Friends,
The
General Manger of North Frontier Railway is Mr. R.S. Virdhi. We had been
colleagues in Concor. When I planned the trip to the north-east last October I
had got in touch with him for update on the condition in Assam and the climate.
It was on his advice that I had postponed the trip to January. Once I had
decided on the dates, Mr. Virdhi confirmed accommodation in New Jalpaiguri,
Guwahati, Tinsukia and Alipurduar. I reconfirmed the arrangements before
leaving Garden Reach at 4.40 am.
It
was only a 650 kms drive from Garden Reach to New Jalpaiguri. The start on NH2
was good. But in a short while, within 40 kms, there was a humungous block on the
NH due to an accident. I waited for nearly an hour, having a couple of rounds
of tea at one of the tea shops. A car in front decided to cut through a
village; he asked me to follow him. I did and got ahead of the queue and just
then the route opened up and I was among the first to get past a ghastly site involving
two fully laden trucks. As long as the journey was on NH2 the road condition
was excellent. However, once I got on to the link road from NH2 to Islampur and
Dalkhola the condition of the road became bad and worse. The 300 kms along the
route was congested and it was tiring to negotiate the stretch. It was dark by
the time I reached NH31 at Dalkhola. I could reach the New Jalpaiguri ORH only
by 10.30 pm. I was shocked when the caretaker told me that there was no
reservation for me there. I was exhausted (had done 675 kms in nearly 18 hours)
and the smell of alcohol from the caretaker incensed me. The confusion was
between New Jalpaiguri and Siliguri. Finally, the ADRM came to my rescue and I
occupied one of the vacant rooms.
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