Around Guwahati- Bihu and Brahmaputra

Guwahati the gateway of North East India and a city where I have spent many, many uncomfortable and few confortable nights @ Hotels, frens places and yeah at Bus stations and Rly stations.My first memory of Guwahati dates way back to 1987, that was the year when the whole family went on a vacation together to North Delhi. I was 6 yrs old and my elder sister 9, we went to Delhi via Guwahati and what I remember about Guwahati is....the dirty Rly Platform and the Bus station when we came back from Delhi. Guwahati was my transit city to travel to Delhi when I was studying in Delhi, the bumpy bus ride from Imphal to Guwahati followed by the torturous train journey till Delhi by NE Express or Brahmaputra...the train journeys were good when we travelled by Rajdhani...but that was rare. I have been to Guwahati with many sets of people...my sister, frens,dad, mom and many time all alone.

Guwahati as a city has lot more to offer then be just a transit city, like Kolkata which is my current transit city I have always wanted to see the real Guwahati,minus the bus stations and rly station. This happened on my way back from Shillong, me and "E" had planned a day stay at Guwahati...I called up frens to ask the "Must See" places in Guwahati and sadly they had no clue...I guess I will say the same if someone ask me abt Imphal..so I used my google searching skills and found out few places...the no.1 in list was a Boat Ride at Brahmaputra River and we were at Guwahati on a very good day, it was Bihu Celebration day and the whole city State was celebrating Bihu, a fren of mine "M" had suggested us to visit the Bihu Festival ground at the "Shantilata Ground". I had never seen live Bihu celebration and seeing it for the first time was awesome though I do not understand Assamese but it was fun watching people and listening to sweet assamese songs. Bihu is like the "ThabalChongba" for Meitei everyone was having a good time and I really enjoyed my first Live Bihu experience.

The leisure boat ride at Brahmaputra was really awesome...the only mood spoiler was the boat guy cheating us with 300 bucks.I could have just bargained (which I am very good at) and refused to pay more but then the boat guy looked very shaady and weird. We had an entire boat to ourself (one way) and went upto a Shiva Temple ghat....the best thing about the river ride was the sunset view from Brahmaputra...which I think is one of the best sunset I have seen till now. The mighty Brahmaputra river has much more to offer I am sure, me and "E" wanted to visit "Majuli" the river Island in Brahmaputra but it was far from Guwahati. After a long time..tt was nice to stay at a comfortable place and explore Guwahati as a "TOURIST" and not worry about about my next train or bus.

Soul Trip and Wanderlusting- Tripura & Meghalaya

We all need a change from our daily routine and wish that we could spend some time enjoying natures beauty. I always wanted to go to Shillong, having heard so much from so many people that I really felt that being from Northeast India and not visiting Shillong...I am missing out something. My trip to Shillong happened just by chance, a fren of mine"E" wanted to see Northeast and I was more than happy to find a person to go to Shillong.I made a 6 day trip covering Tripura, Meghalaya and Guwahati, I called my frens in Shillong and Guwahati taking suggestions on "Must see places", accomodation and local travel.

We started with Tripura and visited few villages in and around Agartala, clusters I am working currently. We also visited South Tripura and Neer Mahal...the Tajmahal of Tripura. I was visiting Neermahal after abt a year, last time I visited was with my younger sis....the best part about toursit places in Tripura is...its not crowded. The boat ride from the ghat to Neermahal was awesome and the breeze which flows through the whole palace....was so refreshing and a great respite from the heat and humid weather in Tripura. The Tripura trip ended with a visit to the Lakechoumuni market.

