week 12 logs

dekho madarchod muth raha hain. jai ho.


















12 weeks on the road - feels surreal.

Day 78 jul 10 fri
Varanasi
0 km - 8330 kms

Wake up and bathe before leaving for the Panchtirti yatra – unsure whether to walk it out (too long and hot), take the boat (expensive), or take cycle rickshaw. Head out to Assi ghat for the first of five points. The southern end of the ganga ghats where the Assi river meets the Ganga. Varanasi is called so coz it lies between the Varana and Assi rivers. Take quick photo, give bag to richshaw guy and go take dip. Do gayatri and mahamrityunjaya mantras. Quick in and out – never done this before. Decide to stick to cycle rickshaw yatra who is either called Ram or Rahim.

Head back to Dashashwamedh ghat for second point. Little slower – getting the hang of it. Focus on whom to pray for. Mostly ananya’s dad only.
Next stop is Adi Kesava ghat and no one knows where or what it is. We think it’s the Adi Kesava temple – it has to be where the Varana meets the Ganga. People direct us to varana ghat which happens to be 13 kms north. The sun is up and the cycle guy keeps at it. Reach a ghat after asking 15 people who know or point to some arbit ghat. Reach the ‘Varana ghat’ which is labeled Lal Bahadur Shastri Ghat. Look up GPRS internet, asks people at the hanuman temple at the LBS ghat. No use. Finally one man who thinks he knew calls someone and confirms. It’s near Raj ghat, near a college. We head back into town but different direction and finally after 2 hrs, find it.

See the temple, ask the pujari to open the door for darshan. He tells story of the place – How Shiva when he got bored here (Kasi is called land of Shiva) headed for Mt. Kailash for tapasya. The king Adi Devdas? didn’t allow anyone else to come into town. So Brahma-Vishnu gang up and send the 33 crore devas in human form. But King was too smart. Point is none of these deva-humans left Kasi. BraVish get perturbed and Vishnu comes to town, manifesting at this ghat. He decides to talk to Shiva and Shiva agrees to come to town. Vishnu throws Sudharshan chakra which falls at Manikarnika ghat. Then onwards, Manikarnika to Assi was Shivpuri and Manikarnika to Adi Kesava was Vishnupuri. Vishnu installs a statue of himself and proclaims a darshan of this murti is equal to a darshan of all beings. – Do darshan and go do dubki.
Oh did I mention that visually it felt like walking into a gutter!

Next after some thums up and finding out that rickshaw guy name is Shyam, push up the cycle rickshaw up the slope and head to Panchganga. Reach Dashashwamedh ghat and drop bag in hotel. Saurabh still there, but heads off to BHU. Meet Chucky and find out that he has been forbidden to take money from us by Uncle-Aunt! I head off to finish panchtirti to Panchganga. Its mid afternoon, hot, still, and not many people around. Dubki. Walk to final stop – manikarnika ghat, where all the dead get burnt to attain moksha- shortcut I say. Walk past 5 burning bodies, with two more being Ram naam satyaed in. Take dubki – doing the Jaggi V thing of self, family, friends, world, universe circles.

Go have lunch and sweet dahi from the kali mandir ke saamne sweet shop where we had the famous benaras rabdi yesterday. Rabdi only in the evening. Head back to hotel and take a good scrubby bath, before passing out.

Wake up in the evening, and sort photos while laptop is being charged, while Saurabh goes to see ganga puja from the boats. Head out to find cybercafe when I run into Saurabh near sweet shop. He sits and chats with the old man, while I talk to ananya on phone before charge runs out. Then uploads logs on blog, and photos, but leave in a while as we have to get back to lodge by 11. So go out to see Saurabh still at sweet shop; has made friends with the man; get free sweet to eat before heading back to lodge. Crash – have to wake up ‘early’ and leave for Bihar.

Day 79 jul 11 sat
Varanasi – Sarnath - Bodhgaya
NH2, NH56, NH83
269 km - 8599 kms
Wake up and pack. It’s raining outside, but once it slows down to a drizzle, we pack, say goodbye to new friend Rajnikanth (deputy manager types who said some deep things during tea time chats). Weave through the gullis, through people, cows, bikes and what not, till we reach main road; then more weaving through psychotic honker traffic to Sarnath – take 1 hr to do 12 kms.

