms came to Shillong. Until recently, one only knew of the cherry blossoms in Japan and Washington. Seema Rajpal reveals in her article in Edex Live that Shillong has to thank Odisha-born Professor Dinabandhu Sahoo, who as the Director of the Institute of Bioresources and Sustainable Development, brought cherry blossoms to Shillong. Having spotted a cherry blossom tree during a visit to Shillong, he took up the project that eventually had some 5000 cherry blossom trees planted around Ward's Lake. According to his plan, by 2022, up to 20,000 of these trees will be planted. Large parts of Shillong are already pink with the cherry blossoms that are visible even in the countryside outside Shillong. The planners hope that with the planting of additional trees, Shillong would become “the new Pink City”. Other Northeastern states are also working on developing such eco-tourism in their areas.
Just outside Shillong, on the road to Guwahati, is Umiam Lake (locally known as Dam sait). It is a reservoir in the hills 15 km north of Shillong. It was created by damming the Umiam River in the early 1960s. The principal catchment area of the lake and the dam is spread over 225 square km. The lake is a major tourist attraction and is a popular destination for water sports like kayaking, water cycling, scooting, and boating.
We stayed in the Heritage Club of the Tripura Castle hotel. Built in the early 1920’s by the then Maharaja of Tripura, the castle became the summer retreat for the Royal Family of the Manikya dynasty. The Heritage Club – Tripura Castle is the only heritage hotel in the region. It’s Maharaja Suites have ornate mahogany beds used by India’s first Nobel Laureate, Rabindranath Tagore during his long and close association with four generations of the Royal family. Apart from the ornate mahogany bed used by Gurudev Tagore, we also had the privilege of using his desk that he worked on during his stays at the castle. The suite had a framed picture of the then Maharaja with Tagore and a handwritten telegram in Tagore's hand. Tagore’s works “Rajarshi” and “Mukut'' are based on the Manikya dynasty. Though unlike the castles in Europe, Tripura castle has an old world charm, combined with efficient and friendly service and modern amenities.
While we could not visit all the attractions of Meghalaya, we did make a daylong trip to Dawki on the Bangladesh border to the spot where the Umngot river opens out into a lake with still and clear water. The boats moving in the lake look as if they are moving on a giant piece of glass. One can see the bottom of the lake in many places. It is amazing to see the reflection of the boat above the pebbles at the bottom of the lake as clearly as the oars rowing the boats, with interesting rock formations on the hill side beside the lake. The entire place is spotlessly clean despite the many tourists flocking the place. In fact, all the places that we visited were surprisingly clean and litter free. We were told by the driver of our hired car that the locals are fussy on that score. Anyone seen littering is immediately cautioned.
Dawki is 90 kms from Shillong and should normally take about 3 hours to reach. The exact time taken depends on the traffic. It took us a bit longer as currently the road is being expanded. In the not too distant future, Shillong to Dawki would be a four-lane highway!
7 kms from Dawki is the small picturesque village of Shnongpdeng, a lesser known and as yet unexplored nature's marvel, which offers camps, tents, homestays, and bamboo cottages to stay. Various adventure sports like snorkelling, scuba diving, cliff jumping, kayaking and swimming, attractive to tourists are available, including through adventure companies. Here too, the crystal clear water of the river makes the boats look like they are sailing on air! The serenity and calmness, with only the sound of the waterfalls and wind gushing through the mountains, provide an almost spiritual, meditative experience. The Dawki suspension bridge, constructed in 1932 is nearby for a fun-filled diversion.
On the way to Dawki, one can visit the environmentally-conscious Mawlynnong village reputed to be the cleanest village in Asia. Just about 3 km from the village is the famous root bridge made by local tribals using the roots of trees. The single-level living roots bridge is an incredible sight and a piece of human engineering of nature. It requires a decent level of fitness to visit as it involves about 10 minutes of a steep and rough climb down to the bridge and backs up again on return. The dreamy town of Cherrapunjee, renowned until recently as the place that received the highest rainfall in the world, with a number of waterfalls and caves around it are attractions that we hope to visit another time.
Reaching Shillong is best done through Guwahati. Though there is a weekly flight between Delhi and Shillong, Guwahati offers many more flight options. Shillong is less than 3 hours by road from the airport, with very nice and clean rest stops on the way. We had a delicious south Indian breakfast on the way back at a popular vegetarian restaurant. On our return journey, we stopped for the night at Guwahati and were able to obtain blessings at the renowned and ancient temple of Kamakhya Devi. Hearing the call of the Brahmaputra river, we took the opportunity for a boat ride to see the famed sunset over the river. A visit to the Kaziranga wildlife sanctuary, home to 2000 of the remaining 3000 great Indian one-horned rhinoceros remains pending on our list.
With all our years of travelling to different parts of the world as Indian diplomats, this little corner of India managed to fill us with joy and amazement.
