Mawlynnong – The Floweriest Village in the Whole World

A meandering path through trees and flowery bushes brings you to a pretty house with a sloping roof. The house nestles among more flowers. Whichever way you look, there are flowers smiling. This is the prettiest house you have ever seen – not in the hills or a suburb of a metro but in a village in one of the remotest parts of India bordering Bangladesh. Under brilliant blue skies with the sun spreading warmth on a winter December day, you find yourself in the most beautiful village. 

Tall Broom Grass lining the road to Mawlynnong

You have just driven through a scenic road with tall Broom grass lining the smooth tarred road on your way to Mawlynnong, ninety km from Shillong in Meghalaya. Mawlynnong has an unusually surprising tag especially given the sanitary condition of India’s cities, towns and villages. Oh yes, the cluster of flowers or inflorescence of Thysanolaena maxima or the Broom grass, grown as a cash crop, goes into the making of our household phool jhadu. It will soon have a serendipitous resonance with the fame of the village.

Mawlynnong - India's Prettiest Village

It will come as a surprise to all Indians that Mawlynnong was given the honour of “The Cleanest Village in Asia” by the travel magazine ‘Discover India’ magazine in 2003. Finally, villages of India are enjoying their days in the spotlight. So while Mana village in Garhwal bordering Tibet, is famous as ‘Last Indian Village,’ Kuldhara near Jaisalmer is supposedly a haunted village when the entire resident population deserted it overnight and the Heritage Crafts Village of Raghurajpur in Odisha has artisans in every household practising the ancient art of Pattachitra. Back here in the North-East, Mawlynnong is basking in its unique title; an epithet later echoed by BBC, UNESCO and Nat Geo.

Mawlynnong Scenes: A House in the prettiest setting

Yes, the village is squeaky clean – okay the cleanest and the most beautiful village you have ever been to. The greenery is everywhere, flowers glow in the sun and a gentle refreshing breeze tiptoes through the village lanes. Coming from smoggy Delhi, it is hard to imagine that something basic like breathing could be so nourishing and refreshing. Now that you notice there are these bamboo conical basket cases, locally called khoh, that are supposed to be trash bins.  There is no litter to be seen anywhere; there are no polythene bags or chip packets flying around. It is unbelievable that such a place actually exists in India. And it is so serene here. Except for the laundry drying in the sun, the simple houses built of bamboo, wood and metal sheets seem to be empty. Once in a while a child walks out smiling trying to evade the camera of a prying tourist!

The Beautiful houses and paths of Mawlynnong

The village did not turn pristine overnight. The residents of the hundred year old village always remember the village this clean with the cleanliness habit being handed down over the generations. Children are taught to keep their surroundings clean. Each house has a toilet and there is no open defecation. It is only the tourists like us unaccustomed to clean ways who might throw packets or wrappers around. The village with a population of 500 and 90 families though has seen some changes; few cement houses have been built, roofs have satellite dishes and the cobbled streets have turned into concrete paths but the cleanliness ethos have remain unchanged.

The bamboo waste baskets can be seen along the village paths

Long before the Prime Minister launched Clean India Campaign, the inhabitants of Mawlynnong with 100% literacy were already practising cleanliness. The village council governs this community effort where polythene and smoking are banned and the streets are swept by the residents themselves. The kids pitch in by picking any dirt and dropping it into the baskets before going to school. The organic waste is collected and turned into manure which is then used to grow organic produce. Mawlynnong’s headman was thrilled with the recognition when the PM lauded the village’s efforts involving the citizens in keeping their village clean during his monthly Mann Ki Baat program on radio.

The Beautiful Cosmos flower

The village along with being the cleanest is definitely the floweriest village in India.  As in a trance, you walk through the lanes in complete joy and awe. Flowers, ornamental shrubs and tall areca nut palms line the alleys covering every inch of the landscape. The feeling is almost similar to when you walked through the flowery canvas of Valley of Flowers in Uttarakhand. Canary yellow Allamanda, the heart achingly beautiful Cosmos set against the blue skies, purple and white Flamingo Feathers, Golden Shrimp, never seen before Pink Jacobinia, the stunning Scarlet Clock Vine and the ethereal Bleeding Heart Vine made to adorn the hair of princess all come together to create a magical garden where you want to dance and sing with abandon.

Every which way there is an astounding variety of happy flowers in all colours – swamping the lanes, hanging like garlands from eaves, in pots and in the small gardens around the houses. It seems the village started as a large garden. The houses came later and now are just incidental. Mawlynnong is definitely ‘God’s Own Garden!’

The Wonder Rock at Mawryngkew; on the way to Mawlynnong

Mawlynnong, in a remote corner of this incredible country, is a perfect stop to spend a couple of days soaking up the Khasi culture. The village has several homestays. One of these houses offers you a delicious vegetarian lunch. A guesthouse built of bamboo provides tree-top accommodation along with an unmatched experience. The ‘Sky View’ has a viewing gallery built high on top of trees that offers views of plains of Bangladesh. At Mawryngkew, on the road leading to the village, a huge Balancing or Wonder Rock incredibly balances itself inches above the ground on a tiny stone below.

