Sunday

Day after the blasts, life on a Sunday, goes on "lahey, lahey". On my way to office, I met the Chinese athletes. They've come for the Grand Prix event and are staying in this hotel. Everyone smiling and everyone happy to be here.

My office on a good day has a maximum of 4 people. It's empty today. I am here, on news duty, waiting if anything happens. I can see the Guwahati High Court from my office. It's cloudy and one can see the blue hills at a distance. It's a nice and easy beautiful Sunday. But like it happens, mostly, with the rest of the planet, Sunday here is also a "slow news day". (Click on the photograph.)

As the crow flies, this place is supposed to be closer to Hanoi than to New Delhi. The Northeast is "part of a great tropical rainforest that stretches from the foothills of the Himalayas to the tip of the Malaysian Peninsula and the mouth of the Mekong river as it flows into the Gulf of Tonkin" //Strangers of the Mist

Blast

Five people were killed and 15 others injured when a bomb exploded in front of a mosque situated near a commercial area in Guwahati. The Asian Athletics Grand Prix starts here today. The bomb was hidden in a cycle. It went off at 7.30 am killing four on the spot. Among the dead were two children who were at the vegetable market at the time of the explosion. Rupam uplinked shots.

Assamese Thali

Paradise Hotel , Rs 80/-

Superb!

ps: for onion salad, extra rs 15

Guwahati shoot

Outside the city SP office.

Floods for TV

This is a photograph, taken near the Bramhaputra. Had to do a flood story. Delhi pressed the panic button, after reading a Press Trust of India copy "1.5 lakh people displaced due to floods". Displacement due to floods is a term that is often misinterpreted . People often shift from one place to another during this time of the year, in this part of the world. "They wait for floods"--says Kishalay from NDTV. Anyways, I needed to go to the districts (Upper Assam--Dhemaji, Tinsukia, Dibrugarh, Golaghat), but we had no time. So we went to the place near the river, where they measure the rising water level. The story was done finally but we had huge, huge trouble getting footage from districts. It was madness. When we were on the shoot, some pictures were taken by Gobindo, our driver, who is learning camera from Mukut. Gobindo is 24. Without Mukut and Gobindo, it's impossible to work here. (both in photograph). There is also Rupam, more on him later.

Also, well, I am staying in another Hotel. It's called Landmark. More on it later. And yes, I met Indira Goswami. Lots to write on the interview.

Also, I don't think an elaborate thank you will happen. So first, I would like to thank three people--Sudipta Bhattacharjee of The Telegraph, Nitin Gokhale, NDTV and Samudra Gupta Kashyap of Indian Express and of course V K Shashikumar of CNN-IBN. (you can ask them anything about North-east)

My room, now

This is 104, Hotel Bramhaputra Ashok.

Mukut

Hopefully, I will learn to write in a more organised manner soon. Before that meet Mukut, my cameraman. He is a Sundance Festival Award winner. He was part of a documentary on "Unemployed Elephants", that got the prize. Am supposed to get the VCD. Mukut has a sense of humor, that's a mix of everything--Yes Minister, Different Strokes. It's not reading okay. He's got a great sense of humor. This is an unnatural picture. Am asking him to smile. But he is funny. Today ( My second day in Assam), both of us managed to escape security ( in a sense) and get a story on the Assam Flying Club. This picture is just before we got in. Tomorrow, I script. Also a random thought---All my thank yous, to people, I must mention, will come later. For those who are clueless about North East, try writing down the names of the 7 states, that make North east. Quickly.

Death

The hottest chilli in the world, "bhut jolokia"

Hotel, hotel

Been raining from Day one. Am in a sense carrying the rain with me from the runway. There was no room booked for me. The dawaat has been interesting but not exactly the way I wanted it to be. More, much more later. I am back again in the North East reporting for CNN-IBN. It's raining, it's lush green. More, more later. I need to organise things.