Chasing the clouds

Chikoo was coping well with us being away for a couple of hours during our short trips, so we felt we could make a weekend trip to Shillong. Shillong is just over a 100 km from Guwahati, but it is a totally different place. Meghalaya did treat us to clouds and we were literally chasing them all through the trip. The clouds used to hug the car so much that we would be sure there is going to be atleast a sharp shower. But that did not happen. We could see semblence of rain in the far hills and we could also see the rains travelling quickly to cover one mountain top after another. It was literally a dance of the clouds and vast expanse of it wherever you can see.

Well, I am jumping the gun. We started off fairly early to beat the traffic. Guwahati- Shillong road is a national highway and it is being expanded to a four lane. There are stretches of beautifully laid smooth wide roads, where the car just zips past and there are pockets of intense construction activity that is dusty, noisy and bumpy. People are working in these places 24/7 just so that we can travel quickly in luxurious cars. Any development is heart rending if we scratch the surface of the fleeting comfort that it brings. Coal laden trucks were parked miles on end on the shillong-Guwahati side. We could see that the drivers and cleaners had made a makeshift kitchen and makeshift sleeping quarters. They should be waiting there for the 'weigh bridge' to clear them for not a few hours but a few days. It was very perplexing. I got the answer when I was able to look at Shillong times in the airport on the way back to chennai. The truckers were resorting to strike, as the 'weigh bridge' was taking days to clear them in the Meghalaya border. The argument on the govt side was that the trucks were terribly overloaded and did not have the necessary papers. We saw such serpentine queue on the way back from shillong. But this time they were smaller serpants!

The driver, who doubled up as our guide asked us about our night halt. We said we had booked a hotel in Shillong. He said this hotel is on the other end of the town and Shillong has heavy traffic jams, so we will skirt and go to Chirapunjee directly and come back to Shillong in time for night halt.
We went to Elephant falls on the outsirts of Shillong. It was beautifully  laid out picnic spot. The water falls at this time of the year was not very heavy,but was enough to make it not dangerous and pleasurable. We had to climb down quite a few steps to reach two waterfalls. It had the ideal location to wait and take photo shots. As it is the case with Meghalaya, tourist places were very neatly maintained.
We had a beautiful view of the entire Shillong city from a view point which is inside the Air Force Base. What a view it was. I never thought a remote hill city of Shillong could be so so large.Our driver was a diehard Assamese and remarked, but madam, guwahati is bigger than Shillong!

We were on our way to Chirapunjee. .Pristine country drive  and could believe how the Britishers who developed Shillong wanted to recreate Scotland there.Huge undulating mountains spreading to the left, right and ahead of us.. We could see coal mounds all along the route. But could not see any mining activity. It had us puzzled. Again the answer was in the Shillong times newsreport that I read. The govt has banned 'rat hole mining' of coal, and penalising them who were indulging in such activity.It talked of a casualty in one such mine. Perhaps what we saw were from such rat hole mining. It was the first time I heard this expression.Again, it was the first time we knew Meghalaya as a coal rich state. We thought it was Bihar and chattisgarh and Jharkhand and  a bit of Odisha.

Well, travel is educative.

We arrived at Chirapunjee by evening.