The Living Root Bridge of Riwai

The biggest surprise is two kilometres away in the village of Riwai. Here you actually get to walk on a Living Root Bridge (Jingkieng Jri), a bioengineering feat, across a stream. A living root bridge is an ingenious way of connecting communities across the criss-crossing streams in these remote locations especially during monsoons when the streams turn into swollen frenzy. The bridge is formed by training the aerial roots of rubber trees (Ficus elastic) through the hollow trunk of areca nut palms on either side to span the width of a river. It might take years before the intertwined and complex web of the living roots become strong enough to carry the weight of people. Some of the bridges are over hundred years old. So while the conventional steel and concrete bridges become weak over the years, these breathing and growing root bridges become stronger.

Mawlynnong - Blue Skies and Yellow Flowers

In Mawlynnong, do not think much about what to see or do; simply walk the village lanes. The flowers, the greenery, the tall swaying palm trees will keep you wonderstruck all day. The sheer variety of flowers is incredible. The cold winter afternoon has never felt so crisp and perfect. Few minutes of this experience is guaranteed to lull you into a sweet stupor. You wish, just like in the Haryana villages, there was a chaupal here too, so that you could have just pulled a charpai and napped sprawled under the gentle warm sun.

As the soft sun caresses the flowers and the smiling kids flit around like butterflies, you realize this is an experience that can be easily replicated across our villages and cities. We would all love to live in clean surroundings among flowers. All it takes is some community spirit and resolve. Mawlynnong does not need to feel like a foreign country. We together can make more Mawlynnong flowers bloom across our country.

Getting There

Mawlynnong is located in the East Khasi Hills about 90 kms south of Shillong in Meghalaya. The two hour drive is pleasant offering amazing views of mountains and narrow winding road through clumps of bamboos and broom grass.

Hiring a taxi from Shillong is a good idea for the day long excursion unless you want to stay over in Mawlynnong in one of the several homestays. In that case, you can check with Meghalaya Tourism’s bus services that can drop you here. The office is in Police Bazaar, downtown Shillong. The Meghalaya Tourism buses only run if they get minimum 10 or 15 passengers. You can leave your phone number with them and if they get enough people by the end of the day, they will call you to make payment. Alternatively, you can take shared jeeps from Bara Bazaar with a stopover at the midway point Pynursla.

When in Mawlynnong

Hire a local guide who can take you around the village. Stay in one of the homestays and mingle with local families. Go trekking on several trails that lead to neighbouring villages and beyond along stone pathways called the King’s Way. Visit a neighbouring Sacred Grove which are forests protected by the local communities and are believed to be the abode of deities. The groves are a treasure trove of plants, trees and animals.

A version of the story appeared in the Winter 2018 edition of Namaste - magazine of ITC Hotels.

Namaste - The ITC Hotels Magazine

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Trippingg Down the Memory Lane - Village Tripps

My father was born into a farmer’s family and before him his father. We belong to a farming community. We have always been tilling our lands. In the past, along with farming, we also fought with the assorted rulers ranging from Razia Sultan to the Mughals and the British. In Khushwant Singh’s words: “The Jat was born the worker and the warrior. He tilled his land with his sword girded round his waist.”

Sarson ke Khet - captured by my first digital camera - a point and shoot Olympus

Our worldly possessions were a pair of bullocks, a plough, few buffaloes and some land. Times changed. Youngsters aspired to move out of the villages. Families were large and the land holdings small. Armed forces and the police was the logical choice for the born warriors known for their courage and fortitude. Father too moved out of the village, stayed with relatives and got a college degree. Hopes of a big family and an entire village rested on him.

2017 is going to be bumper harvest

He eventually came to Delhi where he got his big break in Delhi Police. With time, he moved into the police quarters in Lutyens’ Delhi. We kids came along, born in perhaps the most elite address in whole of India – Chanakya Puri, house to pretty roads, embassies, cars with diplomatic plates and Chanakya theatre and Nirula’s!

Over the years, the village where Dad was born and where he grew up would keep pulling him back. He would visit his village whenever he could manage leave. Once a year we too made the trip. The summers would always make one of us sick. Instead of good times the trips turned into disasters. It was decided that now trips would be made in winters during the Christmas holidays.

A week before the trip an inland letter was posted to the village announcing our impending arrival. Dad usually was not part of these longish trips.We would wait for the mini bus (yes, these were private buses and for some reason were smaller than the usual DTC buses) at the corner of Sardar Patel Marg and Willingdon Crescent. The bus carrying the excited kids would lurch its way to the ISBT Kashmere Gate. To its credit ISBT then smelled as bad those days like it does now. Mom would drag us through the chaos looking for the stand where the roadways buses ply for Mathura.

