India is globally known for its demographic, cultural, historical and geographical diversity. Surprisingly, the history of Northeast India is not part of this diversity in school textbooks of the mainstream India. The northeast Indian states – Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya and Sikkim – are more popular as tourist destinations than historical parts of India as a whole. Evidently, a majority of Indians in the mainland are ignorant about the history and cultural heritage of Northeast India.

A 12-year-old Assamese girl did what activists and educationists from Northeast India could not do to draw a nationwide attention to the lack of inclusiveness in the current education system with regard to the history of Northeast India. Aaira Goswami from Assam wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and requested him to incorporate some lessons on the history of her state as well as other northeast Indian states into the school textbooks on Indian history.

Aaira Goswami from Assam is currently studying in Jaipur, the Pink City. Struck by the lack of diversity in her school textbooks and lessons on Indian history, she felt a strong urge to bring this issue to the notice of none other than Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The following excerpt from her letter to PM Modi is a testimony to what young Indians like she from the northeastern region of the country feel in the mainland.

“…I know the history of almost whole of India; from Jammu & Kashmir to Tamil Nadu, from the Mughals to the British, from Rajasthan to Kolkata. But where is the long glory of the seven sisters? Some students don’t even know what the seven sisters are. It’s very difficult to find things about Northeast India in my school textbooks. If I could just read about the history of my state, Assam, and other states in the northeast in the schoolbooks, it would be like a dream come true.…”

Aaira Goswami also wrote unhesitatingly in her letter to PM Modi that history was her favorite subject unlike other students of her age. Yet she knew a very little about the history of her native state and Northeast India as a whole. She read a lot about the Mauryans, the Guptas, the Mughals, and the British in her school textbooks, but the same books of history taught her nothing about the Ahoms and the Borphukons who defeated the Mughals seventeen times and ruled Assam for six centuries.

12-year-old Aaira Goswami addressed herself as a little Indian citizen in her letter to PM Modi. She concluded the letter with an earnest plea to have the glorious history of Northeast India included in school textbooks, and with a hope to hear from the Prime Minister.

We at Travel Beats, a portal for Indian Diaspora by Indian Eagle, are sanguine that her eloquent letter and sincere request cut an ice with the Ministry of India so that Indian history could be taught as a whole, not in part.

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The Ministry of Indian Railways is up with good news for wildlife lovers and wildlife photographers. A passage for train travel to the rich wildlife of Northeast India has been proposed. Rajen Gohain, the Minister of State for Railways from Assam, has proposed a train for wildlife enthusiasts to explore the Kaziranga National Park, a UNESCO World heritage site in Northeast India.

Named Kaziranga Express, the proposed tourist train would run from Delhi to the Kaziranga National Park in Assam, if it gets approval from Indian Railways. The new wildlife train would operate on the lines of the Tiger Express, a semi luxury tourist train. Launched in June this year to explore the wildlife of Central India, the Tiger Express runs from Delhi to Bandhavgarh and Kanha national parks in Madhya Pradesh.

One of the best wildlife sanctuaries in India, the Kaziranga National Park is home to the world’s largest numbers of single-horned rhinoceroses and wild water buffaloes. Located in the eastern Himalaya biodiversity belt, the sanctuary also houses wild boar, eastern swamp deer, elephants, gaur, leopard cat, Bengal fox, Golden jackal, Chinese pangolin, golden languor, flying squirrel, Ganges dolphin, Assamese macaque and other animals.

The Kaziranga Express may also connect to other popular tourist places in Assam like the Kamakhya Temple, the Manas National Park and tea gardens. A road trip to Shillong may be added to the itinerary, which is yet to be finalized. A journey by the Kaziranga Express from Delhi to Assam would be a complete package including onboard food, hotel accommodation, local transport, jungle safari and other facilities. Different packages for different budgets are being designed.

To be modeled on the Tiger Express, the upcoming wildlife tourist train will have an AC dining car and semi-luxury coaches. Both Indian Railways and the Assam Tourist Development Corporation (ATDC) are working on a sustainable model to keep the train running without making financial losses in times of poor occupancy.

The Kaziranga Express is part of the national agenda to connect the isolated hilly region of northeastern states with the mainland of India through a sustainable rail network which is supposed to be completed by 2020.

The proposed Kaziranga Express would cover more than 2,000km between Delhi and Assam’s Kaziranga wildlife sanctuary. The final report on the proposal is expected by the end of October 2016.

Travel Beats is a digital news magazine for Indian Diaspora by IndianEagle, a US-based leading travel organization. Subscribe to Travel Beats’ free newsletter for latest news, stories, features and interviews.