The next destination was Shillong, we went to Guwahati first from Agartala and hired a cab till Shillong. From Guwahati airport shared cabs are available @ Rs 400/- per person till Shillong, which worked very fine with us...the temp. @ Guwahati was slightly higher then Agartala but in less then an hr...we reached Meghalaya/Assam border and it started getting pleasent...it felt so good. I had asked my fren to book us at a decent hotel and she has booked us a@ "Hotel Broadway", it was located at a very prime area, Police Bazar. The food was good, price was reasonable, bathrooms were thankfully clean and I will recommend it to everyone travelling to Shillong. Next day we went on a Shillong City tour and I was really amazed with facilities offered by the MTTDC, guided city tour bus and most tourist places was well maintained, we visited Wards Lake, Elephant Fall, Shillong Peak, Barapani and other tourist destinations in and around Shillong. The best part about the trip was the annual dance festival of the Khasi's, we were lucky to be in Shillong on that day as it was an annual festival....me and "E" also went to the local markets..which was full of betal nuts.

Shillong I am sure has much more to offer then the places we visited on the organised city tour, the city is cleaner compared to many other cities in the country and weather of course is awesome...I think I should go to Shillong every summer.

While planning this trip I had read alot on Meghalaya and places to visit, we wanted to visit Mawysaram but Cheerapunjee was a more popular destination it seems. The way to Cheerapunjee from Shillong was breathtakingly beautiful...it reminded me so much of Switzerland...the waterfalls..the clouds..mountains...the clouds & fog were so heavy that it merged with the sky...it seemed the sky has extended till earth.... ohhhh...I can't find words to express the beauty of Cherrapunjee. Some of the really nice places we visited were Nongkalekai fall...Asia's 2nd highest and World's 4th highest water fall, it was breathtakingly beautiful. Cherrapunjee was full of water falls and each waterfall was different from another, I had never seen so many waterfalls in a day. Our trip to Cherrapunjee ended with a visit to Mawsmai Cave...I was super excited to go inside a cave for the first time....I learned to go through a real narrow passage...but I will not recommend anyone else to go inside the cave. The flash light inside the cave was not done properly and I could see wires all over the cave and since water continously drips into the cave from the mountain above. The chances of electrocution is very high, I was surprised how MTTDC or whoever is in charge of the maintaince of the cave can be so careless. The trip to Cherrapunjee ended with a nice lunch at "Nanglai Krysoi restaurant", it was a very crowded restaurant, but all thanks to the tourist guide "B"....she used her personal connections with the restaurant Manager, who happened to a betal nut chewing professional Khasi women to get our food on time.

I will sure visit Meghalaya again and next time I will stay at Cherrapunjee...it has so much to offer and a day trip is just not fair to Cherrapunjee.

Recipe: Pakora (Bora in Manipuri)

Yummy Veg Pakora's

Pakora happens to be one of my all my fav. Indian snacks,I like spring onion, cauliflower,potato, brinjal,pumpkin and banaflower pakora's.Pakora's are best to have when it rains with a large mug of hot black tea and you sitting in ur balcony... windows wide open and letting the wind blow some water droplets on you. Now the recipe.

Ingredients:
1.1 cup of Besan (chickpea flour or Bengal gram flour).
2.Depending on your fav. vegetable cut in small pieces. (If you are using potato make it either round slice but not too thick or cut in pieces double the thickness of french fries . Cauliflower can be cut into medium size flowerlets and spring onion into two piece, onions can be cut into rings or chopped into small pieces)
3.1/3 cup of Rice Flour (Optional)
4.2 pinch of Baking Powder and NOT BACKING SODA.
5.Turmeric powder.
6.1 tbsp of Amchur Powder (Dry mango powder (optional).
7. Salt to taste
8. Water
9. Vegetable oil.

Method:
1. Make a batter mixing water, besan, rice flour, salt, turmeric,baking soda and amchur powder. Ensure the batter is not too thick or too thin.
2. Leave it for 15/20 mins.
3. Add the vegetable and cover its well with the batter.
4. Heat oil in a thick non stick frying pan.
5. Drop the single piece of vegetable in the hot oil and fry till light golden brown.
6. To sock the excess oil, put all the cooked pakora on a paper towel/tissue paper.
7. Have the pakora's with spicy tomato sauce and a large mug of hot Assam tea.

