East of the Sun: A Nearly-Stoned Walk Down the Road in a Different Land

In the spring of 2008, Siddhartha Sarma went on a land trip across east Assam. Nagaland and Manipur, into western Myanmar. This is his account about travelling over a part of the country it takes a great deal of convincing to cross alone, but is totally worth visiting. Peppered with anecdotes, accounts from history and about the people of these lands, East of the Sun talks, at a breakneck quirky pace, about what to do and what to avoid doing while on the road here, how the people here came to be what they are, and why there is more to India’s eastern frontier than just what you read in the newspapers.

Sarma exhorts us to be circumspect in trusting his account. And yet the story of this road is enough to make us hang up our disbelief. As you discover which language you must not speak in Imphal, what Dimapur’s City Sport is, why Assam’s national hero wears a tremendous frown on his face, how to become an ‘international body’ and why tea and conspiracy with a Myanmar army officer could be a bad idea, you’ll see how travel can be unending entertainment, if you are kooky enough.