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Prince William and Kate Middleton’s upcoming trip to India in April seems to dig out the skeletons of the past in connection with Princess Diana’s solo trip to the Taj Mahal in Agra in 1992, which had added fuel to the fire in her crumbling marriage with Prince Charles.

The picture of Princess Diana sitting alone on the bench at the Taj Mahal is one of the iconic moments in the history of India’s most popular and top-earning monument in Agra. But it became the image of a lonely and depressed princess, which the global media used as a fodder to feed their stories about the fall of Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s marriage. On being asked how she felt being alone at the Taj Mahal which stands for eternal love, Princess Diana made her first public statement, “It was a healing experience…very healing,” hinting at her troubled marriage.

However, the bench at the Taj Mahal became an ideal spot for posing in front of camera and many foreign tourists have got themselves photographed on the bench with the monument of love in the background since then. Now Prince William along with Kate Middleton will visit the Taj Mahal to live the “Princess Diana moment” for a while in honor of the memory of his mother. “He feels incredibly lucky to visit a place where his mother’s memory is kept alive by so many who travel there,” said Jason Knauf, the communication secretary of Cambridge.

Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip traveled to India and visited the Taj Mahal in 1961 – IndianEagle

Prince William and Kate Middleton’s itinerary of India includes a visit to Mumbai’s Taj Palace Hotel besides a tribute to Princess Diana at the Taj Mahal. The royal couple from England will offer a wreath in memory of the victims of the 26/11 terrorist attack in Mumbai during their visit to the Taj Palace Hotel where they are supposed to meet members of the staff who risked their lives to protect guests during the 2008 attack.

The Duke and the Duchess will attend a charity cricket match of young slum children at Oval Maidan, a large public park in Mumbai City and meet the representatives of three charitable organizations: Magic Bus, Doorstep and India’s Childline. It will be followed by a brief meeting with the representatives of SMILE, a charity that helps young people be employable by imparting skill-developing training to them. In the evening of April 10, the royal couple will attend a glittering dinner held by the film industry of Mumbai.

April 11, the second day of Prince William and Kate Middleton’s itinerary of India will see them at the India Gate in New Delhi where they will offer a wreath in honor of the Indian soldiers. Then they will visit Gandhi Smriti, a museum dedicated to Mahatma Gandhi, and take a walk through the last 144 days of Gandhi’s life from his bedroom to the spot of his assassination in the garden.

In the evening, the royal guest duo will grace a birthday party for Queen Elizabeth II with their presence at the residence of the British High Commissioner in New Delhi. Prince William will deliver a speech in honor of his grandmother to the invitees including VIPs from different walks of life. The next day they will attend a conference with NGOs in and around Delhi in the morning before they fly to Assam in northeast India.

On April 12, the couple will visit the Kaziranga National Park in Assam. One of the UNESCO World Heritage sites in India, Kaziranga National Park is famous for one-horned rhinoceroses. The third day of Prince William and Kate Middleton’s itinerary of India coincides with the celebration of the Assamese New Year called Bohag Bihu, one of the most popular northeast Indian festivals. The guests will be treated to spectacular music and dance performances celebrating the folk culture of Assam on this occasion.

On April 13, the Duke and the Duchess will take an open-air drive around the Kaziranga National Park and visit the Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation where Prince William will speak about the scenario of rhino poaching in India. Their itinerary in Assam also includes a visit to the Kaziranga Discovery Centre build by Elephant Family that Mark Shand, late brother of the Duchess of Cornwall, had founded.

A meeting with a group of young filmmakers from Green Hub, an Assam-based local organization that imparts lessons on the art of filmmaking, will mark the end of Prince William and Kate Middleton’s itinerary of India from April 10 to April 13. On April 14, they will catch a flight to Thimphu, the capital of Bhutan in Southeast Asia.

The royal couple of England will visit the Taj Mahal in Agra on return to India from Bhutan on April 16.

Travel Beats is a digital portal by IndianEagle for Indians and Indian Diaspora. IndianEagle, a leading US-India travel organization, publishes interesting stories and news about travel, culture, events, festivals and entertainment from India and USA.

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Northeast India is full of offbeat attractions and incredible wonders, most of which are unseen, unknown, and unexplored till date. This mystic part of India spans from Darjeeling in North Bengal to the Indo-Tibet, Indo-China, and Indo-Burma borders through geographically diverse forested landscapes penetrated by rivers and streams in hilly terrains and green valleys. Many are flattered by illusions of making trips to Northeast India, but a few dare to drive or travel all the precarious way. One such road trip to Northeast India by Jatin Kapoor and Karan Jung at Alternate Atlas makes a fulfilling story for aspiring road trippers and adventure enthusiasts at Travel Beats.

