Trvelling to Pasighat, Arunachal Pradesh - My first home

When ever I sit fondly remembering my married life, one thing that surely brings an embarrassing smile to my face is my maiden journey with my husband.

Few days were left for the marriage to be solemnized. And then Somen called up and declared, “We will move to Pasighat after marriage, I have got posting order”.
Puzzled at this weird name,” ghat……..Where the hell is this place?”

“This is in Arunachal Pradesh, the eastern most part of India”, explained Somen

I had a mixed feeling, there was an ache of not going to a metro city, also there was anxiety over this completely new, never heard of place called PASIGHAT.

Well as a traditional Indian bahu, I was not given much time to think. my baggage was packed and we were given a moist adieu.

So I began the journey towards my home, my own home.

We took a train from our hometown and this was my first longest ever train journey….3 ½ days. I felt as if that place would never come. Ours being a completely arranged marriage, I was a bit skeptical also…….

Well at last Somen announced,” another 1 hour and we reach the destination station”. Believe me this was the most awaited statement of my life. But poor me, in my anxiousness I forgot to deliberate on the term used “destination station”

It was only later that I realized that train journey was only ¼ th of the destination. Completely exhausted after almost four days of chuk chuk journey we got down at Tinsukhia railway station.

A new energy sprang into me , so “Somen how far is our house?”, he gave a cunning smile and showed me the way to resting room.

Ready in 2 hrs, I saw a jeep waiting outside. We hopped into that with 2 suitcases and 3 airbags. Both the sides of the road were lined with tea gardens. It was early morning and the sight of women plucking tea in their traditional cane baskets ( till now I had seen it in some Hindi song sequences), filled me with a new excitement . Though the sights were picturesque but the roads were bumpy enough and innumerable times did I hit my head to the jeep sides……..but this was just the beginning.

After 4 hours of such a jeep ride , we finally got down with our baggage to a river bank ………..actually only a bank without a river.


Boat men who had collected there to exploit poor forced travelers like us, told us, “ Saheb the river has shifted 5 kms”; now what in the world is this , myself being always weak in geography, could in no way understand this shifting of river. When I tried to question my husband, he gave me a wise man’s look and I nipped the question I the bud itself.

Price was negotiated and two people took our luggage and we walked behind them on sandy beach. Well a point to remember is that in all the happiness of portraying myself as a new bride I was wearing sandals.

Finally after painfully walking 1 ½ Km , my eyes glittered seeing traces of river, so we had to travel by boat to reach our final destination. But , “Somen isn’t this river a little less wide”. Somen gave me a whimsical look and said, “ Dear wife this is just a sublet of river, the main Brahmaputra river is ahead”.

So, without much questioning, I sat on one side of a narrow but long boat and Somen on the other side with two suitcases precariously positioned on each side to maintain balance. I was commanded by the boatman not to even move an inch otherwise all of us will be food to the mighty Brahmaputra. So for the next ½ hour, I even tried not to breathe.

Took a deep breath after getting down!!! Next was travel by foot but this time it was wet sand………..so I had to balance my chunni, purse and tread very cautiously. Somen was walking ahead checking the sand and I was to follow his footsteps. But but……..i was educated, smart, modern woman, I could not accept the fact why he was taking a curve rather than walking straight.

So in my zeal to prove my smartness and save time, I walked straight and…………IT WAS WET SAND. The moment I kept my foot, I sank knee deep and fell. Somen turned back and chuckled seeing my pathetic condition, knee deep in sand, with sand all over my dress , hair and purse and myself sweating for it was 12 in the afternoon.

I was so embarrassed ……………..such a showdown for a new bride. But as it is said , show must go on, we kept walking, “ Somen will we reach our home in this life span”.

Extremely fatigued and disillusioned we could now see the main boat and the Brahamputra River. It is such a mighty river, it is called the father of rivers for its might. It is such a wide river that it took almost 5 hours on boat to reach the other side.

This boat ride is another interesting anecdote. Such narrow benched that an able bodied woman like me was literally half hanging. Local tribals smelled badly and more so the smell of indigenous tobacco and dried fish. It was a nauseatic journey.

I was once again optimistic and happy to see the shore, only to be told that a jeep is waiting and it is another 5 hours journey. Infact when I sat on the jeep , I realized that the jeep was not on road for there were no roads……………Yes it was monsoon times and all traces of road was washed away, it was only mud and water.

The jeep journey was so adventurous that for minutes together the jeep would move on one wheel. Throughout I kept on shouting,” Mummy , oh my God”. But the skilled driver kept on moving. There would be streams of water in between, where the gushing water would rise above the bonnet level. My adrenaline level would rush and I could feel butterflies in my stomach. It was a complete roller coaster ride.

Finally when we stopped in front of something like a gate, Somen opened the door smilingly, “Welcome to our home, my dear”. The breathtaking view of my home sitting beautifully in the pictureous surrounding took away all my tiredness and I started on a new journey of life..

By - Gitanjali Banerjee