Mint Lounge - Rolling Along the Brahmaputra

One part of me thinks it is a foolish task, cycling 60km in one day, after a year of sleepless nights with an infant. But the other part of me craves this chance to travel slowly, interacting intimately with the landscape.

Two hours later, we reach Hajo, a small town with noisy, bustling roads. We get directions to Monikut, the hillock on which the temple is located. I am cautiously impressed, especially when I imagine this place in an earlier millennium—mountains, valleys, forests, and wetlands flanked by a massive, temperamental river. It is easy to imagine this spot inspiring thoughts of the divine—brick, mortar, and stone notwithstanding.

Even give or take a millennium, the continuously burning flame is still an astounding feat, I decide, especially when I remember the vicious dry winds that roar across Bengal and Assam in April—the kal baisakh—often followed by confusing hailstorms.