My World of Food and Travel

I have spent most of my life in Guwahati, and yet I never ventured towards Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary. I think we still had that nobody-can-come-close-to-Manas hangover and could not imagine any wildlife flourishing near such a busy city as Guwahati. “Pobitora is for city slickers who have never seen real wildlife,” we would scoff and offer Pobitora as a sight-seeing option to anyone who asked what was there to see in Guwahati. And so it continued, our feigned attitude towards Pobitora, till the time we became city slickers ourselves, a breed we had looked upon with contempt. You see, what goes around comes around. This time, when I went home to Guwahati in December 2013, I gulped down all my previous proclamations and made way for Pobitora with my parents on a cold, misty, pre-dawn morning. The changes in the city brought over a ponderous mood but thankfully, the gloomy clouds of my mind lifted with the appearance of the sun. A sumptuous hot breakfast in a resort just at the ent...

Where have the hills disappeared? This was my thought as I looked around me in disbelief, on our way to Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary. I knew Guwahati had changed. It had always been a congested city, given its importance among the 6 north-eastern states. A gateway to NE India, that’s how Guwahati is described. As I wiped down the misty car window glasses on a cold December morning, all I could see around me were looming apartment towers. The hills had been ‘cut down’. Or strangled by a burgeoning population that had taken over entire hill-sides. Who are these people? I winced as the car moved along, the dust and the fog intertwined. And then, just as despair was about to set in, there came into view this beautiful stretch of teak forest. I opened the windows and let the air in. And as if on cue, faint rays of sunlight streamed in through the canopy of trees. The world was alright, again.  The yellow fields of Punjab That’s what I was reminded of as I looked at the golde...

Yesss! For the next two hectic weeks, I shall be away from the maddening crowd in Bangalore and joining another motley crowd consisting of family and friends in Assam.  Here is what I expect: Food I want to have: -           Fresh vegetables (broccoli, peas, spinach, mustard greens, radish, knol-khol, mint and other stuff) from my parents’ kitchen garden in Guwahati -           Dad’s special duck roast -           Duck eggs -           Mom’s fish curry in curry leaves paste -           Father-in-law’s specialty of steamed colocasia leaves-mash -           Another of his specialty roasted small fish chutney -           Pigeon curry, if...