Saturday, May 31, 2008

Snow, headline and hospital

It has been a long time since I last posted. Towards end Aprial, I took a well deserved break and visited the North East. We were a group of 5 people: friends and family. We took the flight to Assam from Kolkata airport. Thgen the trip took us from the Kajiranga forest (elephant safary) in Assam to the land of the rising Sun: Arunachal Pradesh and then to Meghalaya.
In Arunachal Pradesh we had a great time visiting Tawang, PTSO lake and Madhuri lake (named after Madhuri Dixit as a song from Koyla was shot there). After a long long time I saw snow in Tawang. Military camps mushroomed everywhere we went in Arunachal but the military comprised very nice and helpful people who guided us a lot on the places to visit.














Pics: Sela Pass, Arunachal Pradesh: 13700 feet
It is said that every place, every name ha a history. The above pics are of Sela pass, named after very brave lady, Sela, who showed great resistance to ward off Chinese soldiers during the Chinese insurgency in the 1960s. The Chinese had killed her in the end.
Her memory is still alive in the region.

Then we spent a couple of days in Nemari forest (Assam) trekking in the dense forest and rafting in the river. In the last leg of the journey, we went to visit Shillong and Cherrapunji (locally known as Sohra, the place getting the highest rainfall in the world).
The whole journey took 9 days and was a thoroughly enjoyable and a refreshing experience.

I needed the calm serene break as a tempest awaited me back home. Soon after returning my mother fell ill and had to be admitted in hospital. In an ordeal of around 2 weeks, my father and I spent nearly 2 weeks shuttling between office and the hospital.

But thankfully she's back home now and on the way to recovery.

In the mean time, our toastmasters club has really taken of. It has got officially chartered and we (the club) have been featured twice in the past month in 2 leading dailies in the city.
Here's a link to the last one which also quotes me:The Telegraph
We have also launched our own website: TM website

So I guess it's been a mixed bag over the last 2 months. I got to experience best and the worst of times. It is said that one finds true friends in most trying of times. That was certainly true in my case. One gets to separate the chaff from the wheat in these times.

Well , one learns every day.

No comments: