THE RICE BOWL OF MIZORAM

A MEMORABLE TOUR OF CHAMPHAI AND THE ROMANTIC RIH DIL LAKE.

- AMRITA SEN

"YOU ARE going to the paradise”. That was what our friend in Aizawl told us (my hus-band and I) before we started for Cham-phai. We are already in paradise, was my exact thought. For Mizoram is no ordinary land. The hilly state located in the northeast corner of India is one of the remotest states in the country and not many tourists visit Mizoram. The natural beauty of the state was quite obvious when we saw the clear blue skies in Aizawl and the misty mountains on the road. However, Champhai, we heard is one of the most beautiful districts of Mizoram.

We started from Aizawl at 6.30 am in a shared Sumo. The ride to Champhai was long and passed through gorgeous green rice fields bordered by the mist-covered hills. Champhai has the biggest stretch of paddy cultivation in Mizoram and the district has been given the name “Rice Bowl of Mizoram”.

While I was daydreaming about the rice fields of Mizoram, the Sumo stopped at a small market area for breakfast. The marketplace at Seling had a few shops. Some of the ladies were selling fruits, which became our breakfast that morning. I bought some fruits and took out my mobile to take some photographs of the smiling ladies. When they saw me taking their pictures, they simply burst out laughing. I wanted to ask the ladies about the tradition of certain shops that had no shopkeepers, but language was a barrier. They did not speak English and I didn’t know Mizo.

Our Sumo started again and this time we kept an eye on the surroundings looking for those shops without shopkeepers. We had heard that these shops are somewhere on the highway along Seling. We did pass across a few shops that had some vegetables for sale and a container for buyers to leave money. For the uninitiated, Mizoram still has places where there are shops but no shopkeepers!