We started our road trip to Northeast India from Siliguri in West Bengal with cups of Darjeeling and Lopchu tea adding to our gusto for the adventure ahead. Our first stopover was Darjeeling where we spent a night in a planter’s bungalow. Tea plantation is the backbone of economy in North Bengal and most of Northeast India as it seemed from a huge number of men and women working in sprawling tea gardens there. Corporates like Tata own some of the tea estates in Darjeeling and Assam. We caught an eyeful of the lush green landscape dotted with tea plantations across highs and lows of the valleys where pluckers (most of whom are women) work meditatively like the Solitary Reaper in a poem of the same name by William Wordsworth.

We drove the car from Darjeeling to Shillong, one of the best road trips in India. The beauty of nature in different concrete forms on both sides of the winding road overpowered our senses. Known as the Scotland of the East, Shillong is the capital of Meghalaya. It is a springboard of entertainment and a hotbed of activities through the atmosphere feels laidback there. [pullquote]Located in the Khasi Hills of Meghalaya, Mawlynnong Village is also known as ‘God’s own garden’. For its unmatched cleanliness, the village is featured among the Inspirational Stories of Rural India.[/pullquote] We explored caves, visited Mawlynnong (the cleanest village in Asia), and trekked a little. Cherrapunji where the highest rainfall occurs in the world welcomed us too. What is the most surprising about the villages of Meghalaya is the way the living roots of trees form natural bridges. Such bridges last for centuries. We took a walk across one such bridge and had a nice time over great food at the night bazaar in Shillong.

Meghalaya’s living root bridges are among the most offbeat attractions in India. Huge thick roots naturally get intermingled to form bridges which are so strong that around fifty people can walk on them at a time. Such natural wonders are common sights to behold across the banks of streams in Meghalaya. The Living Root Bridge in Cherrapunji is a UNESCO heritage site. – Indian Eagle

Then, we drove from Meghalaya to Nagaland, the land of head hunters. It is a customary practice for the people of the Naga tribe to severe the heads of their enemies and put them as trophies on display in their homes. Even such trophies are preserved and exhibited in Nagaland’s State Museum. Hornbill Festival of Nagaland is a major festival when all the 16 tribes of the state get together to celebrate their unity. Hornbill Festival was the main reason that this road trip to Northeast India was planned.

We were overwhelmed with warm welcome in Kohima, the capital of Nagaland. A group of natives took care of our needs, served us with platefuls of mouth-watering dishes from their local cuisine, and treated us to the best of hospitality. The locals are decent, humble and warm. The influence of mother figures in the society of Northeast India did not elude our attention. Little did we know that the Second World War actually concluded on the soil of Kohima. The corpses of hundreds of American, English and Indian soldiers lay buried at DC’s Tennis Court.

The next destination was Assam where we stopped by the Kaziranga National Park, a UNESCO World heritage site. Watching one-horned rhinoceroses and wild elephants was as exciting as walking on the Living Root Bridge. Inside the park, we took a boat ride on the Brahmaputra River and caught glimpses of the Gangetic dolphins. On the way back from the park, we came across a few local boys playing soccer. We went into a game with them and lost miserably only to realize that Northeast India has the best soccer talent in the country.

Our untamable lust for road tripping took us to Pangsau Pass at a height of 3727 feet on the India-Burma border. It is close to the famous Still Will Road built during the Second World War. This could connect with the much talked about road from India to Thailand. Carpet making is a means of sustenance for the natives of this seemingly uninhabited place. They weave beautiful carpets out of the raw materials imported from New Zealand through their awesome craftsmanship.

Named after a Burmese village, Pangsau Pass was the route that led to the invasion of Assam by the Ahoms, a Shan tribe, in the 13^th century. It was nicknamed “Hell Pass” during the Second World War as its fierce gradients formed a mammoth obstacle for the American soldiers on their way to China. The Pangsau Pass Winter Festival is a famous event in Nampong, Arunachal Pradesh. – Indian Eagle     

Debang Wildlife Sanctuary in Arunachal Pradesh was the next episode of adventure during our road trip to Northeast India. Also known as the Nampada National Park, the sanctuary is home to tigers, leopards, snow leopards and clouded leopards. The only way to explore the park is on foot. Trekking is full of blood-chilling thrills in the park. Generally, tour guides carry weapons for protection from animals. An expanse of dense forests with marshy land on the river bed creates a supernatural environment. Dr. Salim Ali, a most reputed ornithologist, described Debang Wildlife Sanctuary as the most beautiful national park sans the human intervention.

