1 The most beautiful aspect of a dance soloist career is the places we travel to and, the cultures we get to experience. One journey that gave me all these experiences together was my recent trip to Assam during the Kalpa’s Pragjyothi festival. Assam is a land of lush greenery but the architecture of the temples of the land stands out amidst nature's beauty.
2 Our first pit stop was Guwahati. I explored the shops lining the streets of Guwahati. The first thing that you notice are the towels with red borders that are hung on people,and in shops and emporiums. The two things you need to buy if you ever go there is the towel and Mekhla Chader (traditional Assamese attire similar to the drape of a saree) for the women in your lives and yourself.
3 Assam is famous for its tea and when I was there I bought a wide variety of teas and gorged on rasgullas. Trying the rasgullas in Assam is a must, they never get it wrong. The people of Assam have such a lovely happy disposition and everywhere I was greeted with smiling warm faces.
4 We did a heritage walk to Kamakya Temple the next day. It is one of the Shakti Pitas. Having a guide along helped as we could see both the restructure or new sculptures and old unknown ones. Visiting the Shakti Pita made me realise the depth of Hinduism.
5 My next stop was Tezpur. The green landscape is so picturesque that we could take a picture from any angle and it still makes a brilliant postcard. I stayed at the Tezpur University Campus, it was wonderful to stay in a place that had a lake within its campus, clean uncrowded roads and greenery. The highlight of my trip was visiting the famous Mahabhairav temple which has been there since pre historic times. The essence of dancing at the temple of the lord of dance was overwhelming.
