The Bengaluru to Imphal Drive (part 1)

The Bengaluru to Imphal Drive

25^th July 2015 to 2^nd Aug 2015

It was December 2000, when I first reached Bengaluru. I had just graduated from my PG Diploma course. Things were new and things looked pretty exciting. My brother and I moved into a house in Lingarajpuram and that is where it all started; our Bengaluru sojourn.

Cut to 2016, and this city had given us both the freedom and all the moments that one could ever ask for. From bad to good to worst, it was all there. I got into a world where I thought I could never be. Made some lifelong friends and collected almost a million years worth of memories. It was a life that had its own pros and cons. While it was good in socializing and having a great time, the warmth and love of a family was always missing. Here we were, two boys, completely cut off from the feeling called family. The family “connection” was only through phone. And it had taken its toll by the time I realized. I was way far disconnected from my parents. I could not relate to anything that was happening to them. I was drifting away.

The love was always there. There is no doubt about it. There was something missing. Always.

How much could you talk on the phone?

So, why don’t you call them here?

Oh yeah, I did try that one. They would have surely come and stayed with us for the rest of their lives but to ask someone to leave a place where they were born and lived for more than half a century? That was a little too much for me. Asking them to adjust to a lifestyle alien to them? And knowing them, I knew it was a tough ask.

But I had to do something about it. Dad was explicit in making his feelings heard. “You bloody come back”, that was what he said. Mom was the understanding one. How can you just drop everything there and come back? But yes, it will be good if someone is here at home out of the three of you.

So? What now?

Elder son’s dilemma? Or something else? I had to decide.

It was during my trip in April 2015 when I saw a lot of things which were hidden from me. Things that made me realize that it would not have happened had I been here. Things that made me realize how lonely my parents were. It just hit me really hard. I wanted to come back and be with them for as long as I could. 20 years of staying away from them had made a huge dent in my life. That’s it, I am coming back.

In between all of it, I made the biggest decision of my life. I proposed Jaya and she said yes. Then I got stumped. Marriage was never on the cards until I met her. Dated several women in my life but never really wanted to get married, dodged several bullets, as a friend of mine put it, could not dodge this one. My parents were super happy. I could see that they really wanted me to get married. And I did not want to get married just like that and then come back to Bengaluru, leaving my parents again. Let them have the pleasure and happiness of having a daughter-in-law at home. However, the wedding was scheduled in November 2015.

And then it all came down to what do I do? The question was what am I going to do for a living once I return? Job? What kind of job? Self-employ? What? What about the law and order situation of Manipur? Will I be able to adjust? Open a shop? What kind of shop? And sell what? How do I earn?

You know what? Fuck it. Let’s just go and see what happens?

I mean, isn’t that what I have done all these years? Just do and think later.

What about my black beauty? Should I sell the car? Nope. No way.

Oh bloody hell, let’s drive.

Alone?

Yeah, if need be. Let’s see how it turns out. For now, let’s concentrate on disposing some of the stuffs that I will never need.

So, the packing and shipping of personal stuff that I would need back home, started by early July. I packed everything I could and sent that stuff through the good old Indian postal service. Then the farewell parties started. As soon as I broke the news to my dearest friend Deepak, he looked at me and said, “You must be crazy to drive that distance”. In fact I actually had asked him if he would like to join. Bugger said no. During that time around, one of my uncles with whom I was raised, was in town for some work. He is about 2 years older to me, more of a friend than an uncle. So, I asked him if he would like to give me company. He was like, ok.

All set and done; parties over, farewells and all done, we started our long journey on the 25^th of July 2015 and I am typing about the trip exactly a year later. I could have written down everything then and there, but I did not want to do that. I wanted to see how much I could recollect the journey after a year.

I would be lying if I say I was not scared of the journey ahead. I was pretty scared and had no idea what lay ahead. However, I was pretty sure that this is going to be something that I will remember till I die.

Day one:

Bengaluru to Nizamabad

It was already noon when I woke up after the last farewell party. After a good breakfast, we headed out for the highway at about 12:30 PM. It was a normal chaotic Bengaluru road till the airport. That was the first toll booth of many to come. Soon we were in Andhra Pradesh, our second state out of the 10 that I plan to cover. I did not want to do the normal east coast road. Instead, I wanted to cut right across the central part of India and then turn right. So, the plan was to drive through Hyderabad then to Nagpur then to Jabalpur then to Varanasi then to Siliguri then to Guwahati and then to Imphal. That was the rough map that I had in mind. No GPS to track. That was the plan.

The Planned route map.

