Chatra – Gaya - Patna
From Chatra, I planned to go to my maternal village, passing through Gaya and Patna en route. I had planned to take a bus from Chatra to Gaya and then a train from Gaya to Patna (distance of 90 km). At 5pm, I boarded a bus from Chatra to Gaya. There is a stretch of land just outside Chatra (on way to Gaya) which is a naxal area, hence unsafe to travel after dark. I had been advised by Dadi that in case the bus was looted I should just hand over all my belongings to them and I would be safe. It was on this route that choti dadi’s bus was looted. The naxals just stop the bus and everyone hands over whatever little they happen to be carrying on them. It is usually peaceful as long as you listen to them. Anyway, nothing of the sort happened with me.
Naxalites are radical, often revolutionary communists born out of a sino-soviet split in the late 60s. Their name comes from Naxalburi, a village in West Bengal, where they led their first revolution. Ideologically they believe in Mao and his peasant revolution. Today, they are still very active, with a strong-hold in Bihar-Jharkhand.
From Chatra, I planned to go to my maternal village, passing through Gaya and Patna en route. I had planned to take a bus from Chatra to Gaya and then a train from Gaya to Patna (distance of 90 km). At 5pm, I boarded a bus from Chatra to Gaya. There is a stretch of land just outside Chatra (on way to Gaya) which is a naxal area, hence unsafe to travel after dark. I had been advised by Dadi that in case the bus was looted I should just hand over all my belongings to them and I would be safe. It was on this route that choti dadi’s bus was looted. The naxals just stop the bus and everyone hands over whatever little they happen to be carrying on them. It is usually peaceful as long as you listen to them. Anyway, nothing of the sort happened with me.
Naxalites are radical, often revolutionary communists born out of a sino-soviet split in the late 60s. Their name comes from Naxalburi, a village in West Bengal, where they led their first revolution. Ideologically they believe in Mao and his peasant revolution. Today, they are still very active, with a strong-hold in Bihar-Jharkhand.
I personally feel that Naxalism is pure and simple terrorism which disguises itself with terms “class struggle” and “social justice”. Prime minister Manmohan Sigh has called out Naxalism as the single biggest threat in India, but nothing has been done about it.
I had an uneventful journey and reached Gaya at 9pm. There was a significant difference in the faciltities available for comfortable travelling in Ranchi and Gaya. Gaya is an important pilgramage place for Buddhists and 15-20,000 foreign tourists (mostly from other asian countries) visit this place in a year. I found a small restaurant near the railway station and ate leisurely. My train to Patna was scheduled at 2:30am. I had quite some time to kill before my train arrived. I made my way to the waiting room at the station. The waiting room was more than full and people seemed quite at home – some having their dinner, some spread blankets on the floor and were peacefully asleep and a few others made themselves comfortable on the chairs in the waiting room. I was reading my book and probably dozed off when suddenly there was a commotion. Apparently, one man hit another man in his sleep and it had become a full-blown fight with everyone in the waiting room taking one side or the other. I decided to take a walk for a while to avoid becoming a part of the fight. I found a tea-stall and had chai in the kulhad – one of Laloo’s PR activities during his stint as the railway minister. The only other people on the platform were a group of army men. I heard an announcement on the speaker that my train – Ranchi patna Express – was delayed by 30 mins. So I half-heartedly went back to the waiting room. Complete peace in the room as if the fight had never happened. My train finally arrived only at 5am in the morning. I stood at one end of the platform since my compartment was S9. When the train arrived, I realized I was at the wrong end because I was standing in front of S1. I quickly ran to the other end and found that there was no S9 in the train. I ran back the length of the train looking into each compartment expecting to see S9. By the time I reached S6, it was time for the train to leave. So I quickly got into it and hoped no one would catch me. Even though it was an exresss train it stopped at every small station. It took the train and me 5 hours to cover the 90 km journey.
