WOMEN OF SUBSTANCE; THIS TIME FROM NAGALAND

This was 2020 and i was travelling in Nagaland helping the Nagaland livelihood Mission in mobilising and establishing their first women's federation. Met and interacted with many leaders who have shown exemplary courage. Sharing one such story as a vlog about a woman who has been exemplary in determination and courage. I hope you like this!

Tryst with Basar (Arunachal)

Basar has always been close to me as far as Arunachal is concerned. The people the landscape the Siang river...the Pangin hanging bridge evefything holds such nostalgia for me. This was the first place I visited and stayed in when came for the first time in Arunachal in 2015. These days I am helping around 1000 women in and around Basar to form their own Federation which would work on helping women in these villages in leading dignified lives. This years visit has me interacting with the women and understanding their perspectives and helping them learning ways and means to manage their own organisations and its business profitably.

The whole journey is covered in the vlogs attached. Also a word about the energetic professionals who are working with me to assist the women in their tryst. Jasminakoh, Mie, Jenia, Jarbom are all young intelligent and hardworking rural professionals  and experts in helping the women take charge of their lives and their own destinies. Enjoy the experiences..... 

Thanks for watching!!!

Dumbur Lake Trip in Tripura. ALMOST LIKE INDIA"S AMAZON

Another new Vlog this time on my Tripura visit and visit to the famous Dumbur Lake. Around 3 hours journey from Agartala the capital of the North Eastern state of Tripura is Dumbur lake is quite an amazing place. accompanied by Jui and Deepraj. Had the customary bon fire in the evening to cap it all. Have covered it all in the vlog so ENJOY!!!!

A new Development

Yikes it has been ages since I wrote. The last six years has kept me on my toes. Hectic North East happened and i have zipped through the last six years like anything. another good thing i have started vlogging...a little later but whats important is that I have begun.

Why?...well so many people so many places so many champions of life!... I cannot let them just go by me without creating memories. So here they are in my youtube channel ......  already 32 vlogs and counting....lets hope I keep counting them. The last six months have seen the subscribers go from single digits to more than 250.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDV-T_e78IMnzrxM_GFdLmg

The latest visit was to Mechuka or Menchuka Valley in Arunachal...and then theres Nagaland, Tripura, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand. Soon Andaman And N island to be added....cheers!

Chapter 2: In Charge!!!

Monsoon is almost on us in these parts and one can almost smell it. It has the power to give a strange sense of happiness and euphoria to even the most despondent of souls….but my case was different.

Standing on the ramparts of the old fort overlooking the upper lake I was thinking about the events which had unfolded in the last two and a half months. My accident, my loss of memory, my faster than normal healing and the strange sense of strength in my sinews every day while going for my early morning jogs. I had put on a lot of muscular weight in the last 15 days since I started my workouts which was not normal for me as I was always been the slim kinds.

It was just a fortnight and the number of pushups had already gone upto fifty and that too without much sweat and the 200 the abdominal crunches were ridiculously easy. IN a nutshell it was as if things were put on a fast track physically for me…….not that I was not enjoying it but I was surprised.

The memory has come back partially so I must add. I still cant remember the details of the accident which happened but I have stopped pondering over it now in my attempt to accept it. This time of the year when the first of the rains hit the city not many venture out to the fort because of the suddenness in the change of weather and the blustery winds of the first monsoons rains. Today was nothing different with not a soul around but I liked being here…strangely always me feel at home closer to nature. I could see the clouds building up and the rains approaching and it was common knowledge the rains are at their worst at this end of the fort overlooking the lake. Yet I stayed on almost wanting to taste the ferocity of nature all alone.

 The wind picked up…slowly started to blow lustily…… almost pushing me off balance as I tried to stand up and stretch out my arms to enjoy the whole scene with the lake below all sprawled out as magnificent mattress ready to embrace the droplets from heaven. It was then the first thundering struck……..and I shivered! This hadn’t happened before to me…..it was the normal lightning which I had seen so many times in the 25 years that I have lived and seen many rains and thunderstorms but yet it made me shiver…. in a very strange way.

No!……… I was not shivering out of fear it was as if the thundering reverberated inside of me alongwith the thundering of the heavens. At first I dint take notice…but by the third or the fourth peal of thunder I was pretty sure that this wasn’t normal.  I got up and the first reaction was to run and I ran…………ran as fast as I could for some shelter and away from the thundering. I found a lurch in an old cavern of the fort as the wind got even stronger and stood in its shelter ..still shivering with each thundering.

While peeping out of the shelter from the elements I could feel a strange itching sense in my finger tips. The itching went up everytime I shivered. It was as though the shivering ended in my fingertips. I didn’t think anything was wrong when during the last shiver I managed to catch a glipse of my finger tips. I didn’t believe what I saw……….I could see live sparking charge on all my five finger tips in both hands. “HELL! What now…..?” All that I could think and say was “O! shit! O! shit” …. Don’t even know how many times I must have repeated it.

IT was as though my fingers were sparking electricity…and the itching had gone down considerably……the sparking was just responding to the weather. “I have to get out of here before I go up in smoke!” was what came to my mind as I ran out of the fort to my Enfield, hid my still sparking fingers in my biking gloves. Thank goodness the machine responded to my first kick and away I went searching the safe confines of my house and my room where I could think this through or probably even ask………… to talk about it!

To be continued!