My partner in crime, Mr Romi, a.k.a “Spark” is a policeman by profession and a lover of anything that contains alcohol. He was my sidekick for this journey. I intended to drive alone all the way. Let’s see how it goes.

It was about 2 or 2:30 in the afternoon when we stopped for lunch at Anantapur in Andhra Pradesh. Saw a lovely temple with a different design. Don’t know whose temple it was but it was a good looking temple. Here is the picture

The temple at Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh

After a good lunch, we headed off towards Hyderabad, expecting to reach there by 8 PM or so. We were not in any hurry. There was no deadline; there was no minimum speed to maintain; no nothing. We stopped whenever we wanted; I drove at whatever speed I wanted. However, the only thing was, we wanted to reach a city and find a hotel before 10PM.

The NH7 was bathing in the orange light of the dropping sun when we saw the board which said “Hyderabad 60 Kms”. Then I thought; another hour or so and then we will be in Hyderabad. Find a hotel, eat some nice Hyderabadi biryani and have a nice sleep. Nice idea? Hmmm. Not quite.

Trucks! And more trucks, that is all we saw on the highway. Trucks of different length, width and height; and all of them drove as if they own the road. They control the pace of the highway. Well almost. And then it was there, the most dreaded thing that I wanted to avoid, the thing that I was used to in Bengaluru for every single day. Wait, hang on a second. May be Hyderabad has a different flavor to it. May be it will keep moving at least. No, it is not. It is the same thing as Bengaluru. How can traffic jam be different from city to city? It is all freaking same, everyone honking and trying to cut through each other, everyone is in a hurry. Dang!

It was already 9 PM when we managed to reach the ring road of Hyderabad. It was a relief to drive on that road. What was it, 4 or 6 lanes on each side? Whatever! It was a super wide road. And it seemed like it will never end. I kept driving on that road like an eternity. We completely avoided the city by taking that road, which was good. By the time we reached the other highway towards Nizamabad, Hyderabad was way behind.

Then the hotel hunt started.

It was getting late and I started to think that we may not get a place to crash. Above that, the call of the alcohol god had already started. So we needed to find a place as soon as we can. But then again, we were too hungry. Let’s eat first.

We stopped at a Punjabi dhaba just outside Hyderabad. There we asked about lodging and stuff but there was none. The only place that we could find will be in Nizamabad; that was the word that we got from the people around. How far is Nizamabad? Another hour or so.

Ok. Let’s eat. Where is the Daaru? (alcohol) No Daaru available. What? Are you crazy? I asked. No sir, some election is there so no daaru today, the waiter replied nicely. However if you can drink in the car I will get the stuff for you, said the waiter. Or if you want to drink in the dhaba then you would need to drink in steel glasses and secretly. See? This country is the best. You get to bend anything and everything. Drinking alcohol in steel glasses at an open dhaba? and that too without people noticing you? That sounds interesting. Let’s do this.

My energy level was still great. All thanks to the 2 Red Bulls I had during the day. It was about 11 PM when we started driving towards Nizamabad.

Empty roads and the ever present stray dogs greeted us when we arrived at Nizamabad. The best place to find a hotel is near the railway station. So, we headed straight for the railway station, a good 15-20 kms away from the main highway.

And then, there it was; our first hotel in the journey, Indur Inn, managed by the Telangana Tourism. Oh, we were in the newest state of India. We woke up the guard and we checked in. The receptionist asked for our ID cards. I showed my PAN card and “Sparky” showed his driver’s license. To that, the receptionist looked at him and demanded to see his passport, thinking that he is a foreigner. “Sparky” looks like an alien. Maybe that was why the receptionist asked for his passport. He showed his police ID card and then it was done. We had a good laugh till we reached our room.

We called it a night at about 1AM and “Sparky” had to go through the nightmare of bearing my snoring.

Next day, Nagpur beckons

Day 2

Nizamabad to Nagpur

Finding a hotel near a railway station is a good idea. I had a good sleep while Sparky was unable to sleep because of my stereophonic snoring through the night. Poor chap.

We checked out after breakfast. Next stop Nagpur.

It was normal city traffic till we reached the Highway. Incessant honking, zig zag driving, stopping wherever they want. Nizamabad wasn’t any different when it came to city traffic.

It was bliss once we hit the highway. And then we hit the first toll booth where the two dudes asked me where I was from. They thought I was a foreigner. Hee hee.

And then we saw this road.

I was hoping that the highway is like these all the way till Nagpur.

Oh no, it was not to be the case.

We crossed Telangana and as soon as we hit Maharashtra, we were greeted with a single lane highway, with a bullock cart crawling on the highway.

