When Speculations Deceive You

 The Visitors Story

Naranarayan Setu over river Brahmaputra at Jogighopa

     
Speculation has never been a new thing to human character. Be it about a situation or a person, a stranger or a place and anything else. About three years or more I had to pick up some young people from Mumbai at Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport, Guwahati to my residence at Bongaigaon Refinery Township, Dhaligaon. On their way back to Mumbai they were routed to Guwahati, the state capital of Assam through NH37 on the south bank of mighty Brahmaputra. A trip via this rout offers  eye catching lush green landscapes of the places and small towns by NH37 with distant views of blue hills of Meghalaya. The travellers were mesmerized and astounded looking at the serene locations that they passed by. Their immediate reaction was "Oh one can easily take food on the road just by cleaning with a simple air blow through one's mouth". Appreciably the people living by this NH37, belong to various tribes like Bodos, Rabhas and Garos,  have  good civic sense.   One will not even see cow dung or animal droppings of anykind let alone human excreta. Contrary to this in many parts of Odisha, Northern and Southern India  people defecating by the roadsides is a common sight. 

 

During many tour across the length and breath of India by Bus and Train I had to battle with arguements during conversation with many co-passengers of other regions of my country regarding their misconception about Assam and North-East India at large and then convince them correcting their views about Assam and places in North-East India



A cultural rally

with facts and figures. But this time everything went wrong  and the only young lady confessed honestly who came with the vanity of being Mumbaian during the farewell session. She broke down on the point of separation, it was only a three nights affair, and burst into tears and said-" Aunty I was wrong.I could not even imagine that you, people of Assam, could be so beautifully loving, caring and above all kindhearted." Another guy said- " We knew that Assam is famous only for Tea and Rhinos and full of jungles. But there are lot more.

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(To be continued in next episode.)