Still drizzling as we reach Sarnath; finish tea when man approaches and says guide. We accept and head to see the sights. Hold umbrella for Saurabh while he takes photos. See the stupa, the different temples made by Japanese, thai and sri lankans. Seems like after Ashoka and gupta period, no Indian has bothered to do anything about the Buddhist religion. Ok maybe Ambedkar but that’s another story. Buys some books on Buddhism at a temple. Visit the museum – has stopped raining, but clothes wet, so freeze in the AC. Help out French family decipher some statues! – all this seeing India has enabled to identify some idols and periods – wah.

Leave for Bihar! Get onto NH2/Grand trunk road and belt across. The Grand Trunk Road, first started by Sher Shah (the guy who finally conquered Kalinjar but died doing it) is about 350 years old and cuts across India from Amritsar to Kolkatta. Cross a hugeass (3km? long bridge over a semi-dry river – the Son river). Stop just over the border and eat lunch, dahi pakodi with roti, at a dhaba. Explode into sweat – food loaded with chili, onion, and garlic. Head back on the road – almost fall asleep – hate highways. Lots of mud houses; poverty? But who knows – one only sees what they want to see. Lots of small hills; maybe all the mining has made them collapse in.

Am zooming along NH2, when I see a bunch of cops standing around a cop jeep
outside a desi aur vilayati sharab ka dukhan. One constable hails out, I go by, another
constable waves his dhanda at me; balls im stopping for cops outside an alco shop. No one following in rearview mirror, but increase from 80 to 85 kmph.

Bihar so far looks like a poorer version of UP – now that’s saying something. As we approach Bodhgaya, the light is amazing and the land is more fertile for some reason. A week ago, 35 people were killed by lightning in Bihar and Jharkhand! – so need to get indoors before dusk and the inevitable rain.

As we approach Bodhgaya, we see the sun hide behind some clouds and only a diagonal shaft of light beaming out towards land. We say someone is getting enlightened and zoom on. Enter Bodhgaya and do recce seeing the temples from the road, till we find the Welcome hotel and check in. There’s an internet café in the hotel itself, so go and upload the photos and organize. By 9.15 most of the shops are shut, so the momo place is shut; eat thukpa at the hotel restaurant and well, come up and update the logs.

Day 80 jul 12 sun
Bodhgaya
9 km - 8608 kms
Wake up mid morning. Leave to see the sites around 12. First is the Mahabodhi Mahavihara – Vihara/Bihar means monastery. Hire a guide who takes us around the 7 spots Buddha spent seven weeks after enlightenment. I’m not sure whether I have said this before, but the bodhi tree is not a different tree, but the peepal tree. Time and again, the usefulness of a guide makes itself clear. How much ever you read up and go, a guide always provides orientation, direction, and a little bit more; and you can always bargain, esp. off season, when you don’t look for them, they look for you.

Buddha basically spent time at seven different spots (clockwise direction) around the bodhi tree. First week – under the bodhi tree. Second week – stood under another closeby tree (now has a smaller temple) staring-nonstop unwinking single-pointed focus for one week at the bodhi tree. Third week - he walked around the tree and lotuses bloomed under his feet – whether he trampled them while walking around for a week is another tale. Fourth week - he sat at another point and meditated on the causal law. - 5th at another spot, where he tells a Brahman that man is not a Brahmana by birth, but by deeds. 5 different lights came out of his body (white, yellow, green, blue, red – the 5 colors of Buddhism – u can see it on all their flags). 6th week –sat meditating when thunderstorm broke out and the forest animals came out to protect him, esp. a snake that covered his head with its hood – there’s a lake there right now. 7th week, at another spot, where 2 burmese merchants give rice cake and honey offering and take refuge under him, leading to Buddham Saranam Gachami, Dhammam Saranam Gachami – Three pillars, represented by the circles atop the Buddhist places are first-buddham, second-dhammam (religion), third-sangam(community).
End of Buddhist history lesson. See photostory for sequence.

