Visit to North East India: Tinsukia - Doomdooma

          Last time I was there in the north east part of India was 30 years ago. I stayed from 1986 to 1987 as my father was posted in Doomdooma a small town near Tinsukia, Assam. I vaguely remember the place, with lots of greenery and tea gardens around the colony we used to live. 

  I was thrilled when I had the opportunity to visit that place again to attend wedding of a dear friend in Tinsukia. Its a town about 40 km east of Dibrugarh Airport and 20 km from Doomdooma. I wished to see Gangtok and extended the trip to include a 3 day visit to Gangtok on the way back. Here was my plan.

• Delhi  to Dibrugarh 27th April, then onwards to Tisukia.
• Stay in Tinsukia from 27th to 1st 
• Day visit to Doomdooma 29th.
• Travel to Guwahati on 1st May by flight, stay over night at Rains Inn hotel. 
• Guwahati to Bagdogra on 2nd by flight and then by taxi to Gangtok. 
• Stay at Central Hotel Gangtok from 2nd to 4th.
• Flight from Bagdogra to Delhi on 5th afternoon.

The Flight
        I took Indigo flight 6E 571 from Delhi which was the only direct flight to Dibrugarh, taking 2 hrs 25 min. It was April 27 and the harsh summer had hit early with temperatures soaring to 40 c. Flight took off at 10:50 am and as soon as it was airborne, I saw Delhi below engulfed in a layer of dust & haze so common for Delhi's summers.  30 min into the flight I saw the river Ganges winding its way to the east, but what surprised me was the lack of water in it. Most of the country I saw below was dry. No wonder this time India was facing drought like situations in most of the states with Maharastra being the worst hit where summer had just started. It was two months to the Monsoon to arrive, if it arrived on time. 

 An hour and a half later the flight was crossing the narrow strip of land which connects India to its North East states. This strip is 30 Km across with Nepal & Bangladesh on either side.  As the plane took a turn to north into this narrow strip, there were heavy clouds below and the "fasten seat belt" sign was turned on by the pilot, not a patch of land could be seen.  Soon this was crossed and the plane turned to east again with the state of Sikkim now to my left. As I looked out of the window I had a breathtaking view. A layer of clouds below extended to the horizon and right there rising above the clouds were two magnificent peaks of the great Himalayas. The peaks stood out with blue background of the sky. One of them quite higher than the other was very majestic. The pilot announced that the peak now visible was Kanchenjunga, the 3rd highest mountain in the world, Wow. I immediately regretted keeping my camera in the overhead storage. It was about 100km from the path of the flight but was visible clearly above the clouds.

  As the flight started its descent to Dibrugarh, there was heavy turbulence due to the cloud cover. As the flight descended further and broke the cloud cover I saw the ground after about an hour. The sight which greeted me below first was a sea of water with small villages and roads in between. It was scary. Then I realized, this was the mighty Brahmaputra river. Recent heavy rains in this part of the country had caused the river & its tributaries to breach the banks and flood villages on either side extending the river easily over 10 km. Now I realized that the width of river shown in Google maps was right, it was actually very wide & if 5 cities like Dibrugarh be placed side by side, they would easily fit into the width of the river . As the plane made the approach to land, the river disappeared and lush green tea gardens went past. What a contrast to part of the country I came from.  It landed at 13:2o hrs. Dibrugarh airport was small and quickly I was out of the airport in a cab towards Tinsukia. 


In Tinsukia

   The first thing that struck me was the temperature, it was cool at 22 degrees C. To me a drop of nearly 18 degrees from Delhi. Next was the greenery, both sides of the road were tea gardens like a carpet as far as I could see.

Another interesting thing was the railway track from Dibrugarh town, was right beside the road and continued till Tinsukia.  The road was a single carriage way for both directions with no divider and some bad patches on the way. But the lush green views of tea gardens & the lovely weather made up for this to the parched eyes of mine. I was booked at Hotel Highway close to the New Tinsukia town railway station. The hotel was nice and comfortable and best one in the town.

