A World Apart

Ward's Lake, Shillong, India

Look familiar? At first glance, it looks rather like the white bridge at Magnolia Plantation but it couldn't be further away.  This is a man made lake I recently returned to visit in the town I grew up in in northeast India. I can't tell you how many picnics I enjoyed as a child on these grounds.

Shillong is a hill station and when the British were in India they came north to enjoy the cooler weather. The lake was built by William Ward, Chief Commissioner of Assam. The British were long gone by the time I was there and a family of eight Canadian kids spend many an afternoon rowing the boats around the lake. Happy days.

There are paddle boats on the lake now, but when I was young, there was a fancy swan themed boat with a canopy.  It is known to be such a romantic spot that there are actually warning signs against "obscene acts."