Journey is Life: Waterfalls of Chirapunjee - Nohkalikai and seven sister falls

Chirapunjee , the wettest place on earth is dotted with innumerable water falls. Chirapunjee during monsoon is enchanting and treat to our eyes. It is just not possible to escape from waterfalls in whichever direction you drive. Though rivers in Chirapunee are of very short length, swollen streams in monsoon plunge wherever they find space downwards. The green mountains provide lovely background for the gorgeous waterfalls. It is water water everywhere. I gave up counting the number of water falls I visited after couple of days. But there are few water falls which are very impressive by their beauty and also because of the stories associated with them. I am posting these stories in two parts. This is the first story.

This is the most common view of innumerable water falls in Chirapunjee

Nohkalikai falls

Nohkalikai falls is about 10 kms from chirapunjee. Chirapunee is locally called as Sohra. This is the tallest plunge type water fall in India and the fourth highest water fall in India in terms of height with 335 mts. Nohkalikai is a rain fed water fall. It will be in its full charisma during monsoon and goes slim during winter. But it depends on our luck to get a good view of the falls in monsoon as it plays hide and seek due to unpredictable clouds and fogs. I kept half a day to test my luck with Nohkalikai.

View of Nohkalikai falls from Chirapunjee resort

It was an enchanting view from the Chirapunjee resort where I stayed. One sunny day I left for Nohkalikai only to see clouds by the time I reached the falls. I decided to take a walk in the beautiful meadows around the falls. Even after my walk and experiments with selfie and self timer clicks for more than an hour, clouds didn’t give way to the water falls. Apart from the view point on top, there are steps to go closer to the falls. I went down and started waiting. Clouds quickly cleared for a while. But before few clicks again it was covered. After couple of hours of wait I could only get a few good shots. When water plunges down there is an exotic green pool formation at the bottom which was very common around all the falls in Chirapunjee.

Nohkalikai falls

There is a heart wrenching story behind such a beautiful water fall. Nohkalikai in Kahsi, a tribal language means ‘ jump of Ka Likai’. The legends goes like this. There lived a woman called Likai in the village Rangjyrteh. Women in Khasi tribes are called with prefix for respect as Ka. So she was Ka Likai. Her husband who was a porter died leaving behind Kali Kai with a baby girl. Having no other source of income for livelihood KaLikai had to join as a porter ferrying iron from one village to other. She finds it difficult to attend to her baby girl. Other ladies of the village persuaded her to get married again as she needs a man and her baby a father. Ka Likai gets into another marriage. But her husband was all jealous looking at the attention Ka Likai was giving to her baby. He couldn’t bear that. One day when Ka Likai was away for work, he killed the baby and prepared a dish. Tired Ka Likai after returning from work, naturally attracted with the delicious inviting smell, eats the curry. Though she thinks of her daughter, she presumes she might be with the neighbors. She finds the food tasty though she couldn’t recognize the meat. After the food, she goes to pick her Kawi basket before going out to fetch the child. To her horror, she finds her daughter’s fingers there. She trembles in shock and pain knowing what she ate was her daughters flesh. Uncontrollable Likai attacks everyone around her and runs away from the place until she reaches the edge of the water falls and jumps in to the fall. In Kahsi Noh means jump. This fall is named in memory of Likai who jumped …Sigh….

This is very disturbing story. Isn’t it? I wish no one should ever face such a painful fate..

Meadows around the falls

This girl enticed me to buy her cinamon by posing to my cameras

Seven sister water falls

Seven sister falls is also called as Nohsngithiang falls. This falls has several strands of cascades falling together. It was not exactly 7 strands. There were more than seven strands when I visited during the monsoon. Due to fog, I hardly got a chance to see them. Water from the falls will flow down to the plains and within few kilometers it enters into Bangladesh plains. I guess, during winter this falls would disappear. I felt that too much hype was given to this waterfalls and there are many were unknown, nameless falls as beautiful as this falls if not more.