The Northeast India Travel Blog

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A sunny summer afternoon in India can really be stressful, especially if your work which demands being under the Sun. But i did manage to find a cure on one such day.

Having worked throughout the day, my colleague and I just wanted to escape to some place quiet and serene, but the problem was that we were new to the place and did not know of any good nearby escapes. We decided to call upon a local friend, and asked him to assist us with our escape. After pondering upon some options, we decided to hit the road. We were on our way to Dipor Bil, a fresh water lake near Guwahati. I had never been there, all I knew was that it was a quiet place with a huge lake and some wildlife. It turned out to be something of a nice surprise !

The lake is huge, and there weren’t many people around, in fact we were the only visitors. Dipor Bil has been named as a Ramsar site because of its rich bio diversity. It is a natural habitat to more than 200 species of birds including 70 species of migratory birds. During winters, on a single day one can see more than 19,000 birds in the area. Unfortunately the winter was almost over, and so was the birding season, but we did manage to see a few Storks and a flock of Siberian Crane’s.

There is not much to do in Dipor Bil, there aren’t any facilities for lodging, all a person is left to do is hire a boat and go for a ride on the lake. And so we sailed away into the mysterious waters of the lake. The surface of the lake is filled with a million water-plants, their circular leaves floating and consuming any empty space that can be found. It looks rather like an abstract painting, like a civilization of leaves submerged and in search of air. I note evolution and how all things adapt to survive. Our boat was being steered by a Bangladeshi immigrant, and he seemed as much a part of the lake as the lake was a part of him. The sun was setting on the horizon, and as usual, the sky started its display of mesmerizing colors. I think about God and how brilliant an artist he must be! At a distance away, there were a few boats; fisherman working on their last catch of the day. And as we steered the boat to land, i thought about how life in the country side was so brilliant. No worries! No pollution! No stress!  I had forgotten about how bad things were going for me a few hours ago. All that seemed like a distant nightmare. The escape had indeed been successful, and as the evening brought upon with it the moon, Dipor Bil had brought about a smile on my face. I was ready for the night, had no regrets about life, and felt as free as a bird.