Head out after waving off people selling peepal leaves, wood and radium statues of Buddha.
Go to the other monasteries around the place – there’s sri lankan, Tibetan (4 of them), Japanese, Bhutanese, Bangladeshi, Vietnamese, thai etc. So many different stories painted on the walls; so many different buddhas, some fat, bony, princely. During a break Saurabh says we are in Sid’s land! (Sid for Siddharta- his preBuddha name, for the unknowing).

Around 5.30 reach a monastery where the prayers are going on. Meet a Buddhist from Calcutta (31 years in India and I don’t know a single Buddhist; strange considering 3,00,000 people converted to Buddhism along with Ambedkar). He’s a normal person who felt deeply when his father’s wish of seeing his son wear the robes was unfulfilled when he died. So he’s here now for the 3-day program!; apparently, you can do a 3-day, 7 day or 14,21 etc. day program when you wear the robes and follow the monk way. He was amazed about the artwork in the temple and how the Tibetans send their kids away as children to the monasteries – how Indian culture is different and even if the parents had crores and many kids, they find it impossible to send away a child – in most terms, forever.

Saurabh talks to a lady and gets invited to join the dinner – seems its an auspicious day and some feast is happening. When the prayers end, about 150 kids, from age 4 to 15? Walk out singing a prayer. We go for the dinner and after waiting around gingerly, join the end of the line and get the buffet meal – looks like Chinese – momos, boiled rice, chowmein, noodle soup, fried bhajiyas, boiled veggies, palak paneer, and a mango. Surprise was no water but a 500 ml choice between coke and mountain dew! There is some felicitation of some guests, and we also get a CD and a photo! Eat after a short prayer, but at 6.30 sharp, the kids start chanting something, which goes on and on and on. And ends at 7 – 30 mins of us clasping hands and listening to the chants. After the chants ended, some people finished their dinner!

Leave and head back to hotel and Internet. Saurabh goes to take pictures of the lit up temple at night. Check out Nepal, and slowly find out there’s a quite a bit to do. So yay. KP calls from umrica and chitchat happens. Says blog can be improved – well yes, but all the time at internet gets used up uploading photos and logs, and catching up a bit with the world. Least I can do is change to first person and improve formatting. Saurabh gets some sponsor friends for the trip, so some money coming in to aid our travels. All the sugar drunk keeps Jedi awake till late.
Did I mention our UP leg (Allahabad and Benaras) was sponsored completely by the Lamechs – yay for kind people. Thank you. Also to the others who gave generously during the giveaway/sale at Bangalore, and Dinesh and KP who have sent money to add more kilometers to mataozm. Thank you  Will name some hills after you, and pay back when and if I get a job.

Day 81 jul 13 mon
Bodhgaya – Rajgir
NH83, NH82
101 km - 8809 kms
Wake up late and update logs. Saurabh reads the Dhammapada. Leave hotel just by 12 pm check out time. Go see the 80 ft (64 ft + 6 ft lotus pedestal + 10 ft platform) Buddha in sitting dhyana position statue. Impressive – even with the two beehives formed under his eyes. The Japanese are behind this. Something keeps biting me in the right shoe; so take it out to find a black beetlebuggy thing fall out – its been damaged by my wriggling and is finding it difficult to walk. Normally I would have killed it to relieve it of its misery, now I’m not sure. I watch it till it wriggles out of sight. Note to self: Bang shoes not once, but twice on floor before wearing.

Leave for Rajgir and see more of Bihar. The mud houses are here too and lots of them. As you looked closer, you see houses that have brick walls, but just one brick thick; some have just bricks and no cement – just stacks of bricks and a roof. No plaster or paint – just bricks.

The land is green (it has rained quite a bit here), so the fields are lush, with the low mined out hills as background. Again, a closer look shows one cultivated field in 20 grass-growing fields. Many structures are abandoned or broken down. Feels a bit sad.
See a lot of palm trees – wonder why no coconut trees. Haven’t seen a single coconut tree for days now – last one was probably somewhere in Andhra Pradesh! Again strange, coz the favored offering at temples are coconuts – meaning all the coconuts used in all the temples in north India are imported?

