Shit Happens
Berhampore was only a base for travelling. The tour cycle that followed was the real thing. Extremely fascinating and very tiring , i found myself cursing the entire world many a times.
This was an orissa i a semi native had no clue about.
There were trips to aska ( the Cm visits theese ppl who made him a mla once a year).The people here though make great mushrooms and buy lots of our matchsticks.(prob amongst the largest matchstick distributor in india 4 itc).
Then there was parlakhemundi sitting right at the border between andhra pradesh and orissa. Imagine the border passing through some fields and even some houses. I wonder if the radcliffe line also split many such drawing rooms from bedrooms.
Then came the mother of all trips . First took a bus to phulbani. This place is a quasi hill station in orissa. I off course just got to see thoose magnificient valleys through the not so safe surroundings of my jittery bus. From phulbani , though i was to visit Bhowani Patna, Kalahandi. But fate had other things in store.
Buses in orissa travel on state highways. That thoose state highways are narrower than the service lanes of south delhi colonies is nobody's concern at all. There was truck which had only 3 wheels . And another overloaded truck had got the nuts , bolts and discs of its back wheels torn. The result was a complete halt in movement acroos the highway , right in the middle of a jungle.
The night was ok, spent in the safety of the bus. But come morning, a tired body and a tormented soul could take no more.I went in search of a nice bush near a stream , to create more manure for the dense forest.I heard wierd noises. But Shit happens.
After some 16 hours in the bus for a journey of only 140 kms i reached bhowani patna. 4 hours later it was time to move on.
The trip to khariar road was nice . Finally figured out why bolero's out sell sumo's as taxis in rugged terrains. This place is at the junction of chattisgarh and orissa. All panwaala's talk in hindi and ad boards are written in devnagiri script. Incidentally this orissa outpost has a gujarati MLA. And i also spent an hour in a local mela out there. While working out a deal to stock sunfeast biscuits in a stall i tried my hand at shooting and managed to hitch a ride on the giant ferris wheel.
20 outlets and this small diversion in the mela later it was time to catch a train to vizinagram in andhra pradesh. From there i was to go back to berhampore. Poor Roads , poorer railways and poorly conceievd borders meant i had now visted andhra thrice and Mp once , while i was only touring south orissa.
For the last two days i have now been in berhampore. Today i push off to Sunabeda/Jeypore/Koraput and Nowrangpur.
I pray that the highways are not clogged agin.
This was an orissa i a semi native had no clue about.
There were trips to aska ( the Cm visits theese ppl who made him a mla once a year).The people here though make great mushrooms and buy lots of our matchsticks.(prob amongst the largest matchstick distributor in india 4 itc).
Then there was parlakhemundi sitting right at the border between andhra pradesh and orissa. Imagine the border passing through some fields and even some houses. I wonder if the radcliffe line also split many such drawing rooms from bedrooms.
Then came the mother of all trips . First took a bus to phulbani. This place is a quasi hill station in orissa. I off course just got to see thoose magnificient valleys through the not so safe surroundings of my jittery bus. From phulbani , though i was to visit Bhowani Patna, Kalahandi. But fate had other things in store.
Buses in orissa travel on state highways. That thoose state highways are narrower than the service lanes of south delhi colonies is nobody's concern at all. There was truck which had only 3 wheels . And another overloaded truck had got the nuts , bolts and discs of its back wheels torn. The result was a complete halt in movement acroos the highway , right in the middle of a jungle.
The night was ok, spent in the safety of the bus. But come morning, a tired body and a tormented soul could take no more.I went in search of a nice bush near a stream , to create more manure for the dense forest.I heard wierd noises. But Shit happens.
After some 16 hours in the bus for a journey of only 140 kms i reached bhowani patna. 4 hours later it was time to move on.
The trip to khariar road was nice . Finally figured out why bolero's out sell sumo's as taxis in rugged terrains. This place is at the junction of chattisgarh and orissa. All panwaala's talk in hindi and ad boards are written in devnagiri script. Incidentally this orissa outpost has a gujarati MLA. And i also spent an hour in a local mela out there. While working out a deal to stock sunfeast biscuits in a stall i tried my hand at shooting and managed to hitch a ride on the giant ferris wheel.
20 outlets and this small diversion in the mela later it was time to catch a train to vizinagram in andhra pradesh. From there i was to go back to berhampore. Poor Roads , poorer railways and poorly conceievd borders meant i had now visted andhra thrice and Mp once , while i was only touring south orissa.
For the last two days i have now been in berhampore. Today i push off to Sunabeda/Jeypore/Koraput and Nowrangpur.
I pray that the highways are not clogged agin.
posted by tanmay at
12:33 AM
2 Comments
