Travel of a Life-Designer or Li-Der

For last one month, I have been spending my time in South Assam – far from the madding crowd of Calcutta. I went there for two resasons – to finalize wordsmith ashram – a planned site to experiment with Plain Living and High Thinking – a mode of living now almost forgotten.

I returned to Calcutta this time by train – me, my elder son Priyam and Mr. Asis, Wordsmith’s Head

Starting of the Hill Track

of Operations accompanied me in the journey. The photographs are also shot by Mr. Asis, having taken lots of pain and no lesser risk.

This Hill Track or what we call as Pahar Line is almost a hundred years old – a colonial heritage and owes its existence to tea-export of Cachar just like many new trains from Howrah (Calcutta) to South was to export young Bengali men and women to get education to earn one’s bread and butter in the Sector V and similar areas in other geographies.

The Up-incline towards Central North Cachar Hills - the newly constructed Broad Gauge line

To a Life-Designer like me and my team members (Mr. Soum : our Design and DTP-Head) insisted that this journey can only be undertaken by life-designers and by no one else. Suprisingly, I met a Life-Designer in the train about whom I shall write at the end.

Enjoy the Pahar Line below with commentary by me and photographs by Asis :

One of such bow shaped bridges : the name of the next station is Dhanuk which means in Bengali - Bow. There are graves of British engineers nearby : ambition, fortune hunting, white man's burden, malaria, kala-azar, snake-bite, typhoid, Asiatic cholera, overwork and lyrical stupidity of youth. Old engineers never die, they just go off-track.

In more quaint times, a mountain was courted and respected to give way. This method gave passengers a century after the opportunity to enjoy the mountain. In more brutal times, loving efficiency and optimization, a mountain is dyanmited and disembowelled so that after five years all look same. Do all charms fly at the touch of cold philosophy ? - asked Shelley. Do dreams of the night vanish at the call centre cring - cried me ! See the image below : the new broad-gauge track - under construction for last 20 years by the independent republic of India

When you will pass this new track, it will be faster, more fuel-efficient, low-cost, more comfortable but you will not be able to smell the wildflower, unknown bush and leaves will not caress your cheek at a tolerable 10km/hr speed and nor you will enter a mountains deep underbelly

Another bow shaped bride. A train entering a tunnel is a very very potent fertility symbol. Great Directors have used this, especially Hitch-cock.

A stream - now emaciated but come May / June, this frail lady will burst in youthful vigour and will carry everything in front of her and sometimes, the metre-gauge track.

I started traveling in this route since I was five years old. The charm remained still. This time, I gifted this ‘experience‘ to my eight year old son who commented : My classmates will not believe this. I need to get some photographs. In the train, I met a life-designer : a honey-collector. He was going with his team near Jatinga forsest to collect honey. He will stay there for 3/4 nights – almost like ‘living in the wild’ and will come back with some 4/5 litres of honey – cost of which will be $ 70 at the most. I wondered and asked him- ‘So much labour for so little ?’ He dismissed he – ‘Oh no, this is not my profession. I have everything I need at home : rice, vegetables, fruit, fish, meat, poultry, butter. I sell some $ 5000 worth of fruit, vegetables and grains a year  after feeding my family. This is my hobby. I have been doing this for last five years.’ ‘Do you always get honey ?’ – I asked ‘Yes, more of less. But the experience of living inside the jungle is the thing’. he said. 

I asked him, ‘ How has been the harvest this year ?’ ‘By the grace of Allah, it has been very good’, he said. 

Afterthoughts : As he was getting ready to get down at Dumcherra, I envied this Life Designer. I still need Internet, UPS, power, laptop, freelancers, colleagues to design my life. This Life-Designer needs only the grace of the Lord to design his life. 

Indian Corporate Managers : After a slog of whole day, pursuing other people’s, mostly stranger’s dream in proxy, you come home and watch Dicovery or National Geographic and those of you who have some life left, envy these explorers or life-designers. The Life-Designer I mentioned above can be easily missed because he does not get featured in those media. But they exist. They thrive and by the grace of the Lord and Lord alone, they inspire me.