Been stranded a few times but two incidents stand out.
The first was in July '99. Just out of college, me and a friend decide to visit - Bihar, of all the places. A mutual friend in Patna arranged transport, hotels and a man friday and then we were off. First trip was to Bodh Gaya. Uneventful, but heard some hair raising tales of what happens to highway travelers on the Jehanabad sector.
Left for Rajgir the next day. Too many detours and chai breaks meant that we started driving back to Patna only by 1230 am. Big mistake. After about 60 km, our Omni just stopped. No warning, nothing. We were cruising along at about 60kph and just out of the blue, the engine makes asthmatic noises and stops.
Three of us get out. Its a moonless night and there are no lights anywhere around.
'Why do'nt we just pull over and sleep in the car?', I ask man friday.
'This is the naxalite belt, sir. People just disappear.'
I cannot even begin to describe the apprehension that crept up on me as I realized the mess we were in.
'Lets push the van and try to start it.', someone suggested.
Half a km of pushing later we realized that it had completely packed up.
'What now?'
'Turn off all lights, pray and push till we reach someplace safe. Hopefully, no one will see us.'
And thats what we did. For 6 km till we reached a closed petrol pump. Pulled in there, tipped the attendant so he would let us park and chain smoked till dawn. Managed to repair the van next morning and get back by 11am. Our friend in Patna was sure we had been kidnapped my naxals and was extremely relieved to see us.
I cannot remember exactly where we were stranded. We hat taken so many detours that I was totally confused. The driver, of course knew, but dismissed it with a 'choro saab. kuch hua nahi naa.' when we asked later, so it must have been an area with a considerable reputation for naxal or maoist activity. |