    

Hotel Highway, Tinsukia.

          Pros:

          - Neat & Clean Rooms, Fairly Large room
          - Friendly Staff.
          - Nice dining area with tasty food.
          - Reasonable Rates.
          - Close to the Railway Station and a little away from the busy market. 

          Cons:
          - Limited breakfast options.
          - Hot water takes a while in the washroom. Keep it open for few minutes.

 Tinsukia Town was like any other Indian town, with congested roads. The wedding was in the house grounds itself and on the main highway in suburbs of the town. 

  

The railway track was between the house and the road,  It was interesting to cross the railway track to get into the house. And while coming out of the house, first had to look both ways to check that no train is on the way before attempting to cross. This was a typical view in this area. 

Higway on the left & house is on to the right.

Track was so close that as the train passed with the locomotive blasting its horn, I sure couldn't hear myself speak. But being a train lover myself, couldn't have enjoyed it more. Each time I heard a train coming would hurry to the main gate & watch as the train would bast past the house. The weather was beautiful, with intermittent rain every day. And when it rained in it poured, but surprisingly no water logging. The water disappears off the roads in minutes. These rains keep the temperature in check.

Doomdooma

          On 29th I took a taxi in the morning from the hotel for Doomdooma. The driver was there at on time. I had a quick breakfast and started at 9 am. The driver was a nice guy arranged by the hotel, probably was the owner himself. I called up my Father's colleague who so kindly agreed to show me around the colony.  Again the weather was heavenly and not to mention the tea gardens view all the way. The railway track kept company till reaching Doomdooma. 

 It took 30 min to reach the town. It had not changed much, only had more shops.  Surprisingly I could recollect the road and directions to the colony pretty well even though It was 1988 that I saw the last of Doomdooma. The driver knew the way to the colony and took me directly to the office where I was to meet my father's colleague.

    

    If Tinsukia was green, I don't know how to describe it here in the enclosed colony. The whole area was remarkably green with lots of trees, even the grass was thicker & was every where. Another striking thing was the absolute silence, just the insects and wind making the sound.  This is something no city grown person could imagine or experience, how soothing and relaxing such an atmosphere could be. To me it was like a therapy, such clean air, pollution was non existent. I took few deep breaths just to enjoy and felt extremely relaxed. 

 Shortly I was greeted by my father's colleague, who was extremely nice and kind. Had a delightful tea in the cafeteria. He took me in his car and first we visited the school I studied. It had been a small one but now it has 6 buildings. From there we went to the New Colony as it was called where we used to stay. It was through a narrow road and reached the turn into the colony in 5 min. It all came to me in an instant. I got down from the car and started walking instinctively to wards the house as I had done 30 years ago. Nothing had changed here as if the time had stood still and those 30 years did not exist. In 5 min I was at the house, currently occupied by some one from the office.  But it was exactly the same. There was the square ground surrounded by 6 houses and the road where I used to skate. It was very peaceful, the silence and the greenery was remarkable. I spend some time there, went to the tea gardens beside the house and walked around a bit. 

Got back to the taxi and returned  to Tinsukia very refreshed & nostalgic.

  The wedding went very well, with lot of guests visiting in the evening to wish the newly wed,  many ceremonies, and yes lots of food.  It rained in the middle of the wedding in the evening and this rain was quite different. It stated with a loud bang as lightning struck some where close and then came down in buckets making huge noise over the tarpaulin covered area. In 2 minutes, it intensified with the sound of rain doubling. I ventured to the end of the covered area and found that it was a hail storm. I picked up couple of ice pieces which were 2 to 3 cm in diameter. It suddenly became 5 to 6 degrees cooler. Fortunately it stopped in 20 min. 

I enjoyed my time there hope to return again some day.

On first afternoon 12:30 I started in a taxi to Dibrugarh airport to my next destination Gangtok.

Gangtok to be continued in Next blog..


Noida 
05-06-2016 Sunday 19:32hrs