JOURNEY THAT NEVER ENDS - S Chakma

By Suman Chakma

In my heart [excitement], wondering where shall I undertake my next journey while packing my backpacks. It was that very day decided that I will have to go to hill station this time for a year or more, accompany by two of my close friends and colleagues; which I shall elaborate it in this later part.

On 30th October, it was confirmed that my next journey will be in hill stations at the foothills of the Himalayas. Any guess? It is at Sunder Nagar, a beautiful lakeside city in Mandi District of Himachal Pradesh, India.

Gradually, I chalk-out a travel plan and the route to my destination. You know, sometimes we forget our friends who then played an important role in our life as we are busy with our professional as well as daily affairs now. But, then we recall our old-buddies when we are to travel towards them as such is my experience. I booked local service car to the next available station from where I can avail all the routes towards my destination. Had to night-halt at Silchar, a town of Assam for some purposes then from there had travel to Guwahati, the gateway of northeast India and the only metropolitan city in the entire northeastern region where I will accompany my colleagues for the same expedition. In the midway I was accompanied by Monankur, one of my colleague from Shillong and another one Paulash joined us at Guwahati. Now, we are three; journey becomes more comfortable when we get accompany.

New Delhi - from Guwahati we had a flight in the morning on 25th November and reached New Delhi at around 2:45 pm. Then we joined our old family friends at New Delhi. It was so warming and comfortable as the peoples are. At night, as all have returned from their offices, we chitchatted whilst we were entertained by their adorable baby boy, Degim. At first he was at distant and ashamed of us but then being searched by him if we got games in our handsets, which is peculiar among the kids. Around 7:00 pm, we visited Paritosh Chakma's house where we discussed situation of Chakmas in Mizoram, CAB/NRC, Captain Lewin, Kalindi Rani, the queen.

He illustrated us that how Kalindi Rani had brought Captain Lewin to his knees without wielding a sword, solely by using her pen and papers and British courts. Captain Lewin, the Deputy Commissioner of CHT, was determined to crush the powers of the three hill chiefs but he was so frightened by Kalindi Rani that he started keeping a Buddha statue, gifted to him by Buddhist Mong Raja, in his bedroom and praying to Lord Buddha for his safety, despite being devout Christian (who wanted Christian missionaries to spread the gospel in the lands of the wild tribes). The British colonial administrators wanted to shackle the Chakmas with their rules but had to admit that "The Chakmas are too intelligent and civilized to be bound by such rules and the wild tribes … too barbarous and too nomad."

Next morning, we move on to Shimla, capital of Himachal Pradesh. Before we reached Shimla we have hot coffees and warmth ourselves at Solan, another hill station in Himachal. Then reached Shimla at around 5:00 pm where we found everything is chilling. Stationed there for two nights and visited nearby tourist attractions like The Ridge, Mall Road, Indra Gandhi statue, Christ Church and so on. Next day, we took a local cab towards our destination i.e. Sunder Nagar where we are to spend times until next journey.                                                                                                                                                                    Shimla - before reaching FRI & RC, Sunder Nagar whilst in journey, we were entertained and briefly explained about Himachal by our cab driver who spent more than 20 years in Shimla. 

Here only I came to know that The Great Kali, wrestler hails from the state Himachal Pradesh. The great Khali who hails from poor family from Sirmaur, around 300 kms from Shimla, the capital of Himachal, had to do odd jobs to make ends meet and comfort in such freezing hill stations because of his poor family conditions and oversize of his huge body, had his life prior to become WWE wrestler. It is one day when a Police officer from Punjab Police visited Shimla and found a fellow in distorted conditions protecting himself from chilling winter. The Police Officer then took Dalip Singh Rana aka Khali along with him and offer job in the department from where he became The Great Khali, pride of India. We had breakfast at Kalihatti [midway] at around 9:00 am. As the cab driver is very frank and talkative, he illustrated many stories one after the other. Then explained [continuation] which Bollywood movies were shot and which celebrity belongs to this region as these areas are filmy destinations too. He mentioned several scenes of Jaan, Badal etc. were shot in Sunder Nagar. Leading Bollywood Actress Kangana Ranaut is from Bhambla, a small town in Himachal Pradesh and so on.

In another story about 'Bhuddhi Diwali' or Dark Diwali is celebrated in the interiors of Himachal Pradesh, exactly after a month from celebrating Diwali Diwali’ as locals believe that the news of Lord Ram’s return to Ayodhya reached them late.

Bhuddhi Diwali celebrations begin on the darkest night of the lunar month, also known as “amavasya” and last for about a week. Generally the duration of celebration depends on the local mythologies of the various regions.

There was also a story about the customs of marrying a bride with 'all brothers of a family as grooms' to escape dowry system which is prevalent in some parts of Himachal Pradesh.