Reach Rajgir by 3.30 and eat. Late lunch so overeat; decide to stay back and see Nalanda properly tomorrow and then head to Patna. Find out that the ropeway to the Worldpeace stupa closes bookings by 4, so buy tickets and go join the line. The cars are basically single seater chairs and getting on is a slightly dangerous proposition as the line of chairs keeps moving with a very short stop at a particular point – you time and get on or let it go and wait for the next one. It’s a nice long way up and the vista broadens with each pillar.

Reach the top and proceed to the stupa. Getting a bit tired of stupas, but it’s the worldpeace stupa made by the Japanese, so Om namo narayana. It’s a mordern stupa with no paintings or stuff. Walk around chanting ONNs. Keep hearing a drum go dum dum dum non stop, so check out the nearby Buddha temple (Buddha was against temples and wanted all temples razed to the ground!). Head back down and this time just watch the people – the men don’t care (almost all), the kids are either terrified and back in their chairs, or thrilled with glee on their faces, the women are scared and hold the grips hard. Bus loads of orange clothed people keep saying Bolo Bam on their way up. One little boy in orange holds the grips hard and says Bolo Bam with a serious face.
Ride around town trying to find a place – the lonely planet recco was too expensive, more than Hyderabad – so KMA. The next place was 150 bucks, woo hoo, but no three point plug, so sorry. The next place was 450 bucks, govt., and well we take it. Saurabh falls asleep. Jedi does weekly Monday evening mom call.

Buddism would have died out in India if not for the Sri Lankans and other east/south east asian countries. So what’s the oldest surviving religion on earth? What do the Greeks and Egyptians believe in?
Rajgir has another son imprisoning and killing father story – Ajaypatrasu and Bhimisara.

Emergency update: Bihar has so far been full of mosquitoes. The smartest purchase on this trip so far has been the mosquito liquid repellant. But have to remember to put it on before dusk, or rush to put it on when the mosquitoes attack in hordes. Two days in Bihar and already bites all over the body. But have to buy mosquito coils – whats the use of liquid repellant if there is no electricity.

Also television is central and northern India is mainly hindi channels, which is fine considering it’s the local language – haven’t seen English news in a month now. You have all sorts of hindi channels which is fine; but it will help to have atleast ONE English channel, so that you don’t have to spend money on sending your kids to VETA one day. Oh, there is one English channel everywhere without fail, and its Fashion TV! The only chance to listen to English on TV is one some programmes on DD, which I don’t think anyone watches anymore, except when the cable guy’s electricity goes off and you have a inverter/generator. Astha seems to be the channel with the most viewable program – ramdev giving a yoga talk to 100s somewhere. I like life – it is full of surprises; from a period when astha and the ilk would be skipped by without even a slight consideration, now can comfortably sit and watch and even contribute!
Sports news is only cricket, football, tennis, F1, and golf. How many people play golf in this country? I just don’t get it. Apparently they show FTII student films on the Doordarshan Lok Sabha channel.
The hottest program on Discovery? Is Man vs. Wild. Its like everytime that channel comes on, it’s the program running. Good program, though everything is handled and dusted within the show time period. Misleading, like everyone after watching lions and tigers on animal planet roar and leap in slow motion, expect to see a tiger in the only 2 hr safari they take during their weekend trips. But good program – khatre bhi asli, hero bhi asli.

Go have a late dinner. Kickass marwari thali. Return to see the sky light up – its so clear that you can see star clusters – I wonder if it’s a galaxy or a cloud; saurabh confirms it’s the milky way.

