Reunion of 23rd souls at Ziro: Arunachal Pradesh

Malem Nganbi / Yumjao Singh *

Jai Hind, it is a story of visiting one of our sisters in North East of India. There are seven sisters namely Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura. This time we visited Arunachal Pradesh the easternmost part of India. After visiting Ziro, it could be proudly said that Ziro should be in itinerary of any and every traveler’s plan.

The planning of reunion at Ziro was started around five months ago which gave us enough time to chalk out the journey, especially for me because flight ticket could cost less if it is booked earlier . Another benefit is from Delhi I could reach the venue in lesser time in comparison to other friends who were coming from Imphal and Agartala.

This is one advantage of being connected to national capital. We chose April for the reunion as suggested by one of our local friends and it turns out be absolutely apt for the reunion meeting. The reunion was for the 23rd batch of Sainik School Imphal. This story is personal and it is with a intention to narrate and share the highlights of the journey I had undergone.

As Chinese saying goes you learnt more in travelling that in a class room, this time in just two night and three days I have seen, felt and understood so many things about people, land & space of Arunachal Pradesh specially of Ziro and Itanagar.

When I was leaving Delhi for Itanagar by flight, my wife suddenly told me, “you are going to Ziro, is it a code language? ”. I told her, it is Ziro not Zero. Then only, I was wished for safe & happy journey.

Day-1: The flight landed as per scheduled time at Donyi Polo Airport, from here it takes around one hour to reach Itanagar. My day-1 is in fact Day-2 because the reunion has already started on the previous day. From Itanagar it takes another two and half hours to reach Ziro by road.

Ziro: Arunachal Pradesh

The above photo is one of many, just a sample photo to give you an idea of how beautiful was the venue at Ziro. I got many phone calls en-route enquiring about my whereabout. Driver saab ne mujhe bataya ki abhi toh bahut time hain, raste enjoy kanra chahiye. Somewhere Midway, we halted at a place along the NH13 called Potin to have a cup of tea.

The place was stunningly beautiful with cold and clean air, sometime it whispers. It was getting darker in the evening, finally I reached the Destination Ziro. When I reached Ziro, I was welcomed with a homebrewed rice beer similar to Meitei Atingba, it was at home of Phugang.

We all were happy to see each other, chat and interact with family members of Phugang specially his mother who didn’t say much but radiated all the love she had. We invited her to visit Manipur and see Lai Haraoba.

Quickly, as the weather was chilling, we all moved to the resort the venue as depicted in the photograph above. Soon after we reached the resort, we settled down at foyer surrounded by water which was perfect for karaoke, Bonfire and Dinner. The night seems short as we all were laughing, singing, chatting and eating. It was only in early morning we decided to rest a bit only to kickstart again on next day.

Day-2: After few hours of power nap, we woke up in the morning and went to a water reservoir, a lake, located at higher elevation than that of our resort. The lake was beautiful, and I hope that some floating water fountains are placed in near future to aerate the water and also add to visual experience.

After walking around the lake, we came back to the resort. We had breakfast with tea & parleG Biscuit. The tea lived up to the standard of Sainik School Imphal, the tastiest tea ever had in our school days.

After breakfast, we started to move down towards Itanagar. At the beginning of the return journey from Ziro, we visited a winery just to have first hand experience, some of us thought of doing PhD in winery, some of us tasted wine samples with good amount enough to start the engine.

One the way back, in Ziro , I visited temple of Shiva for prayer.

In afternoon, enroute to Itanagar, we had lunch at Potin and saw the gigantic station for hydro power generation on the river called Ranga Nadi(locally known as Panyor). The view of spot was absolutely breathtaking, clouds are seen every where hovering around the mountains.

The lunch was very yum, specially the dal and mutton curry. The journey was enjoyed every minute talking about many things including Mithun. Mithun is state animal of Arunachal Pradesh. Mithun is just indispensable here, a part of life since time immemorable.

Second night we halted at a Homestay in Itanagar, again the night was as vibrant as full of energy like old days in school especially Saturday night Show, with a slight change in proceedings of the meeting. Whoever wants to open mouth, he had to take permission from the speaker Phugang, like a strictly disciplined student. We all enjoyed second night too.

Day-3: It was the day, we were departing from Itanagar. In the late afternoon those reaching Bir Tikendrajit International airport Imphal have informed us that they had the worst air turbulence. I also reached home safely.

In the night, I was narrating about my trip to Ziro to my son, he listened to my story with lot of interest and finally told me, “but, you have not explained me why the place is called Ziro”.

- Payalincho Arunachal Pradesh -