Traveller, freelance writer and photographer Bhaskar Saikia waxes eloquent on a Meghalaya village Rasong after photographing and Googling his way
IMAGINE GOING to an unknown place with little knowledge about its terrain and habitat, where the next step could be your last. And ‘discovering’ three tall waterfalls the world beyond is unaware of.
This is what happened when my friends and I trekked to a remote village in Meghalaya named Rasong on June 1.
Rasong is a small village in a valley some 500 meters below Laitlum, the nearest motorable village. It falls under block Mawkynrew in East Khasi Hills district and is 24km from state capital Shillong. River Um Song flows on the eastern side of the village and river Um Pra on the southern side. A small rocky pavement about 1 km long connects the village – it has more than 20 households, a primary school and a church in the middle – with Laitlum.
Why Rasong? In September 2011, I visited a beautiful village called Mawlyngot, also under Mawkynrew block. The village is perched on a mountain range that encircles the valley that houses Rasong. From Mawlyngot, I saw an enchanting waterfall across the valley. The sound of the falling water was audible but locals could not tell me the name of that waterfall.
I visited Mawlyngot again in March 2012 and saw the cascade again. Curiosity got the better of me during my last visit to Mawlyngot in May this year. I sought directions to the waterfall and was told to go to village Mawblang near Jongksha for the right access. Locals at Mawblang too did not know the waterfall’s name, and since it was ‘far away’, nobody went there.
Disappointed, I returned to Shillong. That very day, I took out all the photographs of the waterfall I had clicked to find a proper route. The photographs and Google Earth told me I could have a better view and see the waterfall up close.
So, I prepared a team of four and on June 1 decided to trek to the ‘unknown’ or ‘unnamed’ waterfall. We reached Laitlum at 10:30am and parked our vehicle. My team members – Amit Rana, Micky Thapa and Jitul Sarma – joined me because they loved adventure and travelling.
At the top, it was all cloudy with poor visibility. As we walked down the rocky pavement toward Rasong, we saw broomstick forests on either side. After an hour of descent, the weather cleared up and we were thrilled to see not one but three waterfalls side by side. The mountains had hidden the two ‘new’ waterfalls from Mawlyngot. I didn’t notice their presence on Google Earth too. Anyway, we kept going down and by 1 pm, we reached Rasong. By now we had descended roughly 500m from Laitlum.
At the village we refilled our water bottles and enquired about those waterfalls. But to our surprise, none of the people we talked to could give us a name. They said the falls were nameless. But I kept thinking there had to be a name; maybe we were asking the wrong people. Nevertheless, we kept going down towards the waterfalls that lay beyond two hills.
The first hill had a banana plantation, crossing which we went through thick forest of broomsticks and other trees. On the way, we saw lots of skinks, a snake, few tree snails and few butterflies. By 2pm, we reached a river named Um Kedar. It flows between the two hills which we had to cross to reach these waterfalls. But this river proved to be the ultimate barrier. Its swift waters were too dangerous for us to cross. And there was no other way through the steep hills.
The descent from Rasong to Um Kedar was roughly 300m. We had no other way but to halt our march. We quit, disappointed. By that time, we all had some sort of injuries. Jitul and I had slipped and fallen four times; Amit and Micky slipped at least once each. The sweet and cold water of Um Kedar did refresh us, but it was important to live another day to share our finding than to be irrational in our search. Hence, we decided to return. The villagers told us we were the first outsiders to reach that river, but I was sceptic about it.
By 2:45 pm, we started to return. But unfortunately, we were grossly underprepared for this trekking. Soon halfway through the climb, we finished our water and were dying of thirst. Rapid sweating hastened the dehydration. Jitul was about to faint and I had to slap him to keep him awake! Finally, we reached Laitlum at around 6:30 pm. Just before reaching the top was a place where water was dripping from rocks. We stood beneath the rock and opened our mouths. It was the sweetest water we ever tasted!
I was proud of the way we fought off fatigue and severe dehydration. Our willpower and adrenaline rush superseded our physical limitations.
After returning to Shillong I analyzed our photographs and findings. I found that Rasong is surrounded by village Laitlum to the north, village Rangphlang to the southwest, Mawblang to the northeast and Mawlyngot to the southeast. Rangphlang is on almost the same altitude as Rasong while the other three villages are on the mountain range surrounding the valley.
The three nameless waterfalls are quite tall and on the basis of ‘reference technique’ (rough way to judge the length or height of anything by multiplying the length of a known object near to the geographic feature we want to determine. e.g., a tree or an electric post), all of them should be more than 200m in height, which would put them among the top 20 tallest waterfalls in India! (A list of the tallest waterfalls of India, sourced from Wikipedia, is provided)
The existence of three of India’s tallest waterfalls in the same mountain valley is a sight to behold. And in all probability, they are not known outside the area. Since we lacked proper measuring equipment, it is up to experts and academics to determine their exact height.
It might be possible that these waterfalls had names in the past. But if they are really nameless, then my friends and I would like to name them – from east to west in that order – Rasong Falls after the village, Tirot Sing Falls after the great freedom fighter and Soso Tham Falls after the legendary Khasi poet.
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