(Dandi) March to Meghalaya
5 friends, 4 days, 3 places, 2 rooms, 1 car and an absolutely awesome trip.
The North-East has always been an exotic, almost-fantasy place to me. Untouched, rarely covered in mainstream media. Always somewhere I’d get to “someday”. It has eluded me for a very long time.
So when Ansh asked me whether I’d be interested in a boys’ trip over there, it was hard to say no. Anything for the plot. YOLO.
Despite my MTP work, PhD applications & the related anxiety, I jumped at the opportunity. The initial plan was to visit Sikkim, but since I had already been there, Ansh agreed to shift gears to Shillong & around.
I must say that it has become a tradition to travel to a new destination every 2nd October weekend (Ty Baapu!) with ma homies, Ansh, Sushil & Harshit. It was Alleppey last year.
The WA group was aptly called ‘Dandi March,’ alluding to Gandhi’s iconic walk.
And it is Meghalaya this year, with Rudra joining in as well. I love Rudra. Such a ball of joy, a smart, awesome junior who also happens to be amazing at badminton. What a guy (kya banda hai!).
Somehow, none of them are in touch with me through the entire year & suddenly, we catch up & divulge everything in the next 3–4 days.
All of us finalized Meghalaya in July. We decided on the itinerary & zeroed in on Shillong, Cherrapunji, Dawki & Guwahati.
But we stalled booking tickets till August and even longer in confirming our accommodation till September. Probably because everyone was busy with their own thing or something else. I’m still not sure why we delayed the bookings.
The group chat was pretty much dead until T-5, when the boys locked in, excited for the trip ahead.
Day 0 (29 Sep): 5 am flight
I was overloaded. An MTP presentation I’d finished only the day before, plus a lab for my public policy elective (PS 648, Data Visualization for Public Policy). Clothes washed and ironed, shoes cleaned butnothing packed.
Sushil was coming from Pune & landed at 5:40 am. Rudra joined me (from Goa) to depart from Mumbai. Harshit & Ansh came from Bengaluru. All 4 of us landed at around 8:00 am. My flight was at 5 am.
Not to forget, that night the IITB badminton team had a pre-camp dinner. It is an informal tradition to kickstart the pre-camp training for the Inter IIT Championship! From 6–9 pm, I had the public policy lab. 9–12 am, pre-camp dinner.
Here’s where it gets stupid. I had already started packing & my jeans were tucked away, so I ended up wearing shorts & Crocs to the restaurant. Upon arriving, they denied me entry due to the dress code. Somehow, Sai & I convinced the lady & her manager to let us in (where we exited after 10 min, coz the vibes were lowkey dead & the music was LOUD asf).
Anyway, I left the dinner party at 12:30 & by the time I started packing, Rudra had already landed at T2. I guess that’s the advantage of living in Powai, especially at night, the airport is 20 minutes away. Thanks to my overthinking, I finally finished packing by 2:30. Left at 2:45 & reached T1 at 3:15.
To you, it may seem like odd hours; it was another Wednesday for a nocturnal beast like me. Rawr.
T1 is pretty compact. It hardly takes a few minutes from check-in to the boarding gates. Small, petite. I love it.
Right after the security check, I found a lost soul wandering around the security area.
“Arre Rudra!”
We hugged & exchanged pleasantries. He looked slightly perplexed.
“Maine shayad meri hostel keys idhar chod di thi, trying to find it.”
“CISF help desk pe puch, unko pta hoga.”
Luckily, the helpdesk had his key & handed it over to him.
We sat for a few minutes before the boarding call. Since we had checked in separately, we were seated separately.
It was here that I got to know that Rudra had to take a slight detour from the trip, as he had an online interview scheduled the day we landed. His dad had booked a Novotel for him.
I slept through the entire flight. I do not recollect anything except for the magnificent gradient of the sunrise on the horizon. I’ve never seen any gradient as cool as that one. Fucking beautiful.
