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My pre-research into Shillong was pretty limited. I knew:
1. The city is home to a matrilineal society.
2. It’s nearly 1500 meters above sea level.
3. The average high temperature for my three months will be about 14 degrees Celsius.
4. The people are generally Christian.
5. It’s very close to the two wettest places on earth.
6. The area is often referred to as “The Scotland of the East” thanks to the rain, greenery, lochs/lakes, and fog.
7. The people look less “Indian” and more “Tibetan.”
8. The city’s name is something that would have made me die laughing when I was in 7th grade.

So, when I disembarked at Guwahati, the nearest airport, I had no idea what else to expect.

I was surprised. There was definitely a little jostling to get my taxi fare when I left the airport, but none of the “madness” normally associated with India. Nor was there unfriendliness or even fleece-pulling.

Instead, I just sat back for the four hours (to Shillong) of my shared-taxi ride and tried to take in everything through each sense. And all this actually wasn’t that easy, as one taxi mate insisted on not letting me zone out or daydream (as I’ve said before I like to do every once in a while) and kept posing important questions to me like, “Where are you from?”…”If you had three wishes, what would you ask for?”…”What do you think would be the scariest thing in the world for you?” (really, this went on for nearly three hours…I slept a bit, too…) But when said taxi mate wasn’t bombarding me with lame-first-date-type questions, I got to see the landscape become lush and foresty. I got to see us drive from a metropolitan area through the sticks and back into a city. I got to see the women walking along the road change from wearing bright-colored silky saris to checkered toga-like coverings to knee-length skirts and in Shillong, all of the aforementioned.

And as I pulled up to the taxi ranks in Shillong, I was amazed at the lack of non-Indian tourists (I still have yet to see one in my 10 days here). But I found myself curious about these posters I’d been seeing on the way into and inside of Shillong. All I’d been able to decipher in the speeding car was a large green-tinted face and the words “Mr. Big.”

Of course, I immediately thought of Mr. Big of “To Be With You” fame…but quickly dismissed the thought as Mr. Big was a band. And this was just one guy. Maybe a magician, I thought. The posters kind of looked magician-y in that geeky (but fun, as magic always is) way.

I forgot about the posters as I tried to find an intra-city taxi to take me to my lodging. Then, on the ride, driver numero two informed me, that no, it actually WAS the Mr. Big I’d thought of…but just the “voice of.”

I was pretty sad to hear that news. I mean, just two days earlier, and I’d have got to go to the concert. Nuts.

And yeah, there’s no pic. Although I have recovered from the aforementioned bug, my computer hasn’t. And I’d rather not get my camera all virused-up. Hopefully there will be pics soon. In the meantime, you can see a Mr.-Big-in-Shillong picture on the city’s website.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 8th, 2007 at 12:20 am and is filed under *India, media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.