Patna - Hajipur
Patna station is huge. As soon as I got out of the train, I saw a huge statue of Hanuman towering over the station. Patna city is on one side of the river Ganga and my mom’s village is on the other side. The river is about 4-5km wide here. To go to Ekma, I had to cross the river, but most trains don’t cross the river here since there are only a couple of railbridges built across the river. So I took a shared auto with 6-8 people and went to Hajipur (10-15km from Patna) from where I could get a train to Ekma. As we passed through the streets of Patna, I noticed banners of IIT/IAS coaching classes plastered everywhere. I even saw one stuck on a girl’s back but apparently her friends were playing a prank on her. Soon our auto started climbing an incline and houses along the road became fewer. I realized we were approaching the Ganga. Here we crossed the Mahatma Gandhi Setu, which is the longest roadbridge in India (4km). The sight of the Ganga was stunning. Since it was summer, the river was not full. Still it looked every bit the mighty river that it is. A strong wind was blowing and it was easily a few degrees cooler over the river than on land. As soon as we crossed the bridge, we reached Hajipur station.
I had an uneventful journey and reached Gaya at 9pm. There was a significant difference in the faciltities available for comfortable travelling in Ranchi and Gaya. Gaya is an important pilgramage place for Buddhists and 15-20,000 foreign tourists (mostly from other asian countries) visit this place in a year. I found a small restaurant near the railway station and ate leisurely. My train to Patna was scheduled at 2:30am. I had quite some time to kill before my train arrived. I made my way to the waiting room at the station. The waiting room was more than full and people seemed quite at home – some having their dinner, some spread blankets on the floor and were peacefully asleep and a few others made themselves comfortable on the chairs in the waiting room. I was reading my book and probably dozed off when suddenly there was a commotion. Apparently, one man hit another man in his sleep and it had become a full-blown fight with everyone in the waiting room taking one side or the other. I decided to take a walk for a while to avoid becoming a part of the fight. I found a tea-stall and had chai in the kulhad – one of Laloo’s PR activities during his stint as the railway minister. The only other people on the platform were a group of army men. I heard an announcement on the speaker that my train – Ranchi patna Express – was delayed by 30 mins. So I half-heartedly went back to the waiting room. Complete peace in the room as if the fight had never happened. My train finally arrived only at 5am in the morning. I stood at one end of the platform since my compartment was S9. When the train arrived, I realized I was at the wrong end because I was standing in front of S1. I quickly ran to the other end and found that there was no S9 in the train. I ran back the length of the train looking into each compartment expecting to see S9. By the time I reached S6, it was time for the train to leave. So I quickly got into it and hoped no one would catch me. Even though it was an exresss train it stopped at every small station. It took the train and me 5 hours to cover the 90 km journey.
Patna - Hajipur
Patna station is huge. As soon as I got out of the train, I saw a huge statue of Hanuman towering over the station. Patna city is on one side of the river Ganga and my mom’s village is on the other side. The river is about 4-5km wide here. To go to Ekma, I had to cross the river, but most trains don’t cross the river here since there are only a couple of railbridges built across the river. So I took a shared auto with 6-8 people and went to Hajipur (10-15km from Patna) from where I could get a train to Ekma. As we passed through the streets of Patna, I noticed banners of IIT/IAS coaching classes plastered everywhere. I even saw one stuck on a girl’s back but apparently her friends were playing a prank on her. Soon our auto started climbing an incline and houses along the road became fewer. I realized we were approaching the Ganga. Here we crossed the Mahatma Gandhi Setu, which is the longest roadbridge in India (4km). The sight of the Ganga was stunning. Since it was summer, the river was not full. Still it looked every bit the mighty river that it is. A strong wind was blowing and it was easily a few degrees cooler over the river than on land. As soon as we crossed the bridge, we reached Hajipur station.
4 comments:
Nice read. I went to Gaya, Ranchi, etc when I was like 9 or so... but can't recall anything.
good going Apu....
T: I havent been to any of these places...so learning about them through this travelogue
Swetha: Thanks :)
Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now keep it up!
Post a Comment