Aizawl Diaries 1

Part 1: Home away from home

The opportunity to travel far and wide is a perk of being a public health professional. We landed at Lengpui airport on a pleasant afternoon in the first week of the new year. The airport is around 30 kilometers from Mizoram’s capital – an hour and a half by taxi. The views enroute to Aizawl – the hilly terrain and the vegetation- did give me some vibes of our hometown in Kerala. However, the best was yet to come.

We had done a fair bit of research on where to stay in Aizawl and we booked our stay at Zobawm homestay in Zotlang. This place had excellent reviews and we were looking forward to the stay there until we found an apartment. We were allotted room No 02 in the homestay- squeaky clean rooms with all amenities and a beautiful balcony with an amazing view of the hills and the town.

We spent two full weeks in Zobawm. Every day we would wake up to a hot breakfast and then spend time on our balcony, enjoying the morning sun, watching the hills playing peekaboo between clouds and mist. I would then head out to the office while Manohar worked from home. Evenings were spent exploring the local area on foot and we tried to pick up the “Mizo tawng” names of vegetables and fruits, much to the amusement of the grocers.

We began to get acclimatized to the early sunset and then would eagerly anticipate the delicious, home-cooked dinner our hosts provided us. Somedays, Mrs. Zothana would also include Mizo dishes and we relished them all. On weekends, we continued our local expeditions.. walking across the hills, drinking machine coffee from local stores, discussing the excellent road discipline of drivers in Aizawl, admiring beautiful home gardens, and enjoying the hospitality at Zobawm. Meanwhile, we were also searching for a permanent home in Aizawl….

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PHOTO CREDIT : DR AISWARYALAKSHMI | MANOHAR KRISHNAN