In all the hype surrounding the 1999 yearend, Katchal in the Andamans was where everyone headed to see the millennium’s first sunrise. Little did anyone know that in a remote hamlet called Dong in Arunachal Pradesh, the sun rose a good 15 minutes before it did in Katchal. And this isn’t the only instance of ignorance about the Northeast.
Cricket matches have been taking place in Guwahati for 20 years now, but it took the Sri Lankan Ranjan Madugalle to recognise the fact that the Northeast perhaps needs a separate standard time. On November 14 last year, during the fourth one-day between India and New Zealand at Guwahati’s Nehru Stadium, he took the decision to begin play 15 minutes early and curtailed the lunch break to 30 minutes to gain most of the short daylight hours. Sure enough, Guwahati for the first time saw a 100-overs match since it began hosting one-dayers.