Few kilometers inside Maharshtra, the single lane highway continued for a while. I almost broke my back literally while navigating on that road. We decided to have lunch. And as it would have it, every dhaaba is distinct in this country. Take a look at the menu card.

Good lunch and then we headed out. The single lane highway gave way to a swanking 4 lane highway after some time. It was 4 lanes all the way till Nagpur.

It was about 5 PM when we arrived at Nagpur, the city of oranges as they say. The hotel hunt ended at a hotel called Hotel Gujarat. Now, that is nice. A hotel named Gujarat in the state of Maharashtra.

A friend had asked me to call her once we reach Nagpur.

“OK” get ready, we are going to a friend’s place. I said.

What? Sparky replied.

Going to have dinner at a friend’s place, I am going to call her in a while, now get ready. I said.

Now, Sparky isn’t a social animal, you see. He was named sparky after Mr.Spoke of star trek. I knew he will feel out of place if we go to my friend’s place. I was thinking, my back hurt, and then I saw the watch. It was 8PM already.

Alright, it’s too late now, let’s go find some food.

A few meters in front of the hotel, there were many restaurants which sold both veg and non veg items. And then Jaya called. I forgot to call her all these while. I could not speak to her properly yesterday due to signal reception problems. She was keeping tab of where I was and the trip. She was more excited than me, I guess.

While I was speaking on the phone, sparky was not be found. Dang, where is he?

I hung up the phone and started searching for sparky. And I knew the only place I could find him was going to be the nearest bar. There he was; sparky buying booze for the night.

Dude, let’s go, we got a long day ahead tomorrow. I don’t expect the roads to be good once we cross into Madhya Pradesh.

Day 3

Nagpur to Varanasi

We woke up fresh. Sparky was able to sleep after 2 days. We wanted to start early but were not able to. I messaged my friend that I wasn’t able to call her last night. My back was ok in the morning.

This was going to be the longest drive of the whole journey. I was planning to drive all the way till Varanasi, which seemed to be possible when we left Nagpur and hit the 4 lane highway. My thoughts were shattered beyond recognition when we were greeted my Madhya Pradesh with a Single lane highway leading to the Pench Tiger Reserve forest.

The plan was, if we are not able to make it all the way till Varanasi, we could stop at either Jabalpur but then again we would cross Jabalpur much earlier in the day.

Alright whatever, I will keep driving.

After a while, it was time for lunch.

And here we are enjoying the khatiya.

Oh by the way, that is Mr. Sparky with the killer haircut.

And here is the lone single guy running the dhaba.

OK, lunch over, time to drive again.

The single lane highway was going to continue till Varanasi and I could not drive any faster because of all the cows on the road and the numerous villages that we crossed. I was driving at a maximum of 50 Km/hr. and that was not going to make us reach Varanasi anytime soon.

The sun was setting and we had to find a hotel. We could not find any till about 9 PM. We continued to drive till we reached a town called Rewa. I decided to take a turn from the highway and check out the town. Few kilometers in and then we found a hotel.

We managed to check but there was nothing for us to eat. We literally begged the restaurant to give us some food. We got some rice and daal to eat finally. We were saved for the day.

Day 4

Rewa to Varanasi.

The next day was a bright sunny day. I decided to stop for breakfast as soon as we hit the highway. I did not want to eat at the restaurant. So, off we were and then we were greeted with the ever increasing nonstop construction that is happening in this country. The whole country seems to be under construction.

Those iron rods did not damage my car tyre actually. Oh did I tell you which car was I driving?

That black Maruti Suzuki Swift vxi 2008 model is what I was driving. My black beauty as I named her. She was with me since June 2008 and I was not letting go of her that soon. She was going all the way to my home town. She had already done more than 98500 kilometers in the odometer when I started from Bangalore. One glance at the odometer and it showed more than 99000+ kilometers and I was heading into the holy city of Varanasi where my black beauty will hit one lakh on the odometer. This was great. Then again, look at the condition of the NH7 heading into Varanasi.

I wanted to take some pictures as I cross the mighty Ganges but in the sheer awe of the bridge and the might of the river, I completely forgot to take any pictures of the bridge or the river. And then it happened.

I hit one lakh kilometers on the odometer. What a feeling. Phew.

We arrived at Varanasi pretty early. Checked into a hotel and rested a while. Sparky wanted to rest and I wanted to reach the ghat as soon as I can. However, it had rained heavily before we reached Varanasi. The river water had risen because of that. The evening prayer at the ghat is a sight to watch. By the time I reached the ghat, the water was almost at the top of the ghat. Here is the end to the day.

As I drifted to my sleep that night, I wondered what was in store for us in Bihar.


Here is Part 2