General observations upto Siliguri. From the 'devil may care' attitude in AP, to the slightly sullen and decidedly discontented look in Orissa we passed into WB where the dominant attitude seems to be - "The Universe rightfully belongs to me, how come no one has handed it over to me yet?"
WB is a fascinating and varied state. The parts bordering Orissa are rather dry and flat. As one goes past CCU there are more water bodies and the land is more undulating. One can imagine the splendour of Bengal in the days gone by, there are remnants of that past grandeur and rare hints of the riches of a bygone era.
The road from Jhaleshwar is a dream, however one chap in Khakhi (from the RTA) decided to stop us on one nice long stretch. When I stopped, he ambled over - clearly unhappy that I made him walk. He then proceeded to ask us where we were from and where we were going. I guess he expected CCU or some such destination in WB. When we told him we were headed to Arunachal Pradesh and that we were merely passing through WB, he seemed a little disappointed / crestfallen and made an expression as if to say - "When you have WB, why do you want to go anywhere else?" Point taken sir, next year perhaps, we will do Darjeeling and other bits in WB. He then got onto his official duties and asked for my DL & RC. I handed them over. He then asked for insurance and he got that too. He looked at the insurance papers in his hand - his eyes got a new life in them and he said "Not xerox - only original". Ok, sure, the orginals went out the window to him. Now he seemed genuinely disappointed and gave me a very deprecating look, passed over the original insurance papers and dismissed me with a disgusted look (no doubt muttering sotto voce: what idiots from out of state, do not even know the basic rules of the game. I ask for originals and he hands me over the originals, does he not know that he is supposed to cower and grovel and beg to be let off. Does he not know that the only original I am interested in has a portrait of Gandhiji). Meanwhile I was in splits - every paper I had handed him were the scan and print variety, the Driving license, the Registration Certificate, everything. Only difference was the DL and RC were colour prints while the insurance was a B&W print.
Once we turn onto NH6 (Bombay Road) as it is known locally, the traffic increases and gets thicker as one approaches CCU. NH 6 merges into NH2 seamlessly and the main indication that we are on NH2 is that the traffic has increased even more. When we were going towards Panagarh that evening, there was an endless line of lights going towards Kolkata. The NH2 or Delhi Road or Durgapur Expressway is an excellent road and traffic keeps moving steadily till Panagarh town. Panagarh bazar is a bottleneck and part of it is caused by the turnoff taking us to the North.
Once onto NH34 at Moregram, the road is good and of decent width. The lush fields, canals, streams, rivers, lakes and railway lines give us enough to look at. What is more entertaining than the varied landscape is the local transport. The way those poor trekkers are packed with commuters is a wonder. The people seem to have learnt the art of fitting themselves into 1 sq.in of space and are quite happy travelling by lodging a little toe into some toehold anywhere. One guy of course did not need any hold and was merrily cruising along standing on the bonnet! Arun and I stared at him with mouths agape (then Arun recovered enough to grab a shot of him with his camera).
The road narrows as one nears Malda. We were proceeding along this bit with a canal on our right when we spot a pile-up of traffic in front, buses and lorries lined up neatly in the left lane and slowly, rickshaws, taxis and cars forming a line in the right (wrong) lane. We proceeded to slowly get to the head of the queue by judiciously sqeezing throgh gaps on the wrong side of the road when we are passed by an Amby overtaking us at full clip on the shoulder of the road which resembled a 4X4 challenge track. Reminded us of the Ambys are capable of and Arun immediately got an idea for a project - Why not build a 4X4 Amby. Sounds like a good idea to me.
Soon we found the cause for the jam. A lorry had fallen into the canal and was being pulled up & towed away. Soon after the mishap stricken lorry was towed past us I happened to notice a sudden movement under a lorry heading in the opposite direction and to my horror saw his prop shaft fall to the ground. Well, I guess that meant that the jam would not clear in a hurry and people were stuck till the second lorry was towed away too (there is no space on the side of the road to push it aside).
Once past the congested Malda we proceeded past Raigunj and stopped outside the Kulik bird sanctuary. The helpful local tea/garam doodh wala told us not to waste our time and money by going into the sanctuary as there were no birds, this not being the season. Since we were not interested in watching the love-birds transported by 2 wheels that seem to haunt the place in the off season we got going after a cup of tea and some biscuits.
Turned right at Dalkola (Is this in WB or Bihar) and stopped soon after at a Ghar Dhabha for Diesel and lunch. The Diesel was fine, the food was not and by evening we were feeling some uneasiness in the stomach.
The broad dual carriageway NH31 was a relief after the narrow NH34. There are several places where the NH31 is barely a 2 lane single carriageway. From the looks of it, the approach ramps to two overbridges/flyovers collapsed as soon as they were built or even before they were completed and these two places are serious bottlenecks. Our progress though was quite fast and we were soon in Bagdogra and looking forward to checking into the hotel in Siliguri before nightfall. These hopes were soon dashed to the ground as we ran into a huge mass of traffic that moved at a snails pace, if at all and we checked into the hotel only after 7.00 p.m.
The Central Plaza in Siliguri is very conveniently located just off the NH31. The rooms are just about adequate. The food in the restaurant is quite decent and their rossogollas are great. The staff are least helpful and their tagline seems to be "It is not my job".
ADC and family came in around 2.00 a.m. and we promised to catch up sometime in the morning. In the morning ADC had a whale of a surprise for us. All of us were invited to his cousin's house for breakfast. I was quite speechless, I had communicated with ADC over PMs and the phone a few times, I met him for the first time in my life at 2.00 a.m. that morning and his cousin (who had no idea who we were) had invited us home for breakfast at 7.00! What a breakfast it was, the board was truly groaning under the weight of that delicious spread. Hungry travellers that we were, starved for home cooked food, tempted by that sumptuous fare - we tucked in shamelessly. ADC's cousin and family must think we are absolute gluttons. I take this opportunity to thank on behalf of all of us, that wonderful family for welcoming us, four strangers, so warmly into their home for a real feast.
That was not the only warm surprise in store for us that day. Over the previous day or two Sutripta sir had been in touch and was trying to co-ordinate things between him and us, so that we could meet him somewhere near Jalpaiguri. I SMSed him as soon as we finished b'fast and we met him within the hour, just past a level crossing after Jalpaiguri. What an honour it was, to be met so early in the morning at some point on a highway not close to either his home or ours. Sutripta sir, we are truly touched by your gesture and shall forever cherish it. Thanks also for giving us so much guidance and help.
In our minds, Siliguri was some kind of a watershed. We expected that the scenery would change after that, we also expected the journey to be different as well as the driving. We were not disappointed. Perhaps I should take a break now and let Nazim do the honours with the pics.
Cheers, |