Aizawl, Mizoram

Aizawl is one of those cities/towns that seems so remote in North East India - you can fly here from Guwahati or Kolkata but I prefer the bus - it is a bit cheaper. So many people in North East India have not even been to Aizawl. Coming here is a chore, over rough roads. The thing about Mizoram is that it is landlocked - way down in the southern part of North East India (map) Burma on one side, Bangladesh on the other, and small access to Tripura, Assam and Manipur.




Once you get here it is an amazingly modern, well run city. You can't help but get in shape - I likely walked about 15 km today up and down hills. I love coming to a new place and just walking. Seeing the faces, the people, the places - walking into some small eatery and surprising everybody. Trying to order some food when you can't speak the language.

I am here on personal business, so I had met the Director and Minister of Art and Culture yesterday. Today I was supposed to meet the Chief Minister, but he was called away on urgent duty, this often happens. So I had the whole day to just wander and go into small laneways and markets. When I go on trips with clients most do not prefer to see cities and towns, they want villages and what they imagine to be the way life is like in these here tribal areas. For me it is all interesting and special, to see the changes the dynamics the effects. I should not, but I am, be amazed facinated and intriqued about what I find in places. Aizawl I must say is one of the best organized of all North East India cities towns - if not of all Indian cities. It is built on steep slopes yet traffic and people are so disciplined. Shillong where I live can't even match it in the least.



Modern - my god!! it has a mall!! where as anywhere all the kids hang out. I am not sure how every body survives selling cloths, cloths and cloths - but style is a big thing here.