Day 231 of Indiam places giving smiles – The simple remote village at Mucchat
In 2011 w
e had embarked on a rare trip on 4 jeeps to interior Arunachal Pradesh and slowly proceeded with our northwards drive into a still more remote corner of the state.. One of our jeeps developed a technical snag and we had to wait for the other vehicle. None of our mobile phones were working in these remote hills and it was very difficult to contact each other if one of the Tata Sumo got separated on the winding roads. We searched for our local hosts in the small town of Zimithang and were relieved when they came on bikes and we followed them to a tiny village called Mucchat.
Our group of 16 was again separated and we searched our way towards 4 different home stays. The combination of darkness, heavy rain, uneven terrain, unknown long paths, wet slippery mud, tiredness, hunger, travel fatigue, cold winds hit us all at once as we slowly inched our way towards our new homes for the night. As we shivered in the cold waiting for our hot dinner, we wondered at how we managed to stretch ourselves to survive the harshness of this primitive living. As my cousin wittily remarked- If Osama Bin laden had hidden here nobody would have found him! – We felt as if we were that far away from modern civilization!
A very hectic day was waiting for us from Mucchat to Neelia military outpost to Upper and lower Lumpa- Zimithang Gonpa and back to Mucchat.
At 4.30 a.m. wondered whether to get up, go alone in the darkness, walk down the steps, tread through a cabbage patch and finally visit the Indian styled toilet situated some distance away. I finally got the guts to actually do that. We were lucky. One of the other homes had a makeshift pit in the ground, covered with wooden planks all around and a flying plastic sheet instead of the toilet door!
I was surprised that there was no provision in the house for charging my camera battery. These natives have seen the benefits of electricity just a few months ago and still seemed happy with their non-electricity life.
I decided to enjoy my moments alone in these pristine natural environs. I took an hour long solo dawn walk up to the main road and back and wondered at the amount of physical exertion that is a routine part in the lives of these sturdy natives. The sprawling fields, the trees, the hills, the panoramic views…just needed a film hero to spring out of the bush and start singing together like a village scene from a typical Hindi movie!
We took a local guide to get permission to go past the Neelia military camp to our closest point next to the Indo-Chinese border. To the front of us, we could actually see the hill that separated Indian border from China. To the left of us we were just a few kms away from the border of Bhutan. If we were trying to watch the distant Chinese outpost with binoculars, they were probably also looking at us in the same way…an eerie feeling!
We then went to one of the remotest Indian village, the upper Lumpa. We visited a thousand year old Khinme Monastery and the old bearded monk there seemed to be of the same age! We interacted with the giggling school children at the local school; they probably don’t see such large groups of ‘crazy’ tourists like us. We were touched to see a young kid who instead of eating his lunch preferred to do his lessons with a 2 inch pencil! Education has to really become widespread to make a positive difference in the lives of these simple people!
We then visited lower Lumpa and the 600 year old house of our local guide- his prayer room with its ancient items, his hall with its stuffed animals, his waterwheel, his handsome looking ram and of course his decent looking toilet. In this cold weather, you don’t know how happy we feel when we discover the pleasure of a decent toilet!
Rolled all the 300+ wheels around the Gorsem Chorten Tatsang Gonpa. It has many ancient secrets and treasure buried within, which is opened up once every 12 years. It was a spiritually uplifting experience for me as I stared into the large loving mesmerizing eyes painted on it.
We ensured that we were back in our homes before darkness (to avoid the previous night’s experience of the treacherous walk from the main road to our homes). Our local host had 6 sisters, many nieces and nephews and his whole family turned up in their festive best to entertain us for the evening. In their traditional costume and jewelry they gave us a welcome song and dance show. It was fun trying to match our steps with theirs. I even got a chance to get them to sing and dance to one of our own Bollywood numbers. And felt like a giant queen when I three tiny ladies attempted to dress me up in their local costume and jewelry!
A hectic tiring evening, felt suddenly overwhelmed by the fatigue and cold and was glad to crawl into the comforts of my double blanket and retire for the day at 8.15 p.m.!
in the last morning at Muchat, I found myself wide awake since 3.30 a.m, and ventured out for few minutes to admire the beauty of the moonlit night and the millions of shining stars in the universe.
Was feeling physically sick with cold, cough, blocked nose, chest congestion, weakness, neck pain, no appetite, headache, etc. Throughout the trip different people in our group experienced different levels of physical discomfort and today it was my turn. Was fed up of being covered with layers of warm clothing of the hills and was waiting to get into the sunny and hot plains!
I said bye bye to Muchat with a heavy heart…I knew I would extremely lucky to get the pleasure of experiencing this simple life in a remote land.
So which indian place made you smile today?
Please share our experience of Indian places that make you smile!
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