12th Oct 2013, 1:40 PM :- Goldy Singh walked in the front as I drove my Jazz out of the India Border at Sonauli towards the Nepal border. Neetu was in the front and in the back seat was Fernando ( a Spanish guy we picked up on our way to Sonauli. He was looking for a lift and was standing on the side of the road waving a placard) & Goldy’s assistant who was waving at the guards on both sides. I just cannot express in words the excitement of that moment. In the next couple of hours our permit would be in our hands along with a Nepalese number plate.
The drive to Nepal was not planned in advance. When my friend Akash Mukhia updated me about the road condition on NH34, we dropped the idea of Pedong & Kalimpong and chose Satkosia & Daringbari in our route plan. On 10th, the day before our departure, we got news ( fortunately my friend Jiten Mohapatra warned me )of an approaching cyclone in the coastal belt of Orissa and started looking for an alternative route. With the assistance of Mahendra Pratap Sharma my colleague, I was able to establish a contact with Chunnu Bhai (Mahendra’s friend) in Gorakhpur who confirmed the road condition to be motorable. Without any booking anywhere on the route, 9 hours later Neetu & myself hit the highway looking forward to an exciting journey to an unknown land, unknown terrain & unknown people.
From Kolkata, Varanasi, Sonauli, Pokhara to Kathmandu and back via the Birganj Raxaul border, it was a journey to remember through the low hanging puffs of white clouds, through the rain amidst the greenery and the hills with their sensual curves offering a surface to experience the adrenaline rush at high speeds and a drive covering more than 2500 kms.
Leave a Reply