Digitally Exploring the world

Written a bit late( thanks to tons of work) , but nevertheless!! Last month I headed for a break to the north eastern parts of our country and yeah this time it wasn't my usual solo backpacking trip, but one with my mum. The last trip I had done with her was to Sri Lanka in 2005. It was my first trip to Assam and Meghalaya , though for my mum it was her 3rd visit since my dad was posted in the NE more than a decade back.I was busy with studies/work and never made it to the NE. The first place I wanted to visit when the thought of NE struck me was Arunachal Pradesh but with my mum having high altitude sickness I decided to do Assam and Meghalaya only and leave the Arunachal bit for my solo travels. North East is still quite green but from the people who have been living there and from what I read , it's already lost 50% of the green cover in the last 20 years. Quite a few reasons behind it the main of course being human encroachment. I found random constructions happening aroun...

Guwahati: Armed with the map of assam and no fixed plans in mind, we spent the first few days at Guwahati. It was my mum's first unplanned backpacking kind of trip with me, where we had no fixed travel plans and travel meant using the local buses, which wasn't always the most comfortable!! We were invited over for special bihu meals (had some really yummy food and sweets) by my parent's friends. The stay at Guwahati took me back to the growing up years-small towns,well planned british colonies with red cottages and huge gardens,and surrounding hills.We were staying in the Railway guest house there!! The primary reason for spending a few days at Guwahati was to visit ' Parijat Acadamey " . Parijat Academy, is a school for children of families with low income, living in Pamohi and three adjoining tribal hamlets on the outskirts of Assam's capital Guwahati. My mum had come across an article in the Outlook Mag in 2006 and we had been only,helping out financially ...

Meghalaya in Sanskrit means ' Abode of the clouds' . We reached Shillong on a really cold and wintery evening . We went there in search of clouds (though it wasn't monsoon time!!) and was lucky enough to catch it cloudy and misty . The trip to Meghalaya was more of a relaxing one . We checked into the Army Guest House , lined with a couple of nice cottages and relaxed after a bit of tough backpacking trip across Assam. I don't know how it works out but this happened to me for the 2nd time (the last time it was watching the French Open Final between Nadal and Federer at Krabi on my backpacking trip across SEA, the first TV access in 3 weeks) that I got to watch some wonderful tennis matches while traveling , not having read the newspaper or had TV access for couple of weeks and suddenly switching on the TV and Volla the floodlights were on !! Watched the semis and finals where the underdogs Novak,Tsonga overcame Federer and Nadal and my favourite Novak eventually tak...