Check email and see one from someone from Tehelka, who wants to do something on people who travel as a way of life. Travel as a way of life; never really thought about it that way. Now that I think about it, it has always been part of life, but the why has evolved over the years or over trips. …

Day 82 jul 14 tue
Rajgir – Nalanda - Patna
NH82, NH31, NH30
115 km - 8924 kms
Wake up late again. Pack and leave. This time have brunch on time, well 12 pm is better than 3pm. See one schoolboy hit a smaller boy, who cries for a while, and Head out to Nalanda to see the one of the 3 greatest universities of its time. (Taxila, Nalanada, Bhaktapur) Buy the ticket when a guide approaches – 60 bucks - ok.
Enter to see a series of brick structures in different sizes. Find out that the bricks belong to 3 different periods and are not new bricks, but 1500 (Gupta), 1300 (Kannauj), and 900 (Pala) yr old. Wow. And to think the Delhi and Mumbai metros are crumbling while construction. Bhaktiyar Khilji in 1200 AD did the now expected razing! The books and buildings burnt for 6 months. On another note, I wonder if Buddha would have been a little happy, considering he wanted all temples to be razed, but Mahayana Buddhism

The British as usual excavated it, though only 1 sq. km., while the records according to Chinese scholar, traveler Huen Tsang mentions 10 by 14 km dimensions – had to be if it had to house and school 10000 students. Grass is growing on the structures; some of the excavations are at a stand-still – no funds the government says. Its true – why preserve old stuff when you can build new statues of yourself.
I wonder if the British hadn’t come, whether we would have any of our past left in India – like that zamindar in Sanchi who broke down the Ashoka pillar and used it to pound masalas – or all these new age Bhaktiyars who throw bottles in wells, scratch their names on walls (some use markers!) – or folks who break off part of a 900 yr old brick, SMELL it and throw it away.
I wonder why we are not taught these things in school. I try to remember my Civics lessons and all I can remember is about the parliament and democracy. Over this trip what I think should have been taught to me are:
1. Yoga asanas and pranayama
2. Ayurveda or naturapathy
3. Common trees, birds, animals of the country
4. Common road laws (when on highway use highbeam, but dip when approaching other vehicle; DO NOT OVERTAKE on curves)
5. Common rights (women - stuff like cops can’t arrest women between 6 pm and 6 am unless accompanied by woman cop; RTI)
6. History – Cultural history (complicated topic- but hey)..

An interesting bit was the admission into the university was controlled by the gatekeepers, who were so learned that they were called Dwarpundits. Aspirants would have to answer some questions by the dwarpandits to get admission.
After seeing the ruins we leave. Saurabh goes to check out the museum, while I sit outside and drink Limca. It has replaced Thums up as my preferred drink. Maybe because it has isotonic salts to quench your thirst; does it still?

Head off to Patna. See entire villages made of the brick only and nothing else structures. Stop at a 50 km ass break and a farmer/buffalo herder wanders by. Saurabh switches to his UP/Bihari accent and does chitchat. We find out that nearby is Nitish Kumar’s native village. As we approach Patna, lots of jeeps with kawariyas inside and atop them zoom past. Saawan is apparently Shiva’s month and major religious time, probably like Sabrimala time down south. Did I mention that the local transport jeeps in Bihar have been the most crowded. Stuffed inside and a mindboggling 20ish people on top. Try to mentally figure out how people sit on top- give up. Before I forget yet again, must mention the Tata Magic van – after jeeps the most popular vehicle on the road in MP, UP, and Bihar. I hadn’t even heard of it before this trip.

Stop just before entering Patna. Have chai and get directions from 3 different people on how to get to Fraser road. Find our way through Patna, which is like any other city, and check into Amar Hotel. Settle down and watch more Aashta, though there are 5 more religious channels; basically if ramdev is on, it stays on. Roomboy comes for dinner order; after what hmm for a while, we decide to order in. Find out justdial’s number 6999 999 and find out pizza place. Call and order veg supreme. Eat and eventually pass out.

Day 83 jul 15 wed
Patna
12 km - 8936 kms
Wake up and start photo sorting of past week. Should be crossing the border tomorrow and don’t know when I’ll next see Internet. The unhangable Mac hangs just when I’m saving a 11 image photostory. Lose the work. Anyone who ever tells me the Mac is this almighty machine will experience some disturbing vibes from me. In the background, we watch the Lok Sabha channel watching zero hour and other discussions. In the evening we watch HRD minister make a speech for grants for the HRD ministry and the plans for education in India. Right to education and the plans sounds good. Lets hope it goes through. Its been in the works for 16 years!

