It’s a perfect Republic Day weekend at Jalinga tea estate in southern Assam.

First get your heart racing with a full marathon amid winding trails at this organic tea garden, to raise funds and build a residential school for children with special needs.

Then get ready to groove to the music of nine DJ’s of international and national repute during the evenings.

All this and more at the second edition of the Jalinga Tea Run called JTR 2.0 Paradise Musical Festival, powered by t2, to be held from January 24 to 25.

The tea garden is located at Dwarbund in Cachar district of south Assam.

The second edition promises to be much bigger than last year.

“This time we are having a registered and timed full marathon of 42km.We have also taken up a much more ambitious social cause for this edition of JTR. We plan to use the funds raised to build a residential school for children with special needs,” said Rachna Mehta of Jalinga Tea.

The first edition was held from November 16 to 18, 2018.

Among those running in the marathon will be Uday Kumar, who lost his leg in a train accident in 2015 and has been running with a prosthetic limb since last year.

The entertainment factor promise to be on a high with nine national and international DJs performing over the two evenings. Among those present will be Usha Uthup, Ash Roy (DJ Ash) and DJ Sanjay Dutta.

“We are expecting more than 100 residents, over 300 people at the concerts and more than 200 participants in the marathon,” she added.

“No parent is ever prepared to hear that his or her child is anything other than happy and healthy and learning that one’s child might have autism can be particularly frightening. But there are many ways in which special facilities for education and day-to-day care can help improve the quality of life for children who suffer from physical, development, behavioural/emotional or sensory issues. We at Jalinga want to start a residential school for such kids. Jalinga will donate the land to build this home. The home’s mission is to offer support to children with any of the special needs identified above, giving them the confidence to perform day-to-day tasks without depending on their parents or others. The school will be the first one dedicated entirely to kids with special needs in the Northeast,” she said.

During the day, one can experience exhilarating activities, including the full marathon, a rain-forest trek, a treasure hunt and other activities. One can also unwind with yoga sessions, a salsa workshop, tea-tasting sessions and much more.

Jalinga is the single largest organic tea garden in the country with a total land holding of 1,100 hectares of which tea is planted in 600 hectares.

It produces 8.5 lakh kg annually.

Jalinga is the only carbon-neutral certified tea estate in the world and the only tea estate in the world to earn carbon credits with a no-emission cooking stove.