Some day, I will travel to the abode of the clouds ... Meghalaya

For a couple of minutes, I simply stared at the following photo, from The Hindu:

If you are like me (well, I feel sorry for you if that were the case!) then you already dreaming a vacation to this place, to get a feel for the people and their culture and the landscape and ...

It is, apparently, the time for winter harvest festivals in Western Meghalaya:

During the festival, the Garo — indigenous residents of the sub-tropical hills in Meghalaya, Assam, Tripura and Bangladesh — offer produce from the first harvest to Misi Saljong, the giver or the Sun God, in a ritual called Rugala. Nokmas or village chieftains lead troupes of male drummers and female dancers in a parade, accompanied by buffalo-horn trumpets and flutes.

Of course, I have drooled about this part of the world earlier too--three Novembers ago--and there I had included this photo, also from The Hindu:

Source

Thanks to my American citizenship, I will need an extra level of government clearance if I want to visit these areas in India!  Wikipedia reports that Protected Area Permits will not needed if I want to travel to Meghalaya, but will need one for Nagaland.

Well, at least not a concern for now!

A final note from The Hindu:

Alva Sangma, the editor of Achik Songbad, a Garo weekly, offered this reporter a lift from Tura. Alva, a former rally driver, drifts past the hairpin bends through the hills with terrifying ease. Rod Stewart keeps her company from the stereo. “Garos are confident drivers and musicians.

Maybe in December 2013, equipped with a whole lot of dramamine?  I have an inalienable right to dream, right? :)

Kashmir: the word's most dangerous place

Thus writes Pankaj Mishra, and notes that:

In one sense at least, the faltering dialogue between India and Pakistan resembles the ‘peace process’ in the Middle East: by the time any ways to proceed are agreed upon, usually with much acrimony, peace seems even further away.
Last week’s talks in Delhi most likely came about because of pressure from the United States. The Obama administration seems to have decided that it cannot do without Pakistani assistance in fighting the Taliban and al-Qaeda, and that Pakistan has its own strategic interests in Afghanistan. Pakistan has rewarded this overdue acknowledgment of its concerns by arresting senior Taliban leaders who have long been living in its territory. In return, the Obama administration has pressed India to be more conciliatory over Kashmir.

Thanks to honest analysis by a few like Mishra, the world outside (and perhaps within India, too) gets at least a little bit of an understanding of not only issues like Kashmir, but also about the state of democracy in India.  With every visit to India, I grow less confident about the treatment of minorities and the poor there.  Even as a kid I had always wanted to go India's northeast, particularly to Nagaland and Mizoram.  Now, with a foreign passport--and an American one--I understand I will even have to get official clearance before I can go there!

One of my criticisms about Thomas Friedman's "The World is Flat" presentation is that to the uninformed American it further presents an absolutely misleading portrayal of India.  It is no wonder then that American politicians are stupid enough to think of America having to compete against India.  Such a narrative misses the troubling aspects of India's socioeconomics, including the following that Mishra notes:

There are, as the political scientist Sunil Khilnani recently warned, grounds to fear the emergence in India of a “military-industrial complex”—especially while the Indian state, as Khilnani points out, is at war with its own people in Central India: the Mao-inspired guerillas who have organized India’s traditionally disadvantaged tribal communities and low-caste peasants into a militant movement spanning 20 of India’s 28 states.
The apparent failure of an ambitious counterinsurgency campaign called “Operation Green Hunt” has recently forced the Indian government to propose ceasefire talks with the “Maoists.” As politicians and columnists frequently point out, “they are our own people.”

Photo of the day .... India?

It might surprise non-Indians (well, maybe a few Indians too!) that this photo is of people in India

The note at the source:

Tribal girls perform a traditional dance during the Garo Wangala festival at Dimapur in Nagaland. 

Looks so colorful, compared to the dull and boring lives here!

A colleague grew up in Nagaland when her parents were stationed there.  No, this colleague is not an "Indian"--is an American now all the way from Wales!  She has been to parts of India that I have only read about.  Years ago, when there were immense internal problems in neighboring Mizoram as well, the husband of my late cousin-sister was posted there--he was a (medical) Major in the Indian army.  I suppose things have calmed down a lot over the years.  An old school friend spent a year in Sikkim, not far away from all these places.


So many places to visit.  So little time.  And no money.  Well, I will go there.  One of these days.  Before Cherrapunji completely dries out :-(