Leave around 3 to see the world’s oldest, no longest it seems, fossilized tree. The Patna museum is quite nice, though it looks like the stuff in it was compiled in 1928 when it opened, and never after that. Most have no labels; the stuffed animals and birds look fossilized. But the museum has some very nice stuff. The Didarganj yakshi was found in the early 1900s when a snake went into a hole and people dug into the hole.
The Patna history section has some nice info on Patna – the city or atleast the area has been around from 6 B.C. Buddha had prophesized that a great city would be built here, but would be plagued by fire, floods, and feud. Pataliputra the famous capital of the Mauryas, which Greek ambassador Megasthenes (4 B.C.) said was better than Susa, and Chinese traveler Fahian (3BC) said was built by superbeings, disappeared until the early 20th century, when during excavations they found and then correlated that Patna was indeed Pataliputra. The Mauryans had first developed the road to develop Indo Greek links between Taxila and Pataliputra, which later became the Grand Trunk road, now NH2.
It looks like its closing time, all the babus making the moves. So I enquire and find out where it is. Everyone here speaks like Lalu .
Watch a youth getting slapped by museum guard, and then made to do the hold-your-ears-and-squat 5 times. Seems he was found scribbling on a showcase with a pen. Serves him right. Should ask all the people in the museum to write on this face with inedible ink. As he leaves, his friend tells him dekhne ke liye hain ye sab, likhne ke liye nahin.

I had actually walked by it. It’s a 53 ft long wooden beam attached to the side of the wall. 200 million years old- washed along a river, getting buried in clay and mud for centuries, millennia, the carbon turning to silica. Now it lies along a wall of the Patna museum. 200 million years. Even pre-history falls short. Sneak a photo from phone – hoping I don’t get caught and slapped around.

Ok history lesson. There are three periods of time;
1. Pre historic – where there is evidence of life but no written records
2. Proto historic – where there are written records, but no one can decipher them
3. Scientific historic – where there are written records, and humans can decipher them

1. Paleolithic
a. Early – before 40000 yrs ago
b. Middle – 40,000 to 20,000 yrs ago
c. Late – 20,000 to 9000 years ago
2. Mesolithic - 9000 to 4000 yrs ago
3. Neolithic – earliest human settlements (harrapan comes 3 millenia ago)
4. Chalcolithic (copper-stone)
Paleo, Meso, neo come under pre historic, with Neolithic being a time of ‘revolution.’
Class dismissed.

Check out the other parts of the museum. There’s Buddha statues recovered from as far as Afghanistan, including the now famous SWAT valley. A world war 1 memorabilia section, and a thangka section with thangkas of most dalai lamas including the first one, Gen Dum Dop, are also present. The thangka’s were presented by Tibetan monks to an Indian monk who traveled from India to Tibet.

Leave the museum and visit the Gol ghar. Climb up the spiral staircase around the semispherical granary built by the British to avoid famine in perpetuity. Kickass views of the city and the Ganga to the north. Pass by what I think is Amar Singh’s house.

Enquire and find helmet shop. First shop we try, we get the helmet fixed – the visor part kept falling down – extremely annoying and big change from my got-used-to city traffic riding. Been looking for a place to fix it since Bhopal! What to do, no one wears helmets anywhere. Also get my visor glass changed. Now helmet sits well and the glass is so clear, everything looks sparkling 

Go to a sweet shop and have hot samosa, kachodi, halwa. Yum tum. Return to the hotel and sit, watch tv, and sort photos all the way to and past dinner. Tomorrow will make a run for the border 

Crocodiles despite being a ton heavy can move quickly and eat almost anything. But they can live for a year without eating, that’s why they have been around for 200 million years. And yea so has a tree. FYI the oldest living tree is the Gingko, found in China, 270 mill years old.

Day 84 jul 16 thu
Patna – Hajipur – Muzaffarabad – Motihari - Raxaul
NH77, NH28, NH28A
236 km - 9172 kms
Wake up at 8 for once. Tea and look for bank. But all banks here open at 10.15+. So come and pack. Today will hit the border – will see whether I cross or not once I get there. Funny thing is that Chughun has already seen Nepal, and not I. Will be taking Asia’s longest roadway bridge, the Gandhi Setu, 7.5 kms.

