North East Diaries

 North East Diaries

9500+ km across North East India with My Banjarun

States Covered:

 * Odisha

 * West Bengal

* Assam

* Meghalaya

* Tripura

* Mizoram

* Manipur

* Nagaland

* Arunachal Pradesh

* Sikkim

Travel Stories, Routes, Budgets, Food Trails and Motorcycle Diaries from the journey.

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📍 Two Friends, Ziro Valley, Arunachal Pradesh

👵 A Friendship Older Than Memory

"Some friendships become so old that even the people living them can no longer remember where they began.

Through a local interpreter, we spent a little time talking with these two elderly women. They smiled more than they spoke. When asked about their traditional ornaments and nose plugs, they gently laughed and explained that they had worn them for so long that they could no longer remember when the tradition had become a part of their lives. It had simply always been there.

Sitting outside their wooden home, surrounded by firewood stacked for the coming season, they reminded me that tradition isn't something kept inside museums. It quietly survives in everyday conversations, lifelong friendships, and the ordinary moments shared on a village doorstep.

Sometimes, history doesn't live in books... it sits on a small wooden chair, smiling beside an old friend."

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📍 An Apatani Home, Ziro Valley, Arunachal Pradesh

🏡 Where Simplicity Still Feels Complete

"Stepping into their home felt like stepping into another rhythm of life. They didn't speak much, yet the silence between them carried years of understanding that words could never explain.

Their entire home was built around a single room. At the heart of it was the traditional kitchen, where every evening they gathered around the fire—not only to cook, but to share the day's quiet moments. That same fire gently warmed the entire house through the cold mountain nights, and its soft crackling became the last sound before sleep.

Behind the house stood the forest. In front, a simple bamboo courtyard. There was no rush, no unnecessary noise—only a life shaped by nature, routine, and quiet contentment.

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📍 Traditional Tools of an Apatani Home, Ziro Valley, Arunachal Pradesh

🪓 One Tool, A Lifetime of Skills

"Hanging quietly on the bamboo wall were the tools that had served this family for generations. In the hills of Arunachal Pradesh, a single traditional dao—a multipurpose tribal blade—is far more than just a weapon. It accompanies people into the forests, helps collect firewood, clears fields, prepares bamboo, carves household items, and protects its owner whenever the wilderness demands it.

What impressed me most wasn't the tool itself, but the craftsmanship behind it. The same hands that carry a dao into the forest can also transform bamboo and wood into baskets, utensils, farming equipment, and everyday essentials. Very little is wasted here; nature provides, and generations of knowledge turn it into a way of life.

In these mountains, survival has never depended on owning more—it has depended on knowing how to use what you already have."

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📍 A Kind Stranger Who Became Family, Ziro Valley, Arunachal Pradesh

🤍 Sometimes, the Best Guides Are Never Guides

"We had been wandering through the villages of Ziro, searching for elderly Apatani women who still carried the traditional facial tattoos and nose plugs. Most people simply smiled and pointed us in another direction. Then we met her.

Before answering a single question, she invited us into her home, offered us tea, and welcomed us as if we had been expected all along. When we explained why we had travelled so far, she quietly changed into her traditional attire so we could understand and photograph her culture with respect.

She had raised her children on her own, yet there was no trace of bitterness in her smile. Instead, there was quiet strength. One of her sons even spent hours taking us around on his scooter, introducing us to local families, translating conversations, and helping us understand the traditions of the Apatani people.

They may not have measured their wealth in money, but they were among the richest people I met on this journey. Their generosity reminded me that the warmest welcome often comes from the simplest homes, and that the greatest luxury a traveller can receive is genuine human kindness."

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📍 Myoko Festival, Ziro Valley, Arunachal Pradesh

🎉 Some Festivals Never Really End

"When I arrived in Ziro, the valley was celebrating the beautiful Myoko Festival—one of the most important festivals of the Apatani people. More than a celebration, Myoko is a tradition of friendship, trust, and lifelong relationships. Every year, different villages take turns hosting one another, opening their homes, sharing meals, exchanging stories, and strengthening bonds that have existed for generations.

Standing beneath this gate, I realised that some places don't just become destinations—they quietly become a part of who you are.

Just like a few people in life whom you can never truly leave behind, certain journeys continue flowing through your memories long after they are over. They stay with you like blood running through your veins—always moving, always alive. A single photograph, a familiar song, or even the smell of rain is enough to bring them back.

For me, Ziro is one of those places. I didn't simply visit it... I carried a part of it home."

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📍 A Small Family Dhaba, Ziro Valley, Arunachal Pradesh

🥗 The Taste of Home in a Faraway Land

"Finding vegetarian food in Ziro wasn't always easy, as the local cuisine is largely non-vegetarian. Then we discovered this small family-run dhaba, started years ago by a family that had migrated from Bihar. What began as a place to eat soon became a place we looked forward to returning to every day.

