Rani

Our 52 hour train journey from Mumbai to Guwahati was to end at 1130 hrs. in the morning. We reached at 1930 hrs. The journey had transpired through central India’s hottest states and during the peak of summer. We were a gang of 43 travelling in the Second Sleeper compartment so needless to add we were without any air conditioning whatsoever. In fact, we even had a good number of nonworking fans. So by the time we reached we were quite messy and hungry.

We were greeted at Guwahati by Aarin Mehta and Sanjay Joshi, who had flown in from Mumbai and had waited 8 hours for us to arrive. They lead us to our bus which was going to be our transportation for the rest of our journey through Assam, Nagaland and Arunachal. “Rani” was what was written on the front windshield of the bus and I felt some amount of happiness since after 60 hours of train travel our camp had now actually begun.

Anish Menon was miraculously already on the roof of the bus to load our bags along with the cleaner of the bus. I placed my bags along with the other bags and looked at the COM for instructions. Go check how many people can be seated in the bus. Well, barring a handful the rest of the gang had already occupied the seats in the bus. 8 rows of 2 seats each on the left, 7 rows on the right, and the last row had 5 seats. So 8 plus 7 equals 15 into 2 equals 30 plus 5 equals 35. “Thatty Faif seats SIR!!!”

Aadmi 45 aur seat 35? Bahut na insafi hai. Nah … don’t worry, we had received training for this in Ladakh and had our best volunteering to sit in the driver’s cabin equipped with self owned or borrowed MP3 players. Of course there was also a Tata Sumo which would be leading the way for us; however, apart from the faculty members no one volunteered to be seated in it. Clearly, it was a known fact that all the action was going to happen inside the bus and no one wanted to miss it.

Our driver we were told was the best there was in the plains of Assam and he managed to take us to Bhalukpong (Arunachal) where we were served dinner, before we could lose our patience. There have been instances in the past when restaurant owners in Sonmarg (Kashmir) and Drass (Kargil) had to shut shop after a gang of hungry Nature Club members managed to eat every single morsel cooked or stored in the restaurant and 3 or 4 neighbouring restaurants. So getting us food before we start eating anything and everything around us is a good idea.

Over the days our driver proved he was the best driver in the plains of Assam. The problem was that most of our travel took place in the hills of Arunachal and Nagaland. Our driver turned out to have absolutely no experience of a slope, let alone a mountain curve. We have practically hung over cliffs on at least 2 occasions after which we had to completely empty the bus while arrangements were made for alternative “mountain” drivers to drive us to a flat road, on which our driver could show his expertise. We also had to push the bus to help it start a few times and once to stop it from rolling into a ravine. This also gave us an opportunity to experience the beautiful northeast on foot.

Apart from that, we had a burnt clutch plate, an oil leak and a plethora of assorted broken down bus parts. Our driver also left no stone unturned in crashing the bus into mile stones, rocks, trees, walls, gates and other vehicles and he did so with such panache that “Rani” had dents, scratches, bruises and missing body parts on almost all sides including the top. Needless to add, while the bus crashed, banged and rocked and rolled on the outside, we, its passengers experienced the same physical forces inside.

The aisle was too narrow. The seats were welded in such a way that they could be folded into half but one couldn’t recline without breaking them. And someone had forgotten to polish the millions of sharp rusted metal edges that surrounded every exposed metal part of the seat. All those who were active on their feet and singing in the bus could be easily identified by the numerous scratches on their bodies and of course their torn clothes. But one could call it a blessing in disguise. Not one single beggar ever irritated those active guys. In fact, some beggars volunteered to help and even offered their own clothes. A certain girl from F.Y.B.M.M. (name withheld on request) had to purchase an entire new wardrobe on her return to Mumbai. Her “Northeast” clothes are now used to swab the floors, stuff soft toys and to exchange for utensils. She now has a new stainless steel spoon.

The bus ride was very eventful and it came to an end when we reached Guwahati on the night of 13^th May 2008. All bags downloaded, we waited for the COM to tell us our room allocations. I still remember that evening as we stood near the bus tired, hungry, sleepy, and bruised and with torn clothes of course, with a certain amount of gloom that our camp was over and my best clothes needed patches, when I saw what was written towards the back of the bus. Rani. Luxury Coach, Classic Seats. Yeah right #@!*%@#** !!!