Sushil was already waiting, & Ansh & Harshit joined in shortly. Rudra had left for the hotel by then. We had the entire day to ourselves. Lessgooo!
Day 1 (30 Sep): “Who’s S*****?”
Ansh had booked a cab driver with an Innova Crysta via his contacts. Very resourceful guy who drinks at every opportunity.
Anywho, it was a lovely car, & Rantu bhaiya was the man behind the wheel, who called himself Romtu Datta due to his heavy Assamese accent. We had plenty of misunderstandings in our conversations with him during the entire trip. Interestingly, throughout the trip, wherever we stayed or ate, the establishment also provided for the driver’s meals & accommodation. Everywhere in Meghalaya.
He was from Jorhat & was a busy, busy driver during the on-season. His ‘maalik’ took care of him in the off-season.
While talking to him, I told “Dowki Nodi” in an accent
Ansh couldn’t stop laughing when I said this.
Anyway, back to the trip.
The reason you travel to new places is to experience new things and eat different food. Right? Yaar, the first place we stopped for breakfast was Sardar Dhaba. Guwahati mai hoke dosa aur aloo paratha pel rahe hai instead of having something local.
Ansh shared an interesting fact: the IND vs WI 2nd ODI was taking place at the Guwahati stadium that very day. Whatta coincidence!
But would I want to spend any time indoors, inside a stadium, for a match I wouldn’t have bothered about until it was told to me rn, or would I spend that time frolicking around the open pastures of Shillong?
It was obvious.
I’m not as much of a cricket fan as the other 4. More of an F1, badminton, football, and tennis fan. I usually become one during the WC or IPL.
It was a long route to Shillong, so I started playing some music on the car stereo. Anyway, we started filling each other in on our lives! (It was far, far from what I expected.)
Sushil kept repeating one name & kept bringing it back again & again in our conversations.
S***** studied in Guwahati. S***** did this, did that.
Something didn’t add up. Who’s this person I wasn't aware of that these guys know about? Am I missing something?
“Dawg, who’s this S*****?”
“Oh! I haven’t told you kya? S***** is my girlfriend.”
I went into denial. Not because Sushil had a gf (I mean, he is perfect bf material) but because I thought he was the one TRUE love of my life.
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They were 10–11 months strong.
How could you not inform your best friend about this?
Perhaps this trip was how he wanted to inform me.
Nonetheless, I was happy for my homeboy.
There are wild stories, and then there are Harshit’s stories. The things that happen with Harshit are wilder than your dark fantasy.
AI can never come up with the plot twists Harshit cooks up. One of the stories he told had to do with his low-hanging fruits and, let’s just say, the story was pretty swell.
Another story of his involved his flatmate. In this story, everyone was drunk. His flatmate got a girl home & a few hours later, the girl’s husband came to the flat in utter rage.
“You could either watch it happen or join & be part of it” — Elon Musk
Quite a scene.
A lake, a bad thali and an elephant that isn’t there
In the midst of all these intellectual talks, we reached the expansive Umiam Lake. The calmness of the lake, the green hills surrounding it, the forests around: it all looked very picturesque….but boy, the heat was killing us.
We quickly got on a boat ride on the lake. The cool breeze on the ride, quite frankly, was soothing.
We stopped for lunch at a roadside dhaba. We sat inside the tiny huts at the dhaba; the waiter was looking at the menu for the first time, like us. We ordered 2 non-veg Assamese thalis & Chinese items. The food wasn’t bad but wasn’t great either. But compared to all the food we had on the trip, this would definitely stay at the bottom. Even Prasidh Krishna wasn’t helping.
After the stop, we headed to Elephant Falls. Beautiful, clean place.
The Khasi name translates to “three-step waterfall”, because the water drops in three distinct tiers. The British renamed it after a rock near the falls that looked like an elephant’s head. The rock was destroyed in the 1897 earthquake, so the falls are now named after an elephant nobody can see.
