May 22, 2011
Hello,
Last night was very interesting! We went for dinner to Hotel Nancy. There we met Mr. Dipen Das, a friend of Mr. Kri, the owner of the hotel.
Dipen is a young man just twenty two years of age, very energetic, enthusiastic, and articulate. Dipen, a Bengali, was born inTezu, studied and graduated from Assam, spent a very short time in Kolkata and came back to Tezu. He said that he and his friend Kri want to stay here and do something here which will be an example for others to follow. It is with this intention that they have started this Hotel and want to make a success of it. Nancy is the only place in Tezu which stays open late into the night past 23:00 hrs while all other establishments close at or before 19:00 hrs. It hurts him when his peers from his college say that what the hell that he is doing here in this small place among ‘junglees’. As a matter of fact, having spent as little a time as few days, I too felt a little sad when someone from Mumbai asked me to get ‘feathers to put in the dress for a victory dance’ from here (NE), though in jest. Dipen said that the people of NE know everything about what is happening all over India but the people of the rest of the country do not know what is happening in this part of the country and to their fellow countrymen here. The people here know about the most recent agitation in Delhi against corruption and the Jan Lokpal bill, they know about Anna Hazare and that he would be in Guwahati on 20thor 21st of May! The people here strongly support Anna Hazare Ji, as they call him. They are aware about what is happening in Maharashtra, the MNS agitation which took place some time ago, they know about the 2G spectrum scam and are concerned about corruption which has plagued the country and their own sate, they know about the happenings in Tamil Nadu, Jammu & Kashmir, they are concerned about the happenings at the centre! I could see the pain and passion in his eyes as were talking to him and asking questions.
He said the people of Arunachal are NOT JUNGLEES. Yes they are tribals, illiterate, poor but civilized and ‘educated’. He made that fine distinction between being educated and being literate. He asked us that say if a person has big degrees following his name but is unable to behave in a civilized manner, is unable to be caring and sympathetic towards his fellow beings, would you call him educated? Arunachal has over 26 tribes which have their own distinct and unadulterated way of living not diluted over the years. These tribes consider themselves and are Hindus. They worship Hindu gods and goddesses like Shiva and Vishnu. They are and feel INDIAN at heart and head. Even a villager can sing the Indian National Anthem. They speak Hindi if you speak to them in that language. During the recent ICC cricket world cup as India was moving towards the finals, people from as far places as Walong (almost the last village on the Sino-India border) bought fire crackers from Tezu and there were fireworks and celebrations the moment India won the World Cup just like in Mumbai, every one shouting, congratulating each other, playing drums and dancing on the streets! That’s how INDIAN these people are and have no attraction, allegiances to any other country.
I think it is time that the rest of the country woke up to this far away part of OUR OWN COUNTRY and the people here who are as INDIAN if not more as in any other state. It is time we dropped that fear psychosis about extremist activities here. There have been bomb blasts and riots in Mumbai or Delhi or in Gujarat, a Prime Minister can be killed in her own back yard, a city like Mumbai can be attacked by extremists from foreign land then how different is it or shall we say more or less safe so to say than here? Yes it is far away from the western coast, yes it could cost you a little more to reach this place but don’t people take foreign sojourns and spend a lot of money?!
To summarize, Arunachal, a young state, god’s own country, a beautiful place with extreme infrastructure deficit, horrible roads, hot and humid in the lower regions but absolutely cool and pleasant in the higher reaches at this time of the year, with beautiful locations strewn all over the state waiting to be developed in to lovely hill stations, quite, virgin, serene!, very thinly populated, with friendly and warm people once they know you. I feel that if the economy of an entire country like Thailand can survive and bloom only on tourism then Arunachal too can be developed in to a Tourism destination and the economy of this state too can boom and contribute to the growth of our country. Arunachal has tremendous untapped hydro power potential which can not only help the economy of the state grow but also contribute in alleviating the power crises in the country.
I think the media as a whole has a big role to play in bringing this far-flung part of our country in to the main stream. Work has slowly begun in terms of improving and expanding the infrastructure, basically the roads but it is too little and too slow. We were told that work on four lane highway has begun which will connect places like Walong, Tezu, Annini and Itanagar. So shall we say Arunachal is work in progress?!
By the time we took leave of Dipen and few other local people who were participating in the dialog and left Hotel Nancy it was past midnight.
I did not sleep well last night. I managed to a few winks early in the morning and woke up late. We left the circuit house at Tezu at about 10:45 hrs. Today was a complete dud. We moved towards Roing. To go to Roing we had to first enter Assam and then once again enter Arunachal. The road was simply HORRIBLE or there was NO ROAD AT ALL. We were trying to find a road among huge potholes. Our progress was very slow. I think I took over three hours to cover a distance of 40 / 50 kms. At the border we were told that the road between Roing and Pasighat, which was our destination for the day, was closed and that we should go to Passighat via Amarghat. So we turned from there and proceeded towards Amarghaat on horrible road. Suddenly we came across a stream and the road was passing through it. I was unable to figure out as to how to cross this stream since it was not possible to assess the depth or the soil conditions at the bottom of the stream. There was a risk of getting stuck in mud in the middle of the stream. A motorcycle came from the other side. When we made enquiry about crossing the stream and the road to Amarghat they said that we would have to cross the river at least two times and the ferry would not be able to take a big vehicle like ours across. Now we had a situation here. After giving a thought we decided that we would return to the junction at Chapakowa, stay overnight here and follow another route tomorrow.
We came to the circuit house and checked in. We now decided to cross the river at another point where the ferry could carry our SUV across then go to Tinsukia and then to Dibrugarh, again cross the river in a ferry on to the northern bank and try and reach Itanagar by tomorrow night.
To do the above route we will have to leave early tomorrow. So going to bed now!
See you tomorrow at the same place!
Cheers!
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