Do the bank and post office work. Visit book shop while waiting for DD. Meet Som, second generation bookshop owner. Seems very poor reading in Patna; publishers even bother because they have fulfill some quota for every state. Get DD, find secret post office in next building, and rush to vacate hotel. Leave by 12, and hit the Gandhi Setu bridge. It goes over the Ganga and is one of those will-rumble-when-truck-passes bridge. Heavy gusts of wind almost knocking bike over. See banana trees after a long, long time - yellow bananas. Palm trees too, nongu trees.

After a railway crossing, 2 army/cop/uniformed men ask two different bikes to stop; one goes off; the other too, but a cop runs behind and grabs the backrest. We slowly head off.

Cross Muzzafarpur and have lunch at a dhaba after a quick, fruitless search 2 kms in the city. As we leave, hear a sound from the bike. Check to find the right back shock absorber broken. Bad stuff. Call Bangalore mechanic and find out details. Head back to Muzzafarpur to find mechanic. As soon as we enter the city, the roads, no not roads, potholes surrounded by tar, begin, and it doesn’t end till we leave the city. So this is the real Bihar road and not the NH kind we have seen so far.
Roadside motor shop says go to ImliChutti, which we do. A bullet mechanic checks and says can either fix rod or replace. We decide to replace. Sit and talk to mechanic who refers to Biharis being beaten up in Bombay, and goes out of his way to be nice to us, saying two wrongs don’t make a right, and to tell when we get back how we were treated by Biharis. Tells that road ahead will be nice 4 lane highway right upto Raxaul. We ditch plan B of staying back at Muzzafarpur and head out to Raxaul. Get shocks fixed and leave. It’s already 4.30 p.m.

Within 5 kms, the road starts breaking; construction is going on – a 4 lane WILL come up but not soon. The ditches become potholes, the potholes become craters; riding becomes a jerk, break, swerve, ease, rumble, jerk out, swerve – mind fuck; and it doesn’t end.

Pass by a road accident where a bunch of people surround a body lying on the road. They try to stop a Sumo, which refuses and speeds away. They don’t bother us. After a few seconds we head off. Nothing we can do. Plus the lonely planet warning of extreme poverty leading to people creating fake road accidents to trap tourists preys on the mind.

Potholehipura. Not Patalipura. Wrists start aching, middle back, and coccyx ache. But a spectacular sunset with a big sun on the left, and a huge dark cloud on the right, with lightning striking at regular intervals, keep the mind off of the road – not really, but you get the point. Have never seen lightning from such a view. The lightning is generated and dispersed from within the cloud. Never really wondered where lightning started from.

It’s dark now and progress is slower. This is not even a white road or a state highway. It’s an NH for god’s sake. Am just glad it isn’t raining. Every village we cross, it has just rained. We stop to watch the lightning cloud amidst dark fields, sounds of crickets, frogs, and fireflies.
35 kms from Raxaul where the road turns right, we stop for tea. Saurabh asks the shopkeeper how the road is ahead. He says thoda tutafuta hain. A little heartened, we proceed. It takes us 2 hours to do 35 kms. Nightmare road. Craters in which a sumo can go in, stand, and roll up and out of. If the road becomes better, it’s only for a few metres, before ditch boom. What timing to have new shocks. Providence. All the Om trayambakams at work I guess.

Zen destroyed. Third time in 84 days and 9000 kms. I abuse all the people who are responsible for the roads. All the past and present leaders who have let Bihar become the worst state of the country – from what glory to what shame. I’m not just talking about the roads, all infrastructure – Patna loses electricity like it’s a joke – at midnight, in the morning, whenever. There are no schools; the ones we see are broken down buildings – a mahavidhalaya, which I assume is a college, is like the workshop block of VIT. Houses look like the ruins in Nalanda. Saurabh points out zero presence of government policies at places, unlike MP and UP. Whoever funny laloo might be, he and others have done nothing. At least Nitish, from what we hear, has stopped the goonda raj, and is trying to do something. Please pray for Bihar, it needs all the help it can get.

We reach Raxaul and find a hotel, and order food. My hands and back are fucked. Sleep in shavasana. Tomorrow a different country!