The entire family worked together—the grandparents, parents, and children. Every morning we would simply ask for whatever fresh local vegetables were available, and they would prepare them with care. There was nothing extravagant on the plate—just simple dal, seasonal greens, fresh rotis, and vegetables grown in the surrounding hills. Yet every bite carried a freshness that reminded me how flavour begins long before the kitchen—with clean water, healthy soil, and honest hands.

Meals like these cannot be judged by photographs alone. They have to be experienced, one bite at a time, in the place where they belong.

Because food is never just about what is served on the plate. It is also about the people sitting around it—the conversations you share, the stories you listen to, the laughter you remember, and the quiet moments that slowly shape the person you become."

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📍 Ziro Valley Rice Fields, Arunachal Pradesh

🌾 Where Rice and Water Grow Together

"At first glance, these look like ordinary paddy fields. But in Ziro Valley, they tell a much deeper story.

The Apatani people have practised one of India's most remarkable and sustainable farming systems for generations. Instead of growing only rice, they raise fish in the same flooded fields. The fish naturally help the ecosystem while the rice provides the harvest, creating a balance that has been perfected over centuries without disturbing nature.

Standing above these fields, I wasn't just looking at agriculture—I was looking at a tradition where every drop of water has a purpose, every field supports life, and every harvest reflects generations of wisdom passed from one family to the next.

Sometimes, the greatest innovations are not found in modern laboratories... they are quietly preserved in the valleys that have respected nature for hundreds of years."

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📍 Ziro Valley Rice Fields, Arunachal Pradesh

🌾 Walking Between Water and Harvest

"Only after walking through these narrow mud paths do you realise that this is far more than a rice field. Every step is carefully shaped to guide water, protect the crop, and create space for fish to thrive alongside the paddy.

The Apatani people don't fight nature—they work with it. Water flows gently from one field to another, carrying life instead of waste. Rice and fish grow together in the same ecosystem, where each quietly supports the other.

Standing here, I couldn't help but think that balance is never created overnight. Whether in farming or in life, the strongest systems are the ones where everything grows together, not at the cost of something else."

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📍 Ziro Valley Rice Nursery, Arunachal Pradesh

🌱 Where Every Harvest First Learns to Grow

"Every great harvest begins as something small... quietly preparing for the journey ahead."

This is where the story of Ziro's famous rice fields truly begins. These young rice seedlings are first nurtured in a small nursery before being carefully transplanted into the larger flooded fields. Moving them by hand isn't just a farming technique—it's a tradition refined over generations.

Once the rice plants settle into their new home, fish are released into the same water. From that moment onward, two harvests begin growing together. The fish naturally enrich the fields while the rice flourishes above, creating one of India's most remarkable examples of sustainable farming.

Watching these tiny plants, I realised that growth often asks us to leave where we first began. Sometimes, the next chapter of life only starts after we are willing to be planted somewhere new.

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📍 Ziro Valley Rice–Fish Farming, Arunachal Pradesh

🐟 Tiny Fish, A Timeless Tradition

"Sometimes, the smallest lives carry the greatest traditions."

Once the young rice plants have been transplanted into the flooded fields, thousands of tiny fish fingerlings are carefully released into the water. In Ziro Valley, farmers commonly rear Common Carp, Grass Carp and other carp species alongside their paddy, allowing both harvests to grow together in perfect balance. 

The fish vendor I met arrived on a simple bicycle with a bucket full of fingerlings. He told me each tiny fish sold for around *₹1*, with a lower price for farmers buying in bulk. During the planting season, vendors travel from village to village delivering these fingerlings directly to the fields, because every paddy is waiting for life beneath its water. 

Months later, the rice is harvested from above, and the fish from below. One field, one season, two harvests—without disturbing nature's balance. Standing there, I realised that true abundance isn't created by taking more from the land... it's created by learning how to grow together with it.

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📍 Naara Aaba Winery, Ziro Valley, Arunachal Pradesh

🍇 Where Local Fruits Become Local Pride

"Sometimes, the greatest journeys don't begin in vineyards... they begin in the backyards of ordinary families."

Naara Aaba is India's first organic kiwi winery, founded in the heart of Ziro Valley by agricultural engineer Tage Rita. Instead of letting locally grown fruits go to waste, the winery buys organic kiwis, pears, plums and other seasonal produce directly from nearby farmers, turning them into award-winning wines while creating a sustainable source of income for the entire community. The winery has also been featured on Shark Tank India, bringing the story of Ziro to the rest of the country. 

I was fortunate enough to visit the winery and taste the wines myself. The flavours were unlike anything I had experienced before—fresh, fruity, light and deeply connected to the valley they came from. It wasn't simply about drinking wine; it was about tasting the mountains, the orchards, and the hard work of the people who call this place home.

Walking out of Naara Aaba, I realised that the finest souvenirs are never the bottles we carry back... they are the stories we uncork every time we remember the place.