It
would be under 300 km to Srinagar and hence, the start could be delayed, I
thought. But the previous evening I was advised by a Facebook friend that it
would be better to start early because these stretches are all prone to what he
called ‘flash flares’. Moreover, he had covered the route from Jammu to Manali,
under very trying circumstances, by motorcycle in June 2015. His group had even
got caught in landslides on the Leh-Manali sector.
Therefore, going by the suggestion given by Aby the
Champion (KL 29C 2131) and I left the Jammu ORH before daylight. The only
problem was that the headlight of the car was too faint for the dark night. I
had powered up the Google Maps GPS and started navigating through the railway
premises. Within five minutes I was stranded where a huge pipeline
work was in
progress and obviously I could not pass that. I was left wondering what to do
when I caught sight of a Sardarji giving instructions to a workman at the site.
I inched up to him and sought his guidance to get to the Srinagar highway. He
promptly wound up his instruction session and asked me to follow his vehicle,
which I gratefully did. After nearly 15 minutes of fast driving the Sardarji
swerved his car to one side and got out of it. He came to mine and asked me to
take the road to the right and gave detailed instructions of the road I should
take at the next fork in about 5 km. I could not have thanked him enough. But
he kept on dismissing my expressions of gratitude and asked me to follow his
instructions to be on the safe road to Srinagar. The solo Trans Himalayan
Expedition had truly gotten underway from Jammu with guidance from the first
Guardian Angel.
The first 60 km on NH1A was a beautiful four lane
highway. Thereafter, the roads were not un-motorable but were indifferent all
the way up to Srinagar. It could be better to be designated as NH1A. There were
no road blocks and the weather was clear all the way up to Srinagar. The 291 km
was covered in slightly less than 7 hours of leisurely driving. As I was
nearing Srinagar I got in touch with the contact I had been provided in the
CRPF Camp. From the highway I was piloted by a CRPF vehicle with armed gunmen.
Sudhir Pratap
Singh, IPS and my erstwhile railway colleague, had made arrangements in
Srinagar, Kargil and Leh. I was scheduled to stay the night in the CRPF Camp in
Srinagar, which had a small mountain as its backdrop. I was shown into a large
suite room in the Mess,
where my luggage was taken in and I became comfortable immediately.
The Mess orderlies also took order for lunch, which they produced in double
quick time. I had not been that hungry but the hot meal made me salivate. The
tasty vegetarian meal vanished without a trace, the left over being a few
chillies and onion rounds! I had to work the newly acquired calories away. With
this intent I strolled out to where the car was parked and started giving it a
wash. Soon an orderlie appeared and said that the CRPF workshop has a
mechanised vehicle wash arrangement. He promised to get that organised. With
that vanished my resolve to work away the calories! In a few hours the washed
car, looking bright and spruced up, arrived at the car park. No sooner had I
stopped admiring the workover than the skies opened up and buckets of rain
started pouring. It lasted for a while and ruined the car wash. But from the
vantage perch of the Camp I admired the heavy downpour. I was glad that the
heavens showed their mercy by opening the sluice gates only after the day’s
journey had been done.
Later in the
evening a couple of senior officers in the Camp, one of them being
Jagdish Bissi, came over for a short chat. The insights they gave about the
society in J&K were indeed very interesting. While for the most part the
people could be talked to and reasoned the influence of the Muezzin was an
inalienable part of their daily lives. It was not uncommon,
they said, for the
people to be convinced by the law enforcers about their standpoint only for the
passions to be ‘reignited’ by the ‘preaching’ during prayer time. It is a
difficult situation for any law enforcing agency to work under such
circumstances. Often times it becomes quite frustrating too. I also understood
that most cities in the state had bands of ‘professional stone pelters’. The job
of such bands of youngsters was to foment physical trouble by throwing stones
that would be strategically collected along sides of the road. As they were
young the stones could be thrown over long distances and they often escaped the
arms of the law. They were even given refuge in houses of strangers when chased
by the police or the para military forces.
No comments:
Post a Comment