Chennai to Assam: A Journey of Assam Tea, Temples, and Cultural Surprises

I did not expect to be having Assam Tea in Assam last week. We do not work on the 2nd Friday of every month and I usually try to do something or the other during this time. Last week, on Wednesday evening (September 11), my wife asked me if I wanted to go to Assam and there could be another couple joining us. She was planning to visit the Kamakhya Temple. I thought this is a great opportunity to travel to a State I had not been to. Visiting North East was not on my to-do list last week. Impromptu trips like these could be fun. An added bonus, there was a non-stop flight from Chennai to Guwahati which I did not know about. I immediately said yes.

We were to board the flight to Guwahati from Chennai at 4:30 pm or so. It was a two-and-a-half-hour flight ride. I thought that the flight to Guwahati would be crowded as I did not expect many passengers from Chennai to be traveling to Assam. My assumption was wrong. I was surprised to see a full flight. I was wondering about this. I asked the Air hostess if the flight is usually full and she said yes. When I asked further about the reason for these passengers traveling, (I was wondering if it was for business), she said, a lot of people from Assam visit Chennai for medical treatment and return back. I got to understand further the role Chennai has been playing in the healthcare space. It could very well be the Healthcare capital of India.

We reached Guwahati by 7 pm or so. Took a cab ride and tried some local assamese food in the city and headed back to the hotel. We were a total of 4 people and were looking to rent a SUV for Uber/Ola rides. However one thing we observed was that there were not many SUV’s available via Ola/Uber. Nevertheless , it was exciting. One thing we found during the trip was, a lot of people were chewing. I was not too sure about this. However later found out that chewing was a part of their culture. During dinner, we also met with someone at the restaurant who spoke a little bit of Tamil. He said he had worked in Chennai and will be returning back. We stayed at a hotel close to the Kamakhya Temple.

The next morning, we left the hotel by 6:30 am or so and headed to the Kamakhya Temple. I was excited about being in Assam and saw a local tea vendor. I did not expect to be having Assam Tea in Assam last week. Sometimes things just happen. We had some great tea and I enjoyed the Assam tea experience. 

We headed to the temple. It was a 5+hour wait to get inside the temple. We stood in line, talked to people and finally were delighted to visit Kamakhya. The temple dates back to the 8th or 9th Century and is dedicated to Goddess Kamakhya.  After finishing our Darshan, we returned to the hotel, picked up our bags and it was time to leave. We boarded the flight by 4:45 pm or so to Chennai from Guwahati Airport. The flight was again full with no empty seats. It was a delight to see this. Next to us, on the window seat was a doctor from Kerala who was doing his MD in Medical Oncology. I was chatting with him a bit and got to know that he was from Kerala, did his medicine at Government Medical College at Villupuram, Tamil Nadu and was doing his MD at Dibrugarh in Assam. As we were chatting about Oncology he also told me about patients traveling to Chennai for diagnosis and then they get treated in Assam as the costs are low. He also said that the number of cancer patients in Assam is more because of chewing tobacco. This was concerning. He also talked about Assam Cancer Care Foundation (ACCF) joint partnership between the Government of Assam and Tata Trusts. We had an interesting chat and it was time for a nap. In a couple of hours or so, we were back in Chennai. Thankful that my wife speaks fluent Hindi and it helped through the entire trip.

I cherished my trip to Guwahati Assam and yes, I did enjoy the Maktha Tea