Living in a big metropolis like Mumbai most of my life, I’ve had a lifelong delight in smaller towns and villages. I intensely savour how different smaller towns are, what people eat and how, their songs, how they swear, what the morning air feels like, and what they enjoy doing for ‘timepass.’

Kochi is an all-time favourite. To that you can certainly add Khonoma, a most gorgeous, teeny-weeny village in Nagaland, in India’s Northeast. It was a celebration of the senses—the sights, the morning light, the birdsong, the scents, the flowers, the pomelos, the people. It is just 20 km from the state capital Kohima, and about 70 km from Dimapur, which has an airport. Teetering on the top of a hill at 5,300 feet, it is a heritage village of the Angami tribe in the Dzukou Valley (population 4,000, 800 households). You can hire a local tourist guide for a two-hour village walk, or do the four-hour walk in the village and terraced paddy fields. My lovely guide, Kedoseno Punyu, was a charming, articulate young woman, who showed us around with quiet pride. I later discovered she had an MSc in Botany from an institute in Dehradun.