We had serious doubts about our trekking capabilities when we panted, huffed & puffed on the steep 150–200 m staircase around the falls. Ansh bought a poncho. TIL (Today I learned) what’s a poncho bc
Sushil had taken a sleeping pill (Ambien?) & was sleeping throughout the car ride. While we were fucking around, Sushil had quietly gone inside the car & dozed off.
Police Bazaar, then into the dark
Rudra was done with his interview. The plan now was to meet up at Police Bazaar, huddle up & head straight to the resort at Tyrna, on the outskirts of Cherrapunji.
Police Bazaar was a bustling area. Shillong’s equivalent of Mall Road or Church Street. Big commercial spots, winding roads, people roaming around, lil shops at every nook & corner, old-school vibe! We saw an old single-screen cinema showcasing Khasi films. Similar to the likes of Maratha Mandir.
While roaming the winding bazaars selling everything from clothes, bras & silicone implants to electronics, we sat down at a mithai bhandar.
We spent a couple of hours over there, gulping down lassi, ladoos & lots of water. There were many niche shops selling Khasi fare.
Like any other group, we teased & flirted with each other.
After a long wait, Rudra finally arrived. We reunited & headed on our way to the resort in Tyrna.
One thing about Rudra is that he is a treasure trove of stories. On the dark, undulating, oft. scary roads, he spilled all the campus gossip, baddy team drama & senior-junior interactions, and kept us entertained.
The road leading to the resort was so remote, narrow & hilly that I had doubts. Forget the resort. Was there even a human settlement in Tyrna? How do these people live here? How do they travel? The network was wonky; how do they communicate?
Ansh, however, kept reassuring us that the resort would be good.
“Smoky Falls Valley Resort,” the signboard at the turn read.
FINALLY!!!
We had finally arrived!
We quickly settled into our rooms. After all the thulping & gulping, and also to be ready for the trek the next day, I chose to eat something light for dinner. Chicken sandwich & boiled veggies. The rest ate chicken curry & roti. The food was ready, as we had pre-ordered it.
Interestingly, the tap water was also their drinking water. Such a European thing; in India, it was unheard of. I didn’t find anything odd about it when I drank it, & also I was damn thirsty.
It was 10 pm already.
After dinner, we took a bath (separately) & changed into our nightwear (separately). Sushil excitedly asked me to host a quiz. Rudra was flexing his credentials as a member of the BITS Goa Quiz Club to Harshit.
So I straightaway hosted a Sports Quiz, a three-way competition between Sushil, Harshit & Rudra. It was very competitive, contrary to my expectations.
Ansh did all the heavy lifting of pre-ordering lunch, getting eggs & apples for breakfast & clearing all dues. He got his much-deserved shower while we quizzed. We discussed our plan for tomorrow & retired for the night.
One incident that I found funny at this point was that Sushil went to our room to talk and locked the door for a very long time, while Ansh & Rudra had slept in their room. I asked Harshit to ask Sushil to vacate the room so that we could sleep. I’m not sure what the relationship between Harshit & Sushil is. Harshit admires him & always wants to get in Sushil’s good books. He has already placed him up on a pedestal! Harshit is a damn genius, but he sometimes becomes a Sushil andhbhakt.
So when I asked him to politely ask Sushil to open the door, he hesitated! Lol.
Honestly, I don’t care if anyone else is present in the room if I call home. But Sushil is extremely conscious that way.
Not on my watch.
I asked him to open the door so that we could rightfully claim our beds to sleep. Sushil came out & apologized in his trademark style. I apologized to him for interrupting his lovey-dovey call, but fuck it, we were hella sleepy.
Since we were leaving the next day, immediately after the trek, I packed my bags & readied a backpack for the trek. I went around for a few minutes to enjoy & appreciate the surroundings.
I was inside a cloud.
My head in the clouds.
Literally. Cloud Nine, with nobody else in it.
Maybe this is what bliss feels like. Absolutely amazing feeling.
Coming up next, Day 2: The trek & how we BARELY survived it.
