THE TRIP ON WHEELS TO OUR NEIGHBOURING COUNTRY NEPAL

One of the most adventurous & fun-filled trips we had during the summer of 1998 in the month of May, was the one we took from New Delhi to Nepal with our children. The boys had joined us at Delhi for the summer vacation. At that time, as I was busy with my Project work at Mother Dairy, I never found much time to spend with my family. So, when I was planning to drive down to Muzzafarpur on an official tour, to meet some suppliers and vendors, I suggested to my wife Geeta & the boys, whether they would like to join me. They were only too excited about the trip ahead. Thus we set off in our Contessa along with our Cook cum Man Friday Ravi, as he wanted to be dropped at Bihar to meet his old parents.

We passed through Moradabad---Sitapur---and reached Lucknow by night. Since I had to maintain my appointment for the meeting the next day, I promised my wife to take her to the holy shrine of Kashi Vishwanatha at Varanasi, on our way back to New Delhi. At around 11.00 pm, we had dinner at a Dhaba and proceeded with the journey. We made a makeshift bed on the rear seat and the boys slept snuggled between the pillows along with Ravi. My wife kept me company, as I am very particular that whoever sits in the front seat shall not fall asleep, while I drive through the night. I normally cruise at 120 - 130 kmph. We kept singing Antakshari rounds & played word-building games to keep ourselves alert. Since I don’t smoke, I keep zarda paan & bubble gum handy to keep me alert and awake. My wife kept chatting endlessly & when she gets tired, she plays the Hanuman Chalisa cassette and chants along. In between, to ensure that I am alert, she passes on the towel soaked with water to wipe and freshen up my face. The moment she became inactive, I sensed that my partner was dozing off. The wet towel application on her face brought her back to senses again.

The most beautiful scene of the sunset at dusk time & the sunrise at dawn is so captivating. My wife being a connoisseur of art, enjoys the entire gamut of changing colours in the sky, as well as admires and revels at the simple lifestyle of the villagers we come across on the highway. What a calm and peaceful life they share with natures’ flora and fauna, she exclaims with awe!!! By dawn, we reached the borders of Bihar. We then took a break and stopped by a rivulet and completed all our ablutions. We then stopped by for tea and also had local desi breakfast. Later on the roads started to get bumpy, as they were full of potholes and craters all along. Our tyres started giving us problems due to frequent punctures…. we had some 2-3 flat tyre situations ride on that bumpy stretch. The sultry-summer heat slowly started taking its toll on us and we were getting so irritated with the road conditions of Bihar…. it looked as though the Bihar Government never bothered about the relaying of tar roads on the N.H Roads!!! The locals too were lamenting about their plight!!! We had some lunch from a nearby Dhaba, had some tea, freshened ourselves and proceeded to the city. We went through some narrow lanes “Gallies” & thought we should ask someone for guiding us to Patna city. To our surprise they said that we were right in the city!! Good God!!! We were expecting the city to be much better. Since I didn’t want to waste any time, (we had lost considerable time in fixing punctures), I decided to drive on into the night. The sultry weather was getting on to our nerves inspite of the A/C in the car, because we had to fix the tyre punctures and we felt that we badly wanted to have a bath, inspite of the dip in the rivulet early morning. So we checked in at a fairly decent hotel we could find there with the help of our cook Ravi, who knew that place better. We all had our shower and took a light break, as unexpectedly Ravi’s father came to see us as per the prior intimation he received from his son, to see the Boss & family. By then it was 7.30 pm. We thought of having dinner there itself. Leaving Ravi behind, we proceeded to Muzzafarpur.

We checked in at a hotel at Muzzafarpur early Friday morning. I freshened up, leaving the family behind at the hotel to relax and take rest, while I went to meet my suppliers and vendors. As is normally the case in Bihar, there were some demonstrations staged by some local political groups, resulting in the offices and factory establishments to close, for fear of causing any possible untoward incident. My suppliers profusely apologised for this unfortunate turn of events and said that the discussion and product samples could only be looked into on Monday. So it was a waste of time spending the weekend in a small town like Muzzafarpur. I took the road map and my eyes fell on the word Nepal and lo - I took a spot decision to proceed to Nepal for the weekend rather than loitering around in Muzzafarpur. The moment I got back to the hotel, I shared this idea with my family and they were naturally thrilled beyond words. This thought was too tempting and so we checked out and were off to Nepal. I say chaps; my family was on CLOUD-9 at the thought of driving down to another foreign country in our Contessa without passport or visa issues.

The only route finder was an old road map that belonged to my Dad, who too was an ardent traveller, who loved to drive down in his own car, than travel in other mode of transport. I guess I inherited that trait from Dad. My wife chalked out the route and kept guiding me, to take up the road to Motihari and then to Raxaul. On the way, we bought lots of freshly plucked Lechee fruits, from a wayside village market, which my dear partner kept peeling and popping it into my mouth at regular intervals. We crossed the Raxaul border and had to report to the Border Security Forces of both the Indian and Nepalese Government and answer to a whole lot of questionnaires in respect of the purpose of our visit, more so since our car bore Tamilnadu registration and we did not have our passports with us. I had to really excel in my PR skills to convince them about our genuine intentions of a visit to Nepal. The time was around 6.00 pm. Finally; we were permitted entry into the Nepalese Gateway. The initial taste of Success brought about a spontaneous outburst from both the boys, who yelled out in one breath YAHOO!!!!! With the old map spread up on her lap, my wife guided the route uphill. We passed through very broad smooth, beautiful Chinese laid concrete roads, (which were in direct contrast to the crater ridden Bihar roads) with serene natural landscape topography and it took us quite a while to come to terms that we were actually on foreign soil. We were cruising between 120 – 130 kmph. after a long time. By the time we started climbing uphill, it was past 8.00 pm and it wore a totally deserted look and the weather too was quite chill, when compared to the humid Muzzafarpur weather. We badly wanted to munch on to something and pulled outside a kiosk from where we could get biscuits, chips, sandwiches, and delicious Nepalese tea. That was the first time we paid in Nepalese currency (100 INR = 160 Nepali Rupees). The feeling was unique and unparalleled as we flaunted bundles of Nepalese currency with a newfound pride. We checked with the local guys with regard to the route and they nodded in agreement. After that we kept climbing up, taking hairpin bends, with ease, passing through small wooden bridges. I somehow got a feeling that we may have taken the wrong route and may have been misunderstood at the kiosk, but then there was absolutely not a soul around except for our vehicle and so we had no choice but to go along. We could spot out silhouettes of rising mountains on either side, created solely from the light beaming out of our car headlamps. There were a few small shack like houses scattered here and there with not even a ghost around. The weather was chill and it started to drizzle too. We kept on climbing up ghat section, we saw some men who appeared to be Nepali soldiers with rifles at different posts. On seeing them, we felt that we were on the right path to Kathmandu. Soon, the road started becoming more and more narrow and we could find no proper road. Suddenly hit gravel road. It was around 11.00 pm, when we reached a place very much on the top of the hill, at a higher inclined plane; where our car refused to climb any further. It was an almost impossible steep inclined curve; the road of mud and gravel started becoming slippery, due to the rain and gave away under the wheels!!! My wife and kids got out of the car thinking, perhaps the reduction in their weight would enable the car to pull up further and take up the steep hairpin bend. It was a tough time negotiating the Contessa through those tricky narrow slippery curves. It was still drizzling and it looked as though it was going to rain heavily, taking a cue from the gusty chilly winds that was blowing. It was pitch dark and we couldn’t see anything if the lights of the car were switched off. My wife and the kids drenched in the rain, started pushing the car upwards, as I accelerated hard to keep the car going upwards, while my family was frantically pushing the car. But the car kept sliding backwards. My wife panicked and she started frantically calling for God’s help. Later she explained that in her fear, seeing the outline of the gorge below and the mountains on all sides, she prayed for dear life and drew courage when she heard the temple bells ringing somewhere. We knew that there was no road forward and since it started giving away under the weight of the car, there was no point of trying to go upwards. As the exercise was futile, I managed to somehow gain control over the wheel and steered it around to bring the car back on a downward journey. We felt that we were lost in the wilderness with nobody to guide us, but we strongly felt God’s grace was there with us - otherwise we would have never been there to narrate this experience, cause a slip would have sent us tumbling down the deep gorge. Later we retraced our path downward, thinking we would perhaps never make it to see Kathmandu. We passed through the wooden bridge and luckily we saw a Nepali guy coming out of a shed. It was like providence to see a person after having undergone the entire ordeal. I stopped the car and enquired whether the road we left behind was the right route to Kathmandu? That man said to our amazement, that it was a very unsafe and dangerous route that we took as it was a place where landslides occur and it was essentially a mining area. He then directed us and we were back on our journey. We had committed some error in locating the right route from the old map leading to Kathmandu. We took the wrong turn from a certain point, which lead us to this treacherous terrain.

Finally we were on the right path, as we could see better roads and army men in their raincoats on their routine beat patrol. They stopped our car and enquired as to where we were proceeding. We furnished the details and narrated that we had lost our way. They were quite helpful in giving us proper guidance and we were allowed to proceed on our trip. Finally, around 2.00 am, we reached Kathmandu and checked in at a 3 Star Hotel - Blue Diamond. We got a very comfortable and cosy double room. The Manager of the hotel was kind enough to arrange some food at that unearthly hour, which we gulped ravenously and the next thing we knew was that we hit the sack, longing for a good tight sleep, only to wake up with renewed energy in the morning and go around to see places in Nepal. Next morning, we woke up at around 9.00 am to see the snow capped Himalayan mountains in the horizon. It was a fun filled and enjoyable weekend at Nepal. Our family was so happy that the Indian rupee had more value in Nepal and we were proud to have more foreign currency. We had roasted wild boar with rice wine. We had a guide who works with NGC. So he took us to a lot many places and we had exotic Nepalese food not to forget the Farmer’s meal. We also met the Princess ‘Kumari’, who is considered as a child god. The boys and my wife were on a shopping spree. The Nepal setting was itself so serene and that it made people lazy as we saw lot of locals loitering around or idling their time sitting on the pavements or on the steps. It was the era of the erstwhile-assassinated king and his family, who were then ruling Nepal and the Nepalese were enjoying a peaceful lifestyle. We bought Kukris, wooden masks; an assortment of Nepalese specially carved curios and went to the Casinos at night. We made some money gambling, which we spent on shopping. We went to Buddhist temple where Lord Buddha’s bones are said to have been kept. We bought genuine rudhraksha and went to the famous Pasupathi Shiva temple. We witnessed the beautiful sunset amidst the snow-capped mountains in Pokra. The boys longed to get a view of the Yak and Yeti It was real fun for the entire family throughout the weekend eating Nepalese delicacies and making merry.

We slept early on Sunday and started early on Monday morning at 4.00 am back to India. The boys were a little bit off moods as they suddenly found all good times come to an end. Nevertheless, they soon got over it and started to enjoy the picturesque natural scenic beauty as we drove along back to the border cruising at the usual 120 – 130 kmph. highway speed. We had good sumptuous Nepali breakfast at a wayside restaurant and soon reached the Indo - Nepal border by around 9.00 am. Bade farewell to Nepal and it was wonderful to be back on Indian soil. We reached Muzzafarpur and checked in to the same hotel. Relaxed for a few hours had a good lunch and set out to meet my suppliers and vendors. I finished my work by 6.00 pm came back to the hotel, freshened up and then we were on our way back to New Delhi.

Our first major halt was at Patna, where we had our dinner and then continued to proceed to Varanasi. After we left Patna, we took a different route to avoid the craters and potholes and somewhere along the way, we were stopped by a police patrol party and the DSP advised us to go back and stay at Patna and travel in the day time, as it was absolutely dangerous to travel with family at night in that stretch of 120 kms road, on account of a very high probability of getting waylaid by armed highway robbers and dacoits, risking the lives of the entire family. Even trucks & other vehicles pulled up in a long line, reluctant to cross this place. I had to be in New Delhi on Wednesday and so there was no question of staying back at Patna. The DSP finally agreed to allow me to pass through, though at my risk and said that he would alert the police patrol in the area. The adventurer in me churned inside me & I drove with a determination to face whatever hurdles may come our way. My dear wife was reluctant to the idea of driving at night in that dangerous route, but the boys were only too thrilled to encounter the bandits in flesh and blood!!! My wife disguised herself like a Sardar with the false moustache and beard, which my son had bought from a roadside hawker at Red Fort, New Delhi and she used the shawl as a turban. The idea was to give the bandits an impression that the car was full of male occupants. She was trembling amidst chanting mantras and praying to all possible deities that came across her mind, to ward off all evils! To top it all, she had a small penknife in her trembling hands, to defend herself from the dacoits. My sons were ready to face the robbers, with the leather whips, (hunter) they purchased from Agra and the Nepali Kukri.. I chuckled myself silently, seeing the entire preparation and my wife’s naivety, all that I could do was to only boost their morale. There was not a soul around on that stretch of road. It was pitch dark, the only light being from our car’s headlight. I decided to pace up the road and cover as fast as I could, cruising at the usual 120 – 130 kmph. All along my wife, having exhausted herself calling all the Gods and Goddesses, then began to regret why on earth she ever married me and why the Gods stood as mute witnesses to our marriage, – had we not got married, she would never ever had to face the dacoits, who would in all probability, molest and kill her and her sons etc, etc, and so on and so forth. I had the dual task of putting up with all this rhetoric and histrionics, plus focus on the highway and muster all courage to handle any kind of emergency situation that may arise. As we crossed half way, we could sense another car following us, by virtue of their headlamp beams falling on our car. My wife’s chanting, regretting and crying almost ceased, when she realised that we were being followed. We were expecting the worse to happen and I steadied at 140 kmph, leaving the car following us, way back behind us. The car behind us was trying to keep pace with us, but in vain. Finally, by the grace of God, we crossed the stretch without any incident whatsoever and when we pulled over into a petrol bunk, the trailing car also pulled over. It was then that we came to know that they were also a family and wanted us to keep them company on that pitch-dark risky road. Both the families had a good laugh as we thought them to be the dacoits and they wanted to be close to us in an emergency. We heaved a sigh of relief, when we reached the petrol pump after crossing the check post, ending the treacherous stretch of road. That was some adventure I swear.

After refreshing ourselves with some hot coffee and biscuits, we set forth to reach Varanasi, which we did at around 3.30 am. The Kashi Vishwanath temple was heavily guarded with armed policemen and we were stopped at every junction, questioned and screened, before we were allowed to enter the precincts of the temple. We were however fortunate to have darshan of the Lord, as there happened to have a marriage, to be solemnised at 4.45 am. and hence there was this unusual activity. The boys were fast asleep in the makeshift bed in the rear seat made for them and so they could not partake getting darshan of the Lord. I then got my quota of zarda paans made at Varanasi and we then left Varanasi for Lucknow at 4.30 am. Two hours later, we halted by a water body, completed our morning ablutions, freshened up and the got going. We had poori / alloo subzi for breakfast and then went on to have a sumptuous lunch at the 5 Star Hotel Clarke Avadh. From Lucknow, it was a non-stop drive to New Delhi, stopping occasionally for biological breaks, tea and dinner breaks. We reached New Delhi at around 1.30 am on Wednesday.

Summing it all up, this was an excellent business cum pleasure trip with the added last minute bonus of a foreign trip to Kathmandu, Nepal.