....................................ENJOY...........................................

Recipe- Chicken and Mushroom curry

Ingredients:
4-6 Medium size chicken piece.
200 Gms Mushroom
3-4 Spring onion
Onion Paste (3 medium size onion)
Garlic Paste (2 spoon)
Tomato Puree(Half Cup)
Green Chillies (4 tbsp)
Turmeric
Beshan (Gramflour 3 tbsp)
Mustard Oil
Salt to Taste

Method:
- Marinate the chicken with turmeric powder,salt, garlic paste and mustard oil, keep it for 30 mins.
-Fry the chicken in 2 tbsp of oil and cook in low flame for about 30 mins. (Remember to cover the pan) once done keep it aside.
- On a non stick fry pan fry the chopped spring onion, garlic paste, chillies till the onion turns light brown.
-Add the sliced mushroom, tomato puree and cook for 10 mins in low flame and add the fried chicken.
-In another pan, roast the beshan till it turns light brown. Add two cups of water in the roasted bashen and add it in the chicken.
- Cook for another 15 mins and garnish with coriander leaves.

I created this dish last week and it turned out super yummy. I was really bored of eating fish and cooking chicken the same way I know. I tried this new recipe as my fren "A" had sent mushroom and spring onion from Delhi...for me its not necessity but the need to eat something different inspires me to invent and create new dishes.

Trip South-Mysore

I truely believe I am a true Nomad. Its not that I always plan my trips but it just happens to me, I travel for work, to meet friends, family, leisure, adventure and to keep myself sane.My trip to Mysore just happend I had not planned it as I always do but it was planned overnite, I have been to Mysore earlier on a educational tour of various places in Karnataka....that was about 6 yrs ago and this time it was pure leisure and nothing else. I visited the famous Mysore Palace and the Indian me world famous Brindavan Garden, which I feel is the most over hyped place in India...yaar kuch bhi nahi tha dekhne layak....I really think my neighborhood garden, Nehru Park is better maintained and much more beautiful compared to the "famous" brindvan garden...but it was so crowded that I couldn't believe it...Mysore palace was much better. It was grand, beautiful, well maintained and it sure is the pride of Mysore. I was told that taking pics. inside the palace was "Strictly Prohibited" but meh like a typical indian took pics. and banggg two mamu's from some corner came and took my camera....this time I had to use all the skills of saying sorry in many ways to get my camera back but I also paid 200 bucks...those two buggers must have had chicken tangri kabab for lunch.

These two pics. are the most expensive pics.that I have ever paid for any pics.till now... hahaha..the inside view of the Grand Mysore Palace...it was beautiful. The stain glass painting roof, the chandelier, amazing mosiac tiles, carving on the walls, the hand carved stunning wooden doors....wonders human mind and hands can create.

Stir Fried Veggies

My trip to Delhi is always full of food...shopping and some more food. This time it was more of food and less of shopping...but we did go to Sarojini market (how can I avoid a trip to Sarojini...its the ultimate shopper’s paradise).This time I was invited to my fren “A’s” aunt house and made some really good mixed veg. subzi and we went to my fav. restaurant in Delhi "Nanking" at Vasant Kunj, the food was awesome and as usual I ended up eating much more then I could have ate in a whole week.....we had this stir fried beans and that gave me some great idea abt making stir fried veggies at home, so I bought loads of green veggies which are normally not available in Agartala, like Brocolli, spring onions, button mushroom, corn and few other things like cheddar cheese, oyster sauce and yeah...chicken pickles. I made this really yummy stir fried veggies and gawd it was heaven….I was using oyster sauce for the first time…though I am not cooking often these days….all thanks to the March end blues...which has kept me so busy and also in this heat and humid weather, my kitchen becomes a room oven.

The stir fried veggies was simple to cook…it was 15 mins effort, healthy and really yummy. If only the ingredients were available here..I could have made this often.