Friends.
Well ahead of the appointed departure
time Kaleem came to the rest house with some essentials for the first aid kit.
That was another opportunity to understand the man better. He organised a cup
of coffee before piloting us up to highway. Perhaps his presence helped us to
leave in time as appointed. However, the morning rush hour traffic slowed us down
till we reached Medchal. After that the road was good up to Adilabad. Kaleem
had suggested that we experience a dhaba in Adilalbad. In the morning chatter
we missed it. The road beyond Adilabad, particularly once we crossed over to Maharashtra,
was bad and bumpy. The leaf springed Endevour is not so comfortable on poorly
surfaced roads. Baiju, who was resting in the back seat, must have had his
insides turned over many times. Lal and I took turns driving the stretch to
Nagpur.
Shibu got back to us to confirm that the
road to Gorakhpur via Chhatarpur should be avoided. The route via Jhansi,
Kanpur and Lucknow was recommended. Advice from HVK Forum was extremely handy
and all were so eager to help. I felt that we would never be alone on the roads
in India. Thus, I had to reroute via Jhansi; I turned to Jethi once again and
he, unhesitatingly, got me confirmed ORH accommodation in Jhansi for 2 days. We
planned to visit historical and religious sites in Jhansi in the spare day.
Mirus Lifestyle, the agent I had appointed
in Delhi, gave me the option of either couriering the passports to be collected
from the Gorakhpur airport or to be delivered by hand through special
messenger. I opted for the latter. All risks had to be covered since without
the passport and the stamped visas we could not proceed beyond Nepal. The agent
also compiled a dossier for the entire route detailing fuel stations,
accommodation, climate, currencies, major do’s and don’ts, etc. They were also
pushing Navo, the Chinese agency, to get the Tibetan and Chinese clearances for
an early entry. The liaison required was quite substantial in view of the tight
controls for Tibet. It was still not sure whether we would get our visas and
permits through the Chinese Embassy in Delhi or Kathmandu. Therefore, I
deliberately left the latter part of the Indian itinerary a bit loose. While we
were headed for Nepal we could divert, at short notice, to Delhi. Mirus had
indicated that 99.9% the visas and permits would be issued in Kathmandu. They
promised to confirm the final position by Friday, 20 June.
It is not unusual for a few things to
be overlooked, forgotten, when executing a project of the shape and size we
were. The travel card purchased from ICICI was still in Cochin. It was located
in Lal Jose’s flat. I arranged for that to be airlifted to Kathmandu. We were
supposed to carry the flags used at the flag off so that they could be used
every day. In the excitement of the function in Crowne Plaza I forgot to
collect them after the function. UPMA agreed to courier it to Gorakhpur.
We arrived at the Railway ORH by 5.30
pm. Anup Satpaty, Sr. DCM Nagpur, had arranged two large rooms for our stay in
Nagpur. The evening was spent with Parag Holkar and Manvesh (of HVK Forum),
Jitu Gadkari & his friend (they were keen to know how to convince their
parents and travel alone), Anup Satpaty and Hafeez (Sr. DPO). The discussions
were lively and ranged from travel to philosophy to politics, and naturally,
the Railways. Anup insisted that we carry packed breakfast so that we could
start early.
During the course of the drive to
Nagpur Lal developed a strong cough. Anup arranged to get homeopathic
prophylactics that Lal wanted to start on. Baiju was completely down and out
for the count. He took rest right through the day and remained on medication.
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