Guwahati or Gauhati is the largest city in the state of Assam in north eastern (NE) India. It houses Dispur, the administrative capital of the state. It is considered the "gateway" to the NE region because most connectivities from rest of the country to NE go via Guwahati. The city is located along the banks of the mighty Brahmaputra river on the East Khasi plateau. Brahmaputra approximately cuts horizontally across the city, dividing it into North Guwahati and South Guwahati. The IITG campus is built in North Guwahati, while South Guwahati houses the city center.
My stay in Guwahati was rather short, but I managed to visit a few places like the Kamakhya temple, Umananda temple, Paltan bazaar, Pan bazaar and Fancy market. The temple of Goddess Kamakhya is located on a hill (called Nilachal hill) and is a famous religious as well as tourist place to visit in Guwahati. You can go up the hill by local shared taxis or autos to reach the entrance of the temple, from where there are steps to take you further up till the main idol of Goddess Kamakhya. It has the aura of a typical pilgrim place in India with sadhus and beggars sitting all along the steps, and shops selling garlands and other pooja samagri.
The Umananda temple is devoted to Lord Shiva and is located on a small rock (called Peacock island) at the middle of the Brahmaputra river. It is accessible by small motor or row boats that take off near the Umananda Ghat (local bus drivers will shout "Umanando! Umanando!" and you can get off there!). It is a small beautiful temple - and one has to first climb up the rock and then get down inside a small narrow passage to see the idol.
Guwahati has a character of traditional India; it borrows some from Calcutta - especially the coffee houses, roadside book stalls and hand-pulled rickshaws, but has outgrown Calcutta in commercialization. The Brahmaputra river gives a very unique beauty to the city. In fact one can easily notice while flying over Guwahati the mighty river meandering through lush green plains and valleys and cutting across Guwahati. It is a trans-boundary river originating in Tibet as Tsangpo, entering into India through Arunanchal Pradesh, and later flowing through Assam and Bangladesh before finally merging into the Bay of Bengal sea. Whichever city or country it flows through, it strongly influences the history and tradition of the place and people there. The river shares a lot of history with Guwahati and is responsible for the livelihood of the fishermen folk since ages. I am reminded of Bhupen Hazarika's songs many of which songs are centered around the Assamese fishermen going fishing on the Brahmaputra. I am especially reminded of one of the famous songs where a fisherman goes fishing on the river in rough weather in spite of being warned by his wife and never returns back. This reminds us of the mightiness of the river.
At first sight Guwahati is a very buzzing and chaotic city. The traffic is especially chaotic. But, I guess this is the case with every new upcoming city in India. Guwahati is fast developing as a major commericial hub especially in the North East. Assam tea has always been driver of Assam's economy since the British times. Assam is also famous for bamboo handicrafts. Paltan bazaar, Pan bazaar and Fancy market are places where one can find most of the shops selling these.