Oh Guwahati

Guwahati,Gauhati-junction to the north eastern part of india, the main city of the north east. This melting pot of people from everywhere and anywhere and mosquitoes. This is perspective from an outsider.

As far as the place and the people go, guwahati is as much indian as you see on TVs, internet. The sari wearing ladies, the typical indian “nashta”, the hindi speaking.

Life moves so fast. There is pandemonium and crazy everywhere but in a good way. There is the Rs. 5 chai wala and the Rs. 200 chai wala. There are Mercedes and Audis and Nanos. There are smokers(hell lot of em) and non-smokers. What i’m trying to say is, there are a wide variety of things and people.

You hear about all these racist attacks on the north east people in mainland india but its no different here being an outsider in their land. You get the slow response from the shopkeepers, the long stares as you walk by, the partiality to them by people supposed to be neutral.

But then you get the same curiosity by them towards us, trying to find the common ground to talk about, to go hangout, to make us feel at home in their land.

We tribals with our fair complexion, our wacky hairstyles, our funky dressing do intrigue them. Maybe? Being from a small town, guwahati is big. There are more people living within the city of guwahati than the populations of some states. We all read about how big indian population is and here you can literally experience the over population. Traffic is scary, more so when trying to cross the road. Traffic is never ending and its like no one wants to stop for another to go through. There is this mentality of me first no matter what.

And then comes the outsiders(the white skinned tribal north easterners) with their above  mentioned characteristics and their don’t care money attitude rotting in rents, PGs etc. Guwahati is in a way the common meeting point of people from all the eight states of north east. This is my impression of this people. We have the hard drinking naga and mizo, the chain smoker arunachali, the non social manipuri, the ‘haring’ ‘tsumar’ tripuri and yet to meet a sikkimese.

Whenever we see our kind of people, the thought is that maybe he is from the same place and you stare at each other and walk by without talking and thinking “hobo parea”. Something or the other is always happening here. maybe an ISL match or a concert by Anu Malik or an expo or a carnival. The list goes on and on but you get the gist.

Entertainment is in no short supply but money sent is, except for some few elites. Getting a ₹2 coin back is still surprising as you don’t even get a ₹5 change back at home. This attitude towards money and customer first policy is probably what makes them more developed than the rest.

Oh dear weather you suck but the mosquitoes are the worst!