There are many things to see and do in Darjeeling, Shillong, Kohima and Khonsa. The unseen and unexplored part of this road trip will surely get us back on another drive.

Indian Eagle, a leading international travel agency booking the best USA to India flights at the lowest airfare, brings this exclusive road tripping story with inputs from Jatin Kapoor and Karan Jung.

About the Contributors 

Jatin Kapoor and Karana Jung are young road trippers & dynamic travel professionals at Alternate Atlas. They are on a mission to help travelers explore the natural and cultural uniqueness of India. At Alternate Atlas, they organize village walks, road trips, birding trips, jungle safaris, home stays, and trips to offbeat destinations across India.

Are you a traveler or travel photographer? We would like to share your travel story and experience with our readers. Pitch to us at share@indianeagle.com and get published.  

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Are you flying to India this monsoon? Monsoon is the best time to visit India for foodies. If you are a foodie, get ready to be treated with monsoon special culinary delights in different parts of India. Indians are foodies with sweet tooth for snacky delicacies which intensify the joy of monsoons. The Indian monsoon food culture is rich and varied. Every state and every city offers a different taste of Indian monsoon food. However, sips of hot tea and bites of snacks make monsoon travel to India a culinary affairs for foodies. Don’t give a miss to the best bites of monsoon food in India!

North India – Samosas and Pakoras with Chai

In North India, some snacks with cups of tea are a must have as a light meal every now and then. North Indians are famous for their sweet tooth for samosas and pakoras (fried items stuffed with spiced potato mush). Tea of different flavors like masala tea or ginger tea (Adrak wali chai) is a regular intake in mornings and evenings during monsoons. Ginger tea has health benefits. The taste of samosas or pakoras is best complemented with pudine ki chuttney.

Bengal – Alu Chop and Eggroll

Bengalis love to be called foodies. The items in the typical Bengali menu vary from season to season. Fish Curries, Mishti Doi, Sondesh and Rosogolla are the mainstay of food culture in Bengal. What is the culinary offer of this Indian state during monsoons? Alu chops (a fried item stuffed with smashed potato) and eggrolls, a kind of spring roll. Potato mush, the stuffing for alu chops, is flavored with green peas, tomato slices, ginger paste and various spices. These are the best of monsoon treats for taste buds, in Bengal.

READ MORE  Bengali Cuisine & Food Culture

Northeast India – Momos

Many people think that momo is a Chinese dish. They are under the wrong impression. It is actually a native dish of Nepal. The northeast states of India like Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and others have borrowed the art of cooking this mouth-watering delicacy from Nepal to enrich their own food culture. Momo is available in both categories – veg and non-veg. The veg momos are stuffed with a mixture of boiled vegetables or cheese or both. The non-veg momos are made of chopped meat flavored with chili sauce. This dish is served hot. It is an unforgettable experience of monsoon food culture in the northeast region of India.

READ MORE  Unknown Stories of Indian Food

South India – Bhajis with Tea

The monsoon food culture of South India slightly differs from that of North India. Bhajis with masala tea are the mainstay of South India’s culinary routine, in monsoons. Mysore bhajis in the morning and Onion bhajis in the evening are the monsoon attractions of travel to South India. The locales sharing a plateful of bhajis with some sips of masala tea with their friends is a common sight to behold there.

READ MORE  Best Food to Eat in Mysore

Gujarat – Methu na Gota and Dal Wadas

Monsoon is a crispy and snacky affair in Gujarat. Though people identify Gujarat with Dhokla on the culinary map of the world, Gujaratis’ tryst with such snacks as Corn, Methi na Gota and Dal Wadas get a new lease of life during monsoons. Methu na Gota is made of chickpea batter which dried fenugreeks are mixed up with and are fried golden brown. Guajaratis warm up themselves with hot dal wadas in the rains. This monsoon delicacy tastes well with raw onion slices and fried chillies.

Maharashtra – Pav Bhaji 

Pav Bhaji is the only snack that Maharashtra in general and Mumbai in particular are known for. It is a monsoon bite too. Lined with pav bhaji stalls, Juhu Beach is one of the best places to be in Mumbai during monsoons. Many tourists enjoy themselves over plates of pav bhaji while sitting on the beach and watching rolling waves. Enjoy the splash of rains with bites of pav bhaji while in Mumbai during monsoons.

READ MORE  5 Best Street Foods of Mumbai

Monsoon travel to India is as pleasant as these snacks items. Let these bites make your trip to India memorable. First of all, check cheap airfare deals and book your best flight to India.

BOOK  My Trip to India

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