Trip to Bihar Bengal in summer of ‘10

Day before morning AI plane had overreached the Mangalore airstrip, we were about to touch down at Bagdogra airport…..”C’mon private operators always employed the best, they are not like Sarkari carriers”hardly able to convince innerself,I was really in B-Ve mood
Waft of fresh straight from rain drenched tea estates breeze hit my nostrils as we came out welcome change from ‘Loo(As in hindi) at midnight’ weather of Delhi, we were little wary of entering Siliguri with recent violence but images of smart young Nepali boyz and girls beating hands down any punks gen X of S’pore or rest of SEA in fashion trends lifted whatever burden of NCR I carried.
Although Siliguri and uphills is a fashion hub but as you enter Bihar through Purnea chowk thing which hits you is latest trend in Rural Bihar,its sporting gawdy mobile phones with latest chartbusters from Bhojpuri blockbusters blaring out and wearing garish red half sleeved Roopa Banian………Apna luck pehen ke chalo!!!
I named this off beaten track ‘Cornwala Road’ Blatantly lifted ..oops …inspired from numerous ‘Lord Cornwalis Road’ of Lutyens Delhi, taking a left from Katihar it’s a whole new world inaccessible by road till last year this remote place was an eye opener and as our car cruised through sheets of rain it seemed we waded though ocean of Corn fields as far as eye can see it was tall proud standing of ‘Zea Maize’ fondly called ‘Makki’ by all of us.Nitish kumar has brought this culture of mettled roads to Bihar and people utilize it fully early morning ablutions to late night soliciting everything is done here, in mid day it serves as corn drying platform, lack of flat dry pucca space is really an issue in Bihar Bengal.
Entering Begusarai I was strictly warned not to wear my seat belts to avoid being thought of as ‘Pappu from outtowns’ , strange thought process, that says how things operate here, it’s a place full of make belief and bragging is way of life.
Hasanpur is quaint little Kasba but it certainly boasts of a sugar factory and a small screen local theatre which sported big posters of ‘Cheetah’ a Mithun starrer from early ninties, it was about 10 in morning a fairly large crowd of crotch scratching, masala chewing males eagerly gawking and drooling over posters prominently displaying Joginder(Crack pot villain of yesteryear made famous by canine friendliness of Dharmendra whenever he growled …Kutte mein tera khoon pi jaonga…he meant Joginder) as usual trying to make his day on much exposed village belle and hero Mithun Chakraborty relegated to small background.
Night at Khagaria was blissful atleast from point of view of array of mosquitos which infested my room and feasted on me, not even Puri Bhaji of morning..of course ..served with all time classic Parwal could replenish the loss.
Derailed Rajdhani at Naughacia was not any news item for me it was reality which I saw in front of my eyes but than across the platform Bengani’s rake loading was on..it business as usual my friend.

All izz Well!!!

Trip to Mahavirji 6: Road to Jhansi

Barren land was the constant feature of the trip. I was longing for the greens of Doon.

I wouldn't call the car trip from Mahavirji to Jhansi a pleasant one. First of all, the road couldn't be worse. It didn't seem it was ever maintained once built. Surprisingly we didn't spot any cars throughout the journey. Perhaps, that's the reason the road wasn't maintained because it was hardly used (or perhaps the bandits of chambal once terrorized these roads resulting in complete deserting of this area). Also, there was not a single village, hotel or rest stop anywhere on the road until after almost 5 hours into the trip. Finally when we entered into MP, the scene got a bit better and the new highway system near Gwalior gave our bruised bodies from bumpy road, some rest. The driver made a quick stop right after we hit the Morena region and we noticed of couple of guys closing in on us. Suddenly, the images of the bihaad days became fresh. The likes of the Phoolan devi and Malkhan Singh appeared before the eyes. We were standing on the piece of land that was once frequented by the bandits riding on their horses carrying big rifles with extra cartridges wrapped around their bodies. Nothing evil happened this time though and we peacefully moved towards Jhansi.

We spotted this temple on the top of the hill. Why are temples always at the top of a hill? Phoolan devi must have frequented this temple with his crew to get some piece of mind.

While passing through Gwalior, I thought it was a nice and posh city. In general I liked MP; this was my first trip in that region. We once again entered UP towards the final stretch of our journet to Jhansi. It took us almost 10 hours to cover Jhansi from Mahavirji. By the time we hit mamaji's house, it was almost 9 in the evening. We settled down comfortable in mamaji's new house and ate some good food served by mamiji.

Next - Jhansi