The bus with Mathura / Agra sign pulls in and there is a mad scramble to get in. Bags and handkerchiefs are thrown through the windows to mark the seats. When the dust settles we had just managed to get ourselves a seat. Roadways bus journeys are a world onto themselves. Just as everyone is settling there is a sharp rap of knuckles on the metal ceiling of the bus. The bus falls silent. The performance begins. The salesman is selling candies – candies for kids, candies that will help you cope with motion sickness, candies for timepass and candies to gift your relatives. The sales pitch, the voice modulation is top-notch. Zig Ziglar would be proud - Product Price Place Promotion at its best. “Yes, of course you can try for free”.“Oh yes, since this is company scheme you get discount too”. “The orange candy is our best selling flavour and these are the last few packets left.”

At other times the salesmen would promise to get rid of your 20 year old kabz with this churan, fix that pyorrhea with just a rub of this powder, turn you into a bestselling upanyas writer with these pens and turn your kids into Picassos if they start practising in these colouring books. Once the salesman doubling up as a dentist pulled out a decaying teeth. The relieved patient finally smiled after days of agony. The customers fall over each other to lap up the assorted items. Kids hanker after their mothers for the candies. Just sit back and enjoy the show.

The UP Roadways bus tears through the highway amid mustard and wheat fields. Roasted peanuts smell mingles with the tang of oranges. Infants wail. Somebody has puked in the aisle - the candy apparently didn’t work. Bidi smoke wafts through the interiors of the bus.

At Mathura, we change the bus that would bring us closer to our village. Now these buses that run in the interiors of district are special. Bumping on rutted tracks the whole body would shudder, the window panes rattle as if hailstorms are raining on the roof, the engine would scream and the gears grind before dropping into the slot – a cacophony cocktail no Hollywood sound engineer can ever create. It was miracle that the bus did not disintegrate. There was some unseen superglue holding the entire contraption together. Mom has begun to glance out of the window periodically. She sees something and yells for the driver to stop.

Photo Credit - Mr. Ranbir Singh Phogat

India Post had delivered the letter. Our cousin brother is waiting by the roadside. The late model shiny wooden cart shod with wooden wheels sits gleaming under the winter sun while the bullocks graze nearby. The passengers look at our waiting ride with total envy. We tumble out of the still intact bus. Smiles and greetings are exchanged. Yes we have grown up since he last saw us. Bullocks are harnessed to the cart, bags are loaded, a sheet is spread and we grab our spots. Brother raises the stick, yells to the bullocks, pops the clutch ..er.. tugs at one of the tails and we are off.

From the mini bus few hours ago to two roadway bus rides and now to the bullock cart; the thrill continues. Brother decides to raise the thrill levels a notch higher. The cart is rolling through the narrow dirt track lined with high wild grass. “Robbers hide among the tall grass, waiting to pounce upon the passers-by.” We go very quiet –only the jingling bells of the bullocks providing some relief in the silence as we start seeing things in the grass.

The Yamuna Expressway - the faster option now!

The coming of cars ended the thrill and romance of travelling to the village. While in the past it would be few days trips, now it is mostly a one day return trip. Today you are travelling to attend the engagement of your cousin brother’s son. The Yamuna Expressway built to give competition to American freeways provide additional thrill of darting people across the lanes. Built of white concrete, the best expressway in India is a peephole into the changing roadscape across the country. Few kms on the smooth tarmac and you want to keep going to the end of the Indian peninsula.

Today you will get off at the Aligarh exit to dive into some village life on the way to the waiting ceremony. The last few kms on the broken service road provide some throwback to the days of yore.

Here is a Photo Journey – hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

The change from the smooth tarmac to the dusty broken service road is sudden - expressway on one side and fields on the other

The first bird sighting is the scruffy and fairly common altitudinal migrant Egyptian Vulture (Neophron percnopterus) feasting on a carcass by the side of the service lane

Look Dude, I don't give a flying crap if Yuvraj Donor has made hundreds of thousands babies. I, the Stud Baker has made millions of patties - now go beat that

Making dung cakes is a big part of village life - and the work is hard. Women of the villages spend long hours collecting the gobar, bringing it out to fields, patting it down, letting them dry, then making these little houses called Bittora with decoration and storing the upley or kandey that will last the whole year - like I said this is lot of work

You make a stopover at this field where potato harvesting is being done. A tractor with potato digger runs throught he field as kids and women collect the potatoes which are then graded and filled in bags. The potatoes will then go to cold storage to get better rates in the future.

The village pond or pokhar behind our house provides beautiful views with its birds and occasional sighting of snakes

The Common Moorhen (Gallinula chloropus) enjoying its day out

Now this is presumably uncommon winter visitor to Assam - really?! This is Spot-billed Duck (Anas poecilorbyncha) and there was a whole bunch of them here doing the birdie stuff they can do all day - balancing on one foot, preening themselves. These birds are like a non-stop self-service parlour. So the question is what were they doing in my village pokhar?!



Okay now over to the engagement party - neighborhood women come over to help out with the elaborate menu

This is just the snacks part to be followed by more elaborate snacks and then meal

DJ Truck arrives - abhi toh party shuru hui hai - jisko dance nahin aata woh jakar apni bhains chara le

The engagement ceremony

Sealed with some bidis

It is time to head back into the city again

 

Related links on this blog:
Mother's Childhood in Dholpur State

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