Soh-phie

             
                 30th March'09,it's early morning,still remember the road sign "Welcome to Meghalaya",the North-East of India welcoming me with its vast splendour and beauty.The hilly road is covered with greeny vegetations, rarely occupied by some people here and there.Some walking,some peeping from their huts,kids playing.I enjoy the drive with awe and wonder struck at the beauty of nature.

                           Our car passes through huge mountains on either side of the road,deep valleys,waterfalls,beautiful long bridges,tall trees.Stop in between for a few nature snaps and towards noon, we reach the beautiful city of Shillong,the capital of  Meghalaya.I can see the Army School,small roads,eateries,handicraft shops,houses and churches with lot of beautiful people.

                    We drive further to our destination,Cherapunjee which is said to recieve the highest amount of rainfall in the world.The city fades away beyond us leaving vast streches of the road with more vegetation on the sides with the going getting greener and greener.
We halt in a small remote village in between to pour some water to the radiator of our car and to strech our tiring bodies..Our driver reaches to a shop which is rather a home..I reach the inside which appears to be a mini tea shop.The ladies here are just gazing at us,my camera which i am holding ,giving beautiful smiles,feeling shy.How innocent they were!!! Just loved them..Had some hot chai..Took some snaps with them which I managed after coaxing them from their shyness though none of us understood each others language..They spoke some tribal language and I spoke Hindi...

Am off the roads again with our sweet sign language byes...

                   

In a few mins,its surrounded by mist ..Its just white all over!! And we can't dare to open the window's.We drive through it just with our head lights following the white patches in the centre of the road..Its deep valley on 1 side without any fencing...

With a few kms to cover,we vroom off to our spot.Its damn cold out here and foggy though surprisingly its not raining today..

                          For a few mins ,I stand still at a spot where I can hear a stream of water gushing downhill..I can't see anything coz of the zero visibilty factor here...

                                                                                There are a few small shops serving some traditional food where I have some rice,dal and bhaji and also boiled eggs...and small petty shops where tribal woman selling crafts and small berries..In one such shop, I find a tribal granny selling some peculiar different fruit which I haven't seen anywhere anytime in my lifetime..I enquire and here it is "Soh-phie",the name by which they call here..

I pack some of these exotic fruits to munch on my return journey..they were green and red and tasted tangy and above all,I luvd it....From here we went to a lot of other spots,saw lovely kids going to school in such a cold weather...did shopping in Shillong and a lot of other fun... 

Our return was a terrific daring drive coz of the heavy downpour of rains,darkness without any street lights on the roads,traffic,valleys.

I totally loved the trip and words fall short to express them...It was totally a marvellous experience of a lifetime.....My soul always longs to go here again!!!! n I hope that day is not long...