Last
evening I had to change the room that had initially been allotted to me at the
ORH in Maligaon since insects stole into the room in large numbers, the kind
that heralds the rain. And it poured and poured for some time. I slept like a
babe in the room into which I had changed. I was well rested by the time I got
up an hour before my set departure time of 5 am. I felt a certain energy flow
that comes with the body and mind in complete sync. This day I was to do about
500 km to reach Imphal. I had done the stretch in May 2015 comfortably and in
good time.
The
drive from Maligaon to Nagaon was a beauty. Thereafter the road to Dimapur,
particularly the Karbi Anglong area was in poor condition. The congestion in Dimapur
seems to be going up day by day. It was a struggle. A constable in one of the
police check posts I was stopped at told me with a smile that the road in
Nagaland is better than it is in Assam. When I negotiated it beyond Dimapur I
wondered if the constable was having a laugh at me. It took me 9 hours to reach
Mao Gate in Manipur, a distance of less than 400 km.
As I
approached the Gate I was amazed to find a long queue of freight trucks and,
after some time, cars. I gingerly approached the Gate barrier and I was
promptly stopped by two young police constables. One of them politely told me
that they would not be able to permit me to go through to Imphal just yet. The
reason was that there was an agitation going on regarding the Inner Line Permit
and a party had called for a bandh. One of the people waiting at the Gate told
me that they had been stuck at the Gate for three days. The bandh was expected
to be lifted at midnight. The policemen asked me to park the car to one side of
the road and wait it out for the rest of the bandh. I had reached the Gate at
1400 hours and my wait would be about 10 hours! I asked the police guys if
there was any chance for me, being an adventure traveler, to ‘bypass’ the
bandh. They told me with smiles on their faces that it would not be worth the
risk. This has been the curse of Manipur over the years – economic blockade and
political fist fights. It has cost the state a great deal
The
branded car did cause a lot of curiosity amongst the people at the Gate. I had
to explain my ‘mission’ to many and most gaped in disbelief. More so when they
heard that I was doing it all alone. After a while it started getting quite
cold and a slight rain started falling, making it all the more cooler. I
decided to stay in the car and update the documentation work. A kind policeman
came up later in the evening and suggested that I have a hot meal in one of the
restaurants that had opened to service the stranded people at the Gate. I chose
to give the meal a skip and took a nap in the car. When I woke up it was 2300
hours and there was just another hour to go before the vehicles were permitted
to move. I went to the police outpost and was told that the permission to move
would be given at midnight.
I
wandered around a bit and the cold drove me into the car once again. It was 16
degrees outside! And it is summer. Later I was told that it rained regularly in
Mao and that kept the temperature low almost the year around. A group of locals
came and knocked at the window, which I lowered. They expressed their ‘love’
for the car and was effusive in wishing me well for the ride to Myanmar. I
suspect that they were returning from a party to warm their innards!
Exactly
at midnight the cars were waved on their way to Imphal. I decided to stay in
between two tourist tempos till I got a hang of the night driving. I expected
the road to be congested with heavy traffic in both directions. The expectation
was natural because transportation had been affected for the past 72 hours. To
my surprise, after a short while I was the only one in the direction to Imphal
and there was hardly any traffic coming in the opposite direction. However, I
had to be wary about the road conditions that were in many places quite bad. In
some places there was slush and rubbish heaped on the road. I put that down to
the bandh till I was told that Manipur had received heavy rainfall over the
past 48 hours and cloudbursts had destroyed crops.
I was
stopped at many police check posts. At a couple of them my identity proof was
asked for. At one the inspecting official got so excited to hear that I am
driving to Russia that he did not let go of my hand for quite some time. He let
it go only after saying that he is a driver in the Manipur Police! At another
the man on watch wanted to know if the branding was sticker or paint. Despite
all these I reached the Hotel Classic Grande at 2.30 am. The security had to
wake up the receptionist, who allotted me a good room in good time. Before I
left for the room I asked for a wakeup call at 6.30 am. I decided to leave for
the border at 7.30 after breakfast. I did not have to struggle to sleep at all.
The warm bed and the quilt did the trick, after a long 21 and half hours drive
for nearly 500 km from Maligaon to Imphal.
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