Studioing @ Guwahati

I went to Guwahati as a part of an EMI team, to do a survey and master plan for Trinity College and Seminary. It was a hectic packed week; We visited the site, and stayed in town for a whole week to work on the design and made a presentation to the client at the end of the week. Above is the panoramic view of the 3-hectare site, which is located near the Guwahati airport.

Knee deep in cow-dung-ed mud field. This land was formerly a rice paddy field, and it gets inundated with water after the monsoon.

Our surveyor quickly drew up the site's topography, but we didn't have a printer, so we scaled and plotted the survey co-ordinates on grid paper manually by hand.

We had a BIG rainstorm, and thunder struck the power transformer of our building and we were in the dark for a while. Luckily, the mobile internet still works, and we were able to make a video Skype call to the client with the laptop on battery power! Watching the Jonathan on spotlight from the dark makes me feel like am in a radio studio or a drama theatre. This photo made it to the eMI South Asia newsletter, the Indian Thread.

Where's my Assam?

When it comes to black tea, unsugared Assam has always been my favorite hands down. It has a thick robust flavor (malty, they say), that is just perfect for sluggish mornings at work. And so, prior to signing up with EMI and coming to Assam, I've always pictured Assam as a mountainous land of endless tea plantation. But I was ignorant - of course there's more to Assam than teas! In fact, I stayed at the low-lands all the time I was there and did not see any tea plantation during my entire stay at Guwahati, Assam.



Guhawati is the capital of the province of Assam, and it is the largest city in north-eastern part of India. The area sits on a low-altitude wetland plains and has a tropical hot and humid weather. This means, they grow lots of rice! Betel nut palm (above) is also a popular crop in the area. Our visit was at the end of the rainy monsoon period, so there were beautiful seasonal lakes around. The one above was seen along the road, and the guy there is a passing motorcyclist who really should be facing forward!



Our host, Dr. Jacob & Zingi, in our turquoise blue guest apartment.