Mizoram : On the road

Trips from Saiha to Aizawl used to be in Tata Sumos with 10 passengers besides the driver - on the road for the entire day. In the initial days I used to look forward to journeys with fewer co-passengers but then realized that a full Sumo was good for all of us in that it worked against the jerks and during winter trips it only got better during winters, when all of us were clad in multiple layers!

At times we would leave at 6 am as planned and on occasions we got late by an hour and I recall getting irritated with late comers. On a couple of instances though the Sumo came to pick me up at around 5.20 am!

The initial part of the journey was invested in adjusting ourselves and luggage, prayer, introductions, putting on music, picking up someone staying on the way, collecting stuff to be delivered at Aizawl and many a time the clouds gave company!

We would then cross the Kaladan / Kolodyne river and move into the neighbouring district of Lawngtlai. Large and leafy banana orchards greeted the eyes as the Sumo again got moving upwards towards the district headquarters.

When we purchased a bike for the office I finally got an excuse to drive the stretch : Aizawl to Saiha. This was on the new road when it was still new, and how i enjoyed it!

Breaks were very much welcome - more on account of the need to stretch than anything else and I recall getting, with prying eyes, into each of the stops at these places. Lovely oranges, pine-apples (cut into pieces and accompanied with large sized bamboo tooth picks), passion fruits (at times also the lovely juice) and packed stuff from Burma like the sunflower seeds! Besides of course the tea, snacks and meals!

The Sumo moved on throug the afternoon and i used to love getting lost in thoughts with an arm resting on the open window and wind hitting (or was it hugging) me on the face; doing nothing is a fine art as they say. By this time some of co passengers would have run out of topics to chat and possibly be asleep. Those of us awake would put lime on the pan and place the betel-net within for the person driving; one of the reasons was to ensure that he did not join the sleeping gang. I do recall trips when the co passengers drove for a while as also those where I ended up eating as much paan as the person driving!

There used to be another break as we headed for the evening and the blue hue over the Mizo hills made way for one of the unique creations of nature. One that occurs everyday all over and yet is so dramatic, so majestic - sunset.  

During times when the old road was in use I used to reach the Tourist Lodge at Chaltlang after 10 pm. Waking up the staff i used to jump to the food waiting in the casserole in the room! 

Perhaps I should thank my data